80/20 Strategies for Web Marketing, Business Systems, & Personal Productivity
In the past few months, I have found Cost Per Action (CPA) Affiliate Programs more and more profitable in the Internet Marketing world. Affiliate Marketing is, of course, very different for everyone. Some have more success than others with particular types of programs. The reason that I have found greater success with CPA rather than traditional affiliate programs is more a result of my individual style of online marketing than anything else. Some may find more success with mainstream programs which pay a larger flat or recurring commission instead of a smaller up-front fee for simply acquiring customer information. All of this depends on your particular Internet Business Strategy.
But before I launch into the details of my affiliate marketing strategy, let’s explore the basics of CPA affiliate programs.
In a nutshell, Cost Per Action programs pay a commission to marketers who bring them leads. Generally this works by driving traffic to a website or squeeze page where potential new customers enter their information. The majority of these programs can be divided into several types:
*Zip Submit
*Email Submit
*Personal Information Submit
*Full Registration
I have ordered these from least to most difficult. As we all know, a request to reveal your zip code or email address creates less friction or resistance from online customers than a full registration requiring name, email, and additional information.
Of course, the more information required from a lead the more you will be paid as an affiliate. These payouts can range from $1.00 to $10.00 — with the higher end typically including insurance lead programs.
The biggest advantage is simple: you are more likely to get paid. This can be a great incentive, especially for new affiliate marketers who want to see some quick-action rewards rather than waiting weeks or months before seeing even one sale. These early earnings can be very motivating for growing as an affiliate marketer.
In addition, CPA programs generally involve less work. A simple website with very basic article marketing or PPC campaigns can often generate great results.
What usually drives newbies into affiliate marketing is the promise of having a reasonable share of the revenue from affiliate sales. Some affiliate programs can payout as much as $85 or even $100 per sale depending on the program and the niche. In the CPA world, payouts are usually much lower.
Other affiliate programs also might offer commission structures that reoccur throughout the life of the customer. If you switch to strictly CPA marketing, you will lose out on any long-term commissions.
I have been experimenting lately with one CPA program, for example, which pays $5.00 per lead for an online dating website network. Before using CPA with this particular company, I tried my hand at promoting their service using their standard affiliate payout-per-sale commission structure. The payout potential was quite high, but after nearly 2 months I was not seeing any results. Zero.
Then, several weeks ago, the company announced its new CPA affiliate program. I decided to perform split-tests on my affiliate website and within 24 hours I already had 2 payouts at $5.00 each.
Here are the final results from the test:
Impressions: 1033
Clicks: 33
New Leads: 2
Total Earned: $10.00
Here are the results from the standard commission program:
Impressions: 5354
Clicks: 193
Sales: 0
If you have an opportunity to perform a similar split-test with programs offering both CPA and standard affiliate sales commissions, you might consider taking a shot to see how it affects your program performance.
In building CPA marketing websites, my goal is simply to drive traffic to my website and force the visitor to make a quick-decision — join the program or not.
Since payouts for my case study example are a mere $5.00 per lead, I am only using free traffic methods. As usual, I combine high quality off-site & on-site articles from professional article writers for higher conversions.
The strategy layout is as follows:
1. The website visitor reads an introductory article at an article directory.
(Pre-Sale Article Content)
2. The visitor then clicks through to my website to read more info.
(Sale “Closing” Article Content)
3. Finally, the visitor is compelled by the banner ads prominently displayed on the website.
(Final Conversion)
As I have found in many other affiliate marketing campaigns, article content functions on both the article directory and my website to position the potential CPA customer for completing the CPA form.
On my case study website, I am already receiving a steady flow of natural search traffic which is converting just as well.
The answer here is an obvious yes. Still, I think it really depends on these two primary factors: 1) your personal marketing strategy and 2) the type of niche market you’re targeting.
If you’re interested in getting started with affiliate marketing, I can recommend two excellent sources for great CPA programs:
I have had success with both of these networks and can personally recommend them to you. Otherwise, many other marketers have found Commission Junction and many others quite good as well.
Regardless of which program you’re using, your objective should be to find the right program for you. Experimenting is the name of the game in affiliate marketing.
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Picking Out the right Internet marketing strategy is constantly a challenge for people who are going on the Cyberspace for the first time. My tip is: If you are just starting out for the first time the main thing you must be focusing on is learning and acquiring knowledge about marketing online.
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I was searching on google for affiliate networks when I came upon your site. You gave me some fantastic ideas here, I’ll be sure to watch for more info from you. Thanks a million!
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