Are affiliates payouts based on impressions, clicks, actions, leads, or conversions?
More and more advertisers are moving away from paying on impressions (CPM or CPC) because of the speculative nature of such campaigns. Instead, advertisers are willing to pay significantly more to actually get a tangible result from campaigns. This empowers affiliate publishers who maintain a responsive user base to earn significantly higher amounts. A customer acquisition—which you get paid on—can include a lead, a sale, a sign-up, or some other user action as specified in each campaign. Occasionally, a click is the only action required, in which case you are paid for simply a click. So, a lead, a sale, a sign-up, or even a click can all be called actions. Thus, CPA – Cost per Action. Sometimes people also call any type of Action a “conversion”.
