MGID is a global native advertising platform that shows your ads as recommended content inside widgets on more than 32,000 publisher websites, reaching over 850 million unique visitors a month. Advertisers mostly pay per click, in a real-time auction. We are an official MGID partner agency and run campaigns on the platform every week, so this guide covers both what the platform offers and what actually moves your CPA.
MGID at a glance
| Founded | 2008 (first office in New York) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, California |
| Publishers | 32,000+ websites |
| Monthly reach | 850M+ unique visitors |
| Coverage | 200+ countries and territories, 70+ languages |
| Ad formats | Native, push, rich media, video, programmatic display |
| Pricing models | CPC auction (main model), CPM on some formats, CPCV for video |
| Minimum deposit | $100 (minimum campaign budget: $50) |
| Automated bidding | CPA Tune (target CPA) and MaxConversions |
Figures from MGID's company page and pricing guide (updated August 2026).
How MGID works for advertisers
You upload teasers, MGID's name for a single ad: an image plus a headline. MGID places them inside widgets, the "you may also like" recommendation blocks that publishers install below or beside their articles. Every widget is a placement you can bid up, bid down or exclude.
When a reader clicks, they land on your page. For cold native traffic that is almost always an advertorial or a presell page, not the product page: the reader came from an article and expects to keep reading. With conversion tracking in place, MGID's algorithm learns which widgets and audiences convert and shifts your budget towards them.
- Teaser: one ad (image + headline).
- Widget: one placement on one publisher site.
- CPA Tune: automated bidding towards a target CPA.
- MaxConversions: automated bidding that gets the most conversions out of your daily budget.
What you can target
- Country, device, operating system and connection type (for example, excluding 3G)
- Age, gender and interests
- Website categories, page context and contextual sentiment
- Website language and traffic source (social, search, referral)
- Mobile phone price, a useful proxy for spending power
- Time of day
- Retargeting of people who saw your ads, clicked or converted
How much does MGID cost?
MGID runs a CPC auction, so there is no fixed price per click. Your CPC depends on the country, the vertical and how many advertisers you compete with; nutra, finance and dating are the most contested. The hard numbers MGID publishes are a $100 minimum deposit, a $50 minimum campaign budget, a recommended starting deposit of $650+ and a test of 5,000–10,000 clicks before you judge a campaign.
The real question is not the minimum deposit but how much you need to find a winner. In testing we give each campaign $100–200 a day: below about $50 the algorithm learns slowly and misses the best hours of the day. And we let a widget spend 1.5x the target CPA before we cut it. For a full breakdown across platforms, see how much native ads cost.
Want to try it yourself? Open an MGID advertiser account through our partner link.
CPA Tune or MaxConversions?
- Start with MaxConversions, never with CPA Tune on day one. MaxConversions treats your target CPA as a direction, not a cap: while it learns, actual CPA can run up to 2x the target.
- Move to CPA Tune once conversions are stable. If your target is below your real CPA, CPA Tune stops spending. Example: a $10 target on a campaign that really converts at $18 simply stalls. Set the target close to the real CPA, then lower it step by step.
- Raise budgets gradually. Large jumps often hurt performance; if they do, go back to the previous budget. We scale by 15–20% every two days instead of doubling, as you might on Meta.
Our MGID launch playbook
- Track conversions before you launch, through the MGID pixel or a server-to-server postback from your tracker. Also send soft events (add to cart, form start, initiate checkout) so the algorithm learns even when sales volume is low.
- Split mobile and desktop into separate campaigns: CPCs, widgets and conversion rates differ too much to share a budget.
- Launch 10+ teasers per campaign. Test image types first with the same headline, then headlines on the winning images.
- Schedule campaigns to start at 6:00 local time, and pause late in the evening when you want to protect the day's profit.
- Pause a teaser after $20–30 spent with no conversion.
- Exclude a widget once it has spent 1.5x the target CPA with zero conversions, and raise bids on widgets that convert below target.
- Refresh creatives every 3–5 days and rebuild campaigns after 7–14 days, as MGID itself recommends.
- Add retargeting once the main campaign has run for 10+ days.
- Use your account manager. An MGID AM can duplicate campaigns with a new tracking link, flag widgets to exclude and build variations of your winning teasers from their IDs.
Which verticals work on MGID?
In our accounts MGID performs best for health and nutra, finance lead generation (personal and salary-backed loans in Italy), dating, and iGaming where it is legal. Italy and Brazil are our strongest markets, and MGID has local offices in Milan, Rome and São Paulo.
MGID's ad policy is more flexible than Taboola's, which makes it a good place to test advertorial angles that Taboola rejects. That does not mean anything goes: keep medical claims out, add disclaimers to before-and-after visuals and never imitate a real news outlet.
MGID vs Taboola vs Outbrain
| MGID | Taboola / Outbrain | |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory | Very wide, strong long tail and emerging markets | Premium news and portal publishers |
| CPC | Generally lower | Higher, with higher average audience value |
| Ad policy | More flexible | Stricter, especially in health |
| Best for | Testing angles cheaply, Italy/Brazil/India, lead gen | Scaling winners on premium audiences |
Compare platforms on CPA and ROAS, never on CPC alone. For more detail, read Taboola vs Outbrain and our list of the best native advertising platforms.
Is MGID traffic good quality?
MGID has run its own fraud prevention system since 2013 and says 96% of the traffic it delivers is real and human. In practice, quality varies a lot from one widget to the next, which is why widget management matters even more on MGID than on Taboola. One rule we apply on every lead gen account: if a widget's form-start rate is below 5%, we block it, because the clicks arrive but never engage.
Frequently asked questions
Is MGID legit?
Yes. MGID was founded in 2008, has more than 700 employees across 12 offices, and is an IAB member and TAG-certified.
What is MGID's minimum deposit?
$100, with a minimum campaign budget of $50. To test properly, plan for more: MGID itself recommends starting with $650+.
Is MGID cheaper than Taboola?
CPCs are usually lower on MGID, but what matters is cost per acquisition. A cheaper click that doesn't convert is not cheaper.
What is CPA Tune?
MGID's automated bidding. It adjusts your CPC on every impression based on predicted conversion probability, aiming at a target CPA. Use it after the campaign has stable conversion data.
Can publishers make money with MGID?
Yes. Publishers install MGID widgets on their sites and earn a share of the ad revenue. This guide focuses on the advertiser side.
Want MGID campaigns that hit your CPA?
We are an official MGID partner and manage campaigns for e-commerce, lead gen and affiliate brands worldwide. See how we work on our MGID agency page, or book a free strategy call.
Claudio Dell'Ariccia
Co-founder & Media Buyer
Claudio Dell'Ariccia is co-founder of Digital Brothers. He runs native ad campaigns on Taboola, Outbrain and MGID every day for e-commerce, lead gen and affiliate brands worldwide.
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