What is CPA marketing and CPA networks? Offers, leads, holding and earnings. What is CPA marketing and how does it work What is CPA marketing

The desire to earn money grows in us every day. And not so much because of the high cost of living, but because of the reluctance to sit in the office from morning to evening, receiving a living wage. We are constantly looking for new and, importantly, relatively simple ways to make a profit. As one of the options, you can consider CPA marketing - not new and quite complex compared to other methods, and therefore still a working method of making money on the Internet.

What is this?

The very concept of affiliate marketing has been known for a long time. But right now (CPA marketing is most often considered as receiving a permanent income), received from attracting clients to the advertiser’s website, is formed not through a simple “following a link”, but from the position of the “given behavior” of a potential client.

What does this mean in simple words? If previously companies paid for visits to their pages and displays of direct advertising on bloggers’ sites, now the situation has changed. Salespeople need effective, targeted spending of their budgets. CPA marketing involves payment for a specific action that comes in. Registration, subscription to the newsletter and application, completing the purchase of a product (ideally) - here is a small list of those same conversion (desired) actions.

Modern Internet Marketing

If at the beginning of the development of the Internet we said that creating and maintaining your own website with product descriptions is 90% of success, today such promotion will yield absolutely nothing. The competition is so great, and also reinforced by the fact that the Internet literally knows no boundaries, that it is necessary to constantly stimulate potential consumers and guide them “along a given route.” In general terms, this is Internet marketing. But where does CPA marketing fit in? Feedback from advertisers about the effectiveness of the approach is simply fascinating.

For example, a travel company only pays for registration on its website. If the client does not do this, the advertising agency does not receive a fee. And vice versa, the larger the tour operator’s database, the higher the profit of the promoting company. In this way, funds from the allocated budget are distributed much more efficiently.

Many names - one essence

So, performance, affiliate marketing, affiliate, CPA marketing - all these concepts are used to define a model (services) on the Internet in which certain actions of network users are paid. Specialists use tools such as direct and SMM marketing, search engine promotion, etc. But it is worth paying attention to the fact that each of the listed models generates its own financial flow for the advertising party. CPA marketing (reviews from bloggers and active users of social networks sound very convincing) allows you to make a profit almost from the first week.

The model is not new, but it is effective

Internet marketing is actively developing, and the consumer is no less actively looking for ways to escape, to hide from intrusive direct advertising. Therefore, marketers have to look for more and more elegant ways to attract potential buyers.

As loopholes become fewer and fewer, businesses are faced with the question of how to make their marketing efforts more effective. This is where the CPA model comes to the rescue. Return on investment is almost 100%. Primarily due to the fact that the advertiser himself does not expect anything supernatural from visitors to his site.

In such a situation, a digital agency can significantly increase its profits.

Why do people love affiliate marketing?

The most obvious advantage of the CPA model is the ease of measurement. The client subscribed to the newsletter - paid, did not subscribe - sorry. It is this simplicity in determining effectiveness that attracts all participants in the promotion chain. But, of course, this is not the only advantage that CPA marketing can boast of. Feedback from experts allows us to highlight the following reasons for the popularity of this scheme:

For the offer, this is a very profitable system for spending the budget. Payment is made only for the desired (and useful) actions of the client. In addition, there are practically none. After all, compared to investments in contextual advertising and SEO, offers know for sure that they will achieve the planned results.

Marketers are also rewarded for targeting leads. Therefore, they are forced to come up with new incentives that are interesting to consumers. Since most often the payment for conversion actions is higher than the fees for traffic, clicks and impressions, advertising agencies are interested in using CPA marketing.

The owner of a review (entertainment) site will also maintain his resource at a high level. After all, he needs a constant flow of readers who will be shown advertising within the framework of the CPA model. The higher the popularity of the portal, the more opportunities to earn money (or simply increase payment for a single action).

In general, each of the participants, in addition to basic financial benefits, also receives additional bonuses - from ease to resource development.

Possible options

Among the variety of possibilities for using pay-per-conversion marketing, we will select and consider the most popular ones. Effective CPA marketing, examples of which can be studied fairly quickly, looks like this:

Selling pages or sites (one page or full-fledged resources with landing pages) - here the visitor receives complete information about the product and is redirected to the manufacturers, where they can make a purchase. The task of advertisers is to qualitatively stimulate the consumer so that he really has a desire to buy the product.

Promotion with payment for actions is very similar to traditional content marketing, but CPA marketing assumes that payment will be made not for traffic or place in the search query results, but for specific actions of a network user.

Review sites - these resources have a lot of information about products, their comparisons, etc. User reviews, reviews and ratings are also published here. Each such description leads to the page of the advertiser (manufacturer or authorized seller) and, if the client clicks on the link and buys the product, the owner of the review site receives a reward.

Participants of the CPA chain

Now it is necessary to understand who and how is involved in the promotion chain that ensures reliable financial flow. CPA marketing, reviews of which are very varied, is carried out with at least the participation of three parties: the seller of the product - an advertising agency (full-service or specializing in digital) - owners of blogs and popular sites. The first two are called offers, i.e. persons offering payment for attracting consumers to their website. But, as already mentioned, CPA marketing without investments (without investments and payments for content) is not just traffic; This is payment for specific actions of a site visitor.

Therefore, it is much easier for owners of review sites or popular information and entertainment portals to make money. After all, tens of thousands (experts say that normal statistics are 15-20 thousand) visits per day will certainly provide the required number of transitions. Another thing is that the consumer is becoming more and more demanding, and getting him to do something is not easy: you will have to make an effort and think through real incentives.

Where to use performance marketing?

Online stores, couponers, service enterprises - these are the most suitable projects that can be helped by CPA marketing. Earnings (reviews from specialists are encouraging) can reach high figures. But only if the site owner correctly evaluates his audience and places suitable offers. The product must be understandable to visitors, meet their interests and financial capabilities.

Promoting exotic, customized products through CPA marketing will not produce the desired results. After all, buyers of such goods are few in number.

A little history

For the first time, the American agency Fluent spoke about the use of a CPA approach to product promotion. According to the director, the company increased revenue over the year to $40 million (this is 850% compared to the previous year). From that moment on, experts started talking about increasing the effectiveness of promotion on social networks. What did they do at Fluent, which later became known as CPA marketing? The training begins with the fact that CPA is an abbreviation for the English “cost per action”. Literally this is “pay for action”. And then it is necessary for the advertiser to provide specific consumer actions: liking and sharing on social networks, printing promotional coupons, subscribing to the newsletter, etc. But this was already mentioned at the beginning of the article.

In CPA marketing, the work is simpler than when advertising through affiliate programs, for example.

The actions of site visitors can be of any kind:

  • registration
  • creating profiles on various sites
  • filling out forms on landing pages and leads
  • purchasing a product or service

    • Large companies that are willing to pay for any work order, for example, lead generation from partners. In this case, both benefit:

    • since partners earn money, they don’t even make sales
    • companies make tariffs for regular customers with 100% commission

    This model is suitable for sites that sell online, as well as promote goods or services and introduce people directly to the products themselves.

    Examples of such companies:

    1. Online stores
    2. Hotel booking platforms
    3. Travel agencies and others

    On such sites, you can buy space for your company’s advertising campaign on a specialized page. There you can perform certain targeted actions: place an order, fill a shopping cart, register, make a reservation, and others. Such placement on special platforms will help promote and advertise many companies.

    What is CPA marketing?

    CPA marketing is a kind of business based on affiliate conditions, which includes payment for the actions of attracted users.

    In Russia, this system is still developing, and therefore, in fact, it is better to start implementing it here now. Because later, when everything stabilizes, it will be more difficult to start working in CPA internet marketing.

    To join a CPA network, you must go through a fairly rigorous process. You will have to obtain permission to conduct this activity.

    Since this procedure used to be simpler, there were many cases of fraud, and therefore registration in the CPA field was tightened, and certain requirements for partners were added.

    You need to follow one given line and stick to it until results appear. You shouldn't do what some companies do - you shouldn't make proposals on completely different topics. For example, one company should not engage in business projects and at the same time create offers for online games.

    You must adhere to a vertical line in order for this activity to be profitable.

    After choosing a niche, you can start searching. You need to conduct an analysis and calculate which offers in your field are relevant for a given period of time, and which ones have a high conversion rate.

    Then you decide on your own which offer from this specific list seems most suitable to you. We need to start promoting it. It should be noted that specific proposals convert specific tariff sources.

    You can use “reward per click” (EPC, i.e. earnings per click) in your verification. This is a good counter to check, but does not always mean that the final result will be accurate.

    In any case, you will be able to find out what the income is for a particular offer. You need to remember that the offer must be suitable for the traffic source you choose, and it does not contradict, for example, the content or consists of several separate offers. This includes pay-per-view.

    If there is no traffic attracted by your offer, there will be no profit.

    Several options for attracting traffic:

    • Advertising on Youtube
    • Paid traffic rate

    Depending on how much budget you are willing to spend on it, you can go for one that will work quickly, on a large scale.

    If you are unsure about the terms, re-read the offers and their descriptions. Lead generation allows you to use only certain methods for certain offers.

    But you also need to remember about prohibited traffic sources. For example:

    • thematic ads
    • social media
    • rate in trademarks
    • co-registration (joint registration)
    • stock

    When generating conversions, you should not use strategies that are written in the restrictions, otherwise you may be blocked.

    The commission comes to you when a user performs a certain action on the site.

    Those who, when launching campaigns, only link to the offer page can expect increased conversions, and even increased profits. But for greater efficiency and increased numbers of indicators, it is better to do a few more things. For example, create a landing page yourself for your business. Such a landing page will be a good step for you and your activities, since after the transition from any advertisement or banner.

    Since the landing page is a page that is aimed at converting potential customers into regular users, its design is completely tailored to sales. They are created for specific conditions, and in some cases may even place a small responsibility or liability on the clients. Such landing pages are called pre-landing pages (intermediate landing pages).

    Sometimes they are much more effective, and they are also easier to work with in terms of adding several sentences on the same topic.

    High-quality execution of this type of landing helps to increase conversion, where traffic can be directed from various platforms: forums, classifieds sites, social networks.

    About 60-70% of all traffic can go through the offer thanks to this method, and an increase in conversion several times can occur in the same situation.

    Earnings from CPA

    CPA marketing consists of four parts.

    1. Company.
    2. CPA network.
    3. Partner.
    4. Client.

    To get customers on autopilot without buying advertising, many companies create, for example, a good affiliate program. Then they simply find their partners and make a profit without literally introducing them into the field of advertising and promotion.

    A CPA network acts as an intermediary between a specific company and its partners.

    The main actions take place here:

    • Creating an affiliate program
    • Statistics of actions performed by users

    A CPA network is a guarantor between two strangers or companies who decide to cooperate.

    After concluding a deal, the partner can start earning money by attracting clients. This involves promoting an affiliate link, perhaps even including advertising in this work. And if you approach this issue correctly, then advertising will pay off quite quickly.

    And the last link is the client. He satisfies both companies by performing a specific action. And it also works to its advantage, while helping partners make a profit and the company itself to get new users.

    Thanks to such CPA programs, it is possible to place blocks with advertising, which allows you to increase traffic thanks to the resources of these advertisers. In addition, this also has a good effect on them: if the conversion increases, then the site’s advertising income will also increase.

    But where do you get more CPA traffic from?

    • Website.

    You need to create your own website - this is the best way to promote your products. Thanks to this, in a couple of months you can start making a profit.

    • Banners are also a good option for attracting new customers.

    You just need to place them in the right places. Look for sites where the audience you need will be located, otherwise there is no point in promoting your products where no one will be interested in them.

    • Teasers.

    Before launching teasers, you need to work out some details and then analyze the results. However, you should not make teaser advertisements for training courses, since they are usually paid, and none of those who come through this advertisement are willing to pay.

    • Social media.

    If you go the second way, it will be easier to determine the target audience.

    If you delve into the work of CPA marketing, you will understand that it is not particularly complicated.

    • You just need to choose an offer.
    • Drive traffic to an offer or specially created landing page.

    The main thing is not to try to do everything at once, but to follow gradually, step by step. Also constantly test your work: offers, traffic sources and others.

    If you promote a product yourself, you will invest a lot of time and effort that may not pay off. Without professional skills or a specialist on staff, there is a high probability of receiving a high percentage of refusals.

    The best solution is to involve an intermediary. Many people use CPA networks as this is an opportunity to open large volumes of quality traffic. In this case, you pay for the results of lead generation, and not the work to achieve them.

    Read more about what CPA promotion is and how to organize it in this article.

    Traffic arbitrage

    An arbitrageur (affiliate, advertiser) is someone who promotes a company’s product for a fee. His tasks:

    • Invest your own money in attracting leads. This is beneficial for both parties: the advertiser does not spend a penny before receiving a lead, and the specialist earns money for each conversion;
    • Find users who will be interested in the product/service - buy traffic on the exchange or generate it yourself;
    • Create high-converting advertising. The wording of advertisements is at his discretion.

    This is the formula for an arbitrator’s earnings:

    Profit = (Acquisition/attraction costs) - (Amount for resale).

    Let's say the creator of a mobile application seeks to engage the audience. The target action to which it motivates is an attitude. According to the affiliate program, for each new user he pays the arbitrator a fixed amount.

    CPA model diagram

    The CPA model (cost per action) reflects the principle of arbitrage.

    Synonyms: affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing.

    You can interact with an arbitrator directly, but there is a danger of deception: both for you and for him. It is better to cooperate through intermediaries - CPA networks (aka affiliates, networks). They take a commission from the conversion - $0.3-2.0 of the reward. This guarantees the purity of the transaction and the fulfillment of mutual obligations of the parties.

    The networks include hundreds of offers grouped by category.

    This is what the chain of interactions looks like:

    • The advertiser places an offer in an affiliate program (an offer means a commercial offer for any product or service);
    • The webmaster selects an offer and receives a unique link to the product page;
    • He sets up advertising at his own expense: search, display, etc.;
    • Users click on ads with an affiliate link;
    • The webmaster earns a fixed amount for each conversion.

    Arbitrators / Advers

    These are webmasters - freelancers or marketing agencies who:

    Advertisers

    Most often CPA promotion is used:

    • Online stores;
    • Online services;
    • Online Games;
    • Banks;
    • Creators of information products, etc.

    They pay not per click, but per conversion. It doesn't matter where the traffic comes from, what matters is fulfilling the call to action.

    Leads

    These are users who go to the site and perform the target action:

    • Purchase;
    • Subscribe to the newsletter;
    • Registration and filling out a profile;
    • Order an online consultation;
    • Online application (for a loan, bank card, etc.);
    • Downloading any materials;
    • Visiting a specific page of the site;
    • View a catalog, price list or video.

    Offline specifics

    CPA networks are suitable for both online and offline businesses: laundries, pizzerias, quest rooms, real estate agencies, microloans and everything like that.

    It’s easier and faster to sign up for a manicure using a couple of form fields than by phone. The main thing is that the company inspires trust and offers high-quality customer service.

    Promoting a company offline is a different matter than an online store. What's the catch?

    • High rates on large sites for small companies.
    • A long chain from the first contact to the result: filling out a questionnaire, choosing a product, date and time of visit, specialist.
    • Financial expectations of a webmaster. Compare: if in an online store it is 5-10%, in the field of real services the rates rise to 25%.

    In order for specialists to find promising clients, tie payment to cost - it is also more profitable for them to attract an audience with a high check.

    The webmaster invests his money and wants to return it quickly. Therefore, reduce the payment process to 1-2 weeks.

    CPA promotion formats

    Teasers

    Such messages are posted on sites with a large number of visitors: news and sports portals, forums, dating sites, etc. To do this, the affiliate buys traffic through special teaser networks.

    In this example, you'll also notice real estate and cars. Products with a higher bill are rather an exception to the rule:


    This is not the best solution for teaser blocks, so they are found on targeted sites for a narrower audience.

    Text and graphic ads of Google Display Network and YAN

    Usually these are intriguing ads with a minimum of information about the product:

    Banners



    Click-under/Pop-under

    The user goes to the site - read news, download music, etc. - and a page with a message appears in a new tab. For example, an offer to play in a casino or buy natural organic cosmetics. Or make money on binary options:


    The reception attracts approximately 40% of visitors. But the average conversion is only 0.05%. Therefore, it is more likely for simple and understandable services - like car rental:


    Pop-ups



    They provide about 5% of the total CPA traffic, but the conversion is low - 0.05%. Suitable as an additional channel.

    Advertising placements

    Doorways

    Doorways compete for visitors with thematic sites.


    It’s normal if on one page there are offers from children’s clothing stores, restaurants and hairdressers at the same time. The channel leads to up to 10% of traffic and 4% of conversion into sales.

    For complex services (for example, legal), doorways are not an option. Potential clients want detailed information about the specialist and the company. It's rare that a webmaster will take on content.

    Coupon services

    Sites that offer promotional codes for discounts.



    Cashback services

    These sites return part of the order amount to the client.


    This tool is more profitable than coupons, because it is not the company that returns the money, but the service. Cooperate with those who explain this to users so that you are not accused of inflating prices.

    You get up to 30% of traffic from CPA networks.

    Advertising on social networks


    This technique is suitable for online business:

    And also for offline, as it allows you to describe services and results in detail:

    What should a landing page be like for CPA traffic?



    Promotions, discounts, gifts work well:


    • Exclude traffic from your own contextual campaigns from your offer. Webmasters compete for high positions in searches with the brand on an auction basis, which increases the cost of a click.
    • If you are new, contact several networks to find out if they are interested in the offer and clarify their requirements for an advertiser.

    How to choose a CPA network

    To avoid making a mistake in choosing a CPA network, first decide on the topic, if necessary. Each network focuses on a specific segment: finance, online shopping, physical goods, mobile, gaming. Explore the list of its offers and special catalogs on the topic of CPA networks.

    Find out which one is leading the market in a suitable topic, for example, using the TOP on AdvanceTS(the list is available after registration in the service).

    To evaluate the network, also pay attention to:

    • Number of launched offers. If there are more than 20 of them and they are from different advertisers, this is a good sign.
    • The number of advertisers and webmasters - the greater, the higher the chances of rapid promotion.
    • Level of publicity. How often do networks attend conferences on traffic arbitration, etc.
    • Reputation. Study reviews from advertisers and webmasters on sites http://cpainform.ru/networks, http://avf.biz/, http://actualtraffic.ru/partner/.

    Benefits of CPA

    • You pay only for the desired actions. This helps you plan your marketing more accurately and save your budget.
    • The webmaster's interest in the development of the source: compliance with search engine requirements; useful content; converting landing pages, etc.
    • Unlike SEO and PPC, you don’t risk wasting your money: first the profit, then the costs.
    • There is no need to search for platforms, know Yandex.Direct and other services. The task is to find a network; the arbitrator does the rest.

    Instead of a conclusion

    CPA promotion works best for e-commerce and mobile applications.

    Also keep in mind that the cost-per-action model is effective if the product is simple and well-known, and the price is not higher than that of competitors.

    High conversions to you!

    SPA- borrowed from English - CostPerAction, literally translated as “price per action”. CPA marketing appeared several years ago and in terms of earning potential it is already an order of magnitude ahead of traditional webmastering (creation, development, promotion of websites).


    Actions performed by the user are called useful and are divided into two groups:

    * PPS (paypersale) - reward for sales. The client orders and buys a specific product - you receive either a percentage of the sale or a set fee.

    How much can you earn? Earnings are, in principle, unlimited. On some CPA network sites, the maximum amount earned per day by one webmaster is published; often they exceed the bar of one hundred thousand rubles, which at first glance seems unrealistic. But you need to realize that it is not a beginner who receives such income, but a master.

    Perhaps many of you now have a question: since it is profitable, why isn’t everyone involved in CPA marketing? Two reasons:

    * CPA business in Russia has appeared recently. Abroad, at the moment it is very difficult to “start” from scratch (without money, knowledge, experience).

    * Fear of making money on the Internet in general. Many are afraid of either “burning out” or wasting time, so they don’t act.

    SPA scheme

    The CPA marketing chain includes 4 links:

    * CPA network. Monitors compliance with the rules by the partner and the company, is a kind of trusted link, for which he receives his own percentage.

    * Partner (=webmaster). Attracts traffic to the company’s website by any available means (based on one’s capabilities and knowledge).

    * User (=visitor, potential client). Visits the company’s website through the webmaster’s unique link, performs the necessary actions, for which payment is made.


    Basic CPA terms

    * Traffic - visitors of any sites.

    * Lead is the most useful action.

    * Traffic arbitrage is the purchase and resale of visitors, profitable redemption of them in one place and redirection to the page of a specific CPA network offer, in order to gain profit.

    CPA networks

    There are a lot of CPA networks, we will present you the most popular and proven ones:

    * Admitad. Min amount for withdrawal - 300 rubles. Affiliate - 5%. Works with social networks. Initially, the network worked only with games, but now the field of activity has expanded. The lion's share belongs to online stores. It has its own forum, holds competitions, webinars, etc.


    * Ad1. It features an intuitive interface, which plays a big role when newbies choose a network. This CPA network is a kind of trendsetter in Russian CPA marketing: it is its ideas that are adopted by many other networks. Min withdrawal amount - 800 rub.


    * Actionads. Min payout - 300 rub. Affiliate - 5%. Quite a developed network, suitable for both beginners and experienced users.

    * Myragon. Included in the number of affiliate programs of the 1st level. 5% - reward for referred referrals.


    * Mastertarget. Min withdrawal amount is 300 rubles, payment is made twice a month. There is the possibility of additional earnings through referrals, deductions from their rewards are 30%.



    * CityADS. The main specialization is online games, although other offers are also present. Disadvantage: long response time from technical support.


    How to choose a profitable offer?

    We draw attention to the following points:

    * The first selection criterion is position in the ranking. The higher, the more reliable, profitable and profitable. But a large number of partners work with high-rated offers, which means competition increases.

    * Affiliate launch date. If a program was launched recently and has already become popular, then it is very promising.

    * Conversion rate (CR). In the program it is displayed as a percentage and means the ratio of ordinary transitions to the number of useful actions. For example: CR = 0.5% - this means that on average, out of 200 referred visitors, only 1 performs the necessary useful action.

    * Hold time. The smaller it is, the more convenient it is for you. Let’s say it hardly makes sense for a novice CPA webmaster to wait 2 months for verification of one completed action.

    * Acceptable types of traffic.

    Example of offers on Ad1.


    Types of traffic sra:

    1. Email traffic. Mailing with offers to purchase goods at a discount.

    3. Cashback. An offer is made to a potential customer to buy a product with some refund. For example: a book on the offer site costs 500 rubles, and for selling it you receive 100 rubles (as a webmaster), you give each buyer some kind of surprise for 50 rubles (or sell the book for 450 rubles), in the end you take it in quantity - you do it more sales of this book, but you no longer receive 100, but 50 rubles from each sale.

    5. Popup. Popup windows.

    6. Motivated traffic. Promising the user some kind of bonus for certain actions. Popular in online games: reach level 3 and get 101 diamonds as a gift, for example.

    How to treat completely new offers without statistics? There are two options here:

    1. You wait until the program has statistics and then you work with it or don’t work.

    In addition, the offer at the initial stage of development attracts partners with favorable conditions.

    When choosing an affiliate program, be sure to read the description and familiarize yourself with its rules. Violation of them if you are inattentive may result in non-payment of rewards and blocking of your account.

    If you decide to choose an offer with an online game, check out the popularity of the game according to ratings, on forums, look for information about it in search engines and get a general idea. A plus will be the registration fee. And the registration itself should be as simple as possible, so that the referred user simply has the patience to fill out all the fields and check the boxes. If the offer pays for the game, and not the fact of registration, you can also find a positive aspect in this: if the client remains in the game, he will regularly bring you passive income.

    CPA traffic - where to get it?

    * Your own already promoted VK group, classmates, etc. or blog.

    * Placement of banners, teasers and context. You can place them either on your website or on someone else’s, but for this you still need to negotiate with the owners and, of course, not for free.

     

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