This guide will give a brief but saturated rundown on setting up a CPA campaign. You will learn when to pick the cost-per-action pricing and when it’s not the best choice. Next, you’ll walk through the basic steps of a marketing campaign creation. If you’re new to the Adsterra Self-Serve Platform (SSP), save this guide and grab all the clues. If you want to skill up, check this guide to boosting traffic on CPA campaigns.
Which pricing fits your CPA campaign best?
The CPA pricing fits simple and fast conversion flows. Compare: you instantly decide to install an app but will hesitate before making a deposit.
- Offer types: Mobile Utility, App, Antivirus, Cleaner, Sweepstakes, mVAS content, Browser Extensions (Addons)
- Conversion flows paired with these offers: signups, app installations, trials, downloads, 1-click, 2-click, click2sms, SOI (single opt-in), DOI (double opt-in).
CPA campaign cheat-sheet
We have come up with a basic cheat sheet that will help you pick the right pricing. Apply our decade-long experience and use it to your advantage:
When should you pick alternative pricing?
Adsterra managers will recommend you CPM pricing if you run the following offer types with paired conversion flows:
- Offer types: Finance, iGaming and Sports, E-commerce
- Conversion flows: deposits, credit card submissions, double deposits,
Before setting up your first CPA campaign
Your primary step is registration. After registering as an advertiser, you can access all Adsterra traffic and features.
1. Top up your balance (ADD FUNDS page)
You can practice without adding funds. But to launch a campaign, please top up your balance. Hit the Add funds button from the left sidebar menu:
On the left, you see all payment methods available, with a description under the selected option. What to check here?
- The payment system chosen
- Deposit limits: check the minimum deposit amount
- Payment fee: it’ll be charged from your deposit amount
- Security specifications
- Verification options: only the Unilimit (Visa & Master Card) payment method allows for putting your first $100 without additional verification. All other methods require KYC verification.
- Merchant company data: Adsterra’s legal entity and bank details
7. The payment form for entering your amount is on the right. Here, you can check the invoice information, enter the amount and check which amount will be credited after the fee is applied.
8. Our support team is available in the live chat; don’t hesitate to reach us out when you need assistance.
To Contents ↑Save this short instruction for payment systems to select the most suitable.
2. Enable conversion tracking
Conversion tracking is a must for CPA campaigns. Since you pay for conversions, it’s important to:
- collect conversions in your tracking system,
- inform Adsterra about every event.
Jump to the sidebar menu on the left and hit Tracking >> Conversion tracking.
- Pick your tracker or hit Custom if you use an alternative system
- Choose the postback type
- Generate the postback and paste it to your tracker
4. Match necessary tokens/macros between Adsterra and your tracker:
The must-have token by Adsterra is ##SUB_ID_SHORT(action)##. Paste it near the clickID of your tracker.
Here’s an example of token matching in BeMob:
5. Choose an offer with a simple conversion flow (e.g., a signup via email) and paste the URL with all parameters to Adsterra.
6. Make a test conversion: do what your target user must do to complete the conversion.
If you need more detailed instructions, jump to this helpful guide to setting up S2S conversion tracking.
To Contents ↑How to set up a CPA campaign
Click Campaigns → Create from the vertical menu on the left. Or, hit the button from the upper bar.
Required Settings come first. They are necessary to submit a CPA campaign for review:
- Campaign name
- Device type
- Traffic type
- Connection type
- Ad Unit & Pricing type
- Landing URL and previews
- Country & Price (aka bid or payout)
- Budget and test budget
- Campaign start parameters
Core details about the required settings:
- Device type: Mobile (with or without Tablets) or Desktop. If you need both device types, create two campaigns.
- Traffic type: Mainstream (standard traffic), Non-Mainstream (niche traffic suitable for iGaming and Dating offers), or both
- Connection type: 3G + WiFi, WiFi only, or 3G only. The 3G setting is necessary for targeting users of particular mobile carriers.
- Ad unit and pricing type. CPA pricing is available for Popunder, Adsterra Social Bar, In-Page Push, and Interstitial ad units.
All ad units except for Popunder require creatives. When you pick such a unit, a NEW CREATIVE button appears. Please add visuals and copy for every creative.
We accept up to 15 creatives per campaign. To track their performance, add the ##BANNER_ID## parameter while setting up the conversion tracking. Check all tokens you can attach to a landing page.
- Landing URL: you can add one URL per campaign.
- Ensure to include the ##SUB_ID_SHORT(action)## token in the URL as outlined before.
- Upload preview/previews of your landing page and of a prelander (if you use one). This will help us verify the campaign faster.
Pro tip: make sure your landing page loads fast and allows proxy traffic—it’s required for successful moderation
- Country: choose a country from the dropdown and enter the price (aka payout for one conversion). Remember to click the ADD COUNTRY button to add this country in the targeting.
Pro tip: Prefer the one-country-per-campaign tactic, as it makes performance tracking more transparent and efficient.
- Test budget: the must-have setting for any CPA campaign. Its minimum amount depends on the country and starts from $10, while the maximum test budget is always $500.
- Total budget: the default toggle is ON, but you can switch it off and limit your total budget.
Pro tips and hints:
- Steer clear of overbidding, as our system will assess your campaign and offer by its value for users, not by the price set.
- If you hesitate, ask our managers to provide competitive bids
- CPA campaign start time: It’s recommended that a campaign be started right after verification.
Ok, these were the settings required to send your campaign for verification. Please recheck them and hit the PROCEED TO REVIEW button.
On a Superpreview page, check all settings and go back in case you need to alter some data. If everything is ok, click the CREATE CAMPAIGN button. Your CPA campaign will start running as you defined it.
CPA campaign tests: what you need to know
You don’t actually pay for conversion during the test. We charge you on a CPM basis. It powers the campaign with stable traffic volumes and allows for a profound outlook of all possible traffic slices.
Your test budget spending depends on the target geo, which we define using the eCPM metric. If this geo returns high eCPMs, your test budget will be spent faster.
After the test budget is out, we reestimate the eCPM regarding the traffic you have received, the number of conversions, and the CPA rate. After the test, the eCPM will be recalculated according to the traffic your campaign has received. You start paying for conversions.
Any test campaign gets optimized automatically, which means you get the best sources customized to your campaign to provide the best quality for a payout you set.
BONUS: Top CPA offers to run with Adsterra traffic
Adsterra has been a market leader for about a decade, and we aim to provide our partners with the best traffic. However, even with clean and quality impressions in front of you, how will you know which products are the best to advertise?
We have a collection of battle-tested offer examples for those who have just started with Adsterra. It’s called the Offers Wishlist, and it’s always available in your account.
What you need is to select a suitable offer, then find it or the look-alike one on your affiliate network, and set up the ad campaign for this offer on Adsterra.
Wrapping up
We promised a brief guide—we laid it out! Lots of tailored settings will be available to you after you launch a campaign. So grab two more guides to Adsterra targeting and one more about cost-saving optimization. And remember to set up your CPA campaign today!
