CPA affiliate programs: how to choose a good offer

One of the most popular ways to earn money online is through so-called CPA bidding. or click for action offers. If you’re not familiar with these deals, 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 online quiz, participated in a survey, or given your name and email address in hopes of winning something? Then it is most likely that you have been part of one of these offers and that some Webmaster has earned between one dollar and up to $25 as a result of your “action”.

Should you promote a CPA offer?

While an offer that involves CPA can be a great 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 a CPA offer. As a 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’d 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 out of every 100 people who visit a website. This is expressed as a percentage, so if the click-through rate is 1%, this means that for every 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 attract visitors to their websites. AdWords is pay-per-click advertising, which means you have to set a 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 who host CPA offers use AdWords as they represent a more reliable way of driving traffic to a website than relying on a combination 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’re getting a decent return on your ad spend. Google has a neat tool called the ROI Calculator Tool that can help you figure this out. The net result of this is that you need to know how likely you are to 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 punch bowl. In this case, it might be better to choose an offer that pays less but is a better fit.