Understanding CPA

Everything seems to be shortened to initials these days, and CPA is no excpetion.

CPA can mean both 'Cost Per Acquisition' and 'Cost Per Action'. Many folks, event some internet marketers, haven't heard about if before - and there is a good reason why - the marketers who are making money from CPA, don't usually share!

So let's assume that for now you know nothing or little about CPA -- lLook at this as a very basic "what is and how to" lesson. If you do know about it though, don't go away, because there are some recent developments that you almost certainly have not yet discovered.

First off, you have likely seen online advertisements asking you to enter some detail about yourself or your location? Many times all that is required is to enter your town or zip code in order to be eligible for a reward - these can be as attractive as electical items and whitegoods.

The cynics among you would have seen these ads and thought "that is to good to be true, I won't bother". The go-getters would have responded "what the heck, gotta be in it to win it" - and entered the required data.

Which category fits you - cynic or go-getter?

Note though that these should not be confused with 'opt in boxes' that owners of websites use to gather your details in return for delivering a free newsletter or report.

These opt-in boxes have the webmasters adding your contact details to their 'list' and they WILL be in touch!

Advertisers

CPA offers are for the most part genuine - the advertisements are prepared for companies (the advertisers) who want to know about you for their demographic profiling. Often they are simply measuring the number of people who live at a specific zip code who are interested in, say whitegoods. The ad therefore is offering you a physical prize in return for specific information.

Affiliates

But how did you find that CPA advertisement? Usually you would have got there from a link on a website advertisement, or followed a link from a search-engine advertisement e.g. Google Adwords, which was placed there by a marketer (the affiliate). The marketer receives a payment following the relatively simple act of having a consumer click on their ad and fill in the form (the 'action').

CPA Networks

The third part in this process is the CPA Network. These companies manage the payments and logistics part of the transaction. They recruit the advertisers, design the ads, manage the prize delivery. They also recruit and approve marketers as their affiliates. There are several CPA Networks already, like Neverblue, Max Bounty and Copeac, and with growing interest in this revenue source for marketers, they are growing in numbers.

CPA Advertising can be very profitable for people with websites.

The more traffic you are getting to the site, and the more you can target audience and match it with the right CPA offers, the better you will do.

With 'lucrative' comes 'tricky'. Learning the ins and outs of CPA Marketing from someone who is already an expert and who can prove they are profiting from this revenue source, is vital.