Affiliate marketing glossary
CPA (cost per action)
In one sentence
CPA is a commission model in which the affiliate is paid for a specific defined action, which may be a sale, a signup, an install or any other event the advertiser chooses.
CPA is the umbrella term that CPS and CPL both sit inside. In practice the industry uses 'CPA network' to mean a network focused on flat-fee actions rather than percentage-of-sale retail commission.
The looseness of the term is the thing to watch. Two programs can both be described as CPA and pay for completely different events, one on an app install and one on a first purchase inside that app, with an order of magnitude between the payouts. Read the qualifying action rather than the label.
Common questions
CPA (cost per action), answered
What does CPA stand for?
Cost per action, sometimes written as cost per acquisition. It describes any model where the advertiser pays for a specific completed event rather than for clicks or impressions.
Is CPA the same as affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is one form of CPA advertising, and in retail it is the dominant one. The terms are used interchangeably in some parts of the industry, but 'CPA network' usually signals flat-fee actions such as signups and installs rather than percentage-of-basket retail commission.
How is the CPA payout decided?
By what the action is worth to the advertiser over the lifetime of the customer, discounted for the ones that do not stick. That is why a deposit or a paid subscription pays many times what a free signup does, even when the two look like similar amounts of work.
Keep reading
More from the glossary
Every term here is written to answer one question completely, then point at the next one worth asking.
Sub-affiliate network
A sub-affiliate network is a company that holds approved relationships with affiliate programs on major networks and lets smaller publishers and creators promote those programs under its account, sharing the commission it receives.
Affiliate network
An affiliate network is a platform that connects advertisers running affiliate programs with publishers who promote them, handling tracking, reporting and payment between the two.
EPC (earnings per click)
EPC is the average commission earned per click sent to an advertiser, calculated as total commission divided by total clicks over a given period.
Cookie window
The cookie window is the length of time after a click during which a resulting purchase is still credited to the affiliate, commonly ranging from 24 hours to 90 days.
Last-click attribution
Last-click attribution credits the entire commission to the final affiliate link clicked before a purchase, which is the default model across almost all affiliate networks.
Attribution
Attribution is the process of determining which marketing touchpoint receives credit for a conversion, and therefore which affiliate is paid.
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