#ASE11 – Industry Clash: Balancing CPS & CPA Marketing

Affiliate Summit East opens today in New York with a lively decision on which is better: CPS or CPA? The panel was made up of:

The panel discussed strategies to find balance on both sides of the industry. They knocked down the stereotypes, debate differences and present best practices. Everything was on the table.

CPA stands for Cost Per Action and generally deals with offers that require the target to do something like filling out a form or a zip/email submit. CPS stands for Cost Per Sale. The main difference between the two is CPS requires a sale to pay out while CPA can trigger a payout without making an actual sale.

Most CPA offers are run with a paid traffic and a lot of landing page testing, while CPS offers are done more with SEO and developed websites.

CPA and CPS have advantages and disadvantages, and the panel went into a nice debate over which is better. There was no winner in the debate. It all depends on what business model you want to work with.

I do both CPS and CPA offers. In my experience, I’ve found that CPA offers are easier to run but CPS offers make me more money. I don’t think you need to run one or the other. There’s no rules that say you can’t run both. The panel agreed that the key is the find a balance that works best for you.

Look for more coverage from Affiliate Summit East later.