| CPA Affiliate Marketing - What's The Big Deal? |
| Written by Carlton T. Driver |
| Friday, 04 June 2010 07:07 |
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The first question that might come to mind is: What is CPA Affiliate Marketing? Its a pretty straightforward concept. CPA Advertising is the abbreviation for "Cost Per Action Advertising". In this form of advertising, a publisher (or affiliate) receives a commission whenever someone responding to the advertising they have places completes the desired action, which is typically providing some kind of personal data into a registration form. As an example, it might be something as simple as providing their name and email address - or it might be something more involved, perhaps accepting a free trial offer for a product.
The first question that might come to mind is: What is CPA Affiliate Marketing? Its a pretty straightforward concept. CPA Advertising is the abbreviation for "Cost Per Action Advertising". In this form of advertising, a publisher (or affiliate) receives a commission whenever someone responding to the advertising they have places completes the desired action, which is typically providing some kind of personal data into a registration form. As an example, it might be something as simple as providing their name and email address - or it might be something more involved, perhaps accepting a free trial offer for a product. The marketplace today is quite competitive, and a company needs lots of ad exposure to maintain a competitive posture. The key is to have exposure to the public that is widespread, and to maintain contact with as many possible customers as they can. By accomplishing this, a business establishes an audience for their marketing efforts, and then they can get down to the business at hand. From the standpoint of a company, CPA advertising is a highly desirable way to market itself. It is very cost-effective, because they only pay for leads that occur when a prospective customer provides some contact information, or interacts with the company's website in a particular way, thus creating a contact point between the company and the new prospect. Each time a new prospect completes this action, the affiliate who directed them to the page earns a commission. The business itself must decide what type of action it wants its potential customers to take. The action could, in some instances, be purchasing a trial product or introductory service from the company. More often, it could involve filling in a short form to obtain information about the product or services provided by the company, or just signing up with the company's website. Based on the action, the advertising costs (or commissions paid to the affiliate) will vary. Once a CPA campaign is started, the company pays out the specified commission to the advertiser, or the CPA network with which it is working, each time a potential customer clicks on a particular link, and then takes the specific action defined by the specifications of the CPA campaign. In this way, advertising will be directed at attracting a specific kind of attention (and action) from its potential customers. It is not really about whether the customer made a purchase or not, but rather whether the potential customer has interacted with the website. It is really about how much attention the advertiser can garner for your company. Commissions are then paid based on those considerations. By employing a CPA advertising campaign, a company can create large amounts of traffic to its website, but it will only have to pay a commission when a potential customer takes the desired action while at the website. This is the bright future for Internet affiliate marketing. It gets down to to paying for results, not just traffic - which results are more likely to bring in actual business. For the affiliate promoting this type of program, there is one huge advantage over conventional sales marketing: In sales marketing, the affiliate does not receive a commission unless someone spends money and buys something. For the affiliate who is running a CPA campaign, however, the obstacle to be overcome to earn his or her commission is much lower: all the prospect has to to is to agree to provide the requested information, or agree to accept a free trial offer, and the commission is earned. About the Author: To learn more about being a successful CPA marketing affiliate, download the complete guide to CPA marketing, which includes a ton of resource links that will help you get going quickly. |