Everyone loves to talk about CPMs and targeting options. Nobody talks about the number that decides whether you can even get in the door: the minimum deposit.
It’s not just a paywall. It shapes how much data you can collect, how fast you can iterate, and honestly, whether a network is even worth testing for your vertical. So let’s break it down.
Minimum Deposits, Side by Side
| Network | Min. First Deposit | Setup Fee | Service Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reacheffect | $50 | $0 | Built into CPC/CPM bidding |
| PropellerAds | $200 | $0 | Built into CPC/CPM bidding |
| Outbrain | $1,000 | $20 | 6% (10% for arbitrage products) |
| Taboola | $3,000 (standard) / $500 (BH accounts, limited spots) | $20 / $30 | 8% / 13% |
See the gap? Reacheffect’s $50 floor sits in a different universe than Outbrain and Taboola’s four-figure buy-ins.
And native platforms are tightening up further. Account approval got stricter across the board, which is exactly why Taboola’s BH slots (higher service fee, smaller deposit, limited availability) exist in the first place. Fewer accounts get in, and the ones that do pay more for the privilege.
The Fees Compound the Gap
The deposit is just the entry ticket. The service fee is what eats your budget once you’re inside. On the higher-minimum networks, that fee is a lot bigger than people expect.
Take Outbrain. Standard service fee sits at 6%, but arbitrage-style campaigns get bumped to 10%. On a $1,000 deposit, that’s $100 gone before your ads even finish spending the rest. Add the $20 setup fee, and you’re down to roughly $880-$900 in actual working budget from a “$1,000” account.
Taboola’s math is rougher. Standard accounts need a $3,000 first deposit with an 8% fee. Call it $240 in fees plus $20 setup, leaving about $2,740 to actually spend. The BH accounts flip the model: lower $500 entry, but a steep 13% fee plus a $30 setup charge. That’s $95 in fees on a $500 deposit… Nearly 20% of your money gone before a single impression runs. Fewer accounts get approved for that tier, and the ones that do pay for the privilege of the lower barrier.
Compare that to Reacheffect and PropellerAds, where there’s no separate setup fee and the cost structure lives entirely inside CPC/CPM bidding. What you deposit is much closer to what you can actually spend testing.
Why the Deposit Size Actually Matters
A minimum deposit isn’t just a number on a signup form. It’s a proxy for how much data you can generate before you have to make a decision.
Say you’re testing a new offer on a $1,000-minimum network with an 8% service fee. After fees, you’ve got maybe 3-4 real test batches before you’re out of budget. That’s thin. You might kill a campaign that just needed one more optimization pass, simply because the deposit forced you to conclude early.
Compare that to a $50 or $200 entry point. You can run more variations, split test creatives, and let the algorithm actually learn. Without staring at your account balance the whole time.
Run the numbers on a typical push or native test: say you’re spending $0.02-$0.05 per click. A $50 deposit still buys you 1,000-2,500 clicks. This is enough to see which creative angle is pulling attention before you commit more. A $200 PropellerAds account stretches that to 4,000-10,000 clicks across a few variations. Either way, you’re iterating on real numbers, not guesswork, well before you’ve spent anywhere near what Outbrain or Taboola ask for just to open the account.
Where Low Minimums Fall Short
Ceap entry isn’t automatically better. It depends on what you’re running.
For verticals that need volume-heavy, statistically significant data, for example, campaigns in finance, iGaming, or dating, a low minimum deposit can actually work against you. Small budgets mean small sample sizes, and small sample sizes mean your optimization algorithm never gets enough signal to find your best-converting segments. You end up scaling on gut feel instead of data, which is a fast way to burn spend on the wrong audience.
In these cases, the higher-minimum networks aren’t gatekeeping for no reason. They’re built around advertisers who come in ready to spend enough to generate a real dataset from day one.
A few examples of where this plays out:
- Finance/loan offers on native: conversion rates are already low single digits, so you need enough traffic volume to know if a 2% CVR is real or noise. A $50 test budget won’t get you there.
- iGaming CPA campaigns: deposit-based payouts mean you’re optimizing several steps down the funnel (click → signup → deposit). Thin budgets rarely produce enough deposits to train the algorithm properly.
- Dating on arbitrage models: with Outbrain’s 10% arbitrage fee eating into margin already, a small deposit compounds the problem — you need scale to make the economics work at all.
Where Low Minimums Work Just Fine
Now flip it. If you’re running CPM or CPC-driven brand awareness campaigns. You’re optimizing for exposure and engagement signals, not a conversion funnel with a dozen decision points.
That’s exactly the lane where a $50-$200 entry point shines. You can:
- Test multiple creative angles at once without blowing the whole budget on one
- Get a feel for a new GEO or vertical before committing real money
- Run smaller, frequent campaigns instead of one big all-or-nothing push
- Keep cash flow flexible if you’re managing several accounts across networks
For affiliates and media buyers still building out their playbook, that flexibility often matters more than raw scale.
The Takeaway
There’s no universal “best” minimum deposit. It’s a fit question. Data-hungry, CPA-driven verticals generally want the higher floor because it forces enough spend to generate usable signal. CPM/CPC brand-awareness plays do fine, often better, with a lower one, because the goal isn’t a statistically airtight conversion funnel, it’s reach and iteration speed.
Reacheffect’s Role
Reacheffect keeps the $50 minimum deposit intentionally low, because we’d rather have advertisers testing and iterating than sitting on the sidelines because a four-figure buy-in felt too risky. With CPC and CPM pricing, access to native, push, popunder, and banner formats, and coverage across 200+ countries, it’s built for advertisers who want to move fast, test often, and scale up spend once they’ve found what works — without a steep barrier standing between them and their first campaign.
