My experience with Journey by Mediavine: I was deactivated for IVT (invalid traffic). I owned up to my mistakes, fixed everything (scrapers, crawlers etc) , and now I don't have any more IVT. My blog is getting over a 2-minute average session duration, which feels like a really good metric. I even have 90% of my traffic coming from the US.
So, I submitted an appeal and wrote to Mediavine help, and I have never, ever received a reply. You tell me, what am I supposed to do? I'm desperate!

I am reviewing an agency's proposed AppsFlyer MCP setup. The use case is reasonable: account teams ask for campaign summaries without waiting on the reporting analyst.

We manage separate clients and some staff work across more than one account. The pilot works when an admin connects it. That isn't the permission test I'm trying to sign off.

I need to understand what happens when a junior analyst connects, when someone changes teams and when an automated workflow uses a token created by a more privileged person. We also need to know where the connected AI client stores conversation content.

The project owner keeps showing me that authentication succeeds. I need evidence that access fails correctly when it should.

For people who have evaluated this, what did you test around user permissions, app access, token ownership, revocation and auditability? I'd appreciate cases where interactive login and unattended automation behaved differently

It shows up in my traffic distribution but doesn’t generate any revenue.

Or is it Ga4 issues as of late?

Anyone else seeing this html in mediavine journey ads?

I dont think its possible to hide it since its inside an iframe.

Seriously considering switching to adsense.

I've been a Mediavine publisher for over 4 years. I was even part of Mediavine Pro, with my main website earning over $200,000 a year, and I still have another website running on their main Mediavine Official program.

I've always been extremely happy with Mediavine. In fact, until recently, I couldn't imagine moving my websites to another ad network.

But after what I've experienced over the past two months, I'm seriously considering leaving them.

Their new application system is ridiculous, and the way they've handled this situation is honestly unacceptable.

Here's what happened.

August - First application

I applied for Mediavine Official with another website that was already comfortably above their old 50,000 monthly sessions requirement.

I understand their requirements have changed and that traffic alone doesn't guarantee acceptance, but this wasn't exactly a small website just starting out.

Unfortunately, their new application system placed the site on Journey instead of Mediavine Official.

I contacted Publisher Support, trying to understand why this happened. They explained that traffic, content, and quality were all considered during the review. No detailed information.

Okay, fair enough.

September - Trying to get someone to actually respond

By September 2, the website was performing significantly better than when I originally applied, so I decided to contact Publisher Support again and ask whether it would be possible to reconsider the decision.

I explained the updated traffic figures and why I believed the website would be a good fit for Mediavine Official.

On September 7, their Client Experience Manager responded, but insisted I had to wait the full 60 days before reapplying, regardless of how much the website had improved. Again, without any detailed information as to why the website can't be on the official Mediavine.

I replied that same day, explaining the situation in more detail and providing updated figures showing that the website's traffic had continued to improve substantially.

I asked if an earlier review could be possible.

No response.

I waited and followed up again about a week later, when the website was performing even better.

Still no response.

Seriously?

I've been a Mediavine publisher for over four years, and I'm trying to bring another successful website to their platform, yet I can't even get someone to answer my emails?

Eventually, on September 17, I gave up on the original email conversation and started an entirely NEW one, this time contacting their Business Development address because Publisher Support wasn't responding.

Only then did I finally receive another response.

Their Client Experience Manager eventually replied, saying she'd personally reviewed my updated GA4 data but saw no reason to make an exception to the 60-day waiting period. Again, without any detailed information as to why the website can't be on the official Mediavine.

So even though the website was performing substantially better than when I originally applied, there was apparently nothing they could do.

Fine.

I wasn't happy about it, especially considering the potential advertising revenue I was losing by remaining on Journey, but I decided to follow their instructions.

So I waited the full two months.

October 19 - Second application

Finally, the 60 days were over.

The website now had:

1.6 MILLION active users in the last 30 days.

2.7 MILLION views in the last 30 days.

I submitted another application through Mediavine's website.

And guess what?

REJECTED AGAIN. WITHIN LITERALLY ONE MINUTE.

I genuinely couldn't believe it.

After waiting TWO MONTHS, I received another near-instant rejection from what appears to be their automated application system.

The rejection page displayed this generic message:

Your site isn't ready for Mediavine yet, but you're in the right place. Journey is built for sites at your stage.

I also received an automated email stating that they had identified "traffic quality concerns."

What traffic quality concerns?

Is there suspected invalid traffic? Is there a problem with certain countries, traffic sources, engagement, or something else?

No specific explanation whatsoever.

And before anyone says that having 1.6 million users doesn't automatically qualify a website for Mediavine Official, I KNOW THAT.

I've been doing this for years.

I completely understand that ad networks have traffic quality requirements.

I'm not asking to be automatically approved because of my traffic. I'm asking for an explanation of what's wrong so I can actually do something about it.

Surely that's reasonable?

October 20 - Another 60 days. Are you kidding me?

After getting rejected again, I contacted Publisher Support and requested a manual review or at least some actionable information about the rejection.

Their response?

Each declined application has a 60-day waiting period, and that applies regardless of traffic levels.

They then told me:

Since your most recent application was declined on October 19, you'll be able to reapply after December 18. We aren't able to share specific details from the application review or reopen an application early.

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? ANOTHER 60 DAYS?

So let me get this straight.

I applied in August, waited two months as instructed, reapplied in October, got rejected within approximately 60 seconds, and now I'm supposed to wait another two months?

WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT I NEED TO FIX?

What happens on December 18?

I apply again, their automated system rejects me in a minute, and they tell me to wait until February?

How many times am I supposed to repeat this? Why can't they tell me what's wrong?

And here's the part that really pissed me off.

Their response actually ended with this sentence:

In the meantime, [my website] will keep running on Journey, so your traffic continues to earn while you wait.

"SO YOUR TRAFFIC CONTINUES TO EARN WHILE YOU WAIT."

Seriously?

That almost feels like they're mocking me at this point.

The entire reason I'm trying to move to Mediavine Official is because Journey's monetization is significantly worse than what I'm accustomed to on their main program.

The website has already generated over $6,000 in advertising revenue on Journey over the last 60 days, with millions of sessions.

And want to know the RPM?

$1.79 session RPM over the last 30 days.

That's with roughly 2.5 million sessions in 30 days. I've also noticed ads sometimes not appearing when checking the website.

And here's another thing I don't understand.

Mediavine Official's published minimum is $5,000 in annual ad revenue. My website has already generated over $6,000 in just 60 days on Journey, despite the abysmal RPM.

I understand revenue isn't the only requirement, but if my website has such serious "traffic quality concerns" that it can't qualify for Mediavine Official, why is that exact same traffic perfectly acceptable for Mediavine to monetize through Journey?

Apparently it's good enough to generate advertising revenue for Mediavine, but not good enough for their main program?

Can someone explain how that makes sense?

And I'm supposed to be happy that I can continue earning on Journey while waiting another two months?

I've potentially lost a substantial amount of additional advertising revenue already.

And now their solution is to tell me to keep waiting and earning on Journey?

WAITING FOR WHAT? ANOTHER AUTOMATED REJECTION?

The whole thing feels ridiculous.

And what makes this even more disappointing is that I genuinely loved Mediavine.

My main website was making over $200,000 per year with them. I was part of Mediavine Pro, and I always thought I'd continue bringing my future websites to the company.

When I reached that revenue milestone, Mediavine even sent me a bag and some stickers to celebrate. And I really felt proud.

I've generated substantial advertising revenue for both myself and Mediavine over the years, and I honestly never imagined I'd be writing a post like this.

And now, after more than four years, this is the experience I'm getting?

Emails going unanswered until I start entirely new conversations, an apparently automated application system rejecting my website almost instantly, repeated 60-day waiting periods, and nobody willing to explain what I actually need to fix.

I never expected special treatment or guaranteed acceptance. But I did expect to be treated like a valued business partner.

Especially after working with the company for so long.

Instead, I feel like I'm just being sent through an endless automated process without any real way to resolve the problem.

I'm seriously considering leaving Journey and moving this website to another advertising provider. And for the first time in over four years, I'm even questioning whether I want to keep my main website with Mediavine.

Has anyone else experienced something similar with Mediavine's new automated application system?

Has anyone managed to get meaningful feedback or an actual manual review?

And for those of you who have moved away from Mediavine or Journey, what alternatives would you recommend? Raptive? Something else?

------------------

u/ehochber — Eric, I know you sometimes respond to publishers here, and I'd appreciate your perspective.

Is this really how Mediavine's new application process is supposed to work?

Should an existing publisher of more than four years really have to wait 120 days, potentially longer, without receiving any actionable feedback?

How exactly is a publisher supposed to fix traffic quality concerns if Mediavine refuses to identify them?

As the title says. But I am at my wits end.

I was approved Sep 30 and inetgrated the script into my Wordpress site via a plugin/code. Ive checked the publishers dashboard, my site is active, the site ID is accurate, adsense code disabled... and all MV will do is show its house ad on the footer, which is a generic footer bar that they show whilst they wait for ads to load in. Things were going "well", id made my first few cents peaking @ $0.25 on october 6, but since then its been basically nothing. I will say I have a sticky footer bar that has affiliates, but MV sits above it on the Z axis.

I'm in struggle town, any advice would be appreciated.

For anyone selling through agencies (ads, media, SaaS resellers, marketplaces): when an agency gets credit or committed funding that's shared across its clients, how do you model it?

We've seen setups where the agency's funding and each client's spend end up as separate, manually linked records, and revenue rollups and remaining-balance tracking break down.

Curious: What CRM are you on (Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics, in-house)?

Custom objects, spreadsheets, or a finance system?

What still breaks?

The blurb: BidBouncer keeps undesirable ads out of your digital premises. Get running in minutes, update in seconds from the comfort of your GAM.

The story: I got fed up with the lousy, scammy ads served to my elderly visitors from purportedly reputable sources, so I took to block all offenders. A year and a half later, I’m somewhat pleased with the result and ready to share. Revenue per session has not crashed, and I don’t feel complicit anymore in the trash and schemes that once littered my pages.

If this ever gets traction, subscriptions will be dirt cheap. Feeback welcome.

Everyone has one. The decimal in the wrong place, the campaign that ran on the wrong dates, the floor price nobody updated.

What's yours? And would an AI agent have saved you, or would it have done the same thing faster?

Yeah ok I know it's a pretty bad joke but we're at about 40% of where we want to be in terms of submissions so I kindly ask everyone to take some time to fill this survey out.

For context, my AdSense data is filtered to only show the USA, UK, and Canada, which make up 90% of the site's traffic.

Hi guys Bineet this side. So we are running a Prediction Platform with potential 120,000 Monthly Views but we are every time getting rejected by the Ad Networks.

Reasons for Rejections:

- Our Web3 application is hosted inside Pi Browser (not traditional browser)

- We have Incentive traffic (We reward our users for checking in daily)

Can anyone help us in reaching a suitable Ad Network?? We have tried many Ad Networks (currently Adstera is paying us $10/month for 100,000 traffic lol)

Ours traffic is mostly like from 25-30 Countries (Mostly Asia and Africa).

Please help us guys!!

Thanks! 💜

I am toying with the idea of launching a new classic banner ad network in a certain niche but I am unsure how I would handle backfill. You obviously have the chicken and egg problem.

Is someone here who could provide an Adx feed as backfill?

The niche is brand safe just underserved IMO.

Since the beginning of this month, Mediavine’s revenue and RPM have been dropping like crazy, and they haven’t provided any information at all. How about you guys?

Or are you using sophisticated spreadsheets for all planning work? Looking for research insight here

Has anybody here worked with Whizzco over the past year? It seems like they were bought out by an investment company that recently took over operations but completely stopped making payments to publishers. Any one else dealing with this?

Have you guys seen a drop in RPM’s with the latest iOS27 release? We’re seeing 27 consistently perform lower than 26… likely due to the latest WebKit issue. What are you seeing?

Hi everyone! I work at the Center for Communication, and we’re hosting a free discussion about advertising technology on November 2 at SVA Theatre.

Ad tech can feel confusing when you’re first learning about it. This panel is a chance to hear from people working in the industry, understand what they actually do, and ask the questions you might not have had anyone to ask.

Whether you’re studying marketing, interested in media and technology, or exploring something new, you’re welcome to join us. You don’t need to come in knowing all the terminology. Come curious, bring your questions, and stay afterward to meet the speakers and other attendees.

We’ll be there from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is free: https://www.centerforcommunication.org/calendar/the-business-behind-the-content-careers-in-advertising-technology

Hey everyone!

We're looking for an experienced Google Ad Manager / AdX floor price optimization expert to help us optimize minimum CPM floors across different GEOs and ad units.

We've already done extensive testing and have plenty of performance data. We're looking for someone with proven hands-on experience who can analyze our data and provide actionable recommendations based on their expertise - not someone who needs to figure things out from scratch.

If you have a strong track record in GAM yield optimization and know how to maximize monetization performance, please let me know!

Hey r/adops,

I run BotRefund (an invalid traffic detection engine that audits Google & Meta ad logs to recover refunds for fake clicks).

When OpenAI rolled out their Ads platform, we decided to put real money on the line and test traffic quality, click validity, and intent matching.

We ran ads for 48 hours.

This morning, OpenAI billed our credit card nearly $900. We immediately paused every ad on the account and pulled the full forensic logs from our production analytics database.

What we found should terrify anyone currently allocating ad spend to OpenAI Ads.

1. The Numbers (OpenAI Ads vs. Our Forensic Logs)

• Clicks Reported & Billed by OpenAI: 923 clicks
• Total Arrivals Recorded on Our Servers: 1,356 visits (all carrying OpenAI’s encrypted tracking tokens: oppref and olref)
• 🤖 Confirmed Automated Bots & Scrapers: 788 visits (58.1%)
• 🏢 Traffic from Microsoft Azure Datacenters: 665 visits (49.0%)
• 👤 Genuine Human Visitors: 568 visits (41.9%)

Over half of the paid clicks OpenAI billed us for were automated bots and headless crawlers running on commercial cloud servers.

2. The Receipts: Microsoft Azure Cloud Servers Clicking Paid Ads

Because we build bot detection software, our edge servers capture hardware entropy, TLS fingerprints (JA3/JA4), DOM event logs, and micro-behavioral kinetic tremor.

Here is what the OpenAI traffic actually looked like:

• Top Network / ASN: Microsoft Corporation (ASN 8075 - Azure Cloud) accounted for 665 of our paid clicks. These were not real people browsing ChatGPT on their phones or laptops—they were automated scripts spinning up inside Azure datacenters.
• Session Lifespan: The vast majority of the flagged sessions disconnected in under 1.5 seconds.
• Mouse / Kinetic Tremor: Completely flat (0.00 linearity). No micro-tremors, no natural human scrolling, and synthetic cursor teleportation characteristic of headless Chromium / Playwright instances.
• Encrypted Click IDs: Every single one of these hits arrived with OpenAI’s proprietary encrypted click parameter: oppref=gAAAAABqz-M6NUJCdRINPXELPOYjzASQDpnbb2Xp4lhqyA... This confirms 100% that these were the exact clicks OpenAI auctioned off and billed to our credit card.

We run a walled garden ad network that reaches 400,000 real estate agents inside the software they must use to transact homes. We have about 5M ad impressions a month that are unsold and we've had a couple of national advertisers run campaigns and get strong ROAS.

All of my ad sales team is focused on local advertisers and I'm trying to figure out how reach more national B2B brands who would be interested in our inventory. It's 100% above the fold, no bots, validated identity ad inventory. Would appreciate any advice.

A little bit old; but it was brought to my attention that CM360 offers some extra reporting for Netflix compared to other approved ad servers including increase performance through contextual ads, multi-channel campaigns, and the ability to better track & optimize performance.

Without asking for specific data is there anyone who could shed some light on what this looks like/ what are the true benefits?

I’m hoping someone from Mediavine might be able to help me figure out what’s happening here.

My site, Yearbook (https://yearbook.hindsightgames.com/), was suspended from Journey on September 29 for alleged traffic-quality/invalid-traffic concerns. I submitted the appeal immediately and have followed up multiple times since then, but as of October 13 I still have not received a substantive response, any explanation of what traffic was flagged, or an update on the review.

I have never purchased or incentivized traffic. I have GA4, PostHog and Cloudflare data available and am completely willing to provide whatever is needed to investigate the traffic.

I also tried to use the Journey Community because Journey’s documentation directs publishers there for support, but the Community is now offline while they “reevaluate the Journey Support experience.” So at this point I’m not sure what other channel I’m supposed to use.

The site continues receiving legitimate traffic while monetization remains disabled, and I’d really just like a human to review the case or tell me what specifically needs to be addressed.

Hey!

I know the field changes at tremendous speeds, but are there any great resources to learn the basics of mobile ad tech and at least understand the fundamental concepts?