The AVG And Avast Affiliate Programs [Full Review]

In this post, I examine the Avast and AVG affiliate programs.

I'll examine their respective commission structures, their different product lines, perform some keyword research, reveal 12 alternatives, and also disclose a niche site I like in this space.

If you're looking to promote antivirus software, mobile security solutions, free mac antivirus programs, PC performance, virus scanning & malware removal tools, free antivirus download services- the AVG and Avast affiliate programs are some of the biggest brands in the market.

AVG Technologies is owned by Avast- and they have separate affiliate programs within the CJ Affiliate Network: 

About Avast

AVG was purchased by Avast in in July 2016 for $1.3 billion.

Avast is a Czech-based cybersecurity software business that has its headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic. 

According to TechSpot, Avast has more than 400 million users and owns the biggest market share among all the anti-malware application providers internationally.

Avast also owns a large slice the antivirus market share with 20.5%, as of June 2017, according to BleepingComputer (Source).

Video Overview

I shot a video overview of the AVG affiliate program- check it out and leave a Like if you find it helpful.

Avast VS AVG Affiliate Programs

According to their affiliate page, Avast offers a 25% commission on their products, with a 60-day referral window. AVG's affiliate page boasts a 30% commission rate.

Sign up with CJ to apply.

You should click into the Program Terms of their affiliate programs- the commission structure is always subject to change!

How Is AVG Performing?

As of June 2018, the 3 month EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) is $12.98 USD and the 7 day EPC is $18.50 USD, with commissions ranging from Sale: 5% - 60%.

While the affiliate program page says they offer a flat 25% commission, the 5% - 60% commission range indicates that there are some products that they pay out less for and some that they pay out more for.

It's important to give the Program Terms section a thorough read before you begin promoting this cyber-security affiliate program- you need to do due diligence before you begin sending traffic to the offers to ensure you understand the specific payout structure.

How Much Can You Earn

Since CJ doesn't provide Average Order Values for their programs, you're best bet is to use EPC statistics. 

For example, if 100 clicks gets you $13 with AVG and $14 for Avast, figure out how much traffic you can send. 

You can use a tool like ThirstyAffiliates to cloak and track your affiliate URLs- the more traffic you drive through the URL the more money you'll make. 

Sending a 1,000 clicks a month to AVG will earn you $130 and $140 for Avast. These are ballpark numbers- it will depend on how well you pre-qualify and sell to your audience prior to pushing them to the referral partner. 

AVG Products

Below I listed out AVG's product line- you can also click here to view all their different products.

I also list out which products aren't eligible for commission, at the time of this writing, below this section:

• AVG AntiVirus Free
• AVG Internet Security
• AVG Ultimate
• AVG AntiVirus for Mac
• AVG AntiVirus for Android
• AVG TuneUp - Unlimited
• AVG Cleaner For Mac
• AVG Cleaner For Android
• AVG Driver Updater
• AVG Internet Security Business Edition
• AVG AntiVirus Business Edition
• AVG File Server Business Edition
• AVG Email Server Business Edition
• AVG PC TuneUp Business Edition
• AVG Business AntiVirus for Mac
• AVG Managed Workplace
• AVG CloudCare
• AVG Secure Sign On
• AVG Premium Tech Support
• AVG Remote Virus Removal
• AVG Secure VPN For PC
• AVG Secure VPN For Android
• AVG Secure VPN For iOS
• AVG Secure VPN For Mac
• AVG Express Install

There are obviously a lot of products here- some are b2c and some are b2b, enterprise-level solutions for big companies. 

This will factor into your promotional strategies- obviously you'll want to align your content/audience/affiliate partner. 

If I was building a site in this niche, I'd focus on a silo like Android VPN- create 5 posts discussing it, all with relevant affiliate links to the AVG Secure VPN For Android.

What You Can't Promote

Buried in the Program Terms, I found this paragraph:

"No commission will be paid of free products (AVG AntiVirus 2013 Free, MultiMi, AVG Safe Search, AVG Antivirus For Android Free) etc. If in doubt, please contact AVG Affiliate Program Managers via Commission Junction Support panel or per email, affiliates@avg.com – please quote ‘Non-Commissionable Items’."

As you can see, you can't promote their free products- they don't want to pay for signups that they aren't immediately getting an ROI on. A lot of times Advertisers will pay for these freemium user signups knowing that they'll eventually be able to upsell the user down the line- but not in this case.

Avast Products

Avast has a bunch of products for the average consumer:

• Ultimate
• Premier
• Internet Security
• Free Antivirus
• SecureLine VPN
• AntiTrack
• Secure Browser
• Cleanup Premium
• Driver Updater

They also have a range of cyber-security products for businesses:

• Antivirus Pro Plus
• Antivirus Pro
• Antivirus
• Managed Antivirus
• Managed Workplace
• CloudCare

You can also promote HideMyAss, which is owned by Avast. According to the CJ Affiliate Network, at the time of this writing in June 2018, one month Hide My Ass purchases are eligible for a 60% commission and 6-24 Months purchases get 35%.

What You Can't Promote

Non-Commissionable products include what they call "Obsolete products": Avast GrimeFighter, Avast EasyPass, Avast Mobile Premium 3rd party services - Avast Total Support.

Keyword Research

If you're interested in getting into the anti-virus or PC/Mac optimization space, you're going to need to create content. 

As I've written about, content marketing is my preferred traffic acquisition strategy. Yes, there are quant-affiliates who specialize in running paid traffic campaigns- but that's a tough game. 

I prefer creating cross-channel content that acquires traffic passively. The first thing I'd start with is some keyword research. 

In this case, I ran AVG's support forum through Ahrefs and extracted 1,000 of their top-performing organic keywords: 

You can see a lot of low competition/ high volume search terms like "idp.generic" and "filerepmetagen". 

There are the sort of terms I'd target- I would create a longform post on my website (1,500+ words) and consider creating ancillary media for social platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc. 

You can use a tool like MissingLettr to automatically drip content out across your different channels for traffic and valuable social signals. 

The general model here is to create an 'authority site'. A website that provides niche expertise and information. In this case, you could create a general tech site and start building out a silo of content on AVG error codes. 

Or perhaps you niche down even further and create a site around Macintosh performance optimization strategies. 

In both cases, you can use AVG and Avast affiliate links to monetize your content. 

Niche Site Example

Tom's Guide is ranking in the top 5 for the term "best antivirus" as of June 2018 with the page "Best Antivirus Software and Apps 2018":

As you can see, this is a highly detailed, comprehensive review of the different anti-virus programs.

Of course, the site has great Domain Authority- so it's not just the on-page content that gets it ranking. 

The point being, this is an example of a site with high-quality content, monetizing with AVG & Avast, focusing on top-flight user experience.

I would aim to replicate this level of content quality when you begin publishing content targeting any of the keywords in my keyword research table above.

If you're completely new to internet marketing and publishing content- focus initially on providing exceptional content.

Review the big players in the niche- study how they format their content, how they structure the on-page SEO, and then do the same, but for less-competitive keywords.

You may never rank for "best antivirus".

It's an insanely competitive keyword- but if you produce helpful content around other, more easy-to-rank keywords, you can push them to Avast and AVG through your email list, through your social channels, and from on-site.

12 AVG & Avast Affiliate Alternatives

Besides AVG and Avast, there are a ton of other referral partners you can work with.

For example, looking within the CJ Affiliate Network, there are a bunch of AVG and Avast alternatives:

1. The Avanquest Affiliate Program (35% Commission)
2. The Avira Affiliate Program (25% Commission)
3. The BitDefender Affiliate Program (20% Commission)
4. The BullGuard Affiliate Program (35% Commission)
5. The Enjoy Safer Technology Affiliate Program (20% Commission/$4 flat)
6. The Kaspersky Affiliate Program (10-20% Commission- varies by country-specific program)
7. The MacKeeper Affiliate Program (50% Commission)
8. The Malwarebytes Affiliate Program (20% Commission)
9. The Norton Symantec Affiliate Program (7-20% Commission- varies by country-specific program)
10. The Panda Security Affiliate Program (15%-35% Commission/$5-$8 flat)
11. The Trend Micro Affiliate Program (20% Commission)
12. The ZoneAlarm Affiliate Program (25-40% Commission)

Summary

There are a lot of paid traffic players in this space. Try Googling "best antivirus" and you'll see a bunch of AdWords buyers trying to do an affilaite arbitrage with Pay Per Click bidding. 

You've got to be a real quantitative ninja to get that to work. I definitely respect it- but it's not how I would approach a niche like this. 

As I've described in this post, my strategy would be producing high-quality content targeting low competition keywords, grab email addresses and Push Notification subscribers, social followers, and direct market to them.

That's not to say you're spamming them. Many of the top email marketers I follow recommend sending out 1 affiliate email for every 4 informational, value-adding emails in an autoresponder sequence. 

Keep that ratio in mind- you don't want to burn out your list hard-selling them software products.