When you use CPA networks you leverage the brains AND money of accomplished affiliate marketers to make you money. It CAN help you make more money selling your software, getting free trials or introductory offers.
Most people are familiar with Affiliate Marketing’s power to drive sales. About 6 weeks after I set up the affiliate program for a recent client they were making around $3000 per day in extra sales. It is probably over $10,000 per day now.
But, I think CPA networks could be just as good in the long run. Particularly IF you offer a free trial AND you deliver a great user experience. The way CPA networks work is you (the advertiser) pays the affiliates (also called Publishers) a set cost for each action a user performs. The action can be filling out a lead form, starting a free trial, downloading a white paper or any other action that can be measured reliably.
You provide the creative they use so you remain in control of the messaging and branding.
The top affiliates are absolute masters at finding out how to drive leads to your website.
But, will it work out for you?
To properly test CPA networks I suggest analyzing all the current ways a customer gets to your website (SEO, PPC, Affiliates, Banners, etc). Then, find out what percentage from each channel becomes a paying customer. Also, you want to use the data to make an assumption about the Total Customer Value from those channels (for more information see “The Biggest Marketing Mistake I See Software Companies Make”).
What you are trying to do is figure out how much the “Action” is worth to you and pay as much as you can to entice the affiliates leverage their expertise, brains and money to promote your offer. But, pay as little as you need to because you have to make a profit.
While it sounds like a lot of gritty, dirty work it is actually not that difficult when you put the right tools in place and get your team trained in USING the input to make decisions.
Your Affiliate and Banner channels are most likely to approximate your CPA numbers.
Once you have these numbers run a test through the CPA network and watch the results.
You are looking at ROI.
If you do your tracking right, you can look at individual affiliates and discover if the leads they generate for you are profitable or not. If not, end the relationship with them.
When you use CPA networks you leverage the brains AND money of accomplished affiliate marketers to make you money. It CAN help you make more money selling your software, getting free trials or introductory offers.
For a few thousand dollars you can discover if this is a rich new source of sales for you.
Worth a test, don’t you think?
Jason Bedunah
The Leader in Helping Software Companies Sell More Software Using Social Media, Web2.0 and Direct Response Advertising.