Why we're leaving affiliate networks behind
· Founder note
We're done trying
We tried to make affiliate networks work for AI apps. We're done trying. From today, AdCrier is a self-serve marketplace where advertisers bid directly on AI inventory — no networks, no third-party redirects, no opaque attribution windows.
Two months of "what's an AI app?"
When we started AdCrier, the plan was simple: take the best affiliate offers on the open web, surface them inside AI app responses, split revenue with the AI builder. Affiliate networks already had the catalogs, the tracking, the payouts. We just had to plug into them.
Two months and a dozen calls later, the answer was always the same. "What's an AI app?" "How is this different from a search ad?" "Where does the user click come from?" The networks weren't hostile — they were behind. The conceptual gap between an LLM response and a product placement is too new for an industry whose mental model still ends at a banner on a desktop browser
The new shape: two sides, one hop
So we pivoted. AdCrier is now a two-sided marketplace:
- AI app publishers drop in our SDK, set their IAB categories, and surface contextual sponsored cards inside their responses. They earn 70–85% of every click (sliding tier by monthly revenue).
- Advertisers top up a balance, pick categories + keywords, and bid CPC. No middlemen. Same hour onboarding. Audit-clean ledger.
Click happens → advertiser charged → publisher credited. One hop. No 30-day attribution wait. No mysterious quality-score deductions.
Targeted ads inside AI conversations aren't display ads with a chatbot wrapper. They're the first ad surface in 20 years where the user's intent is already on the table when the ad lands. Our thesis: that's worth 63% more qualified leads than anything the open web can ship today.
— Daniel Nikulshyn, founder of AdCrier
Why we think +63% holds up
1. Intent is fresh. When a user types "plan me a weekend in Lisbon," the AI has already done the intent classification for free. The ad lands while the user is still in buying mode — not three pages later, not after they've cooled off.
2. Context is the targeting. No third-party cookies, no fingerprinting, no behavioural profile. The model output IS the targeting signal. We never store the user query, and advertisers never see it — yet relevance stays sharp because the categories are derived live.
3. No banner blindness. Sponsored cards sit inside the response surface users came for, not in the gutters they've trained themselves to ignore.
What changes today
- No affiliate networks anywhere in the product. We pulled the integrations, the docs, the comparison pages.
- New self-serve advertiser dashboard. Sign up, top up, pick categories, launch a campaign in under five minutes.
- Per-project marketplace. Publishers list each AI app with its own traffic estimate, IAB categories, and pitch — advertisers pick exactly the inventory that fits.
- Click fraud built in from day one. IP dedup (24h window), datacenter / proxy detection, geo enrichment, trusted-IP allowlist for your own team — all default-on, none of it opt-in.
If you tried us during the affiliate era and bounced, we owe you a different product than the one we showed you. Come back.
— Daniel Nikulshyn, founder of AdCrier
Start in five minutes
If you build an AI app and want to monetize, head to https://www.adcrier.ai/publishers — onboarding takes five minutes. Pick your categories, drop the SDK in, surface contextual sponsored cards next to your model output, earn per click.
If you're an advertiser tired of attribution theatre, bid CPC and see every click in real time . Export the full log to CSV whenever you want. Same five minutes to first impression. Visit: https://www.adcrier.ai/advertisers
— Daniel & the AdCrier team