What is CPA and How to Create It in a Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing strategy in company planning is one of the important things for allocating costs. Proper allocation of costs to carry out a marketing strategy will help the company to achieve returns that are no less profitable.

However, this must also be thought out carefully in order to produce optimal conversion value. The use of advertising is often controversial

Understanding CPA

Cost per action (CPA) is the commission value offered to affiliate partners if the targeted audience takes certain actions. When an audience takes the action you expect, you will pay CPA prices to affiliates or collaborators who promote the product or service.

Regardless of the cost allocation, quite a few people consider that CTA is a cost-effective strategy because you only need to pay if the desired interaction occurs through the "ad" that is created. Examples of actions that can be targeted via CTA include clicking on website pages, sharing videos, using voucher codes, and so on.

How to Create a CPA in a Marketing Plan

The application of CPA for marketing strategies can be implemented on website review pages, splash screens, or through affiliates and influencers. Here's how to design CPA for your marketing strategy.

1. Determine the campaign objective

Your goal when creating a strategy through CPA should aim to make potential customers aware of something. For example, you can choose to introduce a brand, new product, event, service, discount promo, and so on. This is important to be able to influence the advertising material brands and affiliate partners use.

2. Determine the target audience

Targeting the audience is the most important role in running a campaign by determining CPA. This is very crucial because you have to ensure that your targeted ads or links only appear to people who might be interested in your offer. Targeting your audience also helps determine the best affiliate, networking, and influencer partners to collaborate with.

3. Do competitor research

Directly or indirectly, you will share your target audience with business competitors. In this case, it is important to understand the brand's position in the market with the market share already owned by competitors. Market research will help identify which competitors you want to share affiliation and influence with.

Determining which affiliates and influencers are suitable for your brand doesn't have to start from scratch because you can target partners from competitors. Working with affiliates from competitors also relatively saves time because you can ensure that they already have experience.

Take advantage of market opportunities and potential that have not been touched or used by competitors. In this way, your campaign strategy will remain different because you also understand the strategies used by your competitors.

4. Set rational expectations

When developing a strategy for a campaign, set expectations and goals to achieve. Your campaign won't necessarily be successful by placing affiliates and influencers on a large scale, but you might be able to achieve it by using newcomers.

Affiliates and influencers can charge fees at their discretion when promoting products. The more traffic or followers, the higher the costs charged for promoting the product. Collaborate with affiliates and influencers in the development stage of your business.

5. Conduct a CPA evaluation

Your CPA marketing strategy may change over time as your business grows. For this reason, it is very important to evaluate campaign strategies. Set a weekly, monthly, or quarterly schedule to track your campaign ROI. Keep an eye on important metrics such as overall performance traffic, affiliate traffic, and competitor performance throughout the campaign.

Understanding the CPA concept and its application in marketing strategy cannot be separated from research on competitor brands. Apart from that, you also need to ensure that the strategy you take is still relevant to market conditions. This is something that company executives can continue to develop through Digital Marketing Fundamentals to design strategies and understand the ideal customer journey in the digital world.