Pay per click affiliate programs have always had a huge attraction to affiliate marketers. But how do you find the right program to promote?
While there are many pay-per-click affiliate programs that let you monetize just about any piece of content, the most lucrative programs usually cater to one specific topic.
In this article, we will learn about PPC affiliate programs by topic. We will start with general platforms that can help any website monetize its traffic. After that, we’ll cover some of the most lucrative and popular affiliate niches.
Table of Contents
Alternatives To Pay-Per-Click
While pay-per-click affiliate programs base their commissions on the number of clicks that you receive on your displayed ads, these approaches focus on different metrics:
Pay per impression programs pay a revenue based on the number of impressions (views) an ad on your website has accumulated. These types of ads can usually be found on highly specific niche websites.
Pay per lead programs pay a set commission for every new lead that is referred to them by the affiliate marketer’s platform. This is common in service oriented businesses, where products can’t be bought online but someone who fills out a form to get a quote or advice is valuable to the company.
Pay per sale is where the advertiser pays a fee for every sale that is realized via the ads that were placed on the affiliate marketer’s website(s). A popular form of this is rev-share, where the publisher earns a share of the revenue that their ads have generated for the advertiser. This could be a one time fee or recurring fee for subscription products.
Pay per callrefers to programs in which the paid fee is determined by the number of telephone calls to the advertiser, made by ad viewers.
Pay per install, finally, is an affiliate campaign type that is very popular amongst mobile applications, where the revenue is based on the number of downloads or installations of the app a publisher has realized for the advertiser.
Below you can find a list of pay per click affiliate programs you should check out.
Pay Per Click Programs For All Topic Websites
These programs are suitable for (almost) any type of website because they offer a broad range of topics and products to promote.
There was a time when AdSense was the go-to place to start earning an income from your website visitors.
Nowadays there are many alternatives and AdSense has become notorious for the difficulty of getting approved.
They are still lord and master when it comes to monetizing YouTube video content, however. When you’re making video content and sharing it on YouTube, YouTube AdSense is a great way of adding to your income.
Great for: basically every website, because of the big range of products and topics. For most topics, there are more lucrative programs out there. A must-have for people that are making video content.
Google has a handy AdSense calculator to view your potential earnings based on your niche and the origin of your visitors.
2. Ezoic
Ezoic is a powerful tool that focuses on optimizing ads on your website, using machine learning. Although they don’t offer their ppc affiliate program, Ezoic can help you boost the revenue you are seeing from, for example, your AdSense banners.
Ezoic was founded in 2010 by Dwayne Lafleur.
It took three years of in-house testing before Ezoic launched in closed beta in mid-2013. And by 2021, Ezoic reached over 1 billion monthly unique visits from its customer base.
What makes Ezoic an attractive option is that they typically pay more than AdSense, and unlike Adsense, they have a $20 instead of a $100 payment threshold.
Ezoic has also changed its acceptance criteria and can accept sites with less than 10,000 monthly pageviews. However, they recommend publishers have at least 500 – 1,000 visits per month to make it worth joining their Ezoic Access Now program.
Great for: basically every website that wants to increase competition among advertisers on different ad exchanges to increase revenues per visitor.
Ezoic bidding dashboard for ad exchanges.
3. Adsterra
Adsterra has been around since 2013. However, except for Anton Brovkin (CEO), little is known about the other founders. It currently has 33,000+ partners (publishers and advertisers).
Many bloggers and affiliates view it as one of the best tech or advertising technology platforms.
The company has no restrictions on the amount of traffic you receive. You do not need a website to join as they accept any traffic, from a small blog to APK files or social traffic.
Adsterra claims approval in under 10 minutes and a network of over 12,000 advertisers. This means that something is interesting to promote for almost any website, and you can start browsing and promoting their advertisers very quickly after signing up.
“Selling the traffic from your website, application, Facebook page, or other traffic source” is what they call it. Which is exactly what PPC affiliate marketing programs stand for.
In addition, by joining their referral program, you can earn 5% revenue of everyone you refer to the platform.
Great for: websites (or other platforms) that are just looking for an easy way to earn revenue from their traffic.
4. Infolinks
Infolinks was founded in 2007 by Yariv Davidovich and Oren Dobronsky. Oren has been commonly known since 2019 as an investor in the Israeli version of the TV series Shark Tank.
The company was acquired in 2018 by New York-based Thrive Plus LLC (Thrive+) for an undisclosed amount.
Infolinks ads appear on 350,000+ websites with more than 240 million unique monthly users for 1.5 billion monthly ad views.
There are no minimum traffic requirements to apply to be a publisher of Infolinks. And if you refer new publishers to Infolinks, you can earn 10% of their revenue for 12 months.
In this list of easy to implement and broadly oriented PPC programs, Infolinks can’t be neglected. Just like the other programs in this list, they offer an easy and comprehensible way to earn more money from your existing web traffic.
Great for: websites looking for a convenient way to earn revenue from their traffic.
5. Mediavine
Mediavine was founded in 2004 by content creators Eric Hochberger, Amber Bracegirdle, Matt Richenthal, and Stephen Marsi, for content creators. And they are still owned by the same founders.
The company reaches over 125 million monthly unique visitors generated by 8,600+ content creators.
Mediavine is a CPM network that pays for every impression, which can help you monetise your website’s traffic. Be warned, though: they are pretty selective on which publishers they allow in their network – your website needs at least 50,000 sessions per month to get approved.
Try and see this as a good thing, though. When you get accepted as a Mediavine publisher, this is a vote of quality for the project you’re working on, and you can be sure it will help you boost your income.
Great for: high traffic websites that are looking to take the next step in their monetization.
6. AdThrive (Raptive)
Did you get accepted to the Mediavine network and are you looking for the next challenge? To be eligible for the AdThrive PPC program, you need:
Unique, original, and engaging content
A minimum of 100,000 monthly pageviews
Traffic (majority) from the US, UK, CA, AU, or NZ.
Furthermore, they also check whether your website is a good fit with their advertisers. All to ensure a good and lasting relationship between AdThrive, the publisher, and the advertiser.
The company was founded in 2013 by Andy and Kelly Marzka. It was acquired in 2016 by CafeMedia for an undisclosed amount.
Collectively, AdThrive’s 4,000+ creators reach 185 million unique visitors per month.
What makes AdThrive a popular choice for high-traffic website owners looking to monetize their site is the company claims their advanced ad code, custom ad strategies, and access to premium ad campaigns result in an average 75% RPM growth with AdThrive.
They even guarantee that if you switch from another ad management company, you will hit a 20% higher RPM within two weeks, or they will pay you the difference.
“AdThrive offers the most personalized service and highest-paying ads to our community of bloggers.”
– Andy Marzka, CEO and Founder, AdThrive.
Great for: high end websites that are looking for a long lasting and qualitative PPC relationship.
7. Clickadu
Another great platform to try if you’re looking for pay-per-click monetization of your traffic is Clickadu. They offer 7 ad formats, including banners, pops, and push. You can always find something that fits the style and shape of your website or blog.
Clickadu was founded in 2014 in the Czech Republic by Slava D, who serves as the CEO. Clickadu has over 4000 active publishers, generating over 5.8 billion daily impressions and about 4 million daily conversions.
Clickadu offers WW traffic, 22 verticals to promote, a self-serve platform, an experienced website monetization and brand promotion team, and four pricing models: CPM, CPC, SmartCPM, and SmartCPA.
Great for: Websites looking for a convenient way to monetize their traffic. Advertisers with brands/products in iGaming, App Installs, eCommerce, mVAS.
8. Outbrain
We complete this list of broad-topic PPC programs with one that does things a little bit differently.
Whereas most platforms focus on displaying ads on your site and paying for each click, native ads network Outbrain allows publishers to purchase ad space directly from the publishers in their network.
So, while they are not offering pay-per-click affiliate incomes in the general meaning of the term, they make for a very interesting addition to the market. Be sure to check them out in your search for the best program!
The company went public in July 2021 when it was listed on the NASDAQ, raising $160 million by offering 8 million shares at $20 a share at a $1.25 billion valuation.
Outbrain operates out of 18 global offices and partners with publishers and marketers in 55+ countries.
Great for: webmasters that are looking for an alternative approach to CPC monetization.
9. Media.net
Where Google AdSense focuses – obviously – on ads from the Google advertiser network, Media.net also pulls ads from the Yahoo and Bing Network.
These ads can co-exist with the ads generated by Google AdSense. Media.net is, therefore, a great pay-per-click affiliate program to boost your earnings.
Media.net supplies high-quality ads to over 500,000 websites and licenses its platform and products to some of the largest publishers, networks, and tech companies.
In 2016, the owner of Media.net, Divyank Turakhia, sold the company he founded in 2010 to a Chinese consortium for $900 million in cash.
Great for: every website.
Pay-per-click Programs For Travel Websites.
10. Cheapflights
A travel comparison platform that pays you for each visitor you send to their platform, Cheapflights is very interesting for everyone with travel-oriented traffic. Depending on whether they’re using a mobile or desktop device, you get a different commission.
Cheapflights was founded in 1996 and is managed by KAYAK, an independent subsidiary of Booking Holdings.
Great for: of course websites focussing on travel would make an excellent fit for promoting this program, but since traveling is of interest to almost anyone, most websites could earn a nice income by promoting Cheapflights.
11. Skyscanner
Many programs in the travel niche are focused on leads and/or actions, which is why this entry is stretching the meaning of “pay-per-click affiliate programs” a little.
It is, however, too interesting for a travel website not to mention. Skyscanner is probably one of the most used websites by people planning their next trip or vacation.
They offer a travel widget you can show on your website to help you find flights, hotels, and rental cars easily. This will give your site visitors a better experience and offer a low and fun way for them to convert to the Skyscanner website.
Skyscanner was founded in 2003 by Bon Grimes, Barry Smith, and its current Chairperson, Gareth Williams. According to Similarweb.com, their website receives 42.4 million monthly visits.
Great for: websites and blogs on travelling, that are looking for a low-key way to help their visitors find their ideal flights and hotels.
Pay-per-click Programs For Health And Lifestyle Websites
12. Dr. Cash
This is a PPC affiliate program that is specifically tailored to the nutraceutical market. Being a market that is highly specialized and regulated but can also be very profitable, a knowledgeable partner is indispensable. Dr. Cash is that partner.
Dr Cash has been around since 2016. The company has over 75,000 affiliates and 2,000+ direct nutra offers.
Great for: websites and channels on health and lifestyle.
Pay-per-click Affiliate Programs For Business Websites
13. CBMint
If you’re looking to promote precious metals, you have to check out the CBMint affiliates program. They claim to offer the most competitive affiliate commissions in the precious metal industry.
Unfortunately, the layout of their website is not all that great, but for those websites that are in this highly profitable niche, CBMint is worth checking out.
CBMint is a relatively small player. According to Similarweb.com, their website only receives 6,800 monthly visits. You can apply to join their affiliate program on ShareASale.com.
Great for: websites that are writing about precious metals in any way.
14. Entireweb
Do you feel the urge to try and get people from Google to a different search engine? Then, the Entireweb PPC affiliate program is what you want to promote.
They offer up to $0.20 for every click. It could be an interesting fit if you’re in the online marketing niche and writing about Google and competitors, for example.
Entireweb was founded in 1999 by Marcus Andersson in Halmstad, Sweden. According to Similarweb.com, their website only receives 183,000 monthly visits, making them a tiny player in the search engine space.
Great for: websites with visitors that are interested in online marketing, IT and online search.
Supporting Pay-per-click Affiliate Programs
15. Linqia
Didn’t you find the proper pay-per-click affiliate program on this list? There is no reason to worry because Linqia can help you find the right brand that wants to pay for your traffic.
Linqia is a platform that connects bloggers and influencers with the right brands. This is, therefore, an excellent way for publishers to find the right brand to sell their traffic to.
Linqia was founded 2011 by Nader Alizadeh (Co-Founder & CEO) and Maria Sipka (Co-Founder & VP).
The company claims more Fortune 500 brands trust them than any other influencer marketing company. They count McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, and GM among their 650+ clients.
16. wecantrack
Probably the best way to boost your affiliate income is by integrating all of your different affiliate marketing networks and data into one comprehensible and insightful dashboard. With our affiliate dashboard, you have all your conversion and traffic data in one beautiful dashboard that can easily be adjusted to your needs.
Integrating PPC into affiliate marketing amplifies reach but not always precision for the advertiser. By bidding on relevant keywords, affiliates can drive targeted traffic to affiliate links, boosting revenues and maximizing earnings.
Finally, PPC affiliate programs rank among the most lucrative opportunities an online marketer might seek to make commissions through direct traffic driven towards the advertisers.
Affiliate programs range from tech and software to finance and even e-commerce, thus allowing one to choose between their niche or audience. In this regard, PPC programs’ flexibility and performance-driven nature make them ideal for those seeking passive income who want to utilize their marketing aptitude.
If affiliates can choose the right programs and optimize campaigning, they can maximize their earnings while achieving success in the competitive world of PPC affiliate marketing.
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