Affiliates never cease to search for the next affiliate offer to serve to their audience. There are a number of ways to go about finding converting offers. Signing up for an affiliate program might one of them, but picking an offer from an affiliate network inventory is another option of earning your affiliate commission.

Read on to find out everything you need to know about the best affiliate networks on the market and how to measure them to pick offers that convert in 2022! 

What is an affiliate network?

An affiliate network is simply a platform used by advertisers and publishers to connect and make a deal. Affiliate publishers (in that case that’s you) who are willing to promote other people’s products meet with merchants (also called advertisers or offer owners) who want other people (again, you) to promote their products or services.

An affiliate network is where this meeting takes place, it’s essentially a digital marketplace and one of the most popular ways to find affiliate offers to promote.

You will see many merchants (sometimes called advertisers) displaying their offers and it’s your job to search through them and find the ones that can be promoted to your target audience and make money for both you (the publisher) and the merchant. The affiliate network facilitates these deals and takes a small commission of each deal.

Just because you sign up to an affiliate network that doesn’t mean you are a network affiliate, you are still free to sign up to affiliate programs or speak to merchants directly to strike up your own deal once you gain the necessary experience.

It’s also important to note that affiliate networks are not affiliate programs, so you won’t find Amazon Associates or the eBay partner network in this article. Although you may be able to sign up for an affiliate program via one of the affiliate networks mentioned.

Learn the difference between affiliate networks and affiliate programs now!

What features should you look for in affiliate networks? FAQ

We know that affiliate networks are a great place to sign up for affiliate offers to promote to your audience, but you need to know what to look for when choosing the right one. Have a look at the below list of the features you should definitely consider.

How will you get paid?

Cost Per Action

The first thing you need to understand is the payout model. Many affiliate networks work on CPA basis which means that their payout is based on the Cost Per Action model. This just means that you (as a publisher) will be paid when your users complete a specific action. The action can be anything from leaving an email address, watching a video, getting a quote, or making a purchase. This payment is usually in a fixed amount per action and that is why it is often referred to as the fixed payout model.

Cost Per Install

There is an additional variant you may also come across which is the CPI (Cost Per Install) which is essentially the same, but requires users to download and install software onto their device. This is also one of the better-paying affiliate marketing offer types as software companies pay a large sum per installation. Be careful, though, as the restrictions and the competition for these offers are high.

Revenue Share

The other option you may be offered is the revenue share payout method. Rev share is another common payout model where affiliates receive a percentage of the revenue recognized by the offer owner (most often your affiliate network or program) that is tracked back to the promoted ads.

When will you get paid?

Additionally, you need to factor in the time in which the affiliate network is going to pay you into your affiliate marketing strategy. Some networks take longer than others to pay publishers as they need to attribute the action to you via tracking software and then double-check it isn’t fraudulent or bot traffic.

In some verticals like e-commerce, this can be delayed as they factor in the possibility that the customer returns the product and so affiliates have to be prepared to wait for their commission for up to 60 days. That’s why selecting and keeping an eye on payout frequency is important, as different offers have a longer payout time, and you don’t want to run into a cash flow problem.

Want to learn more about affiliate marketing payout models?

How much is the affiliate network’s commission?

Just like you, affiliate networks want to make their money in the affiliate marketing industry via commission, and when you sign up to promote a merchant’s offer, they also take a small commission. Exactly like when you get your commission when your audience completes desired action in response to your affiliate offer.

So, one of the features you need to focus on is ‘how much is the affiliate network’s commission?’. If it’s too high, then you may want to pick another affiliate network that might be better suited to beginners.

Which affiliate offers are available?

This is a question that many of you ask, and unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer. It depends on the network. There are larger affiliate networks that serve offers from a plethora of different verticals, like Traffic Company, whereas there are also ones like Big Bang Ads that focus on a particular niche too. They know the golden rule of affiliate marketing is sticking to your niche.

Fortunately, that does mean there is likely an affiliate network that can help you find offers for your favorite niche.

Competition

Just like in any affiliate marketing program, in fact, any affiliate marketing vertical, competition is high, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance to make money.

With so many offers available at affiliate networks, the number of publishers is also high, so you have to be careful. But competition drives innovation and so it is good to have within the industry, that’s how we get new affiliate tools that help the industry grow.

You need to make sure that your affiliate results are good. The better they are, the more likely you will be able to negotiate with your chosen affiliate network for a bigger payout. You need to be negotiating with your good affiliate campaign results as the reason for an increased payout though.

Affiliate Ad Tracking

You already know the importance of having an affiliate ad tracker of your own to make sure you know where you are making money with your affiliate campaigns. It is also a good idea to pick an affiliate ad network that has in-house tracking for their offers. This way you can rest easy knowing that the offer you are signing up for to promote to your audience will be tracked and the action will be attributed to you and you will be paid your commission. Some affiliate networks outsource their tracking which is still a viable option.

While this may be a selling point for you, it is important for everyone involved to trust the tracker to show how many sales can be attributed to you. This is because the affiliate network is getting its commission, the merchant is getting its action or sales completed, and you are getting your commission all based on this data. So, for everyone in this mutually beneficial partnership to trust each other, an ad tracker needs to be used.

So to recap…

Here is a list of the features you should look for when choosing your affiliate network:

• The payment method
• The network’s commission
• The verticals available
• Competition
• Tracking

Learn how to make money with affiliate networks!

Ranking of the best affiliate networks (examples)

There are way too many affiliate networks to list every single one in this article. So, we have chosen ten that are most often used by Zeropark users and that we know work well with Zeropark traffic.

Again, this is only a small list of the hundreds of affiliate networks out there, but we know that these are profitable for our customers at both a beginner and advanced level. There are pros and cons whether you are promoting both physical and digital products to each of them, so pick carefully.

So, without further ado, let’s check out the top ten best affiliate marketing networks.

Big Bang ads

Big Bang Ads is one of the biggest names in the industry and specializes in Single Opt-In (SOI) lead generation offers in more than 24 countries in Asia, Europe, South Africa, and Latin America. They provide offers for everything associated with the Leadgen vertical. Offering monthly payouts for affiliate marketers. They also want to form sincere relationships with affiliates that produce high-quality volumes of traffic for advertisers so there is an ROI for everyone involved.

It hasn’t been around since the beginning of the universe, but Big Bang Ads has been around since 2001, which is pretty much the beginning of the affiliate marketing universe.

• Niches offered: Leadgen
• Tracking: Yes HasOffers)
• Payment type: Wire transfer
• Minimum payment: $500
• Programs offered: CPA, CPL, CPS

Mobidea

Mobidea is leading the affiliate industry with more than 10 years of experience and 100,000 affiliate marketers using the platform. You can take advantage of their exclusive offers and get in touch with their experienced account managers for any support you might need every day of the week.

Built around technology and education they also run Mobidea academy, which might help you build some new skills in affiliate marketing. Be sure to look that up! Mobidea also offers to track your campaigns, and a weekly payment option, but payments are only available on business days.

• Niches offered: Leadgen, Smartlinks, Dating, Sweepstakes, Mobile, Adult,
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment type: Wire Transfer, PayPal, Paxum, Payza, ePayments, Firstchoice Pay
• Minimum payment: $50
• Programs offered: CPA

ClickDealer

ClickDealer was founded in 2012 and provides a huge portfolio of direct offers and exclusives in many verticals. They hope to streamline the daily grind for anyone running CPA campaigns and allow them to try something new. ClickDealer is splitting its offering into CPA and Smartlink options for publishers and advertisers to choose from… and argues smartlinks are the future of affiliate marketing. They can also choose offers with either weekly, fortnightly, or monthly payment frequency. It also has a loyalty program offering rewards for money spent on the platform.

Another good thing to note is that ClickDealer offers both CPA and RevShare payout methods. So, if you are still trying to work out which is more profitable for you, then check them out.

• Niches offered: Leadgen, e-commerce, Mobile, Nutra, Dating
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment type: Wire transfer, Payoneer, PayPal, Paxum, Check, WebMoney
• Minimum payment: $500
• Programs offered: CPA, Smartlinks, CPC, CPL, CPI, CPS

MyLead

MyLead has over 1600 affiliate offers, 6 different payment methods, original content locking, 15 smartlinks, in-house offers. It has everything all in one place. Also, MyLead has the ability to pay publishers in 48 hours which is good for those short on patience. Which goes the same for their customer support which is 24/7. Their offers are also designed to work well on social media, so if that’s your area of expertise, this might be the affiliate network for you.

• Niches offered: Downloads, Cam, Gambling, Mobile, Sweepstakes, Dating, Smartlinks, Crypto,
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment type: PayPal, Skrill, Bank Transfer, Revolut, WebMoney, Bitcoin
• Minimum payment: $20
• Programs offered: CPA, CPL, CPS, PPI, COD

Traffic Company

Traffic Company is well known in the affiliate industry, and is another trusted CPA network with its own in-house portfolio. In addition to that, they provide exclusive offers from partners, which can be promoted by direct affiliate links. As well as Click to Call campaigns, they are still leading when it comes to the monetization of mobile (VAS) traffic. The campaigns run with Traffic Company are automatically optimized which should help you to boost your ROI.

They also offer dedicated account managers available 24/7. Publishers get paid on a weekly payment frequency. Traffic Company has just added casino and dating to their growing list of verticals offered. And they give a referral bonus of 5% for any other affiliates you send their way.

• Niches offered: Click2Call, Gambling, Mobile, Sweepstakes, Smartlinks, Antivirus, Games, Adult, Casino & Dating
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment type: Paxum, Paypal, and international bank transfer.
• Minimum payment: $250
• Programs offered: CPA

Gotzha

Gotzha combines its international network of established partners with customized deals and deep knowledge of the industry. They will help you find more customers in your target GEOs, as well as reach your affiliate business goals with more than 30,000 offers available for you to choose from. They are also offering weekly payments to their publishers, as well as reliable support from their dedicated affiliate managers.

• Niches offered: Dating, Antivirus, Nutra, Gambling, Sweepstakes,
• Tracking: Yes (CAKE)
• Payment type: Wire transfer (USD/EUR), Payoneer (USD), WebMoney (USD/EUR)
• Minimum payment: $1000
• Programs offered: CPA

Youmi

Youmi (previously known as Adxmi), is a top network with over 10 years in the online marketing industry. They specialize in dating, sweepstakes offers via carrier billing, CPI, and smartlinks methods. They also have a good team or Account Managers to answer any questions you may have. The payment frequency for publishers is also weekly (Net-7) fortnightly (net-15) or monthly (net-30) depending on the offers chosen. This flexibility should allow you to have a higher average commission rate. And they also have in-house proprietary tracking for all of the campaigns you run with them.

• Niches offered: Mobile, Smartlinks, Dating, Sweepstakes
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment type: PayPal & Wire transfer.
• Minimum payment: $100
• Programs offered: CPA, CPL, CPS, CPI

MOBIPIUM

MOBIPIUM, as the name suggests, is one of the top mobile-first agencies worldwide. They specialize in in-house Carrier Billing, Dating & Push Notifications Offers.

So, if mobile is where you pick up your affiliate commission, then this one might be the right one for you.

• Niches offered: Push Smartlinks
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment type: PayPal, Paxum, Payoneer, Wire transfer
• Minimum payment: $100
• Programs offered: CPA

AdCombo

AdCombo, an international CPA network with thousands of exclusive offers from trusted advertisers in low competition GEOs. It has more than 12 verticals for over 40,000 affiliates from all around the globe! They are also offering weekly payments to affiliates and 24/7 support, so it’s another good choice if CPA is your favored method of affiliate marketing.

• Niches offered: Casino
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment type: Paypal, Payoneer, Wire Transfer, Paxum, and WebMoney
• Minimum payment: $100
• Programs offered: CPA

Lemonads

Lemonads has 10+ years of international experience, is focused on performance, and built on a Swiss-made in-house technology. The final ad network also offers CPA and hopes to strengthen the connection between publishers and advertisers to improve their traffic, and increase the revenue for everyone involved. It also boasts the fastest daily payments in the industry as well as ‘splendid support’ offering a dedicated affiliate manager to help with your performance on the platform.

• Niches offered: Nutra, Sweepstakes, Leadgen, Mobile
• Tracking: Yes
• Payment method: Paxum, ePayments, PayPal, or wire transfers.
• Minimum payment: $100
• Programs offered: CPA

All of these affiliate networks mentioned above can also be found in the Zeropark Deals & Offers Tab. In this section (available to anyone who has topped up their account) you’ll find exclusive deals and bonus payouts for some of the industry’s best affiliate and digital marketing tools, as well as some affiliate marketing programs for you to check out.

Conclusions

Affiliate marketing is all about finding what works best for your target audience. Hopefully, by taking a look at these affiliate networks you can find the right fit for you, your ads, and your audience.

If you are still finding your niche, an affiliate network might be the right place to try and discover it. Remember that the features you need to look for in an affiliate network are the payment method, the network’s commission, the verticals on offer, competition, and tracking. If you have something else you look out for when choosing your affiliate network, please let us know by leaving a reply here, or on the forums!

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