Why are Pop Ads so Popular in Advertising?
If there’s one ad format you gotta get behind if you wanna make some serious cash, pop ads is it.
Not only can it make money faster than almost any other ad type, but it’s also a format that’s super easy to use and provides a great entry point for affiliate marketing newbies.
With conversion rates up to 9.3% for the top 10% performing popups, with an industry average of 3..1%, they can offer a significant boost to your ROI.
We’re gonna look at how you can use pop ads to promote your offers and create high-converting, profitable campaigns.
But first, let’s look at what pop ads actually are.
Pop ads are an ad format that you’ve probably seen many times before.
They are split into two categories:
- Popups: You’ll see these when you click a link on a site and you get a new window on top of the page you clicked on.
- Popunders: These are more sneaky and load under the page you are visiting and are usually found when you close the window above it. This is a popular format and is used by many of the top networks.
They are used with lots of different offer types but typically you’ll see them with pin submits, sweepstakes, mobile apps, vouchers, gambling, finance and leadgen offers.
This ad format originally started being used on desktop but has more recently been killing it on mobile, where there are typically higher payouts than in other formats.
One of the reasons it’s so popular among affiliate marketers is because you can get a campaign up and running quick and fast and start seeing results right away.
Pop traffic also tends to run cheaper than some other formats and the entry threshold is low.
With just a few tools and the right knowledge, it’s easy for anyone to run these types of offers.
The downside?
You’re gonna find that pop ads have a lot of competition in almost every niche.
This means you’ll be competing with top affiliates for similar offers to the ones you wanna promote.
The solution?
Get creative with your ads and landing copy, and bid on keywords that may be less competitive in your niche.
Run a few different offers and pick the winners.
Make sure your ads are highly targeted to the audience that will convert for your offer by specifying the location, device, OS and browser you wanna target.
You’ll also need to choose the right cost model for your campaign and set frequency caps to make sure you don’t chase away your audience.
One thing you’re gonna want to stay on is making sure your ad stays relevant.
How so? Let me explain.
The thing to realize about pop ads is that they’re an interruptive type of ad.
This means that a pop ad interrupts the visitors’ journey and gets in their face before they can reach the page they wanna see.
So, visitors won’t necessarily gonna be interested in some pop ad that interrupts them from reaching the page they wanna look at.
For instance, let’s say they’re trying to reach a tech site. In that case, hit them with a pop ad for an iPhone sweepstake offer.
If it’s a health site, then throw out a coupon for a gym membership.
See how that works?
How you deal with this is up to you but you should get creative and give the user a reason to get interested in what you are showing them.
This type of inventory has huge potential for mobile affiliates but it’s up to you to make it work.
Think about what makes the most sense for the user and you’ll be well on your way to a high converting campaign in no time!
What is a Pop Ad Network?
Now, let’s look at pop ad networks and how they work.
This is where you’re going to run your ads.
We’ll look at how to start your own pop campaign further ahead but first let’s get into networks and why you need them.
So, a pop network is basically your traffic source for the campaign.
It’s where you’ll run your ads and pay for your traffic.
There are two types of pop networks to be aware of: those that specialize in pop ads and those that include popup or popunder formats in their platform.
You’ll also find networks that focus on specific niches that also have pop ad formats.
A lot of this is gonna depend on your offer and how you structure your campaign.
You’ll also wanna test your ads on different traffic sources to find the best performing network for your offer and you’ll notice that some will perform better than others, and some are more suited to the offer you wanna run, based on the publishers on their network.
You can start to optimize your campaign by pausing the traffic sources that aren’t converting for you and focus on the ones which are.
All the networks below are great options for mobile pop ads, so make sure you visit them all to get a feel on the differences between them and what sort of traffic you might wanna run to your offer.
You’re also gonna find that some networks are more competitive than others for your niche, so make sure you test and optimize your campaigns before committing to a large ad spend.
Scale in slowly and measure your results to make sure you maintain a healthy ROI across all your campaigns.
So let’s take a look at some of the best pop networks you can use as traffic sources for your popup and popunder ads.
How to Choose Offers for a Pop Ad Campaign?
So, there you have it!
Your success depends not only on your offer but also on your landing pages, competitive research, and tracking solution.
It’s about how well you optimize your campaign for a profitable ROI, as much as what offer you choose to run.
But even before you choose your offer there’s something you need to be aware of.
You need to think about what type of traffic you wanna attract.
If you get this part wrong you may end up using the wrong offer for the ad format.
Let me break it down for you.
Just because an offer is popular doesn’t mean it’s the right one to use as a pop ad.
You first wanna think about your visitors and if this offer is likely to convert for the sites they are on.
The best approach is always to match the traffic source to the offer and market it accordingly.
Learn about the types of publishers you’re gonna find on different pop networks and think about the types of visitors you wanna attract.
What niche are you in?
How will the offer connect with your target audience?
Is the offer gonna work with a popup or popunder format?
Then, once you’ve chosen your offer, you’ll find an angle that makes sense in the context of the visitor’s journey.
Sounds simple, right?
Get this part right and you’ll be well on your way to making oodles of cash!
As we’ve mentioned above the top converting offers for pop campaigns are:
- PIN submits
- Sweepstakes
- Coupons & Vouchers
- App installs
- Gambling
- Finance
- Leadgen
You’ll find all these offer types can work well for pop ads and can lead to high converting campaigns at Odie-tech.
Once you’ve chosen your offer, you’re gonna need all the other tools at your disposal as an affiliate marketer to make your campaign a success.
If you haven’t already done so, now’s a good time to head over to our CPA marketing guide for a complete look at how to make it in the business.
Remember to always track your performance across different traffic sources with ad tracking software like Voluum to optimize your campaigns and then scale up accordingly!
Now, let’s check the list of ad networks!
1. Adcash
Cost Model(s) – CPA, CPC, CPM
GEOs – Lots of GEOs and targeting options but you may find yourself pushed for traffic from some GEOs
Adcash is an online advertising platform with 100+ RTB partners and 10+ billion ad requests a day. It’s is a popular favorite with mainstream affiliates specializing in desktop and mobile popunder traffic.
The pop ad network has a great amount of traffic with worldwide coverage, you’ll just need to find the sweet spot to get the best performance.
There’s a good range of optimization and tracking tools, including user interest targeting – which matches your ad to the people most likely to click.
The pop ad network features competitive pricing and unique performance goals to make sure that your campaign stays on track.
Tracking is by Global Postback URL (S2S) and there’s a bunch of available tokens you can use to identify top-performing ads.
Adcash has lots of GEOs and targeting options, but you may find yourself pushed for mobile traffic from some GEOs for which you may wanna use the connected SSPs.
Advertisers can use the platform’s CPA target to lower their bids and improve their ROI.
Pros
- Connects to most popular SSPs
- Powerful CPATarget
- Very responsive support
Cons
- ISP targeting can be difficult to get right
2. PopAds
Cost Model(s) – CPM
GEOs – 40 countries including North America, Southern Asia, India, Western Europe and Australia
PopAds was established back in 2010 and continues to be a leader in pop traffic to this day.
The ad network exclusively focuses on pop ads and allows you to set your budget, target your visitors, control your rates while giving you full control over your traffic quality and speed of delivery.
You can create ads for both Adult and Mainstream offers and choose from a range of pop ad formats. These include Popunder, Popup, Tabunder, and Tabup.
There’s traffic in over 100 countries including many Tier 1 Geos such as North America, Western Europe, and Australia.
PopAds is bot-free, has category and keyword targeting options, and converts like crazy in popular verticals.
Pros
- Huge volume of traffic
- Can target traffic by quality rating
Cons
- No personal account manager
- Works best with desktop targeting
3. Adsterra
Cost Model(s) – CPC, CPM, CPA, CPL, CPI
GEOs – 190 GEOs targeted, mobile & desktop, advanced targeting
Adsterra is a world-known ad network with a Unique Partner Care approach and a decade-long presence in digital advertising. It serves over 35 billion ad impressions monthly, achieving 1.5 billion conversions annually and boasting up to 20% CTR.
Popunder is Adsterra’s very first advertising format. They offer various ad formats, but the Popunders have always been the most prominent — providing the most significant amounts of traffic and profit.
Top verticals that thrive on Adsterra Popunder traffic: iGaming, E-commerce, Apps, Utility, Software, and Entertainment verticals.
Other ad formats: Social Bar, Interstitials, In-Page Push, Native Ads, Banners, and Smart Direct Link (for publishers).
With worldwide coverage in 248 GEOs targeting mobile & desktop users and a network of 35K+ direct publishers, you’ll find plenty of high-converting traffic for your offers.
Malware, redirects, unsolicited downloads, and alerts are strictly prohibited at Adsterra.
Pros
- Easy to get started
- Run campaigns on SSP or with a manager
- 20+ filter targeting options
- 100% genuine traffic from 248 geos
- Unique Partner Care Approach
- Smart tools for campaign management and optimization: Traffic Estimator, Traffic Chart, Offers
- Wishlist, Smart CPM, CPA Goal, Pricing Tokens, Custom Bid
- Easy API and tracking integration
Cons
- No demographic targeting
4. PropellerAds
Cost Model(s) – CPM
GEOs – Over 150 Geos in tiers 1-4
PropellerAds was founded in 2011 and still has a reputation of being the king of pop.
The ad network has over 3 billion daily ad impressions in 195 Geos, and works with all popular verticals including finance, forex, e-commerce, mainstream dating, nutra, sweepstakes, betting, games, gambling, and crypto.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of advanced targeting options you can use with your campaigns, and the low minimum deposit and cheap bids makes PropellerAds a great ad network for pros and newbies alike.
Pros
- Good source of quality traffic
- Performs well in most of the verticals
Cons
- Account manager only for Platinum advertisers
5. AdMaven
Cost Model(s) – CPV, CPM, CPA
GEOs – Worldwide traffic, delivers ads on both mobile and desktop devices
AdMaven is an advertising network that has been in business since 2010. It delivers more than 500 million pop impressions a day, so advertisers have a lot of traffic to work with.
The lowest possible CPV bid in AdMaven is $0.0002 (translates to $0.20 CPM), although you need to bid at the recommended rate to receive adequate traffic for your campaign. The recommended rates change frequently and are dependent on the geolocation and device type (mobile, desktop, and Mac OS X).
If you want to adjust bids manually, you can do so on individual publisher feeds — you can enable/disable feeds or adjust bids based on the percentage of the default bid.
The platform is easy to use but is quite basic. If you’d like more click information on the traffic you receive, using a third-party tracker is necessary.
The best performing verticals in AdMaven include download-oriented offers such as Browser Extensions, Utility Apps, APKs, Installers, VPNs, E-commerce, Search Engine offers, Trading, Casino, and Sport bets. Their traffic also works great for Content Arbitrage.
The minimum deposit is $50 and can be funded via credit cards, Paypal, Paxum, Payoneer, Webmoney, and Capitalist. You can also top up using wire transfer for a minimum of $200, or Bitcoin and USDT for a minimum of $1,000.
Pros
- Good traffic quality
- Works with more than a dozen offer verticals
- Easy campaign creation process
- Low minimum deposit
Cons
- Very basic reporting system
- Unusual user interface
