Introduction
For decades, starting a business was a costly and complicated affair. You had to raise sufficient funds all by yourself (or get investors), rent out a brickand-mortar storefront, and get people in the door. Even today, running a traditional startup takes lots of money, time, and energy.
If you have dreams of starting a business, it’s easy to quickly become discouraged. The upfront cost, time to launch, and legion of details make it seem as if your business will never become established, let alone successful.
Have you felt this way before? Have you gotten your hopes up only to have them crushed?
There is a growing trend among entrepreneurs to dispense with the traditional forms of launching a business. It’s called cost per action (CPA) marketing, and it has made me rethink what I once thought was impossible.
Affiliate marketing places all the power into the hands of the entrepreneur. It provides a rapid and accessible way for any entrepreneur to generate an income and fulfill their dreams of establishing a wildly successful business.
If you feel like running your own business is out of the question, this guide is for you. I know what it’s like to be in your shoes, doubtful that you’ll ever make it, but I’m here to tell you that starting your own Affiliate business is completely realistic.
In my opinion, Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to start a business today. It’s incredibly easy to start, and you can begin with just a computer and an internet connection.
Affiliate marketing is also an extremely flexible career path, so you can do it as a side hustle or grow it into a full-time job. It’s completely possible to make a living from Affiliate marketing alone, and there are countless entrepreneurs who have proven that.
And while Affiliate marketing won’t make you a millionaire overnight, it can provide a stream of revenue that you can grow. With the right strategies, you might even be able to say goodbye to your day job and make affiliate marketing your main hustle.
However, there’s a lot about affiliate marketing that is still shrouded in mystery. The good information is scattered all around the Internet, and it’s hard to tell what works and what doesn’t. If that’s not problematic enough, a good chunk of that information is outdated.
And sometimes, you might doubt the information you read. You don’t want half-baked theories – you want actionable advice from affiliate marketing veterans who know their stuff. That kind of advice isn’t always easy to get.
That’s why I’ve created this guide specifically for people like you. People who want to seriously pursue online business but don’t know where to start.
Our goal is to make this a different kind of guide. I don’t approach affiliate marketing as a get-rich-quick scheme. Instead, I look at affiliate marketing as a way to strike out on your own while providing value to a particular niche.
I’ve taken everything you need to know about affiliate marketing and packed it all into this guide. This isn’t just a beginner’s guide, either. I’ll take you past the basics and address what you need to do after you get the ball rolling.
If you’ve ever wanted to know all the ins and outs of setting up a affiliate business, this guide is for you. I’ll break everything down step by step and show you exactly what to do.
What is CPA Marketing
Selling products online enables your business to reach a virtually limitless audience, but targeting the right leads and converting them into customers isn’t always easy.
CPA marketing, short for cost per action marketing, is a type of affiliate marketing used by businesses of all sizes to scale their marketing efforts and reach a wider audience.
This involves partnering with an influencer, blogger or publisher who promotes your products in exchange for a commission fee. The affiliate receives a commission when a customer purchases a product through the affiliate’s marketing efforts.
For example, the affiliate might write a review, display a banner ad on their website or post a video on social media promoting the advertiser’s product.
Unlike other types of digital marketing tactics like cost per click (CPC) where you pay to advertise your brand with no guarantee of a sale, CPA marketing only requires you to pay after the sale occurs.
If the customer requests a refund, you can recoup any payouts made to the publisher.
Under this arrangement, the publisher assumes more risk than the advertiser because their earning potential depends on their ability to attract and convert website traffic into paying customers.
The CPA Marketing Model
The CPA marketing model is an advertising model that consists of a publisher (affiliate), a business (advertiser) and a CPA network (a platform that brings together affiliates who want to earn commissions by promoting products and businesses that want their products promoted).
Advertisers typically use a CPA network to find the best affiliate to advertise their product — typically a publisher or influencer who creates related content and has an established audience.
For example, a travel blogger might specialize in publishing content about culinary hotspots via WordPress. An app developer might offer a mobile app that lets users find and review restaurants, which would appeal to the travel blogger’s audience.
The CPA network helps match affiliates and advertisers so that influencers can endorse products they genuinely like while earning a commission for each sale. Meanwhile, businesses can reach a customer base they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
CPA affiliate marketing makes use of web browser cookies to attribute customer actions to a specific affiliate link or referral source so that publishers can earn a commission for any sales they helped generate.
Affiliate or publisher.
An affiliate is usually an influencer, publisher or content creator who runs a blog, website or brand with a built-in audience. Affiliates partner with advertisers to drive traffic to the advertiser’s ecommerce site.
Business or advertiser.
The business or advertiser is a brand that seeks to drive quality traffic to their ecommerce site and increase sales by partnering with an affiliate who can promote their products.
CPA Network.
A CPA network is a conduit between an advertiser and publisher — typically a company whose main purpose is to vet qualified publishers and help advertisers find offers from publishers that are most likely to generate leads.
CPA networks also manage relationships between advertisers and publishers and are often responsible for handling payments.
3 Categories of CPA Marketing
Pay per sale.
The advertiser pays the publisher a percentage of the product’s sale price after a customer purchases an item as a result of the affiliate’s marketing strategies. The publisher only receives a commission if a sale is made.
Pay per action.
The publisher receives a commission when a customer takes a specific action, such as visiting the advertiser’s website and subscribing to a newsletter, or signing up for a trial.
Recurring payments.
Many affiliate programs pay a one-time commission when a customer makes a purchase; however, a recurring payments affiliate model ensures the publisher receives payment each time that customer makes a repeat purchase.
CPA Network Terminology
To get started with affiliate marketing, you need to be familiar with basic terminology and key metrics so you can measure the success of your campaigns:
Affiliate Agreement: A contract stating the terms of the affiliate relationship between the advertiser and publisher. The agreement specifies each party’s responsibilities and the commission a publisher receives in the event of a sale (typically a fixed percentage of the sale price).
Above the fold: Content on a website that is visible without needing to scroll down. Because of its high visibility, “above the fold” is considered the most desirable (and expensive) spot for placing advertisements.
Chargeback: When a commission is deducted because a sale fell through (i.e. the item was returned or the customer requested a refund).
Commission: A percentage of the sale price of a product that is paid to the affiliate for an attributed conversion.
Cookies: Cookies allow advertisers to track which affiliate deserves credit for a sale. Cookies assign each website visitor a unique identifier and track actions they take on the website, such as clicking an affiliate link.
Contextual link: A text link placed within an affiliate website that leads back to the advertiser’s website.
Conversion rate: The percentage rate of website visitors that turn into customers divided by the total traffic.
Cost Per Action (CPA): The cost of advertising divided by the number of actions taken. For example, if a business spends $150 on a campaign and there are 10 actions associated with that campaign, the cost per action is $15.
Cost Per Lead (CPL): The amount of money it takes to generate a new prospective customer for your sales team. Say you spend $1000 on a PPC campaign and 10 users convert into leads, then your CPL is $100.
Earnings Per Click (EPC): The average amount of money you earn each time someone clicks one of your affiliate links. Calculated as total earnings over period “x” divided by the number of clicks over period “x.”
Offer page: The webpage where the conversion occurs after a customer takes the required action.
Return on Investment (ROI): The profit generated from an affiliate campaign divided by the ad spend, multiplied by 100.