CPA networks are a form of Affiliate Marketing. If you are using affiliate marketing to monetise your website, then you might be interested in this alternate program as another way to increase your commissions.
What Is A CPA Program?
The acronym CPA stands for ‘Cost Per Action’. In the world of affiliate marketing online, it refers to a program whereby visitors to your site are simply asked to perform an action, such as filling out a form with contact information. In return, they receive an offer for a product or service.
A CPA network is a company that serve as the middleman between a large number of advertisers and affiliate publishers. Signing up with a CPA network allows you access to a number of different companies with various offers, and receive one payment in return for the leads you generate. Of course, it also means your payout will be less since the network will take a commission from the price paid out to the affiliate for every completed action.
How It Works
CPA programs work much the same as other types of Affiliate Marketing. You find companies offering the partnership and sign up with them. In essence, you are providing sales leads.
The most common types of advertisers are companies that provide insurance, mortgage refinancing, or offer credit cards. These are all services that are paid for over a long period, so the commissions for leads tend to be high.
As an affiliate, you are paid for every page view or form that is filled out, generally from $0.25 to $3.50 USD. There are some CPA companies that offer higher payouts, usually those related to online dating sites or longer forms.
The conversion rate for visitor click-throughs and completed forms is relatively high with a CPA program. This is largely due to the fact that visitors to your site do not have to buy anything. It only takes them a bit of their time for you to earn a commission.
Just like regular affiliate marketing, the publisher has an option to choose through all the offers from CPA companies and decide which would best fit with the niche of their website. You are assigned an ID number and completed actions are tracked through your URL link.
CPA Network Success
You may find several websites offering to give you training on how to make money through CPA network affiliations. Whilst there may be some good information in these programs, you need simply follow the basic rules for successful Affiliate Marketing.
Make sure the offers are relevant to the content on your website. This is the best way to gain the greatest number of conversions. Visitors who are already reaching your website because of your content will be very likely to sign up for an offer that is pertinent to their interests.
Use all of the good SEO tactics and techniques we’ve talked about here (dig through our archives for plenty of tips!). The more traffic your website gets, the greater the number of potential visitors who will complete an action. The more conversions you can make, the greater the extra commissions you can reap from being an affiliate for a CPA network.
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice piece -
I will start looking into CPA soon. I have been online for sometime now, but have never thought of monetising much.
Thanks for this post
Hi Sean,
That sounds interesting, and I will keep it in mind (written in my notebook) for when I am ready to go that extra mile. there is so much I still have to do to get myself up to scratch
Rita
Hi Sean,
CPA, Cost Per Action, is a company that acts as a middle man between a large number of advertisers and Affiliate publishers. This could be a handy way to get customers contact email addresses, in return the customer receives an offer for the product.
Interesting to know the companies mentioned were the most common types of advertisers. The more I read the more opportunities I can see that are opening up.
Hello Sean,
That sounds so simple to use, but so effective. I am impressed that it is along the same guildelines as Affiliate Marketing. Keeping it “Subject relateded” to the website theme makes sense
Cheers
Lisa
Thanks Sean for the advice. Recently there has been talk about certain marketers coming out with programs that supposed offer higher payouts. Of course there is a price attached. This has made me a bit gun shy of this approach.
Are you aware of this and is it common?
Hi Sean,
I’ve read a little about this. I think I’ll go with the pay per click stuff first. I can’t believe how much stuff there is out there that we can use to make money online.
Guys
A word of warning. There are companies out there promoting systems whereby you sign up with them and they get you access to supposedly lucrative CPA networks. They are not cheap. Take the advise of someone you trust. For my money that is the author of this blog
This trend in CPA is news to me. Thanks for the advice. I will now keep an eye on any promising opportunities that arise. If this is the up and coming marketing method I suspect it will be more lucrative to ride the early waves.
Hm, CPA – didn’t take that into account (yet). But it sounds like a very interesting option, as long as it adds value to my site (which should be the benchmark for every serious Internet Marketer).
Do you just search for CPA or are there specific sites out there that you would recommend to find good quality CPA programs?
A CPA program is not something I had heard about until this blog. It is definitely a good concept and something that could be a valuable way of producing income with little input and not even needing to have a product. Are the ways to make money online truly endless as they seem?