CPA Marketing: The Ultimate Guide (Updated)


When it comes to monetization, I’ve tried it all.

I started with Adsense… but was let down by the low CPCs.

Then I promoted affiliate products… but I couldn’t get the traffic to convert.

Then I tried CPA marketing… and quickly realized that it was THE best way to monetize.

(In fact, CPA helped one of my sites go from 0 to $10k/month in record time)


And in this post I’m going to show you everything you need to know about CPA marketing.




What Is CPA Marketing?

Cost Per Action (CPA) Marketing is a affiliate model where a commission is paid when a user takes a specific action. These actions include filling out a form, getting a quote, signing up for a trial, or making a purchase.


There are two main reasons that I prefer CPA over banner ads, Adsense, and most other affiliate marketing strategies.

1. Higher on the Value Chain

To make the most money from your site, you want to get high up on the value chain.

Here is what the value chain looks like for digital products (using a $100 course as an example):







  1. Drew Avatar Drew

    The real task would be driving traffic to your website right?

    Picking offers in niches like Education or Finance or any other competitive ones make it extremely tough to get good organic traffic to even see your site.

    Would you just drive traffic via SEO?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Dean

      That’s right Drew: traffic is critical. In this guide I was assuming that you already had a site (or niche in mind). But you can start with CPA to find a niche that you can monetize when you get traffic later down the road. I wouldn’t rely SEO for 100% of my traffic, but for certain niches there isn’t any other viable option.

      1. chris Avatar chris

        My only concern with using SEO for CPA offers is that CPA offers tend not to hang around that long. So by the time your SEO rankings kick in, the offer will have gone?

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Dean

          Very true. That’s why I recommend creating a site that ranks for topic keywords vs. specific offers.

  2. Awesome stuff. I found your site through the video interview you did with internetmarketing. You’re posts are some of the best stuff I’ve seen on seo. Very helpful to someone new to this stuff. Thanks.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Dean

      Thanks for your kind words, Betty! Let me know if you have any questions about SEO.

  3. Brian,

    Yet another extremely helpful guide. I also read your guide to building back links- which is an excellent resource. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing such useful info and encourage you to keep it up.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Dean

      Glad you enjoyed it Pete and thanks for your kind words 🙂

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