What is CPA?

If you’re unaware CPA stands for Cost Per Action. Where in you the publisher get paid every time you get a visitor to make the requested action on an advertiser’s site. How is this different from a regular affiliate offer? Well, most programs you’ve probably worked with only give commission for sale. What’s so attractive about CPA is that many times you’re paid for leads. This is typically easier and the conversion rate may be higher than promoting something like clickbank.

Typically in CPA you’ll be promoting something that the advertiser is looking to get a user to submit information. This can be a zip code, e-mail address, or even short contact forms for things like loans. The payouts very depending on the task, and the offer.

Applying For A CPA Network

The first thing you’ll notice is that getting into a CPA network is not kind of a pain sometimes. Where Clickbank or Commission Junction open the flood gates CPA networks are much more selective. Why? Well, because you’re paid per action instead of sales most of the time some people take advantage of this. If advertisers don’t get quality leads they stop paying the network. Networks only want honest people and often ones who are not wasting their time. If you don’t have any affiliate experience go promote some other stuff first.

Most CPA networks will require a phone interview or at least one over instant messenger. They are mostly interested in how you’ll be promoting their offers. Don’t try to use any shady tactics, cheap the network, or do anything stupid. This gets your account banned. CPA is pretty close knit. If one network bans you for fraudulent clicks you probably will not get into another one. You won’t be paid for these commissions either.

When you apply to a network make sure you’re honest on your application. If you don’t have much experience this is usually okay. A network somewhere will still accept you. If you’re truly having trouble ask around on a forum somewhere like warrior forum and somebody is often nice enough to give you a referral. A lot of affiliate managers and reps for CPA networks hang out here too so they might also help you out if you’re nice about it!

If you’re looking for a network that’s super friendly, has great affiliate service, and nice offers to promote I can recommend Peerfly to you! I use them for my CPA offers and I’m pretty happy so far. They also have a forum where you can get advice, and talk to other publishers and staff. Their approval process is pretty easy, and they don’t make you jump through a bunch of hoops like some other networks do. Click here if you want to check them out.

Choosing An Offer To Promote

You may be tempted to choose the highest paying offer available. This is not always the best option. If you’ve never done CPA before the best method is typically to go by EPC or CR. Pretty much all networks should have this filter available to you. EPC is Earning Per Click and CR is Conversion Rate. These numbers are important because it tells you which offers are making people the most money. Is this a guarantee? No. But it does give you a good starting point!

If you’re getting traffic, but no conversions feel free to swap offers. There’s usually several similar offers available. One may convert better than another! If it doesn’t you can always change it back. I’ve made campaigns profitable simply by changing to another offer before so it’s always worth a shot.

Promotion Methods And Getting Traffic

Before you do anything check the promotion methods. Every offer should specify what methods the offer can be promoted by. If you use methods that are not allowed you run the risk of being banned from that offer (with no commissions paid) or even from your network so pay attention. These are the allowed types on Peerfly – other networks may be different.

Search PPC – This includes places like Adwords, Bing, 7search, ect.

Social PPC – Facebook, Plenty Of Fish, ect.

Contextual – Webpage content (your site, guest posts, ect.)

Banner display – Banners on your site or media buys!

PPV – Pay per view network traffic.

Keep in mind that many free traffic methods are not allowed because they’re considered spam. Twitter, facebook page promotion (Paid Facebook is usually allowed) so check with your affiliate manager and specific network! There’s a hundred and one ways to make money with CPA. I prefer the pay per click method myself.