12 Best PPC Affiliate Programs for Content Creators

Do you have a blog and want it to start bringing you some cash?

Why not? 

There are so many options to monetize your website, and affiliate marketing is one of them. 

However, in their traditional sense, affiliate programs might not always be the right fit for website owners. In this case, PPC affiliate programs are a better choice, as they require little to no effort on your part to promote a product. 

Interested?

We have twelve best pay-per-click programs in today’s guide; let’s see what they are about. 

Best PPC Affiliate Programs: Comparison Table

We have quite a journey ahead of us – to review each of these programs and their benefits and drawbacks in greater detail. 

However, if you’re in a rush and don’t have time to read through, here is the TL;DR of each program’s payment threshold and RPM (i.e., revenue per thousand impressions). 

Now, for all of you who don’t know what PPC affiliate programs are, let’s dive into the theory and help you better understand the place of these programs in affiliate marketing and the possibilities that lie before you as a website owner. 

What is a PPC Affiliate Program?

A PPC affiliate program is an online advertising model where an advertiser pays a publisher (i.e., an affiliate) a predetermined fee each time an advertisement on a publisher’s website gets clicked. 

Essentially, if you have a website with a steady, secure flow of traffic, you can engage in such a program and allocate an ad on your website. Each time it gets clicks, you’ll get a commission. 

Is there a difference between a regular affiliate program and a pay-per-click one?

Actually, there are a few factors that set these two apart:

• Nature of the commission. With a regular affiliate program, you get paid a share of the sales for a particular product. A pay-per-click program implies getting payment each time a contextual ad (i.e., an ad relevant to your website content) receives a click.
• Commission rate size. The amount paid in PPC affiliate marketing is determined by the demand level and keyword bid. Generic affiliate programs have more factors impacting commissions, such as performance tiers, first-sale bonuses, recruitment incentives, etc. Besides, some high-ticket affiliate programs can earn you even more than PPC ones.
• The presence of website traffic. As we established, as a PPC program affiliate, you should have a steady traffic flow for it to work (in most cases). A regular affiliate program doesn’t have this requirement. 

What benefits can marketers and content creators get from this affiliate model?

First and foremost, it’s a good source of passive income. Besides, such programs incur little to no initial investment and ongoing costs. 

You can read about more perks of affiliate marketing here. 

Now, with the theory clear, let’s review our selection of twelve pay-per-click affiliate programs and how they work. 

Program #1: Media.net

Media.net is a contextual ad Yahoo! Bing network. With support from these two tech giants, the network’s reach spans over 100 million internet users. 

Media.net is one of the top Google Adsense alternatives with higher profitability and better options for automated optimization. 

Here are the program’s main characteristics:

• Ad formats: contextual (filter user intent via relevant keywords and have potentially higher revenue), display (the program connects you with the top buyer networks and matches your site’s intent with the right products), and native (you can customize these to look natural in your website pages, resulting in higher engagement). 
• Minimum payout: a publisher should earn at least $100 before getting paid by Media.net. You will receive payments monthly after reaching this threshold.
• Traffic requirements: this network has no restrictions, but most traffic should preferably come from the US, Canada, or United Kingdom. 
• Payment methods: you can get money via Payoneer or a wire transfer.
• Payment models: cost per mille or thousand impressions (CPM), pay per click (PPC or CPC), cost per action (CPA) – it can be a sign-up, a purchase, etc., and cost per lead (CPL) with revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) worth up to $10. 
• Payout time: net 30.

Signing up for the Media.net PPC advertising affiliate program has the following perks:

• Automatic ad optimization for mobile devices
• Decent income with timely payments
• Ability to track your results in real time
• Helpful support team (important for beginners)

At the same time, this program has some niche restrictions: adult, alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and gambling.

Apart from that, you can’t participate in this program if your website has hidden links, pages under development, manipulative content or design, free hosted web pages, and spam. 

Program #2: Google AdSense

Google Adsense (aka content targeting advertising) is an affiliate program owned and operated by Google. It currently unites over 2 million publishers worldwide.

Let’s take a quick look at the program’s characteristics to give you a better idea of what it encompasses:

• Ad formats: responsive ads (these automatically adjust their form and size to fit a given ad space), fixed-sized ads (allow the customization of width and height), sticky (i.e., fixed advertisements that remain visible while the visitor scrolls up and down your page) and native ads. Find out more about these formats here. 
• Minimum payout: the minimum threshold is $100. You get your payment monthly. 
• Traffic requirements: there’s no minimal traffic threshold, but if your traffic is too low, you won’t be able to earn much. 
• Payment methods: electronic fund transfers (EFT), wire transfers, EFT via Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA), and checks. You can learn more about how to set up the most suitable payment method here.  
• Payment models: CPC with the RPM up to $7. As a publisher, you will get 68% of the revenue. 
• Payout time: net 30.

And here’s what you can get in terms of benefits:

• High transparency and security for publishers and advertisers
• A multitude of formats for PPC ads
• Great analytical tools to monitor metrics (such as traffic acquisition and conversion rates)
• Easy ad customization with Adsense auto ads
• A real-time tracking system

Note, however, that any attempt to generate clicks artificially will get you banned. As an example, this program doesn’t allow repeated manual clicks or impressions, the use of software that generated clicks or impressions, etc. 

You can learn more about program policies here. 

Program #3: Infolinks

Infolinks is a mainly text-based ad network perfect for bloggers that have long-form content on their websites. 

Even though Infolinks primarily bets on textual content, it also has other ad formats available. Let’s review them along with other characteristics. 

• Ad formats: in-screen (display relevant ads between page views, e.g., when a visitor enters your site or is about to leave it), in-text (specific keywords in the text are matched with a relevant ad), in-article (placed within editorial content on your site), in-fold (an ad is placed above the page’s fold and displays a relevant advertisement of something your visitors have been searching for), in-frame (placed in the frame of your web page), and in-tag ads (strings of code sending an ad server a request to show the ad in a specific place on a page).
• Minimum payout: the minimum threshold is $50. 
• Traffic requirements: the platform is open to publishers of any size.
• Payment methods: bank wire transfers, PayPal, Payoneer, eCheck, and ACH (only for US-based bank accounts).
• Payment models: PPC with up to $5 RPM, plus 65% revenue share. 
• Payout time: net 45.

Considering Infolinks’ ad formats, we can safely say that this program is great for bloggers whose sites heavily rely on long-form content. All affiliates can also enjoy the following benefits:

• No hidden fees and setup costs
• Various ad customization options
• No minimum unique visitors required

Apart from that, you can run Infolinks along with any other affiliate software. 

However, Infolinks reserves the right to deny your application, especially if your website design isn’t clean, there’s not enough content on your blog, or you’re using AI tools to generate content for blog posts or landing pages. 

Program #4: RevenueHits

RevenueHits is a performance-based network based on the geo-targeted ad serving solution and allows you to monetize every bit of your website, including toolbars, widgets, search, applications, etc. 

This referral program possesses a few features that set it apart from the ones we’ve talked about earlier:

• Ad formats: contextual ads, pop-ups, popunders (appear in full-screen mode behind the active browser window), app and widget ads, slider dialog ads (appear at the bottom of the page), shadow box ads (resemble display ads but offer more room for product information), interstitial ads (displayed at a natural transition point between pages), and XML feeds (ads with info about the products you sell).
• Minimum payout: the threshold is $20 if you choose to get paid via Payoneer or Paypal and $500 for wire transfers. 
• Traffic requirements: the platform has no minimum traffic requirements to get started.
• Payment methods: wire transfers, Payoneer, PayPal.
• Payment models: CPA with up to $10 RPM. 
• Payout time: net 30.

As you can see, publishers get paid via the cost-per-action model, meaning that each visitor will have to complete a certain action (e.g., a sign-up or downloading something) to get the money. This payment model is a bit more involved than PPC, but it also offers higher revenue per thousand impressions. 

However, sadly there’s no real-time reporting on the KPIs. But other than that, it’s a reliable program that pays well and on time. 

Program #5: adThrive

AdThrive is a Google-certified publishing network compatible with Google AdSense. According to the program’s homepage, publishers can reach up to 75% RPM with it. 

AdThrive’s pay-per-click advertising program targets only high-quality publishers, meaning it’s more advanced and has other requirements besides traffic. Let’s look at them along with other parameters. 

• Ad formats: content, sidebar, sticky footer and sidebar, video content, interscroller ads (show ad content when a visitor scrolls down the page), interstitial and native outstream ads (turns into a larger format when a user navigates to it). 
• Minimum payout: $100 for wire transfers and $50 for all other payment methods. 
• Traffic requirements: minimum 100K monthly pageviews (fixed by Google Analytics), and most traffic should come from the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand, or Australia. 
• Payment methods: local bank transfers, eCheck, direct deposit (only for the US), wire transfers, PayPal, Payoneer, and Transferwise. 
• Payment models: publishers get 75% of the earnings, with up to $30 RPM. 
• Payout time: net 45.

All publishers participating in this program get the following benefits:

• Easy onboarding
• Search engine optimization support to boost traffic
• Many automation options
• Great customer service and access to the Facebook group

However, with these perks also come some program entrance restrictions. Aside from the traffic threshold, publishers also should have no previous advertisement violation history, and the content on their website should be original and unique. 

Program #6: Ezoic

Ezoic is a Google-certified AI-based ad slot testing platform with access to Google Ad Exchange. It uses machine learning and split testing to test and optimize ads.

However, ad optimization is not Ezoic’s only strong suit. Its advanced software also includes powerful tools to help content creators and marketers improve site speed, SEO  and keyword research efforts, and user experience in general. 

Sounds awesome, right?

Let’s see what eligibility requirements you need to meet to get in, plus other characteristics of the program:

• Ad formats: native ads, display ads, sticky sidebars, link units (text links in a single ad unit that are relevant to the content), anchor ads (stay fixed at the bottom of the page when scrolling), interstitial, in-image and vignette ads (full-screen advertisements that appear between page loads). 
• Minimum payout: your account should generate at least $20. 
• Traffic requirements: no minimum traffic (earlier, you needed to have at least 10,000 monthly pageviews).
• Payment methods: direct bank transfers, PayPal, Payoneer, and checks. 
• Payment models: CPM per thousand visits with up to $15 RPM. 
• Payout time: net 45

So, if you’d like to monetize your blog and increase visibility, this PPC affiliate program is the way to go. It’s not wish-wash, by the way – according to Ezoic’s homepage, sites see a 90% increase in traffic on average while using this ad platform. 

Here are some other pros:

• No setup fees
• Great data analytics tools
• Full control over ad placement
• Great earnings from ads

As for the restrictions, similar to Google AdSense, you can’t engage in impression or click fraud – this activity will get you banned. 

Program #7: Skimlinks

Skimlinks is a network uniting thousands of affiliate programs, matching you with affiliate partners from your niche. It also comes with a WordPress plugin and a Chrome extension.

Here’s how Skimlinks’ technology works.

Essentially, it creates affiliate links to products from a publisher’s content (making them appear organic to the max). The publishers don’t have to place any links themselves, which makes this program great for beginners in affiliate marketing. 

Now, let’s take a look at the platform’s characteristics and eligibility requirements:

• Ad formats: text ads, images, videos, GIFs, and HTML 5 – basically, all forms of contextual and native advertising. 
• Minimum payout: your affiliate commission should exceed $65, €55, or £50.
• Traffic requirements: none.
• Payment methods: PayPal and direct deposits for US and UK account holders; publishers outside these countries can only receive commissions via PayPal. 
• Payment models: 72/25 revenue split; RPM depends on the niche. 
• Payout time: net 90

As you can see, a major drawback of this affiliate system is a very slow payout time, which many Trustpilot reviewers also confirm. 

However, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give this program a try, as it comes with many significant perks for content creators:

• Complete monetization automatization
• Getting matched with advertisers relevant to your niche
• No need to create affiliate links
• User-friendly reporting function

Note, however, that Skimlinks has some restrictions when it comes to accepting new program affiliates. 

For instance, like with other similar platforms, it’s forbidden to artificially generate clicks and impressions. Moreover, you can’t run several Skimlinks accounts simultaneously (without the platform’s consent) or engage in direct linking. 

You can read more information about the approval process here. 

Program #8: Clickbank

ClickBank is a PPC affiliate program that mainly focuses on digital products. It has a network of about 10,000 affiliate marketers, including influencers, content creators, and bloggers. It’s also great for beginners. 

ClickBank relies on a global affiliate marketplace and eCommerce to match advertisers with relevant publishers. Both parties love this program, by the way – it has 4.3 stars on Trustpilot. 

Let’s review the platform’s characteristics:

• Ad formats: display ads – text/copy, images, logos, video, maps, etc. 
• Minimum payout: the minimum payment threshold is $10, and the default amount is $100. 
• Traffic requirements: none – you can sign up for free and generate an affiliate link within the first 15 minutes after creating an account. There’s also no paperwork and preliminary vendor approval. 
• Payment methods: checks, direct deposits to bank accounts, wire transfers, and Payoneer.
• Payment models: CPA with the possibility to earn up to 75% commission for some products. No information on RPM available. 
• Payout time: weekly or biweekly. 

What’s also awesome about ClickBank is the number of niches it covers. Here are some examples: 

• Business and Investing
• Arts and Entertainment
• Computers
• Cooking, Food, and Beverages
• Digital Marketing
• eCommerce
• Internet Marketing
• Education
• Employment
• Games
• Home and Garden
• Languages
• Politics (not many affiliate programs include this niche)
• Parenting and Family
• Sports 
• Travel

So, if you’re a content creator in one of these niches, ClickBank can be a great program to enroll in. 

However, you should keep in mind the following drawbacks as well:

• Customer service is pretty slow. 
• ClickBank charges dormant accounts $1 per day after 90 days, $5 a day after 180 days, and $50 a day after 360 days of inactivity. 
• You’ll have to face high competition due to the low eligibility barrier. 

Apart from that, to get accepted, affiliates should come from eligible countries (US, Canada, and some others), have cookies enabled on their browser, and have a Tax ID or a social security number if they are from the US.  

Program #9: Outbrain

Outbrain is a popular native advertising network that also runs an affiliate program helping publishers earn money by placing sponsored content on their websites. 

So, if you’re an influencer or a content creator preferring to place only native ads on your blog, Outbrain’s affiliate marketing program is a perfect suit. 

Also, if your website or blog is in a language other than English, you can go for Outbrain, too. This platform supports French, Hebrew, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Dutch. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the program’s characteristics before applying:

• Ad formats: sponsored ads, branded carousel cards (allow showcasing several products within a single ad), video ads, and publisher’s direct-sold cards (one-on-one deals between publishers and advertisers, excluding the ad network as a middleman). 
• Minimum payout: the minimum threshold is $50. 
• Traffic requirements: none.
• Payment methods: wire transfers, ACH (only for US citizens), or credit card transfers.
• Payment models: CPC or CPM with up to $10 RPM.
• Payout time: net 60 or 90 (depending on the contract).

It’s worth mentioning that Outbrain has only recently become available to publishers of all sizes. Earlier, you had to have at least minimum traffic of 10,000 million pageviews. Now, you can advertise with Outbrain even if your website traffic is minimal. 

Is this program a good option for beginners?

Yes! Outbrain offers easy-to-use analytics tools for all affiliates – you can view them via the Engage dashboard that provides 24/7 real-time reporting. 

Apart from that, you can use this dashboard to break your target audience into segments and make ad placements not only context-relevant but also suitable to your visitors’ interests. 

Program #10: Adsterra

Adsterra is a CPA affiliate network allowing publishers to monetize their network, no matter the size of their website. 

What’s remarkable about this program is that it also allows social media marketers to monetize their channels on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and even TikTok. So, if you’re looking for ways to monetize your TikTok account, this platform is perfect for you. 

Besides, mobile app developers and app owners can get in as well. All creators get an opportunity to increase mobile and desktop traffic to their sites, too, as Adsterra offers various optimization tools. 

Now, let’s see what makes this PPC affiliate program stand out:

• Ad formats: popunders (remain hidden behind the main browser window), social bars (customizable ads with icons, animated banners, etc.), in-page push ads (resemble standard push notifications), native banners, video ads, and banners. 
• Minimum payout: $5 for Paxum and Webmoney, $100 for PayPal, Tether, and Bitcoin, and $1000 for wire transfers. 
• Traffic requirements: there are no official traffic limitations, but Adsterra considers itself a premium network. 
• Payment methods: Tether, Bitcoin, PayPal, Paxum, wire transfers, Webmoney. 
• Payment models: CPL, CPI, CPA, CPM, and PPC. 
• Payout time: net 15.

What benefits for publishers does Adsterrra boast?

Here are some you’ll definitely like:

• The Anti-Adblock feature
• Security thanks to anti-fraud detection systems
• Self-serve easy-to-navigate dashboard with detailed analytics
• Personal customer support manager

However, although we mentioned no particular traffic limitations, Adsterra does consider traffic quality. 

According to the official source, you won’t be accepted if your website has bot, motivated, or any other low-quality traffic. 

Apart from that, you can’t become an affiliate if your website is under construction, has inappropriate or AI-generated content, and is related to any of the niches mentioned in the rules under the link we shared above. 

Program #11: Sovrn

Sovrn (formerly known as Viglink) is a hybrid CPA and CPS network. Affiliates can get paid either via the CPC (per click) or CPA model (per sale). 

Essentially, the platform automatically turns product links into affiliate links, so if you run a blog with product reviews, you’re the perfect candidate for the Sovrn PPC affiliate program. 

Here are the platform’s characteristics in terms of ad formats, traffic requirements, etc.:

• Ad formats: contextual in-content links.
• Minimum payout: the minimum threshold starts at $10 for PayPal and $50 for wire transfers, ACH, and checks. 
• Traffic requirements: none. 
• Payment methods: PayPal, checks, ACH, and wire transfers. 
• Payment models: flat rate CPC, commission-based CPA, and CPM. 
• Payout time: net 90.

Basically, Sovrn is a solid option for publishers of all sizes. But even though there are no significant restrictions regarding traffic amount, Sovrn still has some limitations regarding the traffic quality:

• Traffic should come primarily from organic sources (should not rely solely on PPC).
• The website should not rely predominantly on referral traffic. 
• Traffic should not originate from high-risk locations. 

You should also be aware of content restrictions:

• Website content should be original.
• It shouldn’t promote illegal activities. 
• Content cannot be entirely based on images.
• Blog posts should include an author. 
• The website should have clear user interaction (no hidden comments). 

On a general note, you should have a consistent content workflow to be eligible for this program.  

Program #12: Mediavine

Mediavine is a PPC affiliate program with a primary focus on blogs in the lifestyle industry. It is also one of the programs with the highest eligibility requirements. 

You can only become a participant in Mediavine’s program if you’re in good standing with Google AdSense. Mediavine is compatible with Google’s platform but can also work as a standalone network.

Let’s cover Mediavine’s program characteristics to see who can apply:

• Ad formats: native and display/banner ads. 
• Minimum payout: the minimum threshold is $25 and $200 for international direct deposits. 
• Traffic requirements: you should have at least 50,000 sessions a month. 
• Payment methods: direct deposits, eChecks, PayPal, and wire transfers. 
• Payment models: the basic affiliate income share is 75%, but if your website gets more than 5 million impressions in 30 days, the revenue will increase to 80%. 10 million ad impressions a month result in 82.5% revenue, and 15 million impressions equal 85% revenue. 
• Payout time: net 65. 

Besides traffic requirements, your website should also comply with some other demands:

• Original content only
• Clean traffic, mostly from organic sources
• Clean brand history

Moreover, if you want to get into the Mediavine program, your website should have long-read blog posts – ads will appear more organically in such content. 

Now Over to You

Getting into a PPC affiliate program is pretty easy for content creators – even if your website is relatively small, you can still monetize and boost traffic to it. 

However, some programs (like Mediavine and Google AdSense) are a bit more advanced and have traffic requirements, making them more suitable for seasoned bloggers. 

Final tip: before considering a program, make sure to read the eligibility criteria and restrictions. It’s possible that the niche you’re in (i.e., politics) is not allowed by the platform. 

Interested in learning more about affiliate marketing?

Make sure to check out our comparison article on affiliate marketing and dropshipping.