Ad Display, CPA and Affiliate Marketing – What’s the Difference?

Calendar August 22, 2008 | Posted by admin

I know that when I started in marketing, I had no idea what the difference between an Ad Display Network, an affiliate marketing network, or a CPA marketing network was.

Well I have the answer to this, and it’s all explained below:

Brief Summarized Version:

An ad display network is exactly as the name implies: A network that displays ads. These companies don’t actually have anything to do with products themselves, they are just the middle man for Advertisers and Affiliates.

How it works: Simply put, someone places ads on their site so that when clicked, they make money. Fair and simple.

Examples of Ad Networks are:

A CPA network is different. Advertisers place links to their products or offers on a CPA network. Now, CPA stands for Cost per Action, so the customer have to do something on the page; but not necessarily buy an item.

In order for the affiliate to get paid, the customer may have to:

  • Fill out a Form
  • Opt-in to an email list
  • Buy Something
  • Anything else…

So while Affiliate Marketing means you only make money when someone BUYS something from your link, CPA marketing can be include sales, but is not limited to it.

Examples of CPA networks are:

And lastly is affiliate marketing. I hope you know what this means. If not, in a nutshell: You promote product from an affiliate network, using an “affiliate id” to make commissions from products.

There are tons of companies out there, and they all specialize in different things. Here is just a very short list of companies I use. Feel free to sign up with them:

That’s about it. If you have any questions, leave a note.

- Coty Schwabe

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You can also check out Affiliate Payload for CPA help, or Affiliate Revolution for affiliate marketing help.

Category Categories: Adsense & Ad Networks, Affiliate Marketing, CPA Marketing  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,  |  Comments 1 Comment