Amazon Associates or display ads — which pays more on the same traffic?
The honest answer is that it depends on the page, not the site, and you can work it out per page with one number. Here is that number, the current network thresholds, and why most sites over about 30,000 visits end up running both.
The short version
- Compare on RPM — revenue per thousand visits. It is the only unit that makes the two comparable.
- On commercial pages, Amazon usually wins by a wide margin. A good roundup can reach an effective RPM several times what a premium ad network pays.
- On informational pages, display usually wins, because almost nobody clicks an affiliate link in a how-to article.
- So run both, split by page type. Ads on informational content, none on your money pages.
- Ezoic is no longer the beginner option. It raised its minimum to 250,000 monthly users in February 2026. Most guides have not caught up.
This gets argued as though it were a single decision — you are an affiliate site or an ad site. It is not. The two monetise completely different reader behaviour, and the useful question is not “which is better” but “which is better on this page“.
Put both on the same scale
Display revenue is quoted as RPM already. Affiliate revenue is not, which is why people compare them badly. Convert it:
Affiliate RPM = affiliate click-through × Amazon conversion × average commission × 1,000
Worked through with the model from the funnel guide — 10% of readers clicking an affiliate link, 7% of those buying, $10 average commission:
0.10 × 0.07 × $10 × 1,000 = $70 RPM
That is a well-monetised commercial page. Now the same arithmetic for an informational article where only 1.5% of readers click a product link:
0.015 × 0.07 × $10 × 1,000 = $10.50 RPM
The same site, the same traffic, a seven-fold difference. That gap is the entire subject, and it is why a site-wide answer is the wrong shape of answer.
What each actually pays
Treat every number on that chart as a starting point, not a benchmark. Display RPM swings by a factor of five between a personal-finance site in the US in December and a hobby site with mostly Indian traffic in January. Affiliate RPM depends on your category’s commission rate and basket size. The chart shows the shape of the answer; only your own data gives you the answer.
Whether you can join at all
The better-paying networks have entry requirements, and these moved significantly in the last eighteen months — including in a direction most published guides have not caught up with.
| Network | Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Google AdSense | No traffic minimum | Available immediately. Lowest RPM by a distance; useful mainly as a placeholder to learn what your ad inventory is worth. |
| Mediavine Journey | 1,000 sessions/month | The realistic first step for a small site, and a large jump from AdSense RPM. |
| Raptive | 25,000 pageviews/month | Lowered from a much higher bar in late 2025, which brought it within reach of mid-sized sites. |
| Mediavine | 50,000 sessions/month, or $5,000 annual ad revenue | The revenue route is worth knowing — a high-RPM niche can qualify well below the session figure. |
| Ezoic | 250,000 users/month | Raised from 10,000 in February 2026. It was the standard beginner recommendation for years; it is now one of the hardest to join. |
Checked August 2026. Networks change these without much notice — confirm on the network’s own site before planning around any of them.
The rule that follows: split by page type
Once you accept that the answer differs per page, the policy writes itself.
Roundups and reviews → affiliate only
High affiliate RPM, and every ad is a competing exit from a page where a click is worth many times an impression. Run no display ads here, or a single one far below the content.
Informational articles → ads
“How to descale an espresso machine” earns almost nothing in commission. Ads monetise readers who were never going to buy anything, which is most of them.
Category hubs → light ads
Mixed intent. One or two placements, nothing that interrupts the route to a roundup.
Everything → measure, then adjust
Your affiliate click-through varies by page. Compute the RPM per page rather than assuming which bucket a page belongs in.
This split is where most of the argument disappears. Sites that “tried ads and lost money” usually ran them everywhere, including on the roundups that were earning $70 RPM in commission, and watched affiliate revenue fall by more than the ads brought in. Sites that “tried affiliate and it did not work” often had informational traffic that was never going to buy. Both conclusions were about placement rather than about the model.
The cost that is not in the RPM figure
Display ads are the heaviest thing most affiliate sites load, comfortably heavier than any affiliate plugin. Third-party scripts, auctions running in the reader’s browser, and content that shifts as slots fill.
- They damage Core Web Vitals — particularly INP, the metric most sites already fail. → why product boxes and ads break Core Web Vitals
- They cost you affiliate clicks on any page where both run. This is a real cost that never appears in your ad dashboard.
- They change how the site reads. A review page dense with ads is a harder page to trust, which works against everything in E-E-A-T.
Measure the trade honestly. Turn ads off on your top five commercial pages for a month and compare total revenue, not affiliate revenue. If it went up, the ads were costing you more than they earned there — which is common on high-intent pages and rare on informational ones.
Two things that move the answer
Season. Display RPM peaks sharply in Q4 as advertisers spend their budgets, and collapses in January. Affiliate revenue peaks in Q4 too but far less violently. A comparison run in December and a comparison run in January produce opposite conclusions, which is worth knowing before you restructure a site on the strength of one month.
Diversification. Amazon changed commission attribution twice in 2026 without notice — see the rate and attribution guide. Running both income streams is not only about maximising RPM; it means a single programme change cannot take your whole income at once. That argument gets stronger the more the site earns.
Part of The Amazon Affiliate Site Playbook — the whole job in six stages, from choosing a niche to keeping a mature site earning.
See which pages earn, not just which get traffic
Ama Affiliate Pro tracks affiliate clicks first-party, per page — so you can compute the affiliate RPM of any article yourself and decide where ads belong, instead of guessing.
Start a 14-day trialCommon questions
Do affiliate links or display ads pay more?
It depends on the page. On commercial pages — roundups and reviews — affiliate typically pays several times more, with effective RPMs around $70 against $15–50 for premium ad networks. On informational pages, where almost nobody clicks a product link, display usually wins. Compute the RPM per page rather than deciding site-wide.
Can I run both on the same site?
Yes, and most mature sites do. The productive split is ads on informational content and none — or very few — on roundups and reviews, where every ad competes with a click worth many times an impression.
How much traffic do I need for an ad network?
AdSense has no minimum. Mediavine Journey starts at 1,000 sessions a month, which is the realistic first step. Raptive requires 25,000 pageviews. Mediavine requires 50,000 sessions or $5,000 annual ad revenue. Ezoic raised its minimum to 250,000 users a month in February 2026.
Is Ezoic still good for beginners?
No — that advice is out of date. Ezoic was the standard beginner recommendation for years at a 10,000-user minimum, but raised it to 250,000 monthly users in February 2026. For a small site, Mediavine Journey at 1,000 sessions is the accessible option now.
Will ads hurt my affiliate earnings?
On high-intent pages, yes, and often by more than the ads earn. An ad is a competing exit from a page where an affiliate click may be worth several dollars. Test it: turn ads off on your top five commercial pages for a month and compare total revenue rather than affiliate revenue alone.
Do ads hurt SEO?
Indirectly. They are usually the heaviest thing on the page and a common cause of failing Core Web Vitals, particularly INP. Heavy ad density on review pages also works against the trust signals that make a recommendation credible. Neither is a penalty as such, but both cost you something.
Why did my display RPM collapse in January?
Seasonality, not a fault. Advertiser budgets peak in Q4 and reset in January, so RPM drops sharply and recovers through the year. Never judge a monetisation decision on a single month, and never compare a December figure against a January one.
Should I add ads if I already earn well from Amazon?
Add them to informational pages, which are earning almost nothing in commission. Leave your commercial pages alone. There is also a diversification argument that grew stronger in 2026: Amazon changed commission attribution twice without notice, and a second income stream means one programme change cannot take everything at once.