Looking for ad network recommendations for a file hosting platform

[Xiao]

Looking for advice: Best ad networks for a file hosting / file sharing platform?

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to build a file hosting and sharing platform where users can upload files (videos, images, ZIPs, documents, etc.) and generate shareable links.

The basic business model would be:

User uploads a file → generates a share link → shares it with others → visitors view/download the file → ads are displayed → the platform earns ad revenue → part of the revenue is shared with the user who generated the traffic.

I'm currently researching the monetization side before starting development, and I'd really appreciate advice from people who have experience with similar websites.

A few things I'm trying to figure out:

• Which ad networks work well for file hosting, file download, or video sharing websites?
• Has anyone had real-world experience with Adsterra, Monetag, PropellerAds, ExoClick, or similar networks?
• Which ad formats tend to work best for this type of traffic?
  
  • Popunder / OnClick
  • Interstitial
  • Native ads
  • In-Page Push
  • Video / VAST
  • Direct Link / Smartlink
• Do ad networks generally allow a model where users actively share their links and receive a percentage of the resulting ad revenue?
• Are there specific concerns around incentivized traffic, revenue sharing, or user-generated traffic that I should be aware of?
• How different are RPM/CPM rates between US/EU traffic and Southeast Asian or other regions?
• If you've operated a similar platform, what kind of RPM, bandwidth cost, and revenue share did you see in practice?
• Are there any ad networks or monetization methods that you would recommend avoiding for this type of platform?

I'm not necessarily looking for the network with the highest CPM. My main priority is finding a reliable network whose policies allow this business model and user-generated traffic, so the platform can be operated long-term without unexpected account restrictions or revenue clawbacks.

I'd especially appreciate feedback from anyone who has actually operated a file hosting, download, streaming, or similar traffic-monetization website.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hilltopads]

Hi,HilltopAds here We’d be happy to welcome your project as a publisher! Downloader and file-sharing websites are a traffic type we have experience monetizing.

As we've seen, Popunder tends to be most effective with downloader traffic, in particular when it's linked to the download action. It doesn't occupy space on the page, which keeps the download process neat. Banners can be used as an alternative format, but we usually wouldn't advise filling the page with too many of them.

The CPMs differ a great deal according to GEO, the device, and the quality of the traffic, higher rates being generally associated with Tier-1 traffic.

It would be a good idea to discuss your revenue-sharing arrangement with the network in advance, especially regarding how the traffic is generated and encouraged. Should you choose to use HilltopAds, we would be pleased to go over the setup with you before going live and make clear what will work.

Just leaving a link to join HilltopAds here

 

[Xiao]

Hi,HilltopAds here We’d be happy to welcome your project as a publisher! Downloader and file-sharing websites are a traffic type we have experience monetizing.

As we've seen, Popunder tends to be most effective with downloader traffic, in particular when it's linked to the download action. It doesn't occupy space on the page, which keeps the download process neat. Banners can be used as an alternative format, but we usually wouldn't advise filling the page with too many of them.

The CPMs differ a great deal according to GEO, the device, and the quality of the traffic, higher rates being generally associated with Tier-1 traffic.

It would be a good idea to discuss your revenue-sharing arrangement with the network in advance, especially regarding how the traffic is generated and encouraged. Should you choose to use HilltopAds, we would be pleased to go over the setup with you before going live and make clear what will work.

Just leaving a link to join HilltopAds here

Ok, I will get to know your platform in detail

 

[origrid]

I'll answer the parts I've actually measured rather than the whole list, and there's one technical trap in here that cost me a week — it's the reason I'm posting.
The trap: if you serve the popunder from inside a sandboxed iframe, it will not fire, and your dashboard will show impressions while you earn nothing.
I isolate third-party ad code in an iframe so it can't touch the download page. The unit was approved and active, the script loaded, and when I clicked inside the iframe the popunder fired correctly — I watched the window.open go out. Revenue stayed at zero for days. The reason is that popunder scripts listen for a click on their own document, and my iframe was 0x0 and positioned off-screen, so no human ever clicked it. Every layer was working; they just weren't connected. If you isolate the ad the way security advice tells you to, you disable the exact event the format depends on. Nobody documents this because nobody isolates popunders.
On geography, since you asked and nobody's given you a number: my download traffic is 65.7% Iran and Azerbaijan, and only 24.1% tier-1. On that mix the ceiling for my current volume works out to single-digit dollars per month. Not "lower CPM" — a rounding error. Before you pick a network, pull your own country split first: it decides whether this is a revenue line or a rounding error, and it's the number that made me stop optimising the ad and start questioning it.
Two things I'd check with any network before integrating, given your rev-share plan specifically:
Ask in writing whether user-generated download traffic counts as incentivised. That definition is where clawbacks live, and it varies by network more than the rates do.
Ask what happens to a payout when traffic shifts geography suddenly. A host that gets picked up by one community in one country looks exactly like fraud on a dashboard.
I can't speak to Monetag, PropellerAds or ExoClick — no experience, so no opinion worth having.

 

[Xiao]

I'll answer the parts I've actually measured rather than the whole list, and there's one technical trap in here that cost me a week — it's the reason I'm posting.
The trap: if you serve the popunder from inside a sandboxed iframe, it will not fire, and your dashboard will show impressions while you earn nothing.
I isolate third-party ad code in an iframe so it can't touch the download page. The unit was approved and active, the script loaded, and when I clicked inside the iframe the popunder fired correctly — I watched the window.open go out. Revenue stayed at zero for days. The reason is that popunder scripts listen for a click on their own document, and my iframe was 0x0 and positioned off-screen, so no human ever clicked it. Every layer was working; they just weren't connected. If you isolate the ad the way security advice tells you to, you disable the exact event the format depends on. Nobody documents this because nobody isolates popunders.
On geography, since you asked and nobody's given you a number: my download traffic is 65.7% Iran and Azerbaijan, and only 24.1% tier-1. On that mix the ceiling for my current volume works out to single-digit dollars per month. Not "lower CPM" — a rounding error. Before you pick a network, pull your own country split first: it decides whether this is a revenue line or a rounding error, and it's the number that made me stop optimising the ad and start questioning it.
Two things I'd check with any network before integrating, given your rev-share plan specifically:
Ask in writing whether user-generated download traffic counts as incentivised. That definition is where clawbacks live, and it varies by network more than the rates do.
Ask what happens to a payout when traffic shifts geography suddenly. A host that gets picked up by one community in one country looks exactly like fraud on a dashboard.
I can't speak to Monetag, PropellerAds or ExoClick — no experience, so no opinion worth having.

Really appreciate the detailed breakdown. The iframe point is a good catch — it’s a good example of how something can technically work while still failing in the real user flow.The geo point is probably even more important. A lot of people spend time optimizing ad networks before checking whether their traffic mix can actually support meaningful revenue.Thanks for sharing the lessons learned.