What is the difference between a CPA network and an affiliate network? The CPA network is primarily involved with arbitrage so could purchase inventory from multiple sources so long as this backs intent on an ECPA. An Affiliate network acts as a tech platform and clearing house to facilitate the shopping for and marketing of impressions between customer and vendor on a CPA basis. Of course several may supply a managed service on top of this. A CPA network might not provide a similar controls to either the customer or vendor about where the inventory is served or the type of advertizer or campaigns being run on their inventory. Where these controls do exist they're probably managed by the network. An affiliate network often allows buyers and sellers to select publishers/advertisers they wish to serve ads for /deliver against and is generally more of a partnership between buyer and seller. As such it's not uncommon for affiliate networks to produce a range of tools for publishers to use to promote their product/conversion. These tools could include (but certainly aren't limited to) affiliate product feeds, dynamic product banners, text link generators etc. These help publishers to promote their chosen advertiser in the most appropriate way suited to their site. CPA stands for Cost per action. It is a way of affiliate selling in which you get paid for driving internet traffic to a particular web site, wherever they perform the specified action of sometimes submitting personal details like their email address, zip code, phone number, etc. An Affiliate network acts as a platform in between affiliates and merchant. For merchants, affiliate network provides tracking technology, reporting tools, payment processing, and access to a large base of affiliates. In one line CPA Networks for the advertiser is a platform to get leads where as Affiliate Network mostly works on CPS (Cost per Sale) Model.
E.g.
24scan is a CPA Network and Amazon is an Affiliate
Network.
One more interesting point is that CPA Network uses the term “Publishers” where as Affiliate Network call them “Affiliates”. “Merchant” term in used by Affiliate Network however CPA Network use term “Advertisers”. Few Affiliate Networks and CPA Networks use these term as per their ease. So, Basically CPA Network publishers are For Those Who want To Make Instant MONEY doing some simple work .