If you’ve been around the internet marketing scene for a while, I’m sure that you’ve noticed three letters stand out – CPA. CPA stands for Cost Per Action and this article gives you the basics of CPA marketing and how you can use it to start making money online.
Although CPA networks have been around for a long time, it has been only recently in the past few years that internet marketers have really started using this as a main source of the online income. The many different offers that you can promote through CPA differ significantly from the usual affiliate products that you are used to dealing with.
For Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition networks, you as the publisher want your visitors to complete some sort of action, and when they do – you get paid. The most simple form of action is just a small form, such as their name, or maybe even just their zip code, and when they enter that information, you get paid. This is called Pay Per Lead. Depending on the offer, you can get paid anywhere from a few cents, to a dollar, to several dollars per lead.
The other main type of action is sale. This is where CPA is most like traditional affiliate marketing. You drive the visitor to your splash page or advertisement and when the user buys the product, you get the sale. Sounds a lot like a ClickBank method, right? Well, it is, but many times you can just have the person request their ‘free trial’ and just pay $4.95 in shipping costs and you can get paid up to $40 or more just from the free trial!
So how do you get started?
1. Find a niche. There are a lot of different niches you can promote, from online businesses to health products to insurance. Find one and stick with it.
2. Sign up to a good CPA network. There are many around, and some are better than others. Once you are accepted, you can start promoting their ads.
3. Start marketing. This could be setting up a blog, buying paid advertising, marketing to your list, etc.
4. Play by the rules! CPA networks have certain rules in place where you can’t market certain offers in certain ways, possibly through email or social networks among others. Also, most offers are NOT incentivizable, so you can’t bribe your user into filling out the form. You will get banned very quickly doing this!
