What is CPA?

CPA, or "cost per acquisition/action," is like to CPL as the advertiser will pay when a visitor takes action upon arrival at the advertiser’s site.

These ads will be banners or links leading directly to the advertisers website.

The advertiser decides on what action will generate a payment.

It may be that the visitor needs to download an e-book, enroll in a course, purchase something...(so CPA is possibly the ad/affiliate sales method that we are most familiar with)

The payment will be decided by the advertiser and is directly related to how much effort is required to produce the action.

If it requires much effort (and much cost to the visitor) then your profit will be higher.

CPA is also known as PPA (price per action)

Most affiliate networks are CPA/PPA...they will pay you a certain amount if a person buys, joins something, downloads something.

This is money for a tangible outcome. It differs from CPL as the visitor may not need to offer an email address.

example...I get 10% commission if a visitor buys a product from amazon