Re: Cost-per-Action Advertising

From: Phil Tanny <info_at_subscription-service.com>
Date: Wed 09 May 2001 13:49:28 -0500

I'm interested in the discussion of CPA advertising as
we are in the midst of spending our promotion budget in
this manner with a small network of partner publishers.
Our partners are presenting our subscription forms via
popups and are being paid per new user they send to us.

An analysis of our first quarter showed all our
partners together averaged an effective $8 CPM on a
total half million impressions. Although we and our
partners are happy with this result I'll admit I'm no
expert on the market as a whole and I'm curious how
those of you who are would judge this result.

As publishers and sellers does $8 CPM strike you as
good, bad, average?

In regards to the important issue of trust referred to
in a previous post:

We provide the publishers with a real time, online 24/7
reporting interface that counts referrals from each
partner and I let our partner publishers know I will
deliver payment to them at any interval they request.

On my side, I rely upon the safeguards built in to our
software and a detailed daily analysis of traffic,
referrals and conversion rates from all partners.

The procedures and attitudes I've described above have
succeeded in removing trust as an obstacle to a deal
when I'm talking with sole proprietor web site owners.
(The obstacle with this group is usually the agony
publishers feel in regards to the fact that their
readers won't click on banners and will complain about
pop ups.)

My CPA offer and in house tracking do seem to be
obstacles for the sales people working for larger
companies, agencies, networks etc. In the majority of
cases I've been unable to sell them on CPA and they've
been unable to sell me on CPM.

Although I don't claim to understand this completely my
best guess is that our inability to connect with most
larger firms has less to do with CPM vs. CPA than it
does with the fact that the quality of presentations on
both sides simply isn't up to the job of building the
necessary trust.

To be completely frank I believe most of the agencies
and networks could sell me much more effectively with a
well written autoresponder than they are with the delayed,
incomplete and hype ridden personal responses I get to
my enquiries (assuming I get any response at all).

And to be fair, although I am convinced that my CPA
offer is reasonable and I am personally trustworthy, my
presentation of this to these larger firms has not
been any more successful than theirs are to me.

Lot's to learn all around! Will welcome your comments.

Sincerely,
Phil

Phil Tanny, info_at_subscription-service.com
http://subscription-service.com




Received on Wed May 09 2001 - 13:49:28 CDT