Cost per action or cost per acquisition (CPA) is also referred to as pay per action (PPA). It means you earn money when your site visitor does something from any of these two types of CPA offers. First, for cost-per-lead (CPL), when your visitors generate a lead for you by submitting the online form containing their email/ZIP code, you get paid. Second, for cost-per-sale (CPS), your blog readers/customers should actually buy the product/service as shown as advert. Still, you can learn more of the various “verticals” (categories) for CPA offers from dating, downloadable software, education, email/zip submits, etc.
As a publisher/blogger, you have to join specific CPA networks. Some of the criteria you should consider are, as follows: (a) What offers do they have? (b) Do they accept affiliates from your country? (c) Do they have the highest payout for that particular offer? (d) What payout methods do they offer? (e) How often do they pay you out? (f) Are they responsive to your application and emails? When you synthesize these pieces, the offers they have will be your options on what you have to promote.
Payout frequencies and methods will determine how quickly you will get paid. Some payment frequency types are quota-based, daily, weekly, bi-weekly (net15) and monthly (net30). For instance, with net30, the money you earn for this month will get you paid on the first week of the next month. Hence, for new site owners, most CPA networks will keep you initially stuck with net30 because they will not yet accept you for their quota-based, daily or weekly payment scheme unless your blog is so popular and booming with very high traffic.
As publisher or blogger, evaluate from time to time how your return on investment (ROI) from your CPA campaigns compares with the ROI on your cost per impression (CPI) or cost per click (CPC) campaigns. If you can have better ROIs for the cost-per-action (CPA) campaigns, you can start consider scrapping CPI or CPC campaigns. However, if you have a better ROI for CPC/CPI campaigns, you should negotiate or reconsider a different PPA amount or campaigns.
With advertisers, CPA advertising generally involves lesser risk than other advertising methods/techniques. Since they only pay you when you get a sale or lead, they can protect themselves from prospective adverts that will not convert or because of click frauds. Hence, they are assured that they will only pay you when the prospect for money coming in is relatively high.
Moreover, when working in CPA, it is very important to have a good relationship with your affiliate network managers because they are the gateway for you to get access to exclusive offers, get paid faster, get higher pay-outs, or suggesting how to make outstanding ad campaign for more of your income streams.
Be wary, though, that some networks only accept US, Canada and/or Australia affiliates whereas others consider other countries as well. To make sure, check if they accept affiliates from your own country. Keep in mind that some CPA networks are very selective with certain countries with high risks of fraudulent clicks.
