Few publishers realize that overlooking commission models when joining affiliate programs may result in hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of dollars in lost revenues.
The catch lies in the quality of your traffic. If your visitors strongly align with an affiliate offer, a cost-per-action (CPA) model, with its high value per event, is generally your most prospective option.
This guide dissects the CPA marketing model, revealing the top CPA affiliate networks and programs and presenting essential software for lead generation, tracking, and distribution.
Book a demo or take a product tour to explore Phonexa’s solutions for affiliate marketing in more depth.
Cost-per-action is a performance-based marketing model where the advertiser pays for a predetermined user action, such as a purchase, registration, or installation.
Cost-per-action formula:
| CPA = Total Campaign Cost / Number of Actions |
| Publishers | Advertisers |
| Higher revenue: If you’re a skilled affiliate with targeted traffic, you may earn more profit while promoting high-ticket cost-per-action offers. The CPA payouts are tied to concrete actions and often have a higher value per event than in many other marketing models, like cost-per-mille (CPM). | Cost-efficiency: You only pay for measurable results without investing in clicks or impressions that may never convert. |
| Granular targeting: Since you know the action you’re looking for, it’s easier to target your content | Measurable results: An action-based profit model allows you to calculate your ROI quite accurately, even before launching a campaign. |
| Choice of programs: Cost-per-action affiliate programs span a wide range of niches, from finance to food delivery, enabling monetization regardless of your audience type. | Flexibility: Whether your business needs new leads, subscribers, or app downloads, you can maximize any of them with cost-per-action. |
MaxBounty is an affiliate network that partners with Walmart and McAfee, featuring over 3,000 programs. Besides employing the CPA pricing model, the platform is highly supportive of its partners, providing them with lead management software and preventing fraud from both sides.
These are the three best CPA affiliate programs within the network:
| Upstart – HELOC | Acorns Early – Kids Debit Card and App | Aspiration – Climate Friendly Banking | |
| Category | Financial, Loans | Financial, Credit Cards | Financial, Loans |
| Payout type | Fixed | ||
| Target action | Converting a user into a lead | ||
| Commission | $150 | $11 | $37.50 |
Profitise is a cost-per-lead network that operates within the insurance and solar niches and pays per qualified leads and callers while also providing you with dedicated affiliate managers.
Profitise helps you generate qualified leads through custom forms you receive upon joining the network. Designed by experienced performance marketers, they also maximize your conversions by reducing frictions during submission.
Perform[cb] is an affiliate network that annually pays over $10,000,000 in commissions within two affiliate programs:
Joining both programs gives you access to regularly updated creatives and assigns you a dedicated account management team. The cookie duration is 30 – 45 days.
Monetise is an exclusively CPA advertising network with over 10,000 publishers. With its two largest programs being Consumer Cellular and Lowes Hosted Windows, the platform appeals to creators in the home services niche.
Once the partnership is established, Monetise’s managers become your business assistants, helping you with campaign optimization and compliance.
DOPPCALL is a cost-per-action affiliate network that, as its name suggests, specializes in callers. Whether you want to enhance your existing call center or establish a new one, Phonexa’s proprietary software is ready to help.
CloudPBX provides you with an uninterrupted cloud-based phone system, along with the ability to score calls and enhance your agents’ productivity. Call Logic, in turn, offers:
| “You need Phonexa to squeeze the most revenue out of the calls, to monetize them as well as possible, keep fraud out of the picture, and keep everyone happy on both sides of the equation.” – Evan Weber, from Pioneering Pay-Per-Call Excellence |
Take a product tour to learn how Phonexa’s solutions can maximize your affiliate marketing profit.
Here are the DOPPCALL CPA affiliate marketing programs you can power with our software:
| Bankruptcy Lawyer Consultation | Home Security Consultation | Real Estate Consultation | Medicare Insurance | Home Security | |
| Category | Legal Services, Bankruptcy Lawyer | Home Services, Home Security | Real Estate, Consultation | Medicare, Health | Insurance, Home Security |
| Allowed traffic | Search ads, SEO, Social Ads, Display, Native | Search ads, SEO, Social Ads, Display, Native | Search ads, SEO, Social Ads, Display, Native | Search, Social, Native, Display, Video, OnShore Transfers | Search, Social, Native, Display, Video |
| Payout | $40 – $80 (20% rev share) | $40 – $80 (20% rev share) | $40 – $80 (20% rev share) | $200 | $200 |
| Daily cap | 10 sales | 10 sales | 10 sales | Unlimited | 100 billable calls |
With over 10 years of experience in affiliate marketing, Dynu In Media features 500+ advertisers, 2,000+ publishers, and 1,000+ offers. Besides sharing this information through dedicated managers, the platform equips publishers with an anti-fraud system and lead management software.
As of today, Cat Insurance is among the most lucrative cost-per-action affiliate programs on the platform, offering a one-time commission of $63.
With its advanced reporting, fast CPA payouts, and diverse affiliate programs, Awin has all the tools a publisher needs to prosper.
Credit Karma, a platform’s stand-out program, is a great option for U.S. content creators whose audience aligns with finance control applications. Once leads follow your affiliate link, a cookie is embedded into their device for 30 days, which increases your chances of earning a $7 new member commission or $4 for users who return after being dormant.
SmartAdv is one of those networks that practices close collaboration with its publishers. The platform’s managers are trained at the highest levels to guide your content creation, facilitating optimal performance and income.
Here are the SmartAdv cost-per-action campaigns:
| Freshia Air Purifier – DTC | Smart Financial – Auto Insurance | Real Estate Bidders – Sell Your House Fast | |
| Category | N/A | Auto Insurance | Home Improvement, Services |
| Traffic types | Social, Banner, Native, Push, SEO, Search, Brand Bidding | Banner, Contextual, Display, Facebook, Native, PPC, Search, SEO, Social | Banner, Contextual, Display, Facebook, In-App, Native, PPC, Search, SEO, Social, Video, YouTube |
| Payout | $85 | N/A | N/A |
Insurance, which is consistently in demand across the entire United States, has always been popular in the affiliate landscape. Not only does it promise large commissions, but it’s also very diverse thanks to its life, auto, pet, and health insurance sub-niches.
Let’s explore the best cost-per-action insurance affiliate programs.
Hiscox is a U.S.-based service that offers insurance plans for small businesses and provides publishers with an opportunity to promote them. Every quote you generate earns you $25 in commissions, which, given Hisocx’s high-quality banners and text links, are expected to flow rapidly.
While signing up for the site’s affiliate program takes several minutes, the application review lasts around 3 days. If you have any questions, Hisocx invites you to consult with its managers.
Insurify is a self-claimed national fastest-growing insurance community that covers car, home, rent, travel, and pet insurance. Its current affiliate program promotes car insurance, offering seamless integration with your site and competitive commission rates.
Joining the Insurify program requires sharing your business details, such as your niche and traffic sources, with the site’s support team via email.
With an astounding 100 years of experience, Liberty Mutual is a go-to insurance service in the United States. While specializing in all insurance types, the site’s affiliate program covers auto, home, and renters insurance, rewarding you $10, $10, and $3 commission per quote, respectively.
Liberty Mutual cultivates professional relationships with its partners, assigning dedicated affiliate teams to them and issuing promotional assets. If your campaigns show outstanding results, the company pays you bonus commissions.
Over the last five years, solar power net generation in the U.S. has grown by over 100,000 gigawatt-hours. It signifies an increasing interest in solar energy, which drives installers to generate customers through affiliate programs.
Inspired by a passion for innovation, Goal Zero has been a solar installer for over 14 years, also supporting at-risk communities worldwide. The platform offers solar panels, power stations, generators, and other energy appliances, which you can promote through an affiliate program and earn 10% commissions on each sale.
By partnering with Goal Zero, you gain access to promo banners, links, and an automated product feed. The cookie duration is 30 days.
A1 SolarStore is one of the most diverse installers in America, offering panels with varying power outputs (380-660W), cell counts (96-156 cells), and applications (home, boats, recreational vehicles, and commercial).
The company provides promotional assets with cookies that last for an astounding 180 days. Whenever your lead purchases one of A1 SolarStore’s goods, you receive a 6% commission, which is approved within 7 days.
Here’s what makes HVAC a prominent affiliate industry:
Let’s take a look at HVAC affiliate programs.
Starting from simple air conditioners and progressing to complex heat pump systems, HVACDirect covers all essential appliances within the niche. You can promote these items through a 5% pay-per-sale program, allowing you to withdraw your rewards after accumulating $100+ on your balance.
Among the biggest benefits for publishers, HVACDirect provides real-time statistics and reports, enabling you to fine-tune your strategies for optimal results.
Heat & Cool, an authorized American HVAC dealer, offers a range of products, including air conditioners, ductless mini-splits, heaters, indoor air quality systems, and spare parts for your HVAC appliances.
The company’s affiliate program offers you 6% commission on every sale. With an average order value of $1,000, Heat & Cool generates approximately $60 in pure income per referred buyer.
AirFilter.com specializes in air conditioning filters for pure airflow, providing them in any standard size or producing custom ones. Regardless of the promoted filter, the platform rewards you with 12% commission on every qualified buyer you generate.
As it has no dedicated marketing team, AirFilter.com employs professionals from AvantLink.com to provide you with promotional assets and manager assistance.
Cold Air Central supplies thermostats and HVAC control systems, along with motors, filter elements, and even tools to maintain installations. If your audience aligns with these goods, you can promote them through links, earning 5% from every item you help sell.
What’s good about Cold Air Central affiliate programs is that there is no minimum sales requirement – you can withdraw your rewards as soon as the first commission arrives.
Instead of selling appliances like previous brands, Patriote Appliance installs and maintains them. The brand’s affiliate program requires you to promote air conditioner installations, paying you between $250 and $500 per service delivered.
An appeal for home improvement services will never decline – the same applies to affiliate programs within this niche.
HUG Hydronics is a company that sells in-floor heating systems and also provides its customers with easy-to-understand online courses on how to install them.
If you want to partner with HUG Hydronics, you should learn about the platform’s offerings, receive a coupon, and distribute it to your leads. Once a person purchases any equipment using your code, you receive 5% of total sales – $250 on average.
To maximize the profit from CPA affiliate programs or networks, you need specialized software. It streamlines the management of your campaigns, also assisting with, and potentially automating, your lead generation, tracking, and distribution.
Phonexa is an all-in-one performance marketing software suite, offering multiple proprietary tools to elevate your lead generation.
One of them is HitMetrix, your best user behavior recording and website conversion rate optimization (CRO) assistant. It records website sessions, providing you with footage and heatmaps that help eliminate friction points within your funnel.
Email marketers will benefit from E-Delivery, our development that measures email deliverability, integrates with major email service providers, and segments recipients based on their behaviors. Publishers utilize this data through embedded A/B testing to optimize email campaigns and maximize click-to-open rates.
Book a demo and learn how Phonexa’s tools can streamline your affiliate business.
Accumulating experience since 2016, Everflow designs solutions for performance marketers that perfectly fit to empower CPA-based campaigns.
The platform offers multiple plans:
With a team of over 100 marketing professionals, Voluum continually works to enhance its performance marketing tools.
The platform covers three marketing pillars:
If you coordinate multiple pay-per-action affiliate programs, you’ll also make use of Voluum’s rule-based traffic distribution that maximizes conversion rates.
CPV One is a cloud-based variation of the popular CPV Lab, a marketing tracking solution for cost-per-action campaigns, organic traffic, email marketing, mobile ads, video ads, retargeting, and more.
The platform uses server-side tracking, first-party cookies, and conversion APIs to pull relevant metrics about your campaigns, which you can use to test and optimize your affiliate performance.
Speaking of tests, CPV One powers them through MV Lab, a platform that measures the performance of multiple landing pages from a single URL. Your team can also utilize this and other service features thanks to multi-user account access.
Keitaro and its granular campaign insights will eliminate guesswork from your marketing forever. The platform gathers insights from your TikTok, referral links, Facebook ads, and other marketing touchpoints, presenting them through an intuitive dashboard.
Here are Keitaro’s pricings for non-business users:
| Starter | Advanced | Expert | |
| Price | $48 | $80 | $120 |
| Access to users | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Domains | 1 | 100 | 500 |
| Onboarding | No | No | Yes |
| Landing page editor | Yet | Yes | Yes |
| Admin dashboard protection | No | No | Yes |
| Features | Traffic tracking and distribution, custom filters, reports on clicks, GEO-data based | ||
Users can request a free trial to explore Keitaor’s functions before investing in any of those packages.
While the majority of affiliate solutions provide one or two features, Phonexa’s all-in-one software package covers everything from behavior tracking to AI-powered call agents.
The coolest part is that all our solutions operate in sync, with all essential data consolidated on a single panel. It means no more juggling between browser tabs to manage leads – just a streamlined workflow with quick and effortless results.
| “Having all in one place allows you to give your decision makers and your media buying team the right data – what’s happening and what stuff that’s working they should do more of. That’s the performance marketing logic. But it’s surprising how many systems just don’t allow you to do all of that quickly – spotting issues as you go.” – David Pickard, CEO at Phonexa |
Get Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite at a single price:
| LMS Sync | Lead tracking & distribution software |
| Call Logic | Call tracking & distribution software |
| E-Delivery | Email & SMS marketing software |
| Cloud PBX | Cloud phone system |
| Lynx | Click tracking software |
| Opt-Intel | Suppression list management software |
| HitMetrix | User behavior recording & analytics software |
| Books360 | Automated accounting software |
Build your plan now, or take a product tour to explore Phonexa’s innovative solutions.
In affiliate marketing, cost-per-action is a commission model that involves paying for predetermined actions, such as purchases or sign-ups. That’s why cost-per-action is a broad term that encompasses cost-per-sale, cost-per-install, and other partnership models.
If you’re an advertiser, you should divide your total budget or marketing spend by the number of actions taken. Publishers shouldn’t calculate – the conditions of the affiliate program determine their CPA reward.
First and foremost, you need software that tracks clicks, impressions, conversions, and other metrics. The rest depends on your business specifications. For example, call-reliant publishers may integrate AI call agents to enhance their calling capabilities without hiring extra agents.
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