CPA Marketing or cost per click marketing is a popular online pricing advertising model in which the payment terms are solely based on qualifying actions like sales or registrations. The advertiser pays only when the customer clicks through an online banner advertiser and subsequently either buys the product, or asks for more product details or registers for a promotion of the product. The payment is made per customer or it can be based on a fixed percentage of the sales produced. This online pricing model is related to affiliate marketing and it does not involve a lot of risk as the payment is based on advertising that produces positive results.

Most companies and organizations prefer click per action marketing when they are advertising certain products and services. This marketing has the advantage of not having to waste money on unnecessary advertising. The Companies and the organizations only pay when actions like conversions, registrations etc, are made. One should not confuse click per action with cost per action marketing. Cost per action does not involve the payment of money on each and every click like click per action. It is only when the relevant actions are performed that payments are made.

CPA Marketing is also popularly known as Cost Per Acquisition as most of the cost per click offers are concerned with acquiring new customers by making sales. This model is also beneficial to measure the effectiveness of an advertising inventory that has been purchased by the company or the organization on a CPA basis. There are two pricing models that determine the pricing mode of cost per click and they are known as the flat rate and the bid based model.

In the flat rate model the advertiser and the publisher mutually agree on a fixed amount that will be payable for each click. In most of the cases the publisher has a rate card that has the pricing lists of the cost per click payment modes in the different areas of their site or network. In the bid based pricing model the advertiser signs a contract that allows him or her to successfully compete with other advertisers in a private auction that is normally hosted by an advertising network or a publisher.

The pricing for this advertisement model covers the filling up of registration forms, the questionnaires answered, the contests that have been entered into, the cost for the ultimate purchase of the product and many other variable conditions that the company or the organizations lay down. The risks of this pricing model only are involved when the advertisement is poorly designed and does not draw customers to it. The companies must ensure that the advertisements are compelling and appealing enough to the market to enjoy the profits of CPA Marketing. Apart from this disadvantage it is a very good marketing tool for companies and organizations as they make payments in measured results and hence do not have to waste money on useless advertising expenses on promoting their products. Thus, cost per action marketing is a very safe and effective tool for the online marketing and can be conveniently resorted to by any advertiser for promotion of products and services with success.