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    Modern marketers looking to promote their business will find a lot of choices of PPC networks. Google remains the King of the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising world, and the Google Ads and Adsense platforms dominate the industry.

    But what are the other top PPC ad platforms? What can they offer, and how might professional marketers benefit by considering them for their ad strategies?

    As of 2022, the pay-per-click (PPC) industry is worth over $144 billion annually and is forecast to grow to over $190 billion beyond 2024. Even Covid-19 could not damper the stampeding rise of search advertising. That’s because the PPC ad platforms still offer an unbeatable reach for every business, large or small.

    If you’re weighing up your options, this list of the best PPC ad networks, including Google Ads alternatives, will help you make sense of your choices.

    What exactly is a PPC network?

    Initially, pay-per-click ads would be text results on search engine result pages, i.e., Google or Yahoo. Nowadays, the paid SERPs are just a tiny slice of the available options.

    Many of these PPC platforms offer the opportunity to display your ad on one of their partner websites or syndicated search result pages. These ads can be in the form of:

    • Text-based search engine results (SERPs)
    • Display banner ads
    • Embedded video
    • Video ad within a video (for example, on YouTube)
    • Native advertising content (sponsored content)
    • In-app advertising
    • Pop-up ads in a website or app

    PPC network

    Some pay-per-click platforms, such as Google, offer all these advertising options. Others target specific niches, such as in-app advertising or sponsored content only.

    Although they’re called pay-per-click networks, this can be a bit of a misnomer.

    The most common PPC bidding options are:

    • Pay per click (in the form of cost per click, or CPC)
    • Pay per thousand impressions (cost per mile, or CPM)
    • Pay per conversion/acquisition (cost per acquisition, or CPA)

    That’s just the tip of the iceberg, with the big ad platforms, including Google and Facebook, offering an even more diverse selection of bidding strategies.

    Here are the Top 10 PPC Ad Networks

    Google Ads

    Google Ads is the most popular ad network due to the immense reach of ads and its broad range of users. As the world’s leading search engine, Google offers incredible opportunities for advertisers.

    It uses search and the power of the websites on the Google Display Network (GDN), which consists of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps on which display ads can appear.

    Google Ads

    Audience targeting on the display network includes remarketing, in-market audiences, customer matches, and more.

    Both search and display campaigns allow demographic targeting in age, gender, parental status, and household income.

    Adding demographic targeting narrows the available reach for ads but makes the targeting more relevant.

    • Reach The Largest PPC network with billions of daily searches and extensive reach through Google Search, YouTube, and the Google Display Network.
    • Demographics: Broad and diverse, all age groups, genders, and interests globally.
    • Ad Formats: Text ads, display ads, video ads, shopping ads, and app promotion ads.
    • Unique Features: Extensive reach through Google Search, YouTube, and Google Display Network, robust targeting and analytics, AI integration and optimizations.
    • Advertiser best fit: Best for reaching a broad audience with high-quality traffic, comprehensive keyword options, and detailed performance insights.

    Microsoft Ads

    Bing comes in as the second-largest search engine worldwide, behind Google. Despite being second place, it has an impressive 659 billion monthly PC searches on the Bing search engine.

    The Microsoft Audience Network serves display and native ads. You’ll find remarketing, in-market, customer matches, similar audiences, LinkedIn audiences, and more opportunities in the Microsoft Audience Network.

    Microsoft has the advantage of exclusively serving Yahoo search traffic, powering several digital assistant voice searches (like Alexa), Microsoft products, and the ability to target searchers with LinkedIn profile data such as company, job function, and industry.

    Microsoft Ads offers advertisers campaign import capabilities from Google Ads, simplifying the process of getting started and keeping consistencies between platforms.

    Microsoft Ads

    • Reach: Significant volume through Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and DuckDuckGo search engines, reaching billions of users.
    • Demographics: Slightly older demographic, 35+ age group; higher household income; professional and business users.
    • Ad Formats: Text ads, image ads, shopping ads, video, audience ads.
    • Unique Features: Integration with Bing, Yahoo, and AOL, competitive cost-per-click rates, LinkedIn profile targeting.
    • Advertiser best fit: Suitable for reaching a slightly older, higher-income demographic. Skews slightly more business due to integrations with Microsoft products and high desktop usage.

    Meta Ads

    Meta Ads allow businesses to reach a highly targeted audience on both Facebook and Instagram, utilizing extensive user data for precise targeting.

    User targeting can be very granular with demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. Facebook supports retargeting through user activity on Facebook and actions offsite through advertiser’s Facebook pixel data and upload of customer lists.

    Meta Ads

    • Volume: Over 3 billionmonthly active users on Facebook alone, with even more across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. The Meta Audience Network provides massive ad volume and targeting capabilities.
    • Demographics: Wide age range, assertive presence with 18-49 year-olds. Diverse interests among users with engagement across genders.
    • Ad Formats: Image ads, video ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, collection ads, and Stories ads.
    • Unique Features: Highly targeted ads based on detailed user data. Advanced demographic and interest targeting. Integration with Instagram, diverse ad formats with robust performance tracking.
    • Advertiser best fit: Ideal for social media engagement, detailed demographic and interest targeting, and robust performance tracking. Better for upper funnel branding and awareness.

    Media.net

    Media.net is a Yahoo-Bing ad network. Internet giants like Yahoo and Microsoft actually had to combine their efforts and resources in order to offer a viable ad network alternative to AdSense.

    Media.net gives you contextual ads based on website/webpage niche. Publishers also have tools to track their ad performance in real-time.

    Media.net

    Moreover, publishers can control the look and feel of the ads to further optimize them to fit according to the site‒optimize color palettes, ad topics, and advertisers’ filters. While the number of advertisers can actually compare to Google’s, the conditions for being approved may actually be more difficult for many international bloggers.

    Aside from having high-quality traffic and content, your site’s visitors should mainly come from the US, Canada, or the UK. You’re also required to use English as your site’s primary language.

    Adsterra

    Found in 2023, Adsterra is one of the most renowned and valuable PPC ad networks available to publishers in 2024. The ad network allows publishers to monetize almost any kind of traffic, from desktop/mobile website traffic to social/mobile app traffic.

    One of the things that set Adsterra apart from many ad networks is it offers a wide array of ad formats. These include pop-unders, in-page push notifications, native ads, banner ads, and VAST ads.

    Adsterra can be the best fit If you’re an affiliate looking to expand your revenue sources. Adsterra is also an excellent choice for a publisher who wants to aim for higher CPM rates.

    Adsterra

    LinkedIn

    Owned by Microsoft, LinkedIn has about 900 million users. What differentiates it from other PPC platforms and simultaneously makes it one of the best PPC platforms is that it lets you target a unique audience. Namely, you can target professionals based on career information such as company, job title, and more.

    Who are the LinkedIn Ads Beneficiaries?

    Businesses that offer goods or services to other businesses are known as B2B enterprises.
    Expert service suppliers: LinkedIn Ads can be used by consultants, attorneys, accountants, and other professionals to connect with prospective customers.
    Businesses and recruitment agencies: Draw in competent applicants for the roles you have available.
    Authors and thought leaders: Reach out to professionals in the field about your book, course, or speaking event.

    LinkedIn Ads also function as auctions, so you only pay if someone clicks on your ad.

    LinkedIn

    • Reach:17% share of US social media users; 900 million users.
    • Ad format: LinkedIn supports single image ads (sponsored ads), text ads, video ads, carousel ads, and event ads.
    • Pricing: Pricing depends on campaign objective and ad relevance, but there is a minimum of $2 for CPC.

    X (Formerly Twitter)

    As one of the most popular social media networks, X is very effective as a top PPC platform. It hasn’t partnered with any other network, so your ads are only displayed on this platform, which includes both the website and the app.

    X

    • Reach:611 million active users.
    • Ad format: Twitter supports image ads, video ads, text ads, carousel ads, and moments ads. They also have five categories, including Promoted Ads, Follower Ads, Twitter Amplify, Twitter Takeover and Twitter Live. Each of the categories is designed to suit different goals. For example, Follower Ads are great for promoting your account to get more visibility, Promoted Ads support various ad formats including image, text and video, while Twitter Amplify lets you align your ads with premium video content with premium publishers.
    • Pricing: Depends on the pricing model; the cost for a promoted tweet can range from $0.50 to $2.

    YouTube

    YouTube is another one of the best PPC platforms of 2024. You can start your campaign through Google Ads and manage it from there, but you can also access YouTube Analytics to monitor your ad performance.

    With YouTube Ads, you only pay when someone chooses to see at least 30 seconds of your video ad or clicks on your ad.

    • Reach: 7 billion monthly active users; 80 million subscribers to YouTube TV.
    • Ad format: YouTube supports video ads, which include skippable and non-skippable video ads from 5 to 20 seconds in length, as well as overlay image or text ads.
    • Pricing: On average, it costs from $0.10 to $0.30 per ad view.

    YouTube

    RichAds

    RichAds is a performance-driven advertising network specializing in push, popunder, direct click, and native ads. Tailored for affiliate marketers and direct advertisers, it offers high-quality traffic across various niches, including Gambling, Betting, Adult, Nutra and Dating. RichAds is known for its precise targeting capabilities covering mobile settings and advanced optimization features. According to inside scoop, their Performance Mode feature facilitates boosting conversion rates by a staggering 253%.

    Besides their advertising platform, they also profoundly support the affiliate marketing community. They host webinars, stay active on social media and YouTube, join discussions, hit up conferences, and share handy tips on their blogs. It’s all about giving affiliates the tools and knowledge to rock their campaigns.

    RichAds

    • Opportunities for auto-optimization with features;
    • Traffic categories: Premium, Standard, Remnant, New;
    • Lenient moderation, making it possible to promote gray-hat offers;
    • Personal manager support.

    Cons:

    • It may require a learning curve to fully

    Amazon Advertising

    Amazon Advertising is a powerful PPC ad platform for retailers that leverages the extensive reach of Amazon’s ecommerce ecosystem. It targets shoppers at the point of purchase, making it highly effective for driving direct sales and brand visibility.

    Millions of daily transactions on the site offer massive ad volume and detailed targeting options to capture high-intent buyers.

    • Volume: Millions of daily transactions on its e-commerce platform, offering substantial ad volume at the point of purchase.
    • Demographics: Predominantly adults aged 25-54, higher income, strong presence among parents and frequent online shoppers.
    • Ad Formats: Sponsored products, sponsored brands, sponsored display, and video ads.
    • Unique Features: Target shoppers at the point of purchase, access to Amazon’s e-commerce platform.
    • Advertiser best fit: Perfect for ecommerce and retail businesses aiming to capture consumers ready to buy, detailed product and keyword targeting.

    Amazon Advertising

    Conclusion

    So that’s it! Those are the high paying ppc ad networks to choose from, and this list ought to give you an additional zing in your income column. Before you get started, make sure your inventory is ready to run a CPC campaign. This means it should have a high CTR for you to make a profit from it.

    With a lot of options, there’s at least one that will make you some serious money! Do post your comments about your experience with the networks after trying them.

    FAQs on Pay-Per-Click Sites

    What are pay-per-click sites?

    In the PPC model, advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Pay-per-click sites ‘buy’ visits instead of getting those visits ‘organically.’

    How to choose the best PPC ad network?

    Here are some things to think about while choosing the best PPC platform or PPC network:

    1. The user base of the ad platform
    2. The ad network’s volume for ad serving
    3. Advertiser budget
    4. Creative and technical options
    Written by Aayush
    Writer, editor, and marketing professional with 10 years of experience, Aayush Singh is a digital nomad. With a focus on engaging digital content and SEO campaigns for SMB, and enterprise clients, he is the content creator & manager at SERP WIZARD.