How do affiliates get paid?

By Ryan Mac Geoghegan, OfferForge Network Manager

There are a number of various payout structures in affiliate marketing. See below a list of these together with a brief description:

Cost Per Lead (CPL)

• An advertiser pays a fixed amount per successful lead delivered
• This model demands high quality leads because if the leads do not convert the advertiser ends up paying for zero value

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

• An advertiser pays a certain amount for each SALE that is made on leads delivered
• A common model is to pay ‘2P’
• P refers to the premium amount
• If a Life Insurer sells a life product with a monthly premium of R500, the affiliate will be paid R1000 (R500 x 2)

Cost Per Sale (CPS)

• This works in a similar fashion to a CPA model except it is tailored to e-commerce offers
• The retailer pays an agreed % of sale to affiliates
• Let’s say an affiliate directs a customer to netflorist.co.za and this customer makes a purchase of R1000; and the agreement is that NetFlorist pays 10% of sale value
• The affiliate will be paid R100 (R1000 x 10%) for the sale

Cost Per Click (CPC)

• An advertiser pay’s an affiliate for each click on their ad
• The ad could be a banner/email or text link, it depends on what the agreement with the advertiser
• IN most cases only unique clicks are paid for, meaning if the same person clicks on an ad 5 times the affiliate will only be paid once

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