Cost Per Action (CPA) Marketing is similar to affiliate marketing, but with some very significant differences. With affiliate marketing, you only get paid if your referral buys the affiliate product. With CPA marketing you can get paid for quite a number of different actions as determined by the publisher.
The action can be anything from your referral filling in a from with their postal code, to filing in several pages that include a complete personal contact form, to accepting a “free trial”, to an actual purchase. Many ask only for a postal code or email address on the first page, but then require more and more information on successive pages. Usually, the more your visitor is asked to do, the more you get paid per visitor.
CPA networks, unfortunately, are generally much more difficult to sign up for than affiliate programs. Most CPA networks are closely managed, with each “affiliate” being assigned a manager. Your potential manager does not want to waste her time and effort on affiliates that aren’t going to deliver quality traffic i.e. traffic that takes the required action.
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