If you’re going to be an affiliate marketer, then you will need some idea of how cpa networks actually work.
This sort of work does not usually involve you finding and working directly with the advertising client. Instead you join a Cost-per-Action (CPA) affiliate network, and it’s the network managers themselves, who find the clients and make the arrangements for you to do the work.
Amazon Does It!
Some types of marketing have been going on for quite a while, though the “networks” have been a bit less defined. For example, Amazon.com began a affiliate marketing program back in 1996, when it encouraged people to sign up and post links that promoted Amazon products on their websites.
When someone clicked through one of those links and bought the book or other item, the people who had the links on their websites received a very small percentage from the sale. Since then, many other companies have created the same sorts of partnerships with people who wanted to promote their products or services through that sort of link.
The Amazon arrangement approaches an “affiliate network,” but isn’t quite there. It’s true that they are the organization that controls the affiliation, and they serve as the liaison between the real clients, (publishers, authors, and in recent years, sources of non-book products) and those who put Amazon links on their websites.
However, affiliate marketing is not their sole business, and they are not that actively involved in how affiliates actually push the products.
How A Real Network Works
In a full-fledged affiliate marketing network, the managers or owners of the network, itself are very actively involved. This type of marketing is the sole business of the organization. It’s the network itself that finds or is approached by the advertising clients, and which makes the deals to host ad campaigns for them.
The network managers usually have a hand in assigning the campaigns to particular marketers who are members of the network, and they supervise how things go on those marketers’ websites.
You, as a marketer, might have a choice of which campaigns you operate, but in some networks, at least, the particular assignments might go to people with knowledge or expertise that relate to them, specifically.
The Concept
Once you’re running a campaign, you will have visitors to your website who click into certain functions, whether those involve filling out a form, buying something from the advertiser, or leaving an email or other address asking the advertiser for further information.
The advertiser only pays for the leads or purchases that actually come in. This is a different type of advertising than what has existed in the past, where a company could spend a great deal of money on a newspaper ad, but had no way of knowing whether it really worked or not. With CPA affiliate marketing, they know, and they pay only for actual leads or purchases.
So the advertiser pays the network a few dollars for each lead, and the network gives part of that payment to you the affiliate, and keeps some of it as well. The percentages that go to either the network or to the affiliate marketers will vary from network to network and product to product depending on pricing points.
Most of the time, no matter how many advertisers’ campaigns you are helping to run, you get one regular payment from the network that consolidates all the results from all the campaigns. This makes your own accounting much easier to handle.
You have probably had marketing affiliations with other companies already, placing their links on your website. The results were no doubt a bit random, unless your site was devoted very specifically to the advertising of those products. As a member of an actual CPA affiliate network, this randomness would be eliminated, and the results would be more consolidated and focused.
This sort of work does not usually involve you finding and working directly with the advertising client. Instead you join a Cost-per-Action (CPA) affiliate network, and it’s the network managers themselves, who find the clients and make the arrangements for you to do the work.
Amazon Does It!
Some types of marketing have been going on for quite a while, though the “networks” have been a bit less defined. For example, Amazon.com began a affiliate marketing program back in 1996, when it encouraged people to sign up and post links that promoted Amazon products on their websites.
When someone clicked through one of those links and bought the book or other item, the people who had the links on their websites received a very small percentage from the sale. Since then, many other companies have created the same sorts of partnerships with people who wanted to promote their products or services through that sort of link.
The Amazon arrangement approaches an “affiliate network,” but isn’t quite there. It’s true that they are the organization that controls the affiliation, and they serve as the liaison between the real clients, (publishers, authors, and in recent years, sources of non-book products) and those who put Amazon links on their websites.
However, affiliate marketing is not their sole business, and they are not that actively involved in how affiliates actually push the products.
How A Real Network Works
In a full-fledged affiliate marketing network, the managers or owners of the network, itself are very actively involved. This type of marketing is the sole business of the organization. It’s the network itself that finds or is approached by the advertising clients, and which makes the deals to host ad campaigns for them.
The network managers usually have a hand in assigning the campaigns to particular marketers who are members of the network, and they supervise how things go on those marketers’ websites.
You, as a marketer, might have a choice of which campaigns you operate, but in some networks, at least, the particular assignments might go to people with knowledge or expertise that relate to them, specifically.
The Concept
Once you’re running a campaign, you will have visitors to your website who click into certain functions, whether those involve filling out a form, buying something from the advertiser, or leaving an email or other address asking the advertiser for further information.
The advertiser only pays for the leads or purchases that actually come in. This is a different type of advertising than what has existed in the past, where a company could spend a great deal of money on a newspaper ad, but had no way of knowing whether it really worked or not. With CPA affiliate marketing, they know, and they pay only for actual leads or purchases.
So the advertiser pays the network a few dollars for each lead, and the network gives part of that payment to you the affiliate, and keeps some of it as well. The percentages that go to either the network or to the affiliate marketers will vary from network to network and product to product depending on pricing points.
Most of the time, no matter how many advertisers’ campaigns you are helping to run, you get one regular payment from the network that consolidates all the results from all the campaigns. This makes your own accounting much easier to handle.
You have probably had marketing affiliations with other companies already, placing their links on your website. The results were no doubt a bit random, unless your site was devoted very specifically to the advertising of those products. As a member of an actual CPA affiliate network, this randomness would be eliminated, and the results would be more consolidated and focused.
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