Working with affiliate networks is one of the most effective ways to increase brand awareness for your products and services, and up your conversions. Not only is affiliate marketing becoming a prime advertising concept, but marketers are taking advantage of the quick wins that affiliate networks guarantee.
Top Affiliate Networks
With the complex nature of affiliate marketing, and the various platforms and networks that can be found within the market, you want to partner with only the top affiliate marketing networks out there to grow your business quickly.
Several advertisers and merchants are jumping on the affiliate marketing wagon, so you may be wanting to find more opportunities in this field too.
This guide will help you understand the economics of affiliate networks, what makes them better than standalone platforms, and which networks you should work with to maximize your ROI.
What is an affiliate network?
An affiliate network is an established platform that connects publishers, aka the affiliate marketers or advertisers, with brands. These publishers can be any kind of content creator, from bloggers to social media influencers who are willing to promote your product and services on their channels.
The affiliate network will usually offer reporting features and a database of members, serving as the ‘middleman’, so that both parties offering programs can connect and find the most suitable publisher or brand to work with.
In essence, an affiliate network helps web and app publishers to monetize their inventory by providing a variety of options, as well as all of the necessary tools for running campaigns, such as tracking links and creatives.
For advertisers, affiliate network services and benefits include payment processing, ad tracking technology, ad campaign reporting tools, as well as access to a vast database of publishers.
Some publishers, known as ‘affiliates’ or ‘media buyers’ will create or buy traffic using advertising specifically to promote campaigns from a network, rather than just to monetize existing inventory.
There are also two characteristics that describe the concept of affiliate marketing that translate into a network, namely the types of offers and commissions. The most popular types are game offers, casino offers, app offers, dating offers and nutra offers. The most in-demand commission types are mobile CPA and CPI.
How do affiliate platforms work?
Think of affiliate platforms as a marketplace for affiliates and marketers who sign up to the site, agreeing to its terms and conditions. Brands can then partner with suitable advertisers, and publishers can choose sites or brands they want to promote.
Once the two parties agree to collaborate, the publisher receives a custom link that monitors how many users follow this link or make a purchase from their site or advert. They are then paid a commission for each click that results in a sale.
Affiliate networks allow publishers to find affiliate programs and have an overview of affiliate commission payouts, while facilitating the process of partnering with influencers and affiliates for brands.
Now, you may be asking yourself what the difference is between affiliate networks and programs, as these terms are being mentioned in similar contexts. An affiliate program is usually a single brand, with which creators can get discovered on an affiliate network. The affiliate network is therefore a database made up of several programs to choose from and join.
By signing up to an affiliate platform, publishers can access available products and begin making sales right the next minute. However, they are usually only in direct contact with the network and not with the sellers, giving networks the core purpose of streamlining and monitoring the process of the collaboration.
Why should you join an affiliate marketing network?
Before signing up to an affiliate network, you may want to know more about why affiliate marketing can be of advantage and important to the growth of your business. So, let’s talk numbers.
Recent trends show that affiliate marketing spending is expected to reach $8.2 billion by 2022, which would be up from 5.4 billion that was recorded in 2017. Moreover, 81% of advertisers and 84% of publishers have turned to affiliate marketing, driving the industry towards this evolving strategy, only to increase even further in the upcoming years.
With advertisers using affiliate networks as a serious marketing tool, over 80% of them are investing more than 10% of their budgets in affiliate platforms. And when looking into different industries, retail had the highest share of affiliate revenue of 44% in 2021, with telecommunication and media accounting for 25% in global affiliate income.
Top Affiliate Networks
What does this mean for marketers and influencers alike? More and better opportunities to secure sticky income online. But let’s dive into more concrete benefits of joining an affiliate network.
What are the benefits of working with an affiliate network?
Apart from several industries now turning to affiliate marketing and spending rates increasing rapidly by the year, there are many key benefits within the concept that can help grow your business.
The main advantage of joining an affiliate network is that it is already an established platform, so you don’t have to go on a hunt for influencers and get them to promote your mobile app. When you sign up to a network, you can locate the most suitable advertisers in the database, making it easier to collaborate with them.
Networks also only admit legitimate affiliates that need to pass certain criteria to join the platform. Therefore, you are less likely to partner with inactive publishers or those with low conversion rates.
In order to increase the chances of partnering with a suitable affiliate network, another benefit is that these platforms usually already have an existing reputation, meaning that you can research and read reviews surrounding the companies. This will make sure you find a network that aligns with the objectives of your business, ensuring long term success and steady revenue.
A final and important benefit of joining an affiliate network is that the platform will handle payments for you as well as provide insight into traffic and performance data through its many analytics and reporting tools. So, you can track your progress and adjust your campaign accordingly.
Top affiliate networks to partner with
When choosing the best affiliate network for your business, make sure to see the commission rates the platforms offer are at least around 5% of each sale. Moreover, the platform you choose to sign up to should connect you with affiliates that target the same audience as you do, or at least operate in the same field as your products and services.
Notice the approval requirements as well, as many credible networks have criteria for you to join their network, such as having an established website or a certain amount of traffic. So, make sure to carefully read through their terms and conditions before you sign up.
Keeping these points in mind, choosing to work with an affiliate network can be very beneficial to your mobile app, if you are looking to reach a wider audience and increase visibility for your services.
This list of the top affiliate networks focuses on the companies that significantly work with mobile and app related traffic and offers, be it as specialist mobile affiliate networks or as a general affiliate platform, with a sea of mobile-friendly affiliate programs.
The list of top affiliate networks
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 135 | $30m+ | 19k | 4m+ |
Clickbooth, Adperio, and Ignite OPM are now unified under the global brand of Perform[cb]. Please visit our company page to learn more.
Perform[cb] empowers brands to acquire new customers through incremental digital channels on a pay for results model. Our proprietary technology and highly curated partner marketplace aligns “cost-per” pricing with customer lifetime value. Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to drive traffic, or a fortune 500 brand in need of comprehensive performance marketing strategy, Perform[cb] is the recognized leader in online performance marketing with the #1 ranked marketplace in the world. We specialize in vertical-specific performance marketing strategy so that you reach the customers you want – and only pay for the customers you acquire.
Key Features
- Perform[cb] is a premier mobile marketing company helping advertisers acquire quality users that exceed their KPIs
- Ranked in AppsFlyer’s 2019 Performance Index as a top 10 Media Partner
- Driving mobile app installs with high levels of engagement and retention
- Protecting ad spend through proprietary fraud prevention technology
- Perform[cb] aligns quality and scale to leverage data to deliver clients targeted users that continue to engage
- Working across channels such as video, in-app, incent, influencer, pre-installs, and display
- Utilizing over 20 years of experience in the mobile marketing industry to help apps plan and execute in today’s complex mobile advertising ecosystem
| Founded | Employees | Traffic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 51-200 | https://partners.blackbull.com/en/ |
BlackBull Partners is the referral program of the award-winning, FMA-regulated New Zealand multi-asset broker, BlackBull Markets. We offer a range of over 26,000 tradable assets to retail investors, across multiple account types and the industry-leading trading platforms MT4, MT5, TradingView, and our own platforms BlackBull Trade and BlackBull Social.
Learn more about Blackbull Markets
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 51-200 | $100m+ | 20k+ | 400,000+ |
CrakRevenue is a CPA-based advertising platform that connects advertisers and publishers. It provides affiliates with three plans (Active Affiliate, VIP Affiliate and Elite Club), all of which has Help Desk included, hundreds of offers and 5% lifetime referral program. On top of that for the second and third plans it offers a dedicated affiliate manager, exclusive offers and promotions, annual payout bumps and more.
Key features:
- Mobile platforms: Android, OS
- Campaign types: CPA, CPI, CPL, CPS
- Offer Types: Dating, Cam, Health, Adult Gaming
| Employees | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-50 |
Goldlead is an Affiliate Network with the Top offers and Fast payments! We are a team of professionals with a long experience in Affiliate marketing. We know the offers that convert the best and add them for you.
Learn more about GoldLeadClickDealer
The only way to succeed in affiliate marketing is to partner with the best!
| Founded | Employees | Social | Traffic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 51-200 | 10k+ | 500k+ |
ClickDealer, a GDM Group company, provides performance marketing solutions for publishers, advertisers, and agencies worldwide. The company offers a comprehensive range of advertising services to fit any specific set of KPIs for its clients.
The company has been in the performance marketing business since 2012, amassing partnerships with over 2000 advertisers across 12 main verticals which include lucrative directions like Dating, E-commerce & Retail, Health & Beauty, Mobile Utilities and more.
Key features:
- Mobile platforms: Android, OS
- Campaign types: CPA, CPC, CPL, CPS
- Offer Types: Dating, Ecommerce, Games, Software, Sweepstakes, Travel
Direct nutra advertiser and a CPA network, operating in the market for 8 years and offering end-to-end business solutions. Trusted by over 50,000 affiliates. Over 3000 COD/SS worldwide offers, including 100+ unique ones not represented by other networks.
Learn more about TerraLeads
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 10-50 |
PIN-UP Partners is an affiliate program and direct advertiser of such well-established brands as PIN-UP Casino and PIN-UP Bet. With diverse GEO coverage and presence in the CIS, Asia, and South America.
Learn more about PIN-UP Partners
MobX Network is a CPI global network, a trusted partner of over 100 advertisers world wide.
The platform offers a great deal of high payout GEOs, as well as a lot of exclusive and direct offers. You even can get individual payouts and order a desired campaign only for you! With MobX networks’ super friendly support team you may not worry about difficult integration or payment delays. Working with MobX you will always get assistance in analyzing traffic and rapid feedback from the advertiser plus permanent access to detailed statistic for virtually any data you require.
As for advertisers MobX will assist you into promoting your app with the best quality traffic, combined with large volumes. Therefore, MobX offers their customers only carefully vetted traffic sources proven by experience. MobX has a variety of targeting options in addition to GEO and device targeting.
Learn more about MobX Network
Brokerbabe.com is a Swiss Performance network that covers 194 GEOs with 3G and WIFI solutions. We are specialized in Dating, VOD and Liveentertainment.
Key features:
- We accept all kinds of mobile traffic: Vyber, Facebook, Incent, Mailing
- Dedicated account manager from the first click
- Own products, exclusive offers and the best local advertisers around the globe
- 1 link converts the world
- 5% Referral program
Affilight is a mobile affiliate network from the Northern Europe allowing webmasters, app developers and media-buyers to monetize their mobile traffic by the market’s highest standards.
Wide range of CPA, CPC, CPM offers via popup, iframe, direct link etc. is available. We provide RTB as well.
According to our practice you’ll be able to add up to 20% revenue comparing to the current website earnings in average!
Key features:
- Perfect fit for mobile apps and games
- A perfect solution for websites with a high % of mobile traffic
- Flexible pricing models
- Global coverage
- Referral program
- Unrivaled support
- Carefully selected offers
| Founded | Employees | Social | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 11-50 | 1k+ |
MyLead is a global affiliate network that to this day has paid over $ 2 million to their users.
MyLead offers over 1,600 affiliate programs (including the most popular programs – e-mail submit, credit card submit, VOD, smartlinks, downloads and dating), seven monetization models, and dozens of different categories with various services.
With MyLead affiliates usually get paid within 48 hours, using bank transfer, PayPal, Skrill, Bank, Revolut, WebMoney and Bitcoin. MyLead team provides 24/7 support.
Key features:
- You can start generating revenue in 5 easy steps
- To this day $8 millions were paid to registered publishers
- 2,164 affiliate programs are registered on the platform
- MyLead has 166,000 publishers registered on the platform.
PayV Affiliate network (formerly known as WapEmpire) provides solutions for converting worldwide traffic on CPA, CPS and RevShare basis. Our company was founded in 2013 and has earned a good reputation for being a reliable partner to thousands of Webmasters, Media buyers, Advertisers and Affiliate networks.
Our main verticals are: Dating, Health/Nutra, Sweepstakes, Gambling, Adult, Entertainment and Mobile.
Our Affiliates enjoy a wide choice of offers, timely payouts, in-house tracking platform with detailed statistics and 24/7 support to help you with all inquiries you might have about working with PayV.
Key features:
- Pevshare payouts
- 24/7 support
- Safe & secure
| Founded | Employees | Social | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 11-50 | 5k+ |
YIELDKIT enables publishers and advertisers to perform their affiliate marketing strategies in the simplest way, yielding higher revenue and traffic with less effort. Exclusive placements and unique advertiser relations enable us to achieve our clients’ goals with the help of innovative advertising solutions and machine learning technology.
Key Features
- YieldConnect- promote online brands based on pre-defined keywords.
- YieldLink converts existing links to shops and merchants into affiliated links.
- YieldShare – for publishers that create quality content to share with their audience YieldShare generates affiliate links for any product, with just one click.
- YieldSearch – lets you create and define native ads, that are targeted on your on-site search traffic.
- YieldNative – lets you create and define native ads, exactly the way, you want them.
- YieldMobile – Advertise online brands on mobile web and in-app traffic.
- YieldEditorial (sponsored posts)- customized editorial campaigns for premium brands.
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 51-100 |
AdsEmpire is a reliable Affiliate network with exclusive dating offers and in-house Smartlink solution with global GEO coverage focusing on Tier1 countries. Some significant benefits and advanced features which are a must-try for the affiliates: Huge number of Dating Exclusive offers CPL (SOI, DOI), PPS, and RevShare payout models Highest payouts on the market and great EPC Experienced team of affiliate managers with deep expertise in dating CPA offers and Smartlink, possibility to run both at the same time Advanced Smartlink Technology to monetize 100% of your traffiс Fast LP optimization Worldwide availability (over 50 countries are supported!) with a focus on Tier1 and Europe Weekly/Monthly payouts from $250 without hold The most comfortable payment methods: Wire, Paypal, Paxum, Bitcoin, Paysera, Genome Referral program 5% In 2021 AdsEmpire was awarded as Best Marketing Solution Provider Of The Year by AGS 2021 and shortlisted as Affiliate network of the year at IPMA.
Learn more about AdsEmpire
Add Value Media is a fast growing Online Marketing Agency dedicated to maximizing the success of advertisers and publishers. We are specialized in Desktop, Mobile, Native and Video Advertising. We offers Affiliates and Media Buyers access to the latest campaigns, direct and exclusive advertisers, dedicated account managers and timely payment terms with competitive payouts.
We Add Value to the performance marketing, let’s talk!
Key features:
- Payments and ontime
- High converting offers
- High payouts
- Direct & Exclusive offers
- Dedicated Account Manager
- CPI/ CPA/CPC/CPM offers
IMOCASH is a fully vertical Affiliate Network, operating globally with a focus on the entertainment industry. Our very strong markets are TIER 1, but we also have good inventory in selected other countries. As one of the fastest growing networks in the industry, we can monetize mobile and desktop traffic.
Key features:
- Our team consists of experienced managers who have been working in the industry for 15 years and more and our experience is YOUR key to success.
- It’s not just giving you the best offers with the best payout. It’s about optimizing your campaigns, giving you valuable information and getting the maximum out of your traffic.
- Newbie in Affiliate Marketing? – Work with the best in the industry, right from the start!
- Longtime affiliate? – Let us be your eyes and ears! Get a new feeling for Affiliate Marketing.
- Searching for the right offer can be very time consuming. Therefore, you can filter our huge amount of offers ( e.g. by vertical / media types / country / payout)
- Being part of IMOCASH means more free time for you. As I said, we will be your eyes and ears – our Affiliate Manager will inform you on important news!