What is a CPA network?
A CPA network connects advertisers who pay per action with publishers who send them users. The network holds the offers, tracks the clicks and conversions and pays the publishers. Advertisers pay for a confirmed action, such as an install, a sign-up or a purchase.
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A network sits between the two sides. Advertisers add offers and fund them. Publishers apply, pick the offers that suit their audience and send traffic through tracking links. The network records each click and conversion, and it decides what counts.
Example: Northfold Media runs a network with 6 publishers. Tidewater Games lists Harbor Blocks with Northfold. A publisher on Northfold’s network runs it, its users install, and the network credits that publisher for each confirmed install.
Networks can reject traffic that looks wrong, so a publisher’s reported number can differ from what it finally earns. Read how reversals work before you scale a campaign.
- Tracking. Can you follow one click from the tap to the conversion, and see why a conversion failed?
- Signals. Does the network tell you when a conversion is held or reversed, with a reason?
- Offers. Are they a fit for your audience and your countries?
- Integration. API, hosted wall or plain links. Pick by how much you want to build.
Publishers get an Offer API, a Top Offers Feed, a Hosted Offerwall or Offer Links, with signed postbacks and a trace of every conversion. Publisher access is by request. If you’re choosing between CPA networks, our comparison of CPAGrip and CPAlead checks the facts, and all comparisons cover offerwalls, ad networks and affiliate networks too. To see how the money works on our side: How money moves: click, conversion, postback, payout.
Questions
Is a CPA network the same as an affiliate network?
They overlap. Affiliate networks grew up around retail and often pay a percent of each sale. CPA networks usually pay a set amount per action, often on apps and lead forms. Plenty of networks now do both.
Is AffiliateOS a CPA network?
It's an offer platform. Publishers run 10,000+ offers, counting direct offers and AffiliateOS marketplace offers. Advertisers pay per install, per in-app event or a percent of each sale. Networks run their own publishers on the same tracking.