What is The Best PPC Network to Use For Affiliate Marketing?

There are at least 5 major PPC networks you can use for affiliate marketing and in terms of which one is best really depends on your level of skill.

The more experienced of an affiliate marketer you are, the more the odds are that you can make money across one or more of the PPC platforms that are available and in my case, I’ve been doing PPC affiliate marketing for many years, and the total revenue I’ve made in that time easily exceeds $500,000.

And in this post, I’ll give you my personal ranking of each of these networks, their pros and cons as well which ones are better suited if you’re just getting started with PPC because the truth is, certain networks are far easier to work with and spend your time and money on than others. So let’s begin:

Here are my top 5 PPC networks to do affiliate marketing on:

1. Bing Ads. It’s the best for affiliates just getting into PPC.
2. YouTube Ads. The next best network for affiliates.
3. Pinterest Ads. Great for affiliates who do imagery promotions.
4. Facebook Ads. Good network an intermediate marketer.
5. Google Ads. Potentially the best PPC network out of them all, if you can avoid high costs and actually get an ad approved.

I’ve had experience with all 5 of these networks and have made sales with at least 3 of them.

The other 2 worked for a little while and got me some trial offers, but they never really converted into sales and I just focused more on the 3 I was already getting results with.

Let me dive into each one and give you the pros and cons of doing affiliate marketing with it:

1) Microsoft Ads (Bing Ads): The best PPC network to do affiliate marketing on in my opinion.

Ever since I got involved with doing Bing Ads in 2013, I had made over $400,000 in affiliate sales.

To date, I am shocked at how this network is not being utilized by more affiliate marketers. Perhaps they just don’t take this place seriously (their loss, trust me). Let me explain some stats:

Since the 2013 mark when I started using this PPC network, not only did I earn over $400,000 in affiliate revenue alone, but I also:

• Got at least 400,000+ clicks to the ads I’ve created in total.
• I spend anywhere from $0.05 to $0.20 on most of the clicks I get.
• In total, I’ve spent about $40,000 on the ads I’ve made with Bing Ads.
• When you factor in the profits, I’m basically made over $350,000 with this network alone.

Pros: 

1. You can spend way less on clicks through Bing Ads than other PPC networks.
2. You can still get a huge amount of traffic from ads made on this network.
3. This is a great entry PPC network for beginner affiliates to enter into.
4. Very little competition to worry about since most affiliates don’t even use this place.
5. You’re less likely to encounter red tape or bureaucracy with Bing Ads.
6. There’s a ton of room for experimenting with affiliate promotions, landing pages and online sales funnels with Bing Ads that you will likely not find with any other PPC network on this list.

Cons:

1. This network still has many cases of bugs and errors reporting on conversions.
2. Their contact staff is available but often clueless when you need help.
3. If you ever have technical issues with Bing Ads, it may take Bing Ads support a long time to fix it.
4. Sometimes your ads can be disapproved for ridiculous reasons.

Note: There is a course I’m building to help people follow the exact steps I use to succeed with Bing Ads and it will be available to members of Wealthy Affiliate’s Premium Plus membership very soon.

2) YouTube Ads: The next best network for doing affiliate marketing with PPC.

It’s only been about a year since I began experimenting with YouTube Ads and I regret not using this PPC network earlier.

I can very easily set up simple YouTube videos with my affiliate link in the description, and then get a bunch of views (traffic) to the video using this network.

I’ve been able to keep a pretty stable affiliate income coming in from YouTube Ads, to the tune of $35,000+ now with about $1,000 of it going into paying for the ads, but a lot of that money has come from learning the network, and I have set up a pretty simple YouTube Ads affiliate marketing guide here for you to check out.

Pros:

1. It is arguably the fastest growing PPC opportunity for affiliates.
2. You can very quickly set up videos and ads for them with this place.
3. If you know how to keep costs low, you can really get a lot of views to your videos (and sales).

Cons:

1. Be careful how you set your budget, because YouTube Ads depletes it VERY quickly.
2. Sometimes ads will just not appear or run for numerous unknown reasons.
3. I believe the YouTube/Google staff and help service could be improved greatly for this network.

3) Pinterest Ads: The unknown PPC network affiliates should keep an eye on:

Like YouTube Ads, I got into Pinterest and Pinterest Ads about a year ago and I found out some incredible information.

While my profits from using this network aren’t exactly high, there are niche websites I am creating and building up that will align with whatever policies Pinterest Ads puts into place, to allow my ads to show there.

In any case, if you’re an affiliate marketer and you are NOT in any niche related to the make money online opportunity type, then Pinterest Ads is a PPC network I would strongly recommend exploring.

I’ll be making a guide on this soon, but first I need to get my own profits to a point where you can take my advice seriously on this network.

Pros:

1. Very unknown and underutilized PPC network (meaning less competition).
2. Great network to use to promotion within visual niches (travel, cameras, selling products, ect…).
3. Costs for the ads can be kept relatively low.

Cons:

• Not really a good network for niches that are specific make money online (you’ll get flagged).

4) Facebook Ads: Tons of red tape mixed with tons of potential.

Facebook Ads for me was one of the most confusing PPC networks to figure out, and that’s because their model had nothing to do with keywords. Instead to make ads and find the right targeted traffic, I had to figure out the best demographics they were under and have Facebook Ads target them, but with practice, I’ve been able to do it pretty easily.

I’ve had numerous sign ups for the affiliate offers I’ve provided but not yet been able to truly see the kinds of results with it that I’d like yet.

As with Pinterest Ads, once I do, the tutorial will be up for it.

Pros: 

1. You can find traffic without using keywords (through demographics).
2. If you can filter out your demographics, you can spend very little on the ad.

Cons:

1. Very often, your ad might not meet the policy guidelines and will need to be remade.
2. Make money online offers are next to impossible to get approved on Facebook Ads (you need a workaround).

5) Google Ads: The PPC network I love and hate most on this list.

When I first started using Google Ads, it was back in 2009 and it was my first run in with PPC. At the time, because of the success I had with this network, I figured I’d never have to learn any other art to doing affiliate marketing through.

Then my account, along with millions of others got suspended and this completely threw my affiliate business under the bus, with no hope of fixing it.

Only years later was I able to get it back, only to get it suspended once more. Now I have it back up and it’s been a difficult climb back up to get my ads approved there.

Note: If your Google Ads account has been suspended, read this.

Overall, my success with Google Ads came many years ago, when it was still called Adwords and the rules I used to get the success back then still work today (It’s the same rules I follow for Bing Ads). The only major hurdle is getting your ads approved.

As with the other networks on this list, I am engaged in figuring out how to make the best of Google Ads once more and the tutorial for it will be up once that’s done.

Pros: 

1. Can provide you with the most traffic and clicks out of all the PPC networks on this list.
2. For affiliates, it can be your best network to work with.

Cons:

1. Close to as much red tape and bureaucracy as Facebook Ads.
2. You can likely expect to spend a lot of money on Google Ads.
3. I honestly stick to using the other networks over Google Ads. This would be the last PPC network I’d get involved with due to it’s difficulty in getting ads to get approved.

Before you begin your PPC journey as an affiliate, read this warning:

Pay per click is not an easy method to make money from in affiliate marketing. The traffic part of PPC is always the lure that gets people through the door, but the money they spend on the ads and the lessons they learn in the process may be too much to keep going with.

Like I warned about in my article here on doing pay per click affiliate marketing, do not start your affiliate journey here (start it here). Gradually get into it as your experience with other, safer methods are learned:

• Blogging.
• YouTube.
• Pinterest.

These are areas where I’d start affiliate marketing on. Despite my success in the affiliate marketing world with PPC, it is still a game of deduction and figuring out how to maximize the effectiveness and profitability of your ads, and that’s on top of learning each PPC network and how to best use it so you don’t overspend your money and that is a learning experience that can take years to master (I’m still learning it, and so are even the biggest success stories in PPC, don’t let them fool you).

Once you have affiliate marketing success with at least one of the free methods I just showed you above, then start with something like Bing or YouTube Ads and enter these worlds carefully, because overspending money on them is EASY and I don’t want to see that happen to you!

Another big recommendation is that you do high ticket affiliate marketing as it helps minimize your losses in PPC costs.

Now if you’re serious about the pay per click world as well as online marketing, then the best place to get the training you need to succeed is in a program like Wealthy Affiliate.

They correctly teach people to enter into this business through free methods and build their success there, then invest the money and move into pay per click.