CPA traffic sources come as number one on any advertiser’s wishlist. The cost-per-action model is the most transparent. Is it the most reasonable and ROI-boosting in the meantime? It will depend on your strategy. So let’s build one! This guide will give a short but saturated rundown of how to use Adsterra SSP (Self-Serve Platform) as a CPA traffic source. We will examine ad formats, offer types, and conversion flows that spark with this pricing model.
Adsterra SSP as a CPA traffic source
After registering as an advertiser, you can access all Adsterra traffic and features. Affiliates buying traffic also sign up as advertisers. You can even create a test CPA campaign without adding any budget and top up only after you’ve ensured you have enough traffic within your target. Yep, we’re genuine with our partners.
Ok, you have signed up as an advertiser. You can now navigate to the vertical menu and pick Campaigns → Create.
On the first screen, you see the core settings of your further campaign. Click the Pricing model dropdown to find CPA. Once you do, you will operate with those ad formats available on a cost-per-action basis.
Which ad formats are available at a cost-per-action model?
You can buy CPA traffic for any advertising format when on managed accounts. Adsterra sends you A-class traffic with Popunders, In-Page Push, Banners, and Native Banners. Please apply via live chat from your account if you need to jump to a managed account. Adsterra support team will help you out.
When on the Self-Serve Platform, you can buy Popunder, In-Page Push, and Social Bar traffic via the cost-per-action model. After you choose the ad format you like, the Pricing type options unblock depending on the format opportunities. So if you press the Popunder icon on the Create campaign page on SSP, CPM and CPA models become clickable, and if you choose, for example, Native Banner, CPM and CPC models are at your service.
CPA Popunder traffic:
Popunder ads serve the richest traffic volumes of over 2.2B impressions weekly. You can define your target and pick the CPA pricing to pay only when the conversion fires. But will this tactic always be the most rewarding? It may seem weird, but sometimes, you will save hundreds of dollars and get solid ROI with CPM pricing.
When to run CPA Pop ads?
Once you pick a CPA offer, you reasonably intend to pay for target actions only. This tactic is indeed the best when your offer requires fast conversions.
Types of fast conversions:
- App install
- Download
- Single-opt-in (SOI)
- Double opt-in (DOI)
- Trial
- Mobile subscription
Fast conversion flow usually comes along with several offer types: Utility, Antivirus, Cleaner, and Dating/Social/Video apps.
Why are fast conversions the most suitable for CPA traffic? The answer roots deeply into the meaning of “cpa.” You pay for actions and set up a campaign aiming at achieving as many actions as possible. You compete with those who pay for the same targets. If your conversion takes a shorter time, you win in traffic volumes and prices. And vice versa, you will have to pay higher and wait longer with a complex flow. It doesn’t mean this tactic is wrong, but it’s the riskiest one. And it means that your initial CPA offer must provide you with a decently high payout so you can spend more and stay profitable.
In summary, buying CPA traffic with fast conversion flow is a bulletproof strategy.
When to run CPM Pop ads?
Along with fast CPA conversions, there exist complex ones. When your offer contains one of the following flows, you will need to rethink the bidding:
- Deposits
- Double deposits
- Purchases
- Credit card submits (CC submit)
- Cash on delivery (COD)
- Prepaid orders
Such conversions demand a more extended time from a target user to make the final decision. It means you will have to increase spending while waiting for conversions to start pouring.
Usually, complex conversions come with those verticals and offers like E-commerce, Insurance, iGaming, and others.
Since it’s tangibly hard to balance earnings and spending while purchasing CPA traffic with complex-flow offers, you can try alternative traffic types.
The CPM pricing model reveals a perfect collection of traffic slices at a much lower price. You can buy huge numbers of impressions testing various traffic slices, and harvesting conversions along the way. It’s the most sensible long-term strategy when dealing with complex conversions.
In-Page Push traffic (Social Bar) with CPA pricing
We’ve just figured out how to buy traffic with Popunders, but how about Push campaigns? Adsterra provides you with the most robust, advanced In-Page Push ad format, which we call Social Bar. It delivers impressive CTRs up to 30% higher compared to Web Push ads. And you get access to all of its 20+ templates fine tuned for roaring CRs after you sign up.
Use cases: scale a Popunder campaign, re-engage users, increase CTRs, increase brand awareness.
The principle behind any Push campaign will be the same that we outlined in the previous chapter. You either pick CPA pricing — with fast and easy conversions — or prefer CPM traffic when dealing with complex conversions.
What’s especially important is that you can also buy loads of CPC traffic. If you’re an affiliate marketer paid for quality clicks, the CPC pricing will be the most preferable. The mighty A/B testing option allows you to upload up to 15 creatives and pick the most clickable and converting ones.
INTERSTITIALS (NEW)
The Interstitial ad format has become accessible to all advertisers with Adsterra self-serve accounts! These full-screen ads are impossible to overlook as they overlay the web page’s content. With a large main visual and a dimmed background, interstitials are designed to capture the user’s attention and engage to click. The visuals are large enough to cover a significant screen share, ranging from 45% to 80%.Available on two pricing models: CPM and CPA.
When you advertise CPA offers, you need transparent yet concise data about where your conversions come from, how many of them you get, and how much they cost. That’s when we jump to the next chapter — conversion tracking.
Conversion tracking when buying traffic via the CPA model
Conversion tracking is imperative when it comes to CPA campaigns. On the Adsterra Self-Serve Platform, you have a complete set of tools to set up a postback URL and add several tokens to track any parameters you need.
Our managers will advise you to constantly track conversions regardless of the pricing type you pick. Only when you know where the best traffic comes from can you manage the budget directing your money to the best placements.
Where to set up and test conversion tracking
On your Adsterra account, please choose Tracking → Conversion tracking. You see a step-by-step guide. Please follow the instructions to generate a postback URL and adjust the settings within your tracker or analytics system. Earlier, we published a complete guide to postback setup.
Adsterra is integrated with the most usable and renowned trackers. Please also read their instructions that cover all the necessary details.
Here is a bunch of such guides:
- Voluum and Adsterra conversion tracking
- Keitaro and Adsterra conversion tracking
- BeMob and Adsterra conversion tracking
- RedTrack and Adsterra conversion tracking
How to track CPA parameters
After you set up and tested how conversions fire, you can create a campaign with an offer URL. That’s when you add essential parameters to track. Along with the conversion itself, you will get extra details about where the best conversions come from and at which cost. This is not the full list of crucial traffic parameters to monitor.
You will need to point to your tracker which parameters to grab and deliver you as important stats. That’s when you will be using special tags that Adsterra and your tracker exchange.
Along with placements IDs and CPM, CPC, and CPA costs, you can track browser and OS versions, for instance. Here are some top-used tokens. Please ensure your tracker supports the one you need.
- ##PLACEMENT_ID## — ID of a traffic source
- ##CAMPAIGN_ID## — your campaign ID
- ##SUB_ID_SHORT(action)## — Click ID, the must-have token for CPA campaigns
- ##ADVERTISER_ID## — Advertiser ID
- ##USER_OS## — Operation System on a user’s device.
- ##REMOTE_LANGUAGE_CODE## — User’s browser language
- ##BANNER_ID## — ID of your creative. This one is handy when you run a campaign with Native Banners or Social bar ad units. You can check performance for all of your creatives within the campaign.
- ##BROWSER_NAME## — User browser
These ones you can use to pass your spending to a tracker:
- ##COST_CPM## — for CPM based campaigns
- ##COST_CPA## — for performance based campaigns
- ##COST_CPC## — for CPC based campaigns
Top CPA offers to run with Adsterra traffic
Adsterra has been a market leader for about a decade, and we aim to provide our partners with the best traffic. However, even with clean and quality impressions in front of you, how will you know which products are the best to advertise?
We have a collection of battle-tested offer examples for those who have just started with Adsterra. It’s called the Offers Wishlist, and it’s always available in your account.
What you need is to select a suitable offer, then find it or the look-alike one on your affiliate network, and set up the ad campaign for this offer on Adsterra.
To wrap up…
Now you know where to get targeted traffic for CPA offers. As an Adsterra advertiser or affiliate, you can operate CPA Popunder and Push traffic while on the SSP platform. However, if you’re on the managed account, all ad formats will be available at a cost-per-action model.
Buying CPA traffic with Adsterra is always a transparent and cost-effective strategy to run ads. For those who have just registered, we advise running CPA offers similar to those given in the Offers Wishlist tab or those with a simple conversion flow. Complex and multi-step conversions demand more extended traffic tests, so for newbies, we recommend trying CPM traffic first.
Above all, stay in touch with Adsterra managers ready to help you with targets and bids. Reach out in the live chat whenever you need a piece of good advice.
