CPA
Also called Cost per acquisition, Cost per action.
A price paid per completed action — a sale, a signup, a booked demo — rather than per click.
CPA moves nearly all the risk onto the publisher, which is why the good ones price it high or refuse it. A publisher on CPA is betting on the advertiser's landing page, checkout, pricing and follow-up, none of which they control.
CPA requires the advertiser to report conversions back, which makes trust run the opposite way from every other model: the buyer holds the numbers the seller gets paid on. Without a verified reporting path, a CPA deal is an invitation to argue.
Attribution window and deduplication have to be agreed in writing. "A sale within 30 days, last click, excluding refunds within 14 days" is a deal; "per sale" is a dispute.
How LinkBourse handles it
Conversions arrive by signed server-to-server postback, so the count is not something either side can edit after the fact. Unsigned or replayed postbacks are rejected rather than counted.
Terms it depends on
- CPL
- A price paid per qualified lead — a form fill, a trial start, a booked call.
- Postback
- A signed server call from the advertiser back to the tracker saying a conversion happened.
- Attribution window
- How long after a click or view a conversion still counts as caused by that ad.
- CPC
- A price paid per click rather than per view, shifting delivery risk to the publisher.