Updated CPA Goal Rules: Optimize Ad Spend, Achieving Desired eCPA or Conversions

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CPA Goal is an advanced algorithm for maximizing ad spending. Performance marketers can auto-optimize CPM/CPC traffic for conversions and limit expenses using smart rules. CPA Goal addresses the main challenge of large-scale use acquisition—converting traffic volume into value. This guide details the benefits of using CPA Goal and provides a clear, step-by-step setup process.

Important updates: 

1. Two rules in one: Add two CPA Goal rules per campaign, combining filters by conversions and by eCPA.
2. Protection period: Set the period during which placements are protected from unlinking.
   These settings become active right after you set them live, so you can fine-tune traffic more accurately and achieve the ideal balance between cost and performance.

CPA Goal’s benefits for advertisers

• Quality over quantity: Move beyond bulk impression buying. Our system optimizes your campaign based on critical marketing performance metrics: spending, eCPA, and conversions.
• Cost-efficiency with targeted traffic: Secure top-performing traffic while removing unwanted placements by simply setting clear unlinking rules.
• Tailored performance with flexible controls: Create template rules, add combinations of rules, and change placement protection settings.
• Automation for performance management: If an ad placement meets your KPIs despite hitting the spend threshold, we keep it. We recheck it 9 days later to confirm KPI adherence, protecting you from overpayment or false unlinking.

*You can change the protection period and return unlinked placements. We’ll get these topics covered later on.

Why do you need CPA Goal?

This feature is vitally important for advertisers who put user actions (CPA) as their KPI but acquire traffic using CPM or CPC pricing models.

Formerly, you had to manually blacklist placements that spent too much and delivered poor results. Now, you possess a game-changing tool to save CPM/CPC budgets and continue getting the best traffic.

CPA Goal automatically unlinks placements that get flagged by the criteria you set, either eCPA or the number of conversions. No more jumping between your tracker and Adsterra to create a blacklist: our intelligent algorithm will do all the jobs and keep an eye on your ad spend.

eCPA stands for “effective cost of conversion.” The eCPA formula will be = Spending / Number of conversions.

How CPA Goal works: Learn and apply

You maximize ad spend and enhance performance when buying CPM or CPC traffic. Three parameters are needed here:

1. Spending limit (when the algorithm must review an ad placement)
2. Conversions (the minimum number you expect to have within a placement)
3. eCPA (or the average cost of one conversion)

Let’s see how a rule works. First, you enter a critical spending amount. Upon reaching this spending, our algorithm will check if an ad placement complies with the next vital parameters:

• conversions
• eCPA (or the average conversion cost)

Case study: eCPA twice lower with CPA goal

Here is how CPA Goal helped our direct advertiser, a local online store. A Brazilian e-mall was launching a promotion aiming to embrace new audiences. Thanks to smart rules, our advertiser managed to reduce eCPA almost by half, while growing the number of shopping orders and ROI.

Background:

• Vertical: E-commerce
• Conversion flow: first order
• Geo: Brazil

1st campaign

• 14 days
• CPM pricing (no auto-optimization)
• eCPA = $12
• 2327 conversions

2nd campaign – with optimization

• 14 days
• CPM pricing with CPA Goal added
• Rule: If eCPA is >$7, then unlink the placement
• eCPA = $6–7
• 2619 conversions

Smart rules allow for managing huge traffic volumes and achieve your desirable KPIs (conversion price or volume) much faster.

How to use CPA Goal optimization by Adsterra?

Before you start

You need an Advertiser’s account. Please remember to confirm your email while registering. Your next step after the registration (if you plan to acquire traffic) is putting funds, but we will now skip this part. With Adsterra, you can access any feature without topping up the account.

S2S tracking is a must for any conversion-based activities, so please ensure you have set it up.

Step 1. Create a campaign

From the vertical menu, hit Campaigns > Create.

To go live, you’ll need to enter all the Required Settings. Please add your campaign name, pick the ad unit (e.g., In-Page Push), choose traffic and connection type, decide on the device type, and add your landing page’s URL.

Remember to include the ##SUB_ID_SHORT(action)## token to the URL and match it with your tracker’s “clickID”.

To enable further optimization, pick CPM or CPC pricing type. Then, choose a country and add a payout (bid). You can use the Traffic Estimator’s clues and enter the recommended bid.

Please note that if you select a CPA campaign, the CPA Goal option will not appear on the page. 

One more thing left to enable CPA Goal: jump to Step 4 – Advanced settings. Scroll to the CPA Goal section. Let’s now add a new rule.

Step 2. Create a rule

Ok, you’re about to add a new rule. Use any of the following 2 methods. From the drop-down list ‘Select CPA rule’ select Custom to add a unique rule per campaign. Or, click on the CPA Goal page link to add a rule you will then apply as many times as needed.

Let’s now select Custom. First, enter the critical spending amount (the money limit per placement). By hitting it, you command Adsterra’s intelligent algorithms to check all ad placements. Please enter this amount in the Spent field ($).

Next, add optimization parameters that signal our system to unlink a placement when it reaches this mark. These can be either eCPA or the number of conversions.

Let’s now draft a compound rule. It will unlink a placement if it reaches the $1 spending floor while delivering fewer than 1 conversion. The same rule checks whether the placement’s eCPA exceeds $1 when spending $10. Both rules will operate under the “OR” logic. See the example below.

Keep the default protection period (9 days). For further performance optimization, you can adjust the protection period.

The protection period plays a critical role in traffic optimization. When a placement reaches the spend floor, CPA Goal verifies if it falls under the rule’s conditions. If yes (eCPA is high / few conversions), the placement is unlinked regardless of the protection period. But if the placement hasn’t triggered the conditions, CPA Goal can protect it for a desired time. 

Please note: Changing of the rule conditions (eCPA/conversions) clears placement protection and restarts placement evaluation with the initial settings. If it’s only the rule name you want to change, all settings remain as is, including the protection period.

Click ADD RULE when finished with the settings. And let’s wrap up the setup process!

Step 3. Submit the campaign for review

As soon as you add the rule, enter all the required settings, click the PROCEED TO REVIEW button and recheck all critical parameters. Finally, click the CREATE CAMPAIGN button, and your campaign will enter a verification stage and go live as you scheduled. The smart algorithm will be applied immediately to all CPM/CPC traffic sources.

Reusing and adjusting CPA Goal rules

There is a more convenient way to create, adjust, and update the rules for smart optimization. From the vertical navigation bar, hit Campaigns > CPA Goal rules. On a new page, you can create rules to easily apply them to any campaign.

Below is the list of all optimization rules added. By clicking the Edit icon, you can correct the parameters, and the changes will be applied immediately.

Please note that you can’t create a compound rule (containing both eCPA and conversion parameters) on this page. But you can add two rules to any campaign, as outlined above.

You can quickly check which campaigns a particular rule is applied to by using the Campaigns ID column or the available filters.

Strategies for CPA Goal optimization

We’ve made sure it’s an advanced optimization strategy powered by intelligent algorithms. It allows advertisers and affiliate marketers to reach the target payout for a conversion (CPA) while purchasing CPM or CPC traffic.

You pay less for traffic since they pay for ad impressions or clicks but achieve better results by optimizing this traffic by conversions or eCPA.

• Embrace huge amounts of traffic while testing and scaling your digital marketing campaigns
• Manage the number of conversions you can get with your targeting settings
• Control your spending and virtuously allocate budgets for the long-run campaigns
• Set up global-reach advertising campaigns without risks of overspending

If you’re an advertiser or affiliate marketer, you need to try it out. It’s an updated optimization tool that uses real data to deliver you both target actions and acceptable conversion cost.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about CPA Goal: