Journey by Mediavine requires exclusive access to your ad inventory, so any/all programmatic ads you may be running will need to be removed for launch. You can learn more about how exclusivity benefits you here.
What exclusivity means
We require our publishers to give full control of their programmatic advertising to Journey by Mediavine.
You can still ...
- Run affiliate ads - diversified revenue sources are important.
- Take on sponsored and brand work
- Serve direct, in-house [non-programmatic] ads on your site
If you have been using a managed ad solution
Examples of a “managed ad” solution include companies like Ezoic, SHEMedia, Monumetric, etc.
Please reach out to their support for specific instructions on how to remove all of your ads.
This is also a good time for you to double - confirm any contract obligations. Please note that we do not provide legal advice and cannot interpret your contract obligations for you.
Reminder: Serving Journey ads requires you to remove all code from previous ad providers.
If you are removing code from Ezoic
This can be a more involved process, and can include adjusting your DNS configuration.
For the most up to date information, and to get a sense of how long it takes for ads to be removed, we recommend reaching out to Ezoic support for guidance and expectations.
How To Remove Your Existing Ads
This process can vary depending on where and how the ads were placed.
It’s important to note that once you do track down and remove old ad codes, you also take time to check your website to ensure everything still functions correctly and the layout is not affected. Sometimes ad codes leave behind empty spaces or placeholders. Make sure to remove these as well. Please make sure to clear out your site’s cache once you’ve removed these scripts.
If you’re on Wordpress, there are generally a few common places that these may be inserted:
- Ad Network specific plugins: Some ad networks have their own plugins that are specifically for managing ads. If you have any, go ahead and deactivate them.
- Site Kit by Google: In this plugin, there is a setting where you can have AdSense code injected. Go into that plugins settings, click on Connected Services, select AdSense, and click Edit. From there you can toggle off “Let Site Kit place AdSense code on your site” and then save your change. Just be sure to clear any site caching afterward.
- Plugins that are designed to insert ad code: Check for ads scripts that may have been added into these plugins and remove the ad code. A few common examples of these types of plugins are: Ad Inserter, Code Snippets, Advanced Ads.
- Theme options/settings area: You’ll want to go through your theme settings for any ad scripts that may have been inserted. Also, some themes come with built-in ad management features. If this is the case, while going through the settings, you can also look for sections labeled as "Advertisement," "Header/Footer Scripts," or something similar for ad related code.
- Theme Files: If ads were added directly into theme files (e.g., header.php, footer.php), edit these files and remove the ad code.
- Individual posts/pages: Ads might be inserted within the content of posts, pages if you placed these manually.
- Review your content: Open your posts and pages in the editor to look for ad codes that may have been directly added into the content and remove them.
- Wordpress Widgets Area: To check for ad code in this area, from the left sidebar in your Wordpress admin panel, navigate to “Appearance” > “Widgets” and remove any widgets used for displaying ads. Keep in mind that affiliate ads are totally fine to keep in place. You’ll only need to remove any programmatic ad scripts.
- Social sharing/Commenting plugins: These types of plugins have monetization built in that can inject programmatic ads as well. A couple common examples are: Shareaholic and Disqus.
NOTE: If you found ads scripts in just one of these places, it’s still possible that there can be more code located in other areas of the site. You’ll want to make sure to do your due diligence and check in multiple places to confirm that you removed it all.
Even if you think all of your ads have been removed, it is always good practice to open up your site in a private, incognito window. Browse through some of your pages and posts to see if you are visually seeing ads load or blank, empty ad boxes where your ads were previously. If you see empty boxes, chances are that there’s still code in these spots that will need to be removed.
I Have Tried All The Steps, But I’m Still Seeing The Notification About Existing Ad Code. Where Else Should I Look?
If you're still seeing ads / scripts on the site but having trouble locating the source of where these are coming from, here are the options:
1. Check Active Plugins
- Temporarily deactivate all plugins and check if the ads disappear. If they do, reactivate each plugin one by one until the ads reappear to identify the culprit.
2. Inspect Theme Files
- Switch Themes: Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-One). If the ads go away after switching, the issue likely lies within your theme.
- Review Theme Files: Look in your theme's functions.php, header.php, footer.php, and any sidebar.php or custom template files for ad-related code.
3. Check Widgets and Shortcodes
- Go to “Appearance” > “Widgets” and review all active widgets for any that might be displaying ads.
- If you use shortcodes, check to see if any might be responsible for displaying ads.
For Non-Wordpress Platforms or Custom Sites
- Theme or Template Settings: Some themes or templates come with built-in options for ads. Look through your theme's settings, customization options, or editor to find and remove these ad placements.
- Direct HTML/CSS/JavaScript files: Ad scripts may be directly inserted into the HTML, CSS, or JavaScript files of your site. Access the site's code editor or file manager to search for and remove these scripts.
- Apps: Check for any apps (platforms like Shopify) that are specifically for ads or could include ad functionality. Make sure to disable ads within these apps or uninstall them if necessary.
- Code Injection Areas: Platforms like Squarespace and Shopify offer code injection points for adding custom scripts. Review these sections for any ad scripts and delete them.
- Headers and Footers: Ad codes are often placed in the header or footer sections of a site. Look for options to edit these areas within your CMS dashboard.
- Individual posts/pages/sidebars: Ads might be inserted within the content of posts, pages or sidebars if you placed these manually.
- Review your content: Open your posts and pages in the editor to look for ad codes that may have been directly added into the content and remove them.
How to check if you’ve removed all old ad code
If you think you’ve removed all of your old ad code but still see the error in your dashboard, the best way to check if it’s actually been removed is to look at your site’s source code.
To do so, first pull up your homepage and a post. You’ll want to check the source code of both since the ad code could only be on specific templates.
On each, right click anywhere on the page and then select “View Page Source”
This will take you to the source code of the page you’re on, and you can search (pull up the search bar using Control + F or Command + F) for the following conflicting ad script terms:
| Ad Provider Name | Expression(s) we look for |
| Venatus Ad Network | ad-manager.min.js |
| Google Adsense | adsbygoogle |
| Raptive Ad Network | ads.adthrive.com |
| Blogher Ad Network | ads.blogherads.com |
| Grateful.io | cdn.grateful.io |
| Taboola Ad Network | cdn.taboola.com |
| Enthusiast Gaming Ad Network | enthusiastgaming.com |
| Ezoic Ad Network | g.ezoic.net/ezqlog |
| Freestar Ad Network | data-freestar-ad |
| Gourmet Ads | gourmet-ads, gourmetads |
| Lijit | ap.lijit.com, href=https://ce.lijit.com |
| Media.net Programmatic Ads | media.net |
| Outbrain Web Recommendations | outbrain |
| Playwire Ad Network | playwirellc |
| Proper.io Ad Network | proper.io |
| RevContent Ad Platform | rev.content |
| Sekindo Video Player | sekindo |
| Deploy Ads | tags-cdn.deployads.com |
If you find any of the above expressions in your homepage or post source code, then you’ll need to find and remove them before moving forward in the onboarding process. You can reach out to your host or a developer for assistance if you see old ad code in your page’s source, but are unable to find the ad code on your site.
If you don’t see any old ad code, this is likely a caching issue, and you’ll want to clear out all caching, including plugins, server side caching, and CDN caching if you use a CDN like Cloudflare.