CPA affiliate programs: how to choose a good offer
One of the most popular ways to earn money online is through so-called CPA offers. or click for action deals. If you’re unfamiliar with these offers, here’s how the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, defines them: “Cost Per Action or CPA (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA) is an online pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specific action (a purchase, a form submission, etc.) linked to the ad.”
you’ve probably made one
Have you ever filled out a simple questionnaire online, participated in a survey, or given your name and email address in hopes of winning something? So the chances are that you have been part of one of these offers and that some Webmaster has won between a dollar and up to $25 as a result of your “action”.
Should I promote a CPA offer?
While an offer that involves CPA can be a good way to make money on your website, you should make sure that you evaluate these offers carefully before choosing one. The space on the home page of your website or blog (or any other page) is valuable real estate and you should treat it accordingly. You can use that space to promote an affiliate product, to earn money with AdSense, or with a CPA offer. As a general rule, these offers pay better than Google AdSense, but only if you choose the right one.
Evaluation of CPA offers
The first step in choosing a CPA offer is to find a network that specializes in them. Next, you’ll want to determine how much commission you would earn per sale (or action) and the conversion rate of the offer. This is the average number of visitors who typically click on the offer for every 100 people who visit a website. This is expressed as a percentage, so if the click-through rate is 1%, this means that out of 100 people who visit a website, you can expect one to click on the offer. As you might guess, the higher the commission and the higher the conversion rate, the better.
Will you use AdWords?
Most webmasters promoting CPA offers use Google AdWords to drive visitors to their websites. AdWords is pay-per-click advertising, which means you have to budget, create a campaign, and then pay Google every time someone clicks your ad and goes to your CPA bid. If you’re new to AdWords, Google has some great information to help you understand how to use them effectively. Most webmasters hosting CPA offers use AdWords as they represent a more reliable way of driving traffic to a website than relying on a mix of on-page and off-page SEO.
do the math
If you choose to use AdWords, you’ll need to do some math to make sure you’ll get a decent return on your ad spend. Google has a neat tool called the ROI Calculator Tool that can help you determine this. The net result of this is that you need to know what the chances are that you will earn more from the CPA bid than you would have to pay Google.
does it fit?
It’s also important to consider when looking at a CPA offer how well it fits with your website and its content. For example, you might find an offer related to, say, debt relief that pays $25 per qualified lead, but if your website is about indoor gardening, that offer would stick out like a goldfish in a punchbowl. In this case, it might be better to choose an offer that pays less but is a better fit.