Cost per action (CPA)

Cost per action (CPA):- Cost Per Action or CPA (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA; also Cost Per Conversion) is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action – this could include an impression, click, form submit . CPA is sometimes referred to as “Cost Per Acquisition”, which has to do with the fact that many CPA offers by advertisers are about acquiring something (normally new customers by making sales).Direct response advertisers consider CPA the optimal way to buy online advertising, as an advertiser only pays for the ad when the desired action has occurred. The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser. Radio and TV stations also sometimes offer unsold inventory on a cost per action basis, but this form of advertising is most often referred to as “per inquiry”. Although less common print media will also sometimes be sold on a CPA basis.

Performed in three main ways:-  ( a) Cookie tracking – when a media owner effort a click a cookie is released on the views computer which is linked back to the media owner when the  exploit is performed.
( b) Telephone tracking – unique telephone numbers are used per instance of a campaign. So media owner XYZ would have their own unique phone number for an offer and when this number is called any resulting “actions” are allocated to media owner XYZ. Often payouts are based on a length of call (commonly 90 seconds) – if a call goes over 90 seconds it is viewed that that there is a genuine interest and a “lead” is paid for. Cost per action (CPA)