What Is CPA Marketing & How To Get Started?
Have you heard of CPA marketing and you have no clue what it is or how it works?
You’re not alone.
In this quick overview, beginners can learn CPA marketing and how to use it for their business.
Table of Contents
- What Is CPA Marketing
- CPA Marketing Terms
- Get Started With CPA Marketing
- The Best CPA Marketing Networks
- Closing
What Is CPA Marketing
CPA (Cost Per Action) marketing is another form of affiliate marketing, where a commission is earned when a specific action has occurred.
The action can be a sale, filling out a form or any way of providing a lead.
CPA marketing can be lucrative regardless if you’re the affiliate or advertiser.
As an marketer, we know advertising is the driving force behind any business. The cost of ads will continue to rise and you’re not guaranteed a positive return on investment (ROI).
After spending money on ads, you can receive all the clicks or impressions you paid for and not one becomes a sale or lead.
With CPA you will only pay a CPA partner when you receive results. If you’re selling a product for $50 and you offer 10% commission, you spent $5 which makes your profit $45.
As an affiliate in this same example, you have just made $5 without creating or owning a product. If you know any free methods of advertising such as social media or you have an email list, your ROI will be positive because you didn’t spend any money directly on ads.
CPA Marketing Terms
Here are a few terms that you should know when getting started.
- Affiliate or Contextual link: The text link you are given that contains your affiliate ID or username. This links to the advertiser’s website while giving you credit, when the cpa offer is completed.
- Affiliate Manager: Manages an affiliate program. They are responsible for recruiting/engaging with affiliates and ensuring affiliates get paid. You should contact your affiliate manager with questions and they are usually located on your cpa dashboard.
- Category: The niche for the CPA offer (health, making money, fashion, travel, etc).
- Commission: A flat rate or percentage payment an affiliate receives once the cpa request is successful.
- Conversion rate: Tracks the percentage rate of successful conversions. This shows how successful a offer is and should determine if you decide to promote the offer or not.
- Cookies: In affiliate marketing, when a user clicks on your affiliate link a cookie assigned to your ID is linked to that user. The cookie usually lasts for a specific duration of time. You will receive credit for the conversion during that time frame, which is typically 30-90 days.
- Earnings per click (EPC): The average amount an affiliate earns every time a user clicks an affiliate link.
- Offer page: The landing page where the conversion occurs. Many offers have multiple offer pages to choose from so you can try them out to see which brings the best results.
- Return on investment (ROI): The amount of money made compared to the amount spent to advertise. The goal is to always have a positive ROI or you will lose money.
Get Started With CPA Marketing
CPA marketing is fairly easy to set up and get started.
For most CPA networks you need your own site but having a site can help you get instant traffic to the CPA offers you choose to advertise.
Some CPA offers have stricter guidelines when it comes to advertising. Make sure to read “what is” and “what isn’t” allowed for each offer you choose.
I’ve seen offers where the advertiser’s did not want their offer to be advertised through email lists. Why not? I have no clue but not following guidelines can result in non payment.
The Best CPA Marketing Networks
Choosing the best CPA networks can make your life easier.
Avoid questionable or bad networks to decrease your chances of not being paid for your efforts.
Here’s a short list of some of the best CPA marketing networks you can get started with.
1. MaxBounty
MaxBounty has been around for over a decade and may be the most well known CPA network around. They pride their selves on having high paying and high converting offers.
With 350+ advertisers and 2,000+ offers, you have more than enough offers to choose from.
MaxBounty has training material to help you get the ball rolling and the program offers weekly payouts.
2. Clickbooth
Clickbooth has been around since 2002 and focuses on making it’s program easy and innovative for both advertisers and affiliates.
“Advertisers – only pay for real results – new customers or users. “
“Affiliates – can expect the best offers, guaranteed on-time payments and cutting edge technology.”
These next 2 CPA sites are Beginner Friendly and are Easier to get accepted into for new or less experienced marketers.
3. CPAGrip
CPAGrip is an industry leader in the Affiliate Marketing space, maintaining an impressive track record of success and publisher satisfaction since 2013.
Their sophisticated tools such as our URL Locker, Content Locker, Offer Wall, Offer Inventory of over 2000+ incentive offers, in addition to our dedicated support team and experienced development technicians, has made CPAGrip one of the best reviewed performance engines for publishers and advertisers alike.
4. CPAlead
CPAlead – “1,750,000 members use CPAlead for CPA Lead Gen Offers, CPI Mobile App Installs, and Website Monetization.”
CPAlead is for anyone who is looking to monetize their app, an affiliate marketer who is looking for direct CPI (Cost Per Install) offers, or a mobile ad network looking to add additional CPI offers.
Closing
CPA marketing can become another path to starting an online business. Just like with any other business, it will take time, effort and patience to begin seeing your desired results.
Becoming your own boss and acquiring financial freedom is a realistic and attainable life goal.
Will you use CPA marketing to achieve it?
