CPA Affiliate Marketing: Best CPA Networks Now

CPA Affiliate Marketing: Best CPA Networks

CPA affiliate marketing is a profitable revenue stream for many affiliate marketers. Wondering which CPA network has the best offers and highest commissions? In this list, we cover the best CPA networks of 2022.

CPA affiliate marketing - how does it work?

CPA Affiliate Marketing is performance-based marketing. CPA means cost per job. In this model, the affiliate is paid for driving traffic and completing a specific action. This action could be, for example, sign-up, sell or request a quote.

Although CPA networks are called just that, CPA offers can fall into different categories. Here are a few examples:

PPI or CPI offers to stand for pay per install or cost per install. This offer means you get paid every time a visitor installs a piece of software.

CPL, or cost per lead, means you get paid for each registration, email address, phone number, or any other data that helps a company get in touch with leads.

CPS is one of the more difficult conversions to make and means cost per sale.

CPA networks promote these action-based offers on an affiliate basis. The network is the link between the affiliate and the company (merchant) with an offer.

The affiliate chooses the offer to work with and is paid for each completed action.

There are thousands of networks that you can join as an affiliate. Unfortunately, some networks have been involved in scams, so you need to make an informed decision.

Best CPA networks

Let’s go over the best CPA networks for publishers!

1. MaxBounty

2. PeerFly

3. CPATrend

4. FireAds

5. CPALead

6. Perform

1. MaxBounty

MaxBounty is arguably the most well-known CPA affiliate network. It has over 20K affiliates on the platform. As a publisher, you can browse hundreds of offers from different advertisers and verticals. MaxBounty is known as a trusted partner for both affiliates and traders.

The platform only accepts associates who are willing to have a short onboarding chat by phone. In an onboarding call, an affiliate manager asks you questions about your experience and promotional plans.

MaxBounty is unwilling to accept marketing newbies. But if you have some experience in marketing you are more likely to be accepted.

Once you are accepted for the program, you are assigned an Affiliate Manager who keeps you updated on the latest offers and opportunities relevant to you.

As a seasoned affiliate marketer, you can promote premium offers that are closed to newbies.

Payouts: Weekly

2. PeerFly

PeeFly is a US-based affiliate network. The platform has won many awards like no. 1 Affiliate Network in 2012 and 2013 by Performance Insider and Top 3 Affiliate Network by Amthink Blue Book in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Compared to other affiliate networks, PeerFly is relatively small. It has been consistently praised for the quality of matches it provides between merchants and affiliates. The network offers some of the highest-paying opportunities in the industry.

At this point in time, PeerFly has over 75K publishers worldwide and over 2,000 offers to choose from.

PeerFly only accepts more experienced affiliate marketers. To join this space you need to have earned income from other networks in the past. Therefore, this network is best suited for mid to senior-level CPA marketers.

Payouts: Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. 

3. CPATrend

Another popular network is CPAtrend. Here you can find CPL, CPI, CPS, and CPC offers.

It is a trustworthy network that has a good reputation all over the world. The popularity of CPAtrends stems from its high-paying offerings. Support is available 24 hours a day and so is accurate real-time reporting.

When it comes to commissions, all new affiliates start with a monthly payment. A variety of standard payout methods such as PayPal, Payoneer, and even check can be used to transfer commissions.

If you deliver quality traffic and conversions, you can go up to bi-weekly or weekly payouts. The limit for biweekly payments is $500 and for weekly payments, there is $1000.

Payouts: Starts with monthly transfers but you can move up to weekly payouts with good results.

4. FireAds

Affiliate network FireAds has been around for a while. Established in 2009, this Polish company is a well-established player in the industry. Here, you can find CPL, PPI, CPS, and CPA offers in many places.

As a more senior player in the affiliate market, FireAds has built a solid network of affiliates and merchants. The company has over 220K registered affiliates and has paid out over $10 million in commissions.

FireAds puts a lot of focus on providing support to affiliates. One great feature worth mentioning is the ability to decide when you want to receive payments. Once your commission is approved, you can withdraw at any time using the most common payment methods such as PayPal, Payza, ePayments, and Payoneer.

Payouts: After commission approval, self-serve withdrawal is available with a minimum threshold of $20. 

5. CPALead

CPALead is a fast-growing network of affiliates with valuable offers. The platform promotes itself as a self-service CPA and CPI platform that includes advanced geographic targeting.

CPALead offers you a wide variety of offers to choose from. It offers banner ads, native ads, pop-unders, pop-ups, and other tools to help you monetize your traffic.

After signing up, you can get started right away. CPALead does not have a program approval window or onboarding call. The support team is available round the clock, making ad hoc support possible in all time zones around the clock.

If you don't have CPA affiliate marketing experience, but you want to monetize your website traffic, then CPALead is a good place to start.

Payouts: weekly

6. Perform[cb] (previously ClickBooth)

Display [CB] is a merger of several affiliate networks, Clickbooth, AdPario, and Ignite OPM. Since the beginning of 2020, these networks operate together as a company called Perform [cb].

The focus of the performance is to provide scalable high-quality traffic to partners while providing publishers with high-paying offers. The platform and the individual companies before are well known in the affiliate industry and have received numerous recognition awards.

On the display, you can find CPI, CPL, and CPS offers. You receive payouts through the most common payment methods with a limit of $50.

Payouts: Minimum threshold of $50

How much can you earn with CPA affiliate marketing?

Payouts for CPA affiliate marketers vary widely. How much you can earn with these offers depends on how difficult it is to generate quality traffic (including the level of competition) and the type of action required.

As the price of the action increases, the commission gets better. For example, payments are usually higher for sales than for sign-ups. Also, particular verticals pay better than others.

In addition to the value of the action and the level of competition, your experience also affects the number of payouts. With more experience, you get better offers from the networks that want you on their platform. Networks compete with each other for your time to work on their offers. You will soon find yourself negotiating better commission rates with network managers.

What about other types of affiliate marketing? 

If we compare CPA affiliate marketing with other types of affiliate marketing, then the difference is in the relationship between merchant and affiliate.

Affiliate marketers who join the program in-house have direct communication with the merchant's program managers. Whereas with CPA Affiliate Marketing, there are networks with multiple offers from different companies.

Advantages of joining CPA networks vs. in-house programs

• Networks have a variety of offers from different companies. You can simply pick the offers you want to work with.

• Listings on networks make it efficient to filter offers based on traffic source, action type, and niche. Hence, you can easily find promotions that match your expertise.

• Commissions earned for multiple offers are processed in one payout. 

Disadvantages of Joining a CPA Network vs. In-House Program

There are also some disadvantages to working with networks. There are a few things to consider before choosing CPA Affiliate Marketing.

testing and investment

CPA Affiliate Marketing is all about testing and optimizing your campaigns. If you are new to CPA marketing, you want to set up your experiments wisely before wasting money on paid advertising.

change in offer

Offer terms are subject to change, meaning you may need to change traffic sources or goals midway through your campaign. Sometimes, offers are removed from the network. This means that the time and money you spend on optimizing your campaigns may be wasted before you reach your good ROI.

share to network

Networks take their share of profits by acting as middlemen bringing companies and affiliates together. You can often get higher commissions from in-house programs.

This is especially the case with programs that offer recurring commissions, such as the Supermetrics Partner Program. If you can find in-house programs that best suit your niche and traffic sources, it can bring you a higher ROI.

To learn more advanced tips on affiliate marketing, check out our article: Expert Affiliate Marketing Strategies To Boost Your Conversions.