10+ TOP Pharmacy Affiliate Programs [2024]

Are you interested in making money in one of the world's most valued industries? The global pharmaceutical market will be worth 1.57 billion US dollars by 2023. This is a market that covid-19 and its aftermath considerably shook. Now more than ever, pharmaceutical companies push for new treatments and drugs, all of which need advertising.

Pharmacy affiliate programs may have a lot in store for you as an affiliate. It's not all about prescription drugs, cough syrup, and fever issues. You can sell medical aids such as crutches, prescription discount coupons, nutraceuticals, acne treatment, and so much more.

Types of Pharmacy Affiliate Programs

We can group pharmaceuticals into nutra and non-nutra categories. We do this because of how vast the nutra vertical is. The nutraceutical industry was valued at 454.55 billion US dollars in 2021 and made up 35% of the $1.3 trillion pharmaceutical industry.

Nutritional supplements were also affected by the covid-19 pandemic. With the gyms closed for months, people looked to drugs to stay in shape. Health products will always have a place in the world. Beauty trends constantly change, making the nutra vertical vibrant and filled with various offers.

Prescription drugs and other medical products make up the other side of pharmaceutical affiliate programs. Among the pharmacy products you can advertise online are sickness treatment drugs, birth control methods, syringes, and more.

Nutra

Nutra is an abbreviation for nutraceuticals or nutritional supplements. There are many smaller niches within the nutra vertical. Here's an extended list of what products and offers you may find promoting nutraceuticals:

• weight loss and weight gain supplements
• male enhancement and enlargement drugs are also considered an adult affiliate program.
• Testosterone boosters
• Vitamins and herbal supplements
• Skincare products
• Teeth whitening products
• Brain enhancement supplements such as memory boosters and focus enhancements

Nutraceuticals are so prominent in the affiliate marketing world we often talk about them as they are separate from pharmaceuticals. There may be a variety of products in nutra, but often you'll notice that one product can appeal to different demographics, giving affiliate marketers the chance to try and test different approaches to the same nutritional supplement.

Remember to research the rules and regulations in each GEO. Pharmaceuticals are subject to stringent regulations. There are also affiliate network policy guidelines to follow. If you require assistance, please contact your network representative. 

Let's reveal what are the best traffic sources and ad formats in this niche.

Mobile (vs. Desktop)

There's no need to point out the rapid growth of mobile users, which doesn't seem to be slowing down either. While desktop traffic is still relevant, mobile traffic has emerged as the winner for some time. Some great traffic sources and ad formats, such as push notifications, have much more subscribers and viewers on mobile than on desktop.

Remember that we're talking about the general trend. The device split depends on many factors, including the GEO, setup, targeting options, and the offer.

Push and In-Page Push Ads

Push ads are a brilliant ad format for promoting pharmaceuticals. Your ads will be sent to the users’ phones in a user-friendly way. With push notifications, you can ensure top quality and 100% real traffic. They're a bit more expensive, but you'll find they're well worth it. One of the notable downsides to push notifications is the inability to target iOS users. But with the emergence of the in-page push in 2020, that problem was fixed too. However, note that in-page push and classic push notifications are entirely different. You can learn more about the distinguishing features of push vs. in-page push notifications here.

It's also easy to make creatives for push notifications, which are required. A simple icon, a well-written message, and an attractive title are all you need. You can find inspiration by using spy tools. Note that creatives are a vital factor in the success of push notification campaigns.

Pop Traffic

Pop ads are usually recommended to beginners. This is because they are cheap and don't require any creativity, giving you time and capital to spend on optimization and testing. Many veterans also choose pop ads for pharmacy affiliate programs for this and other benefits. You can use a pre-lander to increase conversion, but that's not necessary either. Often you get a landing page with the offer, making your work a lot easier. Since they've been around since the 90s, you can find lots of helpful content and guides on pop ads online.

The two types of pop ads are pop-ups and pop-unders. Pop-ups show up on top of the browser while pop-unders linger below it. Pop traffic brings excellent results when matched with keyword targeting. The conversion rates can be much better than push ads this way.

Domain Redirect Traffic

Once a user visits a parked domain, a live auction ticks off, and the visitor will be redirected to the highest bidder. There are many benefits to buying domain redirect traffic for pharmacy affiliate programs. Albeit more expensive than pop traffic, domain redirect traffic is still cheap. It works excellent with keyword targeting. Users searching for a specific product and landing on a page offering the same thing are more likely to take action.

Pre-landers and ad creatives aren't necessary. But using a pre-lander instead of direct linking will increase conversion rates.

How to Promote Pharmacy Offers/Products

Who is the product meant for? Who your targets are is the most important thing to know to begin with. To get a better grasp on your audience, try asking yourself these questions:

• Is it meant for males or females?
• What age group are its users?
• What language does your audience speak?
• Is it a seasonal product? If so, when's its peak usage?
• How are similar products advertised?

Answering these questions gets you started off on the right path. Knowing your targets means creating personalized content, ads, and landers that resonate with them. So next, you can ask yourself the questions below:

• What problem is the product solving (what are its benefits)?
• What makes it unique? (e.g., fast acting, long lasting, price, availability, etc.)
• How do you communicate with your target audience?
• What are the best ways to motivate your visitors to take action?

The central part of your approach as an affiliate marketer to promote a product should be encouraging users to make a purchase. That's why pre-landers are such a popular affiliate tool. Do you absolutely need a pre-lander? No. Do you want one? Yes, especially for more experienced advertisers.

A well-designed lander can considerably increase the odds of conversion. The goal is to let the user know about the product's features and maybe hype them up into making a purchase. Consistency across ads, landers, and the actual product is essential since it builds up the users' confidence in the offer’s authenticity.

12 Tips for Well-Converting Pharmacy Landers

We've established the need—or want—of pre-landers. Now let's see how you can go achieve higher CTR by following these 12 tips:

1. Explain the steps to acquiring the product you're offering.
2. Use attractive visual aids to showcase the features and benefits of the product. All creatives should be credible just as much as beautiful. It's 2022, and people recognize shady landers from miles away.
3. Use spy tools if you need inspiration. But don't be a copycat.
4. And remember, the visuals need to follow the policy guidelines; otherwise, no one will see them.
5. Pictures of people convert better than animations or drawings.
6. Keep your creatives simple and clutter-free.
7. Change creatives regularly.
8. Explain the payment methods, legal obligations, and everything related to the offer that the user should know.
9. Ensure the user the anonymity of their purchase and its safety.
10. Using the country's native language is always a good idea in affiliate marketing. Your visitors need to understand the offer. They also trust it more easily if it's in their own language.
11. Landers and pre-landers should match if you use both of them. It increases your campaign’s credibility, and the user won’t be confused going through the funnel.
12. Create a sense of urgency around your offer.

Targeting Options

Making the right targeting choices is crucial for every campaign. While each vertical and product requires its own approach, some general rules help you succeed in your pharmacy affiliate campaigns.

• Budget and bidding. Manage your budget by splitting it into the testing budget, daily costs, and total budget. Check your offers' payouts. You can ask the affiliate networks representatives if you need help calculating it. As for bidding, the platform suggests minimum amounts, but you should always check for the current GEO, source, and target rates.
• Adult vs. Mainstream. Mainstream and adult targeting is different. There are certain rules and regulations you need to follow. These will be stated in your affiliate networks campaign policy. Contents such as creatives or landers found inappropriate for mainstream traffic will be rejected. To avoid such problems, specify adult traffic if you're promoting pharmaceuticals with an adult theme.
• Dayparting. We recommend leaving this option on the default settings first, especially if you're new to affiliate marketing, testing a new offer, or running broad campaigns. Analyze the data, and in the later stages of the campaign, you'll know which time of the day performs better.
• Device targeting. Don't drive yourself off potential leads by limiting OSes right from the start. Do your research to see what device performs better with your offer. Cut under-performers once you have more data.
• GEO. GEO trends are constantly changing in every vertical. Ask your network's representative for the latest data or follow the proven trends in GEOs. The US pharmaceutical industry is the biggest, but competition is fierce, and prices are too costly.

Optimization

If you're just starting out, you'll soon find that optimization is a simple process of following some rules. These are your rules, based on your own experiences. Optimization is the last step and is meant for when you have enough data from testing an offer with broad targeting. Eliminate under-performers and invest more in top sources to save budget.

Buy traffic fast to get the testing phase done more quickly. The more data you gather and the faster, the sooner you can start optimizing. Depending on how broad you want to run the testing phase of the campaign, you can opt for RON targeting from a selected country. This way, you'll direct all the traffic to your offer and can find the best ones in no time. You can couple RON traffic with smartlinks if you're running multiple campaigns to get the most out of your spending. If you run low on traffic, try broader targeting.

Payment Models

The main goal of pharmacy affiliate programs is to sell a drug or health-related products. As with most e-commerce offers, the primary payment model of pharmacy affiliate programs is the cost-per-sale. CPS is a model in which you earn a commission for each sale made with your affiliate link. However, cost-per-action or the CPA payout model is expected in pharmaceuticals affiliate programs and related verticals. In the CPA model offers, affiliate marketers earn a commission when visitors take action. This action is dependent on the offer and will be specified.

However, the action may not take effect as immediately as you would imagine. Some offers work based on the cash-on-delivery model. In this model, users will leave their contact info. There are dedicated teams that will contact them later regarding making a purchase. A benefit to this is in countries where online transactions aren't popular or in the case of the elderly who are wary of online payments. There's also a chance of leads changing their minds.

And there's also the trial model. Your job is still getting the user to leave their contact info, but billing and address are also required. In these offers, the lead will be sent a free product sample as a trial. Unless they cancel the subscription, they will continue to receive the shipment after a fixed amount of time and will be billed accordingly. Again, the trick here is getting users to leave their billing information. That might be a turn-off to some affiliate marketers.

Conclusion

More and more pharmaceuticals get tested every day and released to the public. Whether a new or an experienced adult marketer, there's a surging demand for pharmaceutical offers for you to monetize. Where supply and demand meet, there's money on the table waiting to be taken by an advertiser like yourself.