Can somebody enlighten me on CPA marketing?

[chornbeck]

I've only used PPC in the past for lead generation, but am looking to cut out all the middle men and selling my product directly on a CPA basis.

I have several questions:

1. What kind of bidding structure is happening with CPA? I have no idea whether to bid $1, $20, $40, or what.. It's worth any of the three to me, but I'd like to know if it is simply based on the "more you bid, more traffic you get" mentality or a different model?

2. Can anyone suggest some easy to manage CPA outlets? I don't want to pay crazy setup fees, etc., just want to pay someone X dollars for each sale made. (can't wait for Google's CPA...)

3. How does bidding work when you are offering very different products at very different prices for the same keywords? Take for instance the term "las vegas". Some people are going to sell large vacation packages and some are going to give away free coupon books. How can the much smaller cost product compete in a CPA arena with someone who's willing to shell out $100/conversion for the same keyword?

I greatly appreciate any advice!

[edited by: eljefe3 at 4:13 am (utc) on Aug. 5, 2006]

[eljefe3]

Affiliate marketing is CPA. Not sure if you have a product and want to get affiilates to sell for you, or you want to sell products for others.

As for your keyword term las vegas, to compete you would need to bid on terms that fit your program. If you're selling coupons, you'd be bidding on terms such as las vegas coupons, las vegas savings, las vegas discount coupons etc.