Glossary
CPA
CPA means the price for one completed sale or sign-up. Plain words, why it matters, and a real example from advertising work.
Short answer
CPA means the price for one completed sale or sign-up. It ties the money you spend straight to the thing you wanted, not to attention alone. Ten sales from a two hundred euro campaign is a CPA of twenty euros.
In one sentence
CPA means the price for one completed sale or sign-up. It ties the money you spend straight to the thing you wanted, not to attention alone.
A real example
Ten sales from a two hundred euro campaign is a CPA of twenty euros.
How CPA works on Advoratise
Cost per sale is what affiliate offers here are built around: an advertiser names a commission, the shop reports the sale, and the commission is only confirmed once the sale sticks. Fixed placements work differently — you pay for the slot — so their cost per sale is worked out after the fact from the sales your shop reported.
The mistake people make
Setting a cost per sale from your gross margin and forgetting returns and chargebacks. A ten percent return rate makes a twenty euro cost per sale really twenty-two. Work from what you keep after refunds, not from what came in.
What to look at next
Affiliate offers are priced per sale, so the cost per sale is agreed before anybody sends a single visitor.
Questions people ask
- Who decides the cost per sale?
- The advertiser does, in the offer, before anybody sends a visitor. It is not negotiated per sale afterwards.
- Is CPA the same everywhere?
- The idea is, but the counting is not. Always check how a platform counts it before comparing two numbers.
- Do I need to understand this to use Advoratise?
- No. Every page explains itself in plain words, and this glossary is here only when you want the detail.