Direct Click Ad Format for Affiliate Marketing

Direct click ad format is a powerful tool that affiliates working with flexible landing pages and broad funnels can leverage. When combined with the right verticals like Gambling and Finance, and traffic sources like our RichAds advertising network (a performance-focused ad network that offers multiple traffic formats including Telegram mini app ads, direct click, push and pop), it can deliver a large traffic volume at a predictable cost.

Here is what you will learn in this article:

• Definition of the direct click ad format,
• How the direct click ad format works,
• The advantages and disadvantages of direct click ads,
• Which verticals handle direct click ad traffic best,
• How to launch and effectively optimize direct click campaigns,
• The best verticals and geos to launch direct click ads in 2026 at RichAds ad network.

What Is the Direct Click Ad Format

Direct click ad format is a form of advertising used to direct a user to a landing page immediately without viewing any traditional ad creative, including banners, call-to-action, headlines or even push-style notifications. Practically, this ad format involves a direct transition from click to destination, making it suitable for aggressive traffic monetization models. 

In the direct click advertising format, traffic is primarily generated via domain redirects. Whenever a user accesses domains that still receive visits, such as mistyped URLs, expired domains or leftover traffic from old links, they automatically get redirected to an advertiser’s landing page where the real traffic filtering and conversion process begins.

For instance, mistyped URLs are caused by users’ mistakes when they type a query, brand, or site name in the search box. If a user types Addidas, Adidac, or Amzon and hits enter, they are redirected to the advertiser’s offer page. It can be an e-Commerce offer with sneakers or any other offer.

What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

How the Direct Click Ad Format Works

User triggers a redirect event upon typing a domain incorrectly, accessing a parked domain or clicking a legacy link. The redirect request is sent to the ad network like RichAds, where they evaluate the request in real time based on available campaigns, active bidding competition and targeting criteria.

The user is then redirected to the advertiser’s landing page, which is the first point of interaction, as there is no intermediate ad step.

The complete process of selling and buying this type of traffic is listed below. To implement the scheme, you need a user, an advertiser, and a service that will connect them all in one place — an advertising network.

1. When users type a popular domain name incorrectly and press Enter, they are redirected to parked domain pages. A parked domain is owned by a certain person named the publisher.
2. The system analyzes the data about the incoming user. This is technical information like country, computer, or mobile phone entered into the domain, OS, and browser. Misspelled domains and IP addresses are also important. This information is sent to an advertising network to select the best offer.
3. Meanwhile, an advertiser in the advertising network wants to show their ads. There is already an advertising campaign set up and a bid rate set.
4. As soon as a user presses Enter on a misspelled address, their request is forwarded to the advertising network. In the meantime, a classic RTB auction is underway to match the most suitable user with the advertiser.
5. During real-time bidding, the advertising network analyzes bids from different advertisers as well as the user’s technical goals. 
6. The network’s system redirects the user to an offer page as soon as the highest bid is selected. It is not even possible for the user to notice that they were on the parked domain page. They immediately appear on the landing page with advertising.

When a parked domain is displayed, its owner receives a reward. Using advertising networks, the owners monetize their parked domains without much effort. The publisher can also consider earning money from banner ads or collecting push subscriptions, which are other ways to generate revenue.

What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

Pros and Cons of Direct Click Ads

Of course, direct click has both pros and cons, no point pretending otherwise.

Best Verticals for Direct Click Traffic

On RichAds, direct click works best when the offer can qualify users fast after the redirect, which is why iGaming/Betting, Finance, and Mobile Utilities usually fit this traffic type.

• Betting: It is a main vertical for direct click traffic because sports betting users often make quick decisions, especially during live tournaments or events, reducing the need to persuade the user beforehand.
• Gambling: The vertical entails elements such as broad global demand, short conversion paths and strong incentives, including free spins and bonuses, which make it easier to filter interested users after they arrive on the landing page.
• Mobile Utilities: Utility landing pages mostly focus on immediate solution presentation, one-click install actions and problem identification. So, users who recognize the problem convert quickly. This is what makes it ideal for redirect based traffic.
• Finance: Finance funnels that work with direct traffic usually rely on clear eligibility requirements, pre-qualification forms and step-based filtering. It helps manage direct click traffic quality and reduce irrelevant direct clicks.

What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

How to Launch and Optimize Direct Click Campaigns

The way we see it on RichAds, launching and optimizing direct clicks is about steady choices and strategy. And this is how it looks like.

Here’s our step-by-step guide:

1. Select the Direct click section of RichAds to buy direct click ads traffic per campaign.

2. Decide the exact outcome you want from the campaign whether it’s app installs, offer opt-ins, new user sign-ups or maybe lead generation.

3. Choose your target geography based on data since direct click traffic does not come with built-in audience signals like past behavior or user interest. 

4. Separate direct click offers by device type (mobile vs. desktop) and connection type (WiFi vs. Cellular) because user behavior is different on desktop versus mobile, especially when conversion happens after the click.

5. Ensure you build landing pages for qualification and not persuasion since your landing page is your first real interaction with users.

6. Configure tracking and attribution by using a reliable tracker, UTM parameters on destination URLS and conversion events tied to meaningful actions and not just visits.

7. Launch with conservative bids instead of immediately chasing volume. This will help give you early performance signals, a baseline CPM range and a sense of which GEOs or devices are profitable.

8. Review early performance metrics the first 24 to 48 hours. You can look at the click volume, bounce rate, landing page engagement and initial conversions. 

9. Optimize your campaign by filtering and scaling (involves pausing weak GEOs or devices, increasing bids where quality is higher, testing multiple landing pages in parallel and adjusting conversion flow based on user behavior patterns).

What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

Direct click ads in January 2026 at RichAds ad network

Direct click ads is a relatively new ad format, yet has already gained impressive amounts of traffic in Tier 1 regions. Each month RichAds team update reports on the best performing geos and verticals for its main ads formats, based on RichAds platform’s data, so that marketers can get insights on current trends all year round.

Here, you will find the top geos and verticals for direct click ads at RichAds ad network!

Updates on the best geos for direct click ads in 2026

The top performing geos for redirect ads have been changing lately, and January isn’t an exception! In January 2026 the redirect traffic from Türkiye and New Zealand showed less performance than previously, as their places were taken by the Philippines and Austria. Now it is also promising really high profits on direct click ad campaigns along with proven Indonesia, Brazil, the US and Thailand.

What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

Updates on the best verticals for direct click ads in 2026

For mobile campaigns on this kind of ads in January 2026 the best results came from E-Commerce, Gambling, Media, and Betting. On desktops the direct click traffic in December got the best performance promoting offers of E-Commerce, Gambling, Utilities, and Dating offers.

Updates on the best geo-vertical bundles for direct click ads in January 2026

What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

FAQ about direct click ads

1. What is a direct click ad format?

Direct click ad format is a traffic model that redirects users straight to a landing page without showing a traditional advert. In the direct click advertising format, traffic is primarily generated via domain redirects. Whenever a user accesses domains that still receive visits, such as mistyped URLs, expired domains or leftover traffic from old links, they automatically get redirected to an advertiser’s landing page where the real traffic filtering and conversion process begins. At RichAds advertising network, we offer it and other ad formats including Telegram mini app ads, push, pop and native ads to deliver high volume traffic efficiently.

2. How does the direct click ad format work?

When a user mistypes a popular web address, they are redirected to a parked domain. The system instantly analyzes the visitor’s technical data (location, device, browser). This data is sent to an advertising network, which conducts a real-time bidding (RTB) auction. Advertisers bid for the chance to show this specific user their ad. The highest bidder wins the auction. The user is then seamlessly redirected from the parked page to the advertiser’s landing page, often without noticing the intermediate step. This whole exchange happens in milliseconds. At RichAds advertising network, we offer direct click ads and other ad formats including Telegram mini app ads, push, pop and native ads to deliver high volume traffic efficiently.

3. Do direct click ads require creatives or landing pages?

Direct click ads do not require creatives like ad copy or images but they sure do require a landing page as all user qualification and conversions happen after the click, on the advertiser’s side, including when you run direct click traffic via the RichAds ad network.

4. Which verticals perform best with direct click traffic?

The verticals that perform best with direct click traffic are Gambling, Finance, Betting, e-Commerce and Mobile Utilities because they can handle high volume and qualify users after arrival, which fits the way direct click traffic from RichAds typically enters the funnel.

5. What is the difference between direct click and popunder ads?

Popunder ads open a new tab or browser window in the background while the user remains on the original page, relying on delayed user interaction while direct click ads (including direct click on the RichAds advertising network) redirect the user immediately after a click or redirect event, sending them straight to a landing page.

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