AdCombo Review – Best Affiliate CPA Network For Publishers

AdCombo Home Page

For those of us that have been in the affiliate space for some time, it is rare to see a CPA Network garnish as many reviews and reputation as AdCombo has done in just a few years. 

Most networks say that they have the highest payouts and best offers.

But AdCombo truly does.

More than 80% of their offers are exclusive, so you won’t find them anywhere else.  

Combine these high payouts with outstanding customer service, beautifully designed landing pages proven to convert, and superior tracking systems. These are just a few reasons why so many publishers choose to work with AdCombo, exclusively. 

Let’s take a deeper look into how AdCombo stands out from the crowd.

What Does AdCombo Do?

The simplest way to describe AdCombo’s business model is to go over the basics of affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is the process where you earn income every time you sell or promote someone else's products or services. With the “performance marketing model”  you only get paid a commission when you generate a sale, so if you do not make a sale then you do not get paid. 

Why would affiliates (also called publishers) take on all the risk?

If advertisers (or the product owners) know their lifetime values and how much they make, why would I focus on selling their products not knowing if I will make anything. Simple, you do not have too and only focus on the highest paying offers!  

The entire affiliate network works more as a “marketplace” connecting Publishers and Advertisers. This goes back to the original business concepts of supply and demand.

If you want to get more people to sell your products, you need to offer a higher commission. If your commission is too low, nobody will want to sell your products.  

What is an affiliate

Seeing that AdCombo charges a commission (from the Advertiser) for every sale, it is in their best to make as many sales as possible. This means they need to work hard to sign exclusive offers from advertisers, that affiliates will want to promote and encourage you to do so. 

In addition to recruiting hundreds of publishers and thousands advertisers, negotiating exclusive deals, building tracking systems, filing taxes, coordinating payments, they also have to worry about fraud and chargebacks. 

This is why most companies choose not to host their own affiliate programs, and hire a company like AdCombo to do this for them for a smaller percentage. As an added benefit of this, is the added transparency of a third party so affiliates know that they will be credited for all of their sales, verses dealing with a company direct.

About The AdCombo Ad Network

Now that we explained what the AdCombo network does, its best to tell you more about them as a company. What originally started from Calgary Canada in 2014, has now expanded into offices and co-workings in 5 cities around the globe with 100+ employees.  

Before going live, the company spent close to a year running their software in private, working out the glitches, and making sure their services were top notch.

This is one of the reasons why the network was able to garner such an excellent reputation so quickly.

AdCombo Office Locations

AdCombo Company Stats

AdCombo Advertisers and Offers

  • Advertising Types: Display, Text, PPC, Social Media, Email, InApp (Desktop and Mobile)
  • Offer Types: CPO, CPA, CPI, CPL, CPS
  • Verticals: Most (they also allow Adult Traffic)

AdCombo Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The rating will be explained in detail in the next sections with an in-depth review of the services and user experience.

Here is a snapshot of our thoughts, and the parameters we used to judge the company:

What we liked about the company: 

  • For someone that has spent a lot of time in India, I think the COD model (cash on delivery) is one of the most innovative offers and true value ad. For those in emerging companies, without the banking systems of Tier 1 countries opens up an entire new marketplace.  
  • Their exclusive offers.
  • Great customer service
  • Broad access to niche markets is an added advantage.
What we didn’t like about the company:

Insert here

AdCombo for Publishers

Getting down to the meat of the topic, let’s dive into how AdCombo works for publishers and if it lives up to its promises or not.

The landing Page

There may be many reasons on paper, but the real reason publishers reach out to affiliate networks is to make money.

So, the biggest motivator required to push a publisher to sign with an affiliate network would be a promise of greater payouts. This is the reason why nearly all affiliate networks out there advertise their payout rates to attract publishers.

AdCombo does the same but with a twist; the AdCombo Publisher landing page opens with a comparison between a traditional CPA network and AdCombo’s in-house technology.

Though the content could have been sharper, the comparison does present a pretty attractive picture of what the company offers to their publishers. Scrolling down the page, you can see the value proposition AdCombo offers and why it stands out from the rest of the competition.

At the very bottom of the page, all advantages of joining this network are clearly mentioned, making it easier for the publishers to make a decision.

This succinct landing page hits the right chords and is safely among one of the smartly executed marketing gems in the industry.

Here is an example of one of the Green Coffee Landing pages in Malaysia: 

Landing page Example

Here is a black Late offer for the Philippines.  The payout is $7.50 and has a high EPC of $1.84 and as you can see from the upper fold is a beautifully designed and converts really well. 

Latte

Joining the Network and Requirements for Publishers

One of the great things about AdCombo is that signing up only takes 24 hours or less if done properly.  The process is pretty simple:

  1. You start off by filling in a request form which is pretty straight forward.
  2. Then after a few hours, an affiliate rep will get in touch with you via email and ask you to give specific information about what you do and what you can do for the network.
  3. If you answer all questions effectively, the rep will schedule a meeting.
  4. Through skype meeting with the rep and finalize your membership within the day.

However, not everyone will get approved. That is just to ensure that only the most suitable and reliable publishers are made a part of the network. Some requirements for the publishers include:

  • The publishers must be honest about what they do and what kind of market they cater to.
  • The publisher must not have hosted or still host illegal or prohibited content.
  • The publisher should not have multiple accounts on the same platform.

Also, the CPA platform is very stringent about its rules and bans publishers who try to cheat the system.

The Publisher Dashboard and Getting Offers

Once selected as a publisher, you are given a username and password that takes you to your very own dashboard. Another feature that adds to AdCombo’s effectiveness as a CPA platform is that they have an in-house software platform that promotes easy and fast functionality.

Though the content could have been sharper, the comparison does present a pretty attractive picture of what the company offers to their publishers. Scrolling down the page, you can see the value proposition AdCombo offers and why it stands out from the rest of the competition.

At the very bottom of the page, all advantages of joining this network are clearly mentioned, making it easier for the publishers to make a decision.

The dashboard members’ area is one of the winning features of this platform. The crisp, professional design is easy to navigate and makes it easy for publishers to choose the right offers.

offers

Here is a brief breakdown of the all the tabs:

  • News: Includes updates, offers, and general information
  • Offers: This is the main area for searching for offers
  • Statistics: This tab lets you judge the performance metric of different campaigns
  • Payouts: Shows you your payment history and lets you cash out
  • Tickets: Includes help tickets for when you don’t want to reach out to your rep for support
  • Referral history: Shows you your affiliate network
  • History: Shows your activities on the network
  • Instruments: Stand-out feature of the platform. Lets you build adds that rotate (rotators), add your different domains and landing pages (domains), and gives you the option to get your landing pages translated (translations)
  • Settings: Security, cash out, and general settings can be changed here
  • Help: Find a series of FAQs and other help related topics here
  • Blog: This takes you to the official site blog

AdCombo currently hosts thousands of offers and publishers can choose from different industries including gaming, e-commerce, home improvement, dating, business opportunities, and more. You can categorize these offers by EPC, Country, and Payout.

Once you select an offer, you are taken to a new window where you can set up tracking and promotions for the offer. The platform lets you pick up your tracking URL, set tracking subaccounts, and choose your landing page. AdCombo lets you choose from different landing pages or select all of them and rotate traffic. This lets you split test landing pages and see which one is doing better.

Before you select an offer though, be sure to read the guidelines and restrictions such as traffic source, device, promotional methods or any other specifications mentioned.

Payment

  • Payment Methods: Paypal, Payoneer, Wire Transfer, Paxum, WebMoney
  • Minimum Payment: $50
  • Payment Schedule: Twice A Week
  • Referral Commission: 5%

Editor’s Review of AdCombo for Publishers

The biggest challenge for AdCombo right now is to develop a stronghold in the market and scale their business to accommodate a greater market reach.

Pros of using AdCombo for Publishers

Access to Tier 2 Geos: This is one of the most attractive features of this platform. The Tier 1 market is saturated and it is really hard to find affiliates with greater payouts in the region. But the Tier 2 geos, mainly Eastern Europe, South Asia, and Latin America, are mostly untapped and offer a great potential for affiliate marketing.

Since AdCombo is directly connected to advertisers in this area, their promise of greater payouts holds true.

Quick account set-up and Ease of Operation: Account set-up has become quite the hassle in the last decade or so, especially in the top affiliate platforms. This is partly due to poor management on the company’s behalf and partly due to the sheer volume of requests from publishers.

AdCombo impresses with a 24-hour account opening process. Although the security check may be stringent, that just assures quality and shows good business sense. Once a member, choosing and running offers is also comparatively straightforward and the member area is easy to navigate.

The best payment terms: Easily one of the shining features of this platform is the easy payment terms. Not only do you have a series of payout options but you have the freedom of cashing out twice weekly.

No other affiliate program offers such a feature.

Also, the minimum cash out amount isn’t that high and there have been no complaints of late or withheld payments. The COD (cash on delivery) feature makes it easier and quicker for publishers to make money and e-payments are now available.

Exceptional Support Team: AdCombo’s customer service is clearly heads and shoulders above the rest. Every member is assigned to a specific dedicated affiliate manager who handles everything from approving your profile to managing it. Once you become a member, getting in touch with the team only gets easier. You can use a live chat box on your dashboard to get your query answered immediately. The staff is pleasant, helpful, and prompt.

Cons of using AdCombo for Publishers

No Global Campaigns: The AdCombo platform doesn’t allow you to run global campaigns because it has restricted its market to a single tier. While this works as a niche marketing concept, it also limits your reach as a publisher. Also, niche markets have remained untapped for so long because affiliate marketing is a relatively new concept in these areas, so gearing traction and converting traffic isn’t easy, however, you can use TDS tracker which allows you to rotate geos.

How to Win A Porsche Contest 

One of more exciting contests and promotions AdCombo runs every year is their affiliate contest. Last year they gave away a Ferrari and this year they are giving away 2 porsche's at their VIP Party.  

AdCombo Giveaway

All participants who have reached the top-50 are invited to an all expenses paid VIP party at a luxury resort. All you have to do is cover your airline tickets and AdCombo takes care of the rest. This is now one of my own personal goals and I feel like I should be here for the end of the year! Here are just a few pictures from their 2017 VIP party. You can see all the details on their Ready Set Go page. 

AdCombo VIP Party

FAQ's

What are the AdCombo publisher requirements?

There are no minimum traffic requirements to apply to AdCombo.  The publisher application process takes 24 hours or less. Fill out the request form, a rep will be in touch with specific questions and if your website is approved your membership will be finalized in a day.  All websites cannot host illegal or prohibited content.

What is the AdCombo offer types?

AdCombo offers publishers 5 offer types including CPO, CPA, CPI, CPL and CPS.  They charge Advertisers a commission from every sale for their fees. 

What are the AdCombo payment methods?

AdCombo offers their publishers 5 options for payment methods including Paypal, Payoneer, Wire Transfer, Paxum, and WebMoney.  They have very fast terms with payments issued twice a week. 

What is the AdCombo minimum payment threshold?

The minimum payment threshold for AdCombo publishers is $50. 


The Final Word

While AdCombo hasn’t really changed the world of CPA Marketing, it has certainly introduced a new and improved way of running an affiliate network. The superior customer service and access to new markets are its winning features. It also doesn’t hurt that the company offers some of the best payment features in the market.

Overall, the AdCombo platform is a must-try for all publishers out there. 

Want to know more? First you need to register with www.adcombo.com before you see their offers. Hopefully I see you at their next VIP Party 🙂 

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