DuckDuckGo generates revenue in two ways, while upholding our privacy policy:
- Advertising
- Affiliate revenue
Advertising
It is a myth that search engines need to track you to make money on Web search. When you type in a search, we can show an ad just based on that search term. For example, if you type in, "car" we show a car ad. That doesn't involve tracking because it is based on the keyword and not the person.
Advertising on DuckDuckGo takes the form of sponsored links that appear above search results. Sponsored links are currently syndicated through Yahoo!. They look like this:
If you see any low-quality sponsored links, please report them.
How to advertise on DuckDuckGo
The advertising we syndicate through Yahoo! is part of the Yahoo-Microsoft search alliance. By default, when you sign up for a Bing Ads account, your ads should automatically enter rotation into all of Bing's distribution channels including DuckDuckGo. If you'd like to double-check that your ad is set up to run on DuckDuckGo, perform the following:
- When signed in to Bing Ads, click Campaigns.
- Next, click on your campaign's name.
- Then, click on your ad group's name.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Click Ad distribution.
- Then, click Save at the bottom to finalize.
Affiliate revenue
DuckDuckGo is part of the affiliate programs of the eCommerce websites Amazon and eBay. When you visit those sites through DuckDuckGo, including when using !bangs, and subsequently make a purchase, we receive a small commission.
This mechanism operates anonymously and there is no personally identifiable information exchanged between us and Amazon or eBay. These links are regular organic links (like any other link in our results) and these programs do not influence our ranking or relevancy functions in any way. That is, they are not advertising like paid placements or paid inclusions, and we only generate revenue from them if you ultimately find them relevant enough to end up purchasing an item. For more details, check out our privacy policy.