CPC Ad Networks – Adbrite, Bidvertiser, Clicksor, Chitika, Adsense

An old post from our old site, it may or may not be our current view on the topic.

Following from our Guide to Ad networks for Publishers, we review the more popular CPC ad networks for you so you can decide which to sign up for to increase your revenue.

Here are the reviews listed alphabetically: -

Adbrite

Adbrite is a well established Ad marketplace that offers publishers with a number of ways to monetize their websites. These include CPCs, CPMs, In-Line Ads, Video Ads, Full Page Ads and also an option for advertisers to buy a link on a website for a period of time.

Their CPC concept revolves around their Site Directory of Publisher Sites where advertisers can choose to place ads on websites of their choice. Advertisers also have the option to place network Ads which allows the ads to be shown on publisher websites of the selected demographics.

Type:

Site Targeted

Good For:

Sites with good traffic as it encourages advertisers to bid on your site raising your minimum CPC.

Views:

For Adbrite you need to attract advertisers to place ads on your site as its not contextual, therefore its best if your ad zones are of a specific niche rather than general. This is especially true as attracting advertisers showing related ads will increase your CTR.

Network Ads can be shown if there are no advertisers which is around 0.05USD to 0.08USD a click so for some niches it offers reasonable return. Sites with big traffic like proxy sites, forums, entertainments sites will make good money from Adbrite, especially if they get a few Site Targeted Advertisers.

One thing to remember, as with most networks is that it takes Adbrite a few days to register and collect the stats of your site to sell to their advertiser network. With Adbrite especially as your site doesn’t even appear in their Site Directory until 5-6 days.

Payment:

Check – monthly – min USD5

More Info

Bidvertiser

Bidvertiser’s CPC model is based on advertisers bidding on your site and the ads with the highest bid is shown. There is also an option for based on demographics which is how most ads will be shown initally.

Type:

Site Targeted

Good For:

Sites with in a specific niche that fits into Bidvertiser’s Categories.

Views:

Whilst we have found that the CPC is quite high at over 0.10USD, it seems that your site should be in one of the categories specified by Bidvertiser if you want more relevant ads to be shown. We tested Bidvertiser on a general topic site and therefore our ads were not very well targeted and hence a low CTR.

Overall, I think worth a try for the right kind of site due to its high CPC. We registered a couple of clicks at over USD1 which I expect to occur more often as advertisers bids for our site.

Payment:

Paypal, check – monthly – min USD10

More Info

Chitika

Chitika offers a number of ways for publishers to implement their CPC ads onto their web sites. Chitika has labeled their eMiniMalls as a interactive product merchandising service and is basically a banner ad that promotes products from Chitikas merchant partners.

Chitika however offers publishers CPC rather than CPA and is one of the first to do this followed recently by WidgetBucks and ShoppingAds.

As with most shopping network referral CPC, reports are audited before payment so expect to see a change to the revenue shown on your report before auditing is complete. We are finding the Unaudited earnings to be quite high at over 0.15USD CPC and their range of ad types means that you can see which one fits your site best.

Type:

Contextual / Keyword

Good For:

Shopping Sites and sites with good traffic.

Views:

We have only recently began testing Chitika but like what we see. Unaudited CPC seems quite high at over 0.1USD per click.

There seems alot of products in the Chitika database so targeting should not be a problem and we will report on the CTR soon.

Payment:

Paypal, check – monthly – Min USD10 for paypal and USD50 for checks

More Info

Clicksor

Clicksor is a contextual CPC ad network with a popular following. Less strict on restrictions than Google allowing Mature content sites a contextual alternative, proxy sites are not allowed though.

Publishers meeting the requirement can apply to be a Premium Site partner and have access to more options and reporting.

Type:

Contextual

Good For:

Contextual alternative. Mature content sites.

Views:

CPC seems a little on the low side averaging about a quarter of what we usually get from Adsense. Due to a smaller pool of advertisers, we found that the ads shown were not very relevant or in quite a lot of cases, no ads were found but that maybe due to geographical targeting.

Additionally, we noted that the ad banner seemed to load quite slowly. We know it works for some webmasters but didn’t work for our test site too well.

Payment:

Paypal, check – bi-monthly – min USD50

More Info

Google Adsense

Adsense is still the big daddy of the CPC networks with their excellent contextual engine, lots of advertisers, higher than average CPCs and financial muscle to back it all up. Adsense is still the network to have unless you’ve been banned or in a niche that Google offers low CPCs for.

Type:

Contextual

Good For:

Adsense is great for all kinds of sites, especially content sites for high CPC niche such as Insurance, Legal, Loans, etc.

Views:

Adsense still represents my main revenue source. Google has recently relaxed their guidelines and are allowing webmasters to use other Ad networks as long as they are made to appear different to ADsense ads. This has made Adsense a must in my view for webmasters wanting to sell advertisements on their websites.

Payment:

Check – monthly – min USD100

More Info

Yahoo Publishers Network

YPN seems like they have been in beta for decades. For this reason they are still unavailable for International sites (Non US) and hence I am unable to test them.

Word is that they offer a good alternative (some say better) to Adsense from those who has been approved, the trick is to actually get approved into the network.

Type:

Contextual

Good For:

YPN works on a similar model to Adsense so would share similar characteristics.

Views:

As I have mentioned not tested so maybe some visitors can inform us.

Payment:

check – monthly

More Info