Choosing a CPA network that corresponds to your needs is no longer a problem. There are over a hundred of them on the market. But choosing the right one is complicated, especially when you are a beginner. You may face payment holds, low approval rate or run low-quality offers. We decided to make it easier for you and came up with key criteria of choosing an affiliate network. Points you should consider, key features, and bottlenecks — we'll get you covered.
Choose a vertical
There are two types of affiliate networks. Some of them provide offers in various verticals, while others are specialized in one or a couple. For example, Leadbit offers offers in nutra, gambling, dating and crypto. And there is a network like Vortex, which focuses on dating and gambling only. We recommend focusing on an affiliate program with one or two verticals. You'll have a higher chance of getting a personal manager with deeper expertise. They have enough experience with this niche, have worked with a large number of affiliates, and will provide helpful advice. When it comes to choosing a vertical, it's best to learn and test your skills in dating. You will learn how to work with mainstream and adult traffic, cloaking, and how to scale campaigns. Dating is easier because of lower competition and the lower threshold.
Explore affiliate programs
Find as much information as possible on the internet. Reliable CPA networks are usually found on topical resources like ZorbasMedia or Affiliate Valley. They have the ranking of affiliate programs and reviews. Some networks even have their corporate blog. The more information you find about an affiliate program, the more reliable it is. This means they have enough offers and partners in their catalog. These criteria guarantee running higher volumes of traffic. It is also a sign that the network cares about its reputation and lets future affiliates consciously choose an affiliate program. Do not forget to check out reviews and look for information in boards and forums like Affiliate Fix. Do not work with networks with a lot of negative reviews. Check out their social media for information regarding events, company news and hot offers. This will give some understanding about the life of the network and people who work there. Announcements and partnership integrations make you feel that the network is looking for new opportunities on the market, supporting the industry and looking for new ways of development.
Payouts
The most crucial part of choosing a network is to examine payment terms. Look through well-known offer aggregators such as OfferVault or Affpaying. Compare payouts for offers and find out about the opportunity of rate bumps. Be sure to find out about the availability of a hold and the frequency of payments. Usually, payments are made weekly. For example, at Vortex, we pay weekly. There is an option to set a custom payment date as well. The first payments are made after checking the quality of traffic. This requirement is compulsory to follow. It is set by advertisers who want to ensure the quality of traffic is good and prevent the fraud. Usually, it takes from one to two weeks. Find out the info regarding the payment methods. We pay with Paxum, Payoneer, Paypal, Webmoney, Wire, and Bitcoin.
Test usability
The dashboard, statistics and offer listings are features you will work with a lot. Make sure the interface is user-friendly and easy to use. Carefully examine the statistics page, current balance and the offers pages. These pages should be the necessary information. The transparency of information minimizes the risks of shaving, as the affiliate program may hide some information.
It is also important to clarify the details of the offers' availability. Sometimes affiliates list the limited amount of offers in order to avoid loads of average traffic to sensitive advertisers. When you prove to have a decent quality of traffic, you will access private offers. Contact managers to check the available integrations with third party services such as Binom. Affiliate networks can provide a discount on third-party services and quick integration.
Analyze offers
When you are done with choosing the vertical, analyzing the network itself, check its offers. Different CPA networks target specific niches. Use Offervault, Affpaying to calculate how much you can earn from certain offers.
Make sure that the networks you work with provide a sufficient range of offers for further scale. They also have to constantly add new offers and expand their advertisers' base. Over time, offers lose their exclusivity and appear on different affiliate networks. When this happens, the offer's statistics may dramatically drop. Adding new offers solves this problem.
Transparency and communication
Pay attention to the communication from the network's side. Right after you sign up, you are assigned with a personal manager who will help you with choosing dating and gambling offers. They also approve offers. The slower they do it, the clearer it becomes that the network doesn't care much about its reputation. This prompts the idea that the company wants to attract as many affiliates as possible, but is not interested in their user-experience. This affects the quality of offers and the availability of new advertisers. If an affiliate program gets a large base of web masters but provides poor communication, they are likely not to monitor the quality of traffic. Advertisers usually reduce payouts or stop collaboration with the network. Do not forget to clarify the offers' details and terms of payment. If the manager is not enthusiastic about answering, then perhaps you will get a lower payout or face shaving. Do not expect extra low commissions. On average, affiliate networks hold 20-30% of your earnings. If you are offered a lower commission, most likely the company is hiding something. The information about the payout might be fake as the real payout might be much higher. Individual payout terms apply only after long-term and high-quality cooperation.
Reliable advertisers
You definitely want to work with a network that will check their new advertisers. Moreover, we recommend avoiding networks that allow automatic offer approval. This affects the quality of advertisers who have a low conversion rate, shave or unreasonable payment cuts. This directly affects your financial performance and the payment terms you get from advertisers.
What network to work with?
Overall, you need a network that works with reliable advertisers and cares for its publishers. Give priority to networks that are interested in your performance's scale. By signing up to an affiliate network, you invest in it as much as they invest in you.
A little about us
Vortexads.com is an affiliate network with a focus on dating and gambling verticals. We only work with direct advertisers. We have exclusive products in our offer listings. We provide gambling and dating apps for FB and UAC campaigns. Sometimes there is a payments' hold: for dating offers no more than 3 days, gambling - 1-2 weeks (it implies to new affiliates in order to check the traffic quality). Primary geo's: Tier-1, Europe, CIS, LATAM. We work only with direct advertisers. You can always leave a request to add a new offer, our managers will contact advertisers.
Our advantages:
- We develop dating and gambling apps for teams with large volumes. Also, we can rent apps from third-party developers.
- We provide exclusive offers to our trusted affiliates.
- We increase payments for affiliates with big volumes and quality traffic.
- Custom dashboards, where you can request to add custom features.
By conducting an analysis and market overview, you put yourself into an advantageous position. You can easily choose a network that will help you grow a profitable online business. Remember, do your research, ask questions, seek advice on forums and boards.
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