Push ads

Push ads are advertisements delivered as browser notifications: a small title, a short line of text, an icon and sometimes a larger image, appearing on the screen like a message from an app. There are two kinds.

Classic web push reaches people who, at some point, clicked "Allow" on a site's request to show notifications. Publishers collect these subscriptions (often through aggressive or misleading prompts on download, streaming and adult sites) and sell the right to send ads to them through push ad networks. The notification appears even when the person is not on that site.

In-page push is a banner styled like a notification, shown inside a web page while the person is on it. No subscription is needed, and it works on devices where web push does not, such as iPhones outside of home-screen web apps: Apple added web push only for "Home Screen web apps" in iOS 16.4 (WebKit, February 2023).

The attention is interruptive and brief. People did not ask for your message and give it a second. That makes push cheap and high-volume, and it also means the audience skews toward Android users in tier 2 and tier 3 countries, which is exactly where COD nutra is sold.

Networks such as PropellerAds and RichAds sell both kinds from self-serve accounts.

Push is sold in two main ways, and networks let you choose per campaign.

CPC (cost per click). You bid a price per click; the network shows your notification to subscribers and charges only for clicks. The network ranks campaigns by expected revenue (bid times expected CTR), so a creative with a higher CTR gets more delivery at the same bid. CPC is the usual starting point because you cannot overpay for impressions that nobody clicks.

CPM (cost per thousand impressions). You pay for notifications shown. It can be cheaper per click if your creative has a high CTR, and more expensive if it does not. Some networks also offer smart or automatic bidding modes and CPA goals, where the network optimises toward a target cost per conversion using your postbacks.

Bids are set per campaign and often per source or sub-source. Push traffic is split into sources (the publisher feeds behind the network), and just like native placements, sources vary enormously in quality. The core optimisation is to blacklist sub-sources that spend without converting and to raise bids on those that convert.

Subscribers have an age: fresh subscribers who opted in recently click more than old ones. Some networks let you target by subscription age or activity level, at different prices.

Entry costs are low. RichAds states a minimum deposit of $150 and a minimum push CPC of $0.003 (RichAds FAQ, as of September 2026). PropellerAds' terms say the self-service minimum deposit "starts from $100 US Dollars depending on the payment method" (PropellerAds terms, updated July 21, 2026), and its help centre recommends wire transfer only for deposits of $1,000 or more because of bank fees (PropellerAds help). PropellerAds does not publish a minimum push CPC: its help centre says the campaign form shows a recommended and maximum bid, so check the form for your geo.

A push creative has four parts: a title (a few words), a description (one short line), an icon (small square image) and, on some platforms, a main image. Most of the CTR comes from the icon and title. Because the space is tiny, push creatives read like messages or alerts, which is exactly where the policy trouble starts (see below).

Classic push appears in the operating system's notification area, mostly on Android and desktop Chrome. In-page push appears inside the page on any device, including iOS, and usually brings more volume at lower quality per click.

Typical targeting:

• Geo, often down to region.
• Device, OS and OS version, browser. Useful to exclude old devices that convert poorly.
• Carrier and connection type on mobile.
• Subscription age or user activity, where offered.
• Source and sub-source blacklists and whitelists.
• Frequency capping: how often the same subscriber sees your ad. PropellerAds' own testing tips suggest caps such as "1/5 or 3/24" impressions when scaling click volume (PropellerAds help centre).
• Dayparting.

Push creatives burn out fast because the same subscriber pool sees them repeatedly. Plan several new creatives per week for an active campaign.

Push networks are generally more tolerant of nutra than Facebook or the premium native networks, but they have firm rules, and most rejections come from a few recurring problems.

PropellerAds' push rules (last updated May 13, 2026) are specific about health (PropellerAds help centre):

• Only dietary supplements not regulated as medicine may be promoted, and "there should be an indication that the promoted product is a dietary supplement".
• "Push texts with the words 'prostate', 'viagra', 'potency' etc. are prohibited", although landing pages may contain such words.
• "It is forbidden to imitate system messages of operating systems on LPs and creatives."
• "Empty messages", text and icon combinations that imitate a message without explaining the offer, are allowed only "if there are no brand logos on the icons/landing pages" (rule 14). Our editorial advice is to avoid them for nutra anyway: they sit close to the ban on imitating system messages and invite curiosity clicks that rarely become confirmed orders.
• Sexually suggestive images and partial nudity are rejected, which rules out most adult nutra creatives.

Its general policy also prohibits "illegal, prescription, or recreational drugs" and reserves the right to reject anything at its discretion (PropellerAds).

RichAds lists nutra among allowed verticals but names common decline reasons: creatives that do not match the offer, mentions of pharmaceutical brands, and forbidden categories such as CBD (RichAds FAQ).

The practical line for nutra on push: no fake system alerts, no brand logos in empty-message creatives, no drug or pharma brand names, no explicit adult imagery or words in the notification, a creative that matches the lander, and supplement status stated.

Push is the cheapest per click of the three sources covered here. Entry thresholds published by one network: a $150 minimum deposit and push CPC from $0.003 (RichAds FAQ, as of September 2026). Real bids for converting traffic in a given geo sit well above the minimum, and networks show recommended bids per geo in their campaign setup.

Low CPCs do not mean cheap conversions. Push CTRs and conversion rates are low, and approval rates on COD offers are often weaker than from native, because many clicks are accidental or low-intent. The number that matters is cost per approved lead.

Illustrative arithmetic: at $0.01 per click and a COD payout of $25, break-even requires one approved lead per 2,500 clicks. With 20% prelander CTR, 3% form conversion and 30% approval, 2,500 clicks produce 2,500 x 0.20 x 0.03 x 0.30 = 4.5 approved leads, worth 4.5 x $25 = $112.50 against $25 of spend, a profit of $87.50. Halve any one rate and revenue falls to $56.25, still $31.25 profit. Halve two of them, say prelander CTR and approval, and 2,500 clicks give 1.125 approved leads, about $28 of revenue against $25 of spend: roughly break-even. The rates multiply, so a margin that looks wide disappears after two weak links, not one.

Test budgets are usually small per campaign (tens of dollars per day per creative set) but spread across many tests.

Before launch, work out the highest CPC you can afford: payout, times expected approval, times the share of clicks that become leads. Bid against that number, not against the network's recommended bid.

Push tracking works like native tracking, with the sub-source as the key dimension.

Add the push network in your tracker from its template. The campaign URL then carries the network's macros for click ID, source or zone ID, sub-source where offered, creative ID, campaign ID and cost. Make sure the source ID fills in: blacklisting by source is the main optimisation lever, and without it you cannot do it.

Set up the conversion postback from the tracker to the push network using the network's click ID. This matters more on push than elsewhere, because networks' automatic bidding and CPA-goal modes optimise only toward the conversions you report. Decide which status you send: sending leads optimises for leads; sending only approvals optimises for what pays you, but with a delay and fewer signals.

Between the tracker and the affiliate network, pass the tracker's click ID in a sub-parameter and receive lead and approval statuses, as described in tracking and attribution.

Redirect speed matters on push, because much of the audience is on cheap Android devices and slow mobile connections. High-volume push teams often choose a self-hosted tracker on a fast server for this reason; see Binom and Keitaro.

Push suits offers that sell on a simple, immediate message to a broad audience, in countries where Android dominates and traffic is cheap.

• Nutra COD in tier 2 and tier 3 countries: the usual entry point for affiliates in nutra, with prelanders doing the persuading.
• Sweepstakes and simple lead offers, where volume matters more than intent.
• Utilities, VPN and antivirus apps, within the networks' rules on fake alerts.
• Gambling and betting in geos where allowed.
• Dating, within the networks' adult content limits.

Push is a weak fit for offers that need trust or long explanation, for tier 1 audiences expecting premium brands, for iOS-heavy targeting on classic push, and for any campaign whose only angle is a fake alert or fake message.

Where push budgets burn:

• Bot and fraud sources. Some sub-sources send clicks with no humans behind them. Very high CTR, very short time on page and zero leads are the pattern. Blacklist fast.
• Accidental clicks. In-page push in particular produces clicks from people trying to close the banner. They inflate CTR and lower conversion.
• Old subscriber pools. Subscribers who opted in long ago are less active. Chrome now also removes notification permission for sites with low user engagement and many notifications, which keeps shrinking stale pools (Google, October 2025).
• Creative burnout within days. Scaling a winner without new creatives lets CTR collapse.
• Leads without approvals. Push leads often confirm at lower rates; optimising on leads alone overstates profit.
• Compliance by trial and error. Fake system alerts may pass once and get the account closed later.