I’ve heard about a CPA network and wanted to share if Clickbank is one. Also, I wanted to share how they are both different.
No, Clickbank is not a CPA network. Clickbank only pays you if you get a sale.
Keep reading and I’ll share what a CPA network is. I’ll also share the pros and cons to Clickbank and a CPA network.
What is a CPA network?
CPA stands for (cost per action) and this can be several things. Usually, a company will pay you to get an email address and the name of someone interested in a topic.
You are getting paid to generate a lead for the company. That company then takes that lead and tries to make “More” money with it.
The company pays you maybe 0.25 cents and they take that lead and try to get $10 or $100 from it.
A lead isn’t the only type of action you can get paid for. Some CPA offers will pay you to download an app or to fill out a survey.
A CPA network is a marketplace that connects marketers to companies. Another way to look at this is it matches someone wanting to get paid to someone wanting a lead.
Clickbank is more of a revenue share. This means you get a percentage of what someone buys. Someone has to buy something for you to get paid.
With a CPA offer, you can make money without someone buying anything.
Pros to CPA Marketing
The largest benefit to CPA marketing is you can make money by just getting a lead and you don’t need a sale.
Technically you are not selling anything. Some people are attracted to this because they don’t like the idea of asking someone for money.
Another benefit to this type of marketing is you could make money more quickly. Before you get a sale you first have to get a lead.
Since your making money before the sale is even made you probably going to make money more quickly. Lastly, there is a perception of having more security with CPA rather than on a sale.
The reason is it’s believed to be easier to get an action rather than getting money from someone.
Negatives to CPA Marketing
One of the largest problems to CPA marketing is it can be difficult to get accepted. The networks are “very” strict on who they accept.
The reason it’s so strict is that someone can game the system. There are many opportunities for fraud and abuse.
These companies that offer CPA marketing don’t want to lose money. They want to ensure they get a quality lead.
These companies are also looking for affiliates with experience and are already earning revenue. They don’t help you, but they expect you know what you’re doing.
Another disadvantage of CPA marketing is the money. The reason someone is willing to pay you money for a lead is so they can take that lead and make more money with it.
They are not going to pay you more money than what they are making. They may pay you 0.25 cents for a lead, but they take that lead and make $100.
In the long run your probably going to make more money as an affiliate marketer. Of course, the people who create products make the “most” amount of money.
Affiliate marketing the revenue is “all” over the place. Some companies (Amazon.com) pay nothing. Some companies give you 50% of the revenue and some higher.
You can even license or franchise an affiliate offer and make 100% of all the revenue. For more information on this as well as how to start affiliate marketing I would recommend this place HERE.
“All self-help is choosing the long term over the short term.”
Reminds me of the marshmallow study right?
The key is NOT to look at the marshmallow!
Tips to Getting Approved for a CPA Network
When applying to work for a CPA Network there are 2 parts.
- General information about yourself
- Your experience
The part where you have to explain your experience as a marketer is the biggest reason you will be rejected by a network.
What these networks are looking for is experience.
The more experience you have the better your chances.
Also, it helps to be as detailed about your experience as possible. Be as elaborate as possible about what you know.
Elaborate meaning write in length about how you will make them money. Any money or experience you have gained marketing “anything” online should be mentioned.
I wouldn’t recommend lying because they may ask you for a screenshot of your results. If you have 0 experience you could talk about what you know and how you plan on making “them” money.
You should know what vertical you will be promoting. Vertical is the niche that you want to target. If they ask for a website and you don’t have one you could create a free Youtube channel and give that to them.
If they ask if you incentivize traffic the best answer is NO.
Advantages to Clickbank
A large pro to Clickbank is it’s easier to be accepted as an affiliate. It’s less of a risk on Clickbank to accept you as an affiliate because they only pay you when they get paid.
Another benefit to doing affiliate marketing with Clickbank or another network is the pay. With CPA you only get paid per action.
With affiliate marketing, you can get paid residual income. This means every time someone renews a subscription, software, or membership you can get a percentage of the money.
Also with affiliate marketing, you can have a much larger commission amount.
There are programs where you can earn upwards of $1,000 per sale. You will never get this with CPA marketing.
Lastly, you usually will get a larger piece of the pie with affiliate marketing and you will get paid more per lead.
Sure, some CPA affiliates make great money, but overall you will probably earn more if you get a percentage of the sale.
Negatives to Clickbank
The largest negative with Clickbank is it can take time to get your first paycheck.
to get the first paycheck you have to pass the customer distribution requirement or (CDR) for short. The first part of the CDR is you need to make 5 or more sales with different card numbers or accounts.
If 2 sales are from the same credit card and 3 are different then you will not pass the CDR. All 5 have to be unique. 5 different people have to purchase something through your affiliate links for you to get paid.
If 1 person uses 2 different credit cards and the rest of your sales is from 3 different people then that counts. You also need to make sales with 2 different payment methods. Here is a list of some examples.
- American Express
- Discover
- Maestro
- MasterCard
- Paypal
- Visa
- Diners Club
- Carte Bleue
If all 5 payments are from different credit cards, but they are from Visa then you will not pass the CDR.
The sales have to be from 5 different accounts and 2 have to be from different companies. If 4 sales were from Visa and 1 was from Paypal all different accounts then that would pass the CDR.
After you pass the CDR then you have to meet the minimal threshold (by default it’s $100). You can view a blog post on how to get paid faster with Clickbank by clicking on the link HERE.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the main thing to focus on is giving the “most” value as you can. The offer that helps your prospect the most will benefit you in the long term.
Affiliate marketing may seem harder because you “have” to generate a sale to make money, however you can do some cool things.
For instance instead of creating a lead for another company you could build a website and a list of email addresses and create your own leads.
This way instead of making 0.25 cents per lead you can make $100-1,000 or more for the same lead.
Then you can take the money you made and hire people to create leads for you. This is why I would recommend Affiliate marketing over a CPA network.
Also, Clickbank is one place to get offers, but there are SO many more.
Regardless getting the right education can only help you. There is only 1 person I would recommend to learn how to do affiliate marketing.
He is the best I’ve seen at the copywriting part. This is the boring part of converting leads to money, however, I think it’s the MOST important part.
There is no point in getting lots of traffic if you don’t make money from it. Being able to make the “most” money per lead is going to help you “a lot”.
If you want to learn more about this affiliate marketing training you can click on the link right HERE.
I hope this blog post on is Clickbank a CPA Network was helpful to you. Have a nice day.