CPA Affiliate Marketing – Full Guide and Best Networks to Join
When you first get into affiliate marketing, you’d soon notice that quite a few marketing terms are showing up consistently.
Whether you are joining an affiliate network or an in-house program (Like Fiverr Affiliates), it’s essential to understand the meaning of those terms, as they can considerably affect your bottom line.
One of those popular terms is CPA, and in this article, we will share with you its meaning in the affiliate marketing world, as well as the best CPA networks to join.
What does CPA mean in affiliate marketing?
CPA is an abbreviation of Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition.
In affiliate marketing, CPA is used as a commission method where the advertiser pays the affiliate a fixed commission rate for each action that the affiliate sends the advertiser’s way.
The most popular types of actions used in CPA are either a sale or a registration.
Other commission methods used in affiliate marketing are CPC (Cost Per Click) and CPM (Cost Per Mille – 1000 views). However, CPA is by far the most popular method, especially if you consider sales as actions.
Why should I join a CPA affiliate marketing program?
There are multiple reasons for an affiliate to join a CPA affiliate program. Those programs usually offer incentives such as:
- You get a big commission upfront – If you are using a CPA model and generate a sale, you will usually get a big fixed payment that will get credited to you immediately. This comes in comparison to affiliate programs with a revenue share model, where you get paid depending on the size of the user’s transaction and throughout a longer period of time.
- You get paid faster – If you are running paid traffic campaigns, you understand the importance of getting your earned commissions as quickly as possible. Cash flow is everything in paid campaigns, and thus most of those affiliate partners prefer to use a CPA model.
- You can get paid for other forms of user actions – As an affiliate, you know that most of the traffic you are sending to an affiliate offer won’t convert to a full sale. That’s just the nature of most online products. Some CPA networks pay you per registration for example, which allows you to get commissions from other parts of the sales funnel.
What are the best CPA affiliate programs and networks?
Now that we discussed what is CPA affiliate marketing and what are its advantages, the next natural step for you is to join a few programs!
Here’s my list of the best CPA affiliate programs to join this year:
1. Fiverr
When it comes to choosing a CPA affiliate program to join, the issue most affiliates find themselves in is that most of those programs are for very specific products, in very narrow niches like finance or surveys.
No matter what niche you’re into, Fiverr’s affiliate program can offer your audience access to a huge gig market.
With over 5 active million users, Fiverr works with top-tier talent and offers affordable services for every digital service you can imagine.
We have affiliates on board promoting anything from standard business-related services like logo and website design, all the way to unique niches like VR Guides and custom Pizza commercials.
The standard Fiverr CPA is $15-150 CPA. This number is entirely based on the category your referred users might be interested in. Your commission would vary based on that factor.
You can learn more about Fiverr’s full commission plan here.
2. MaxBounty
MaxBounty is a well-known affiliate network, that specializes in CPA offers from various different niches.
As an affiliate on the MaxBounty network, you’d get access to hundreds of different offers and deals from well-known companies, all in the same place.
This can be a real-time saver, not to mention the accounting hassle that comes from joining multiple stand-alone programs.
At the time of writing, the network consists of 30,000 affiliates and over 3000 active campaigns (Fiverr is one of them!).