Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition is something that most people who make money with affiliate marketing are familiar with. For those who do not know what CPA is, and how you can use it to make money, this post will help you understand CPA.
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What is CPA?
CPA stands for “Cost Per Action” or “Cost Per Acquisition”.
- Cost Per Action means that your reader/visitor just has to take a specific action, like entering a valid email address, clicking on a link, requesting a free sample, etc.
- Cost Per Acquisition on the other hand means that the readers/visitor has to actually purchase something, be it a product or a service.
It is almost like affiliate marketing. In fact, you could call it a form of affiliate marketing. It is basically a form of advertising generated by a third-party in which you are paid for hosting or promoting that party’s ad or link, based strictly on actions your readers take. It’s basically you, generating leads for the advertiser.
How does CPA work?
After registering with a CPA network, you can pick one or more of the offers available in their database. Some offers are free, and just require simple information like entering an email address or zip code, and some are paid ones, which means in order for you to be paid, the lead that you send to that offer page has to purchase a product or service.
Each offer has its own requirements and payout. Usually, offers that require purchase of some kind pay bigger commissions. You can expect to be paid for paid offers (Cost Per Acquisition) from $4 to $50 or more.
Although, free offers (Cost Per Action) pay less, it doesn’t mean they are not worth it. Some Cost Per Action offers pay up to $10 per lead, but most Cost Per Action offers pay anywhere from $1 to up to $5 per lead, depending on the requirements.
How do you promote CPA offer?
CPA is all about traffic. You have to drive traffic to the advertiser’s website. Of course, just like affiliate marketing you will be given a special link with your unique ID embedded in it, which you can use to send potential leads to the advertiser’s site.
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Every time someone clicks on that link and completes the requirements, you will get paid accordingly. Although, most CPA advertisers allow any kind of traffic (your own website, search engine, social networking sites, etc), some offers have their own restrictions and rules as to what kind of traffic is allowed. That information will be available when you pick an offer to promote.
What are the requirements for CPA?
The beauty of CPA is that almost anyone can do it, and you don’t need a website to make money with CPA. Although, you may need a website or blog to get accepted by a CPA network.
CPA networks do this simply because they want to make sure you have been around Internet marketing and know a thing or two about it. So, as long as you can show them you know what you’re doing, you are good to go.
An example of a CPA offer
You know those ads for $1000 free Walmart gift card?… Those are what some CPA offers look like.
Let’s say you are promoting that offer. For you to get paid, all a visitor has to do is click on that banner/link and enter an email address, and you get paid a specific amount (say $1 or $2). How cool is that!
That’s why Email submit offers (as they are called in the CPA industry) are one of the most popular offers. Although, the payout is a lot lower than many other offers, it converts much easier than offers that require more action.
CPA is one of the fastest ways to make money online. Unlike traditional affiliate marketing which normally requires a little time to be fruitful, with CPA you can see result almost immediately.
The only downside to CPA, just like many other online money making methods, is its unpredictability. While you can make money quickly, it won’t be consistent. Simply because CPA advertisers and their offers change often due to the needs of the market, so you can’t pick one offer and run with it forever. But the good thing is, you can start to promote a new offer as fast as you started the last one.
If you do decide to get into CPA, be sure to take some time to read and learn what you can. There are plenty of e-Books and forums that you can use to learn CPA. Learning and applying the right techniques will enable you to make the most of CPA and make more money in less time.