Affiliates rarely work with advertisers directly. Between them there is almost always a CPA network, also called an affiliate network or affiliate program. It collects offers from hundreds of advertisers, gives you a tracking link, records leads and sales, and pays for results. Your choice of network matters as much as your creative: the same campaign can be profitable in one network and lose money in another because of payout, approval rate and traffic rules.
What is a CPA network and how does it make money
CPA (cost per action) means paying for an action. The advertiser pays not for impressions or clicks but for a result: a lead, a sign-up, a deposit, a purchase. A CPA network is the middleman that organizes the whole process:
- The advertiser comes to the network and agrees on a rate per action.
- The network publishes an offer with its terms: geo, allowed traffic sources, payout, hold.
- The affiliate joins the offer, gets a tracking link and sends traffic.
- The network records conversions, reconciles them with the advertiser and pays the commission.
The network earns the spread: the advertiser pays it more than it pays you. In return you get a single dashboard, scheduled payouts, a manager and ready-made promo materials, and the advertiser gets a stream of customers without hunting down hundreds of individual partners.
Payout models in affiliate programs
| Model | What is paid for | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| CPL (cost per lead) | A lead with contact details | E-commerce, nutra, finance, services |
| CPA | A specific action | Sign-up, first deposit, purchase |
| CPS (cost per sale) | A sale | Online stores, COD e-commerce |
| RevShare | A share of the revenue from the customer | Gambling, betting, crypto, subscriptions |
| Hybrid | Fixed payout plus a percentage | Gambling and betting |
| CPI (cost per install) | An app install | Mobile apps and games |
Fixed payouts (CPL, CPA) are easier to start with: you see right away what a result costs. RevShare can earn more over the long run, but the money comes in gradually, which makes it harder to judge a campaign quickly.
The life of a conversion: lead, hold, approval
What surprises beginners most is that "leads in the dashboard" and "money in the balance" are different things. A conversion goes through these stages:
- Lead: the submission is recorded.
- Hold: the advertiser checks the lead. Did the call center reach the person, did they pay for the product, is it a bot?
- Approved: the lead is confirmed and will be paid.
- Rejected or trash: the lead does not count. Duplicate, fraud, wrong data, wrong geo.
The approval rate (approve rate) is the share of confirmed leads. Two networks can offer the same payout, yet with different approval rates your real income can differ several times over. An illustration: with a 10 $ payout and 40% approval, each lead is worth 4 $ on average; with an 8 $ payout and 70% approval, it is worth 5.60 $. Statuses are covered in detail in conversion statuses: lead, hold, approved.
How to choose a CPA network: the criteria
1. Offers for your vertical and geo
A network can be strong in nutra and weak in gambling. Do not look at the total number of offers; look at whether it has the geos and verticals you need, and exclusives, offers nobody else has. How to judge the offer itself is covered in how to choose an offer.
2. Payouts and approval rate
Compare not the payout but the expected revenue per lead: payout multiplied by approval rate. Ask your manager about the real approval rate for the offer in your geo, and check it against your own stats after testing.
3. Hold and payment schedule
How many days a lead spends on hold, how often payments go out, whether there is a minimum payout threshold and which payout methods are available. For an affiliate with a small turnover, a long hold means frozen budget that is not working in ads.
4. Traffic rules
Every offer has a list of allowed and forbidden traffic sources, creative types and angles. Breaking them is grounds for rejecting your leads. If you run Facebook traffic, make sure Facebook is allowed, and ask whether brand bidding, incentivized traffic and push are acceptable.
5. Postback and tech support
An affiliate network has to be able to send a postback, a server-to-server notification of a conversion to your tracker, with statuses and amounts. Without it you will not know which ads make money. Ideally the network sends separate statuses (lead, approved, rejected) and updates the conversion when its status changes.
6. Manager and reputation
A good affiliate manager points you to offers that convert, raises your payout when you bring volume, and sorts out disputed leads. Check a network's reputation through reviews on industry forums and communities, not through the network's own ads. Where scammers really do show up in affiliate marketing is covered in is affiliate marketing a scam.
| Criterion | What to ask or check |
|---|---|
| Offers | Does it have the verticals and geos you need, any exclusives |
| Revenue per lead | Payout × real approval rate |
| Hold | How many days, what it depends on |
| Payouts | Schedule, minimum amount, methods |
| Traffic rules | Is your source and angle allowed |
| Postback | Does it send statuses, amounts, updates |
| Support | How fast the manager replies, how disputes are handled |
A catalog of affiliate networks with ready-made conversion tracking templates is on the CPA networks page, for example AdCombo and Dr.Cash.
Affiliate link, sub ID and postback
The network gives you an offer link. To tie each lead to a specific click, you add your click ID to a parameter the network can return, most often sub1, subid, aff_sub or click_id. When a conversion happens, the network sends a postback to your tracker's URL with that ID filled in.
An offer link with a click ID:
https://track.partner.com/click?offer=55&sub1={click_id}
The mechanics are covered in more detail in postback URL and S2S tracking and click ID and SubID.
How to connect an affiliate network to ArtisanClo
In ArtisanClo, conversion tracking is set up in the Conversions setup section:
- Affiliate networks: hundreds of ready-made templates, or your own network. A template already knows which parameter the network takes the click number in and how its statuses translate, and includes a ready postback URL for the network's dashboard. The "Your networks" table shows the money for each one.
- In the flow, on the offer card, pick an affiliate network and click "Show the postback address for the network's dashboard": the window shows the URL and three steps (copy it, paste it into the network's dashboard, wait for the first conversion). The live check switches from "Waiting…" to "Received and matched to its click — everything works."
- Parameter for the offer address: through it the network receives the click number. If you do not add it yourself, it is appended when you save.
Network statuses are translated automatically: approved becomes a sale, pending becomes hold, refund becomes rejected, fraud becomes trash, and an empty status becomes a lead. A repeat postback with the same transaction ID updates the record, which is how a network confirms or reverses a lead. If the network did not send an amount, the payout from the offer settings is used; currencies are converted to dollars at the daily ECB rate.
For each offer you can set "What you are paid per lead and per sale", and the click cost model (CPC, CPM, from the link, CPA, RevShare) is chosen at the flow's tracker step. After that, the Reports section shows revenue, cost, profit and ROI for every network, offer and label. The "On hold" column shows payouts the network is still reviewing; they are not counted as revenue until confirmed.
Tip. If you run traffic through Keitaro, Binom or another tracker, you can receive conversions through it: tracker templates are in the same "Conversions setup" section.
CPA network or direct advertiser
Sooner or later an affiliate asks: why give the network a cut of the payout if you can work with the advertiser directly? Both options have a price.
| CPA network | Direct advertiser | |
|---|---|---|
| Payout | Lower by the network's margin | Higher |
| Barrier to entry | Low, sign up in minutes | Requires volume and reputation |
| Choice of offers | Hundreds in one dashboard | One or a few products |
| Payments and disputes | The network guarantees and mediates | You negotiate yourself |
| Tech | Ready postbacks and promo | Integration often has to be built from scratch |
For a beginner it almost always makes sense to start with networks. A direct deal pays off once you consistently drive volume on a single product and are ready to handle reconciliation yourself.
How to test a new affiliate network
Do not move your whole budget to a new network at once. Test it on small volume:
- Test conversion. Before launching ads, send a test lead and make sure the postback reaches the tracker and is matched to the click.
- Small test run. Run the offer on part of your traffic next to a network you already know, so you compare approval rates on the same audience.
- Reconciliation. Once the hold period has passed, compare the lead count in your tracker and in the network's dashboard. Small discrepancies are normal; systematic ones are a reason to talk to the manager.
- Payout. Wait for your first withdrawal before scaling.
Tip. If the network's approval rate suddenly drops with nothing changed on your side (same creatives, geo and source), compare your tracker stats with the network's dashboard and take the numbers to your manager.
Working with several affiliate networks
Experienced affiliates keep accounts in several networks: the same product is often available in different networks with different payouts and approval rates. To make the comparison fair:
- put the same offer from different networks into one flow with weights, which gives you a split test on revenue;
- pull conversions from all networks into one tracker;
- compare EPC and profit, not the payout.
Common mistakes with CPA networks
- Choosing by the highest payout. Without the approval rate, it is a lottery.
- Not reading the offer rules. Leads from a forbidden source will not be paid.
- Not setting up the postback. Without it you do not know which ads make money.
- Counting hold as money. Hold is a promise, not a balance.
- Not talking to your manager. The manager is your source of information on offers and geos that work.
The short version
A CPA network gives affiliates access to offers, conversion tracking and payouts, and you bring customers in return. Choose an affiliate network by expected revenue per lead (payout × approval rate), hold length, traffic rules and postback quality. Add the network to your tracker before your first launch and test the postback with a test conversion, and your comparison of networks will rest on numbers rather than promises. If you are just starting out, read affiliate marketing for beginners first.
