7 Indicators of a Good CPA Offer

As we write this, there are just over 74,000 offers listed on

OfferVault.com. How do you know which one of them have the most
potential?

You could always test each one individually. All 74,000 of them!

But if you know what to look for, you can narrow your choices
down to a manageable handful. It’s still important to test one
offer against the other. But it’s more important to pick offers
with potential, before you put your time and money into testing
them.

We got together at the OfferVault offices and brainstormed over

the most important criteria we use to pick winning offers.
You’ll find the following 7 factors to be the most important
elements to look for when you’re picking out offers.

We came up with these factors in part due to our unique position

at OfferVault—we see thousands of offers added, dropped, at
updated at the site every day.

We also put our own hard-won personal knowledge into this

report. The hard-won wisdom you’re about to soak up cost us
countless hours hard work—not to mention tens of thousands of
dollars!—to figure out.

Follow these guidelines to picking a good offer, and you’ll save

yourself a ton of time and money.

1. Social Proof Factor

Social proof is a big deal when it comes to CPA offers.
Sometimes social proof doesn’t seem important in the offline
world. After all, people follow silly trends all the time. But
when it comes to CPA offers, social proof is an important
factor.

Why? When an offer is popular in the CPA world, it for one

reason and one reason only: The offer is making money for the
people who promote it. Affiliates are spending money to promote
the offer because they’re making even more money back.

There are several different elements of social proof for CPA

offers:

Is the Offer Being Run on Several Networks?

Word gets around quickly when an offer is a good moneymaker.

Network owners and affiliate managers have their ear to the
ground searching for hot offers. And if they miss out on a good
one, their affiliates are sure to ask the network to run it
(often at an increased payout).

This brand's garcinia offer appears on a number of networks.

Does the Offer Run on Established, Reputable Networks?

Sometimes shady offers end up running on new or less-reputable

networks, while the more experienced or reputable ones won’t
carry it. If an offer runs sporadically between a number of new
& smaller networks only, that may be a bad sign.
CPA networks that are well-establsihed and have good
reputations, also have decades of combined experience. They
watch out for their affiliates, their reputations, and their
bottom lines. Shady offers only help their bottom lines—and
often hurt a networks bottom line in the long run.

They’ve been around and usually know how to sniff out when
something doesn’t add up. More importantly, they have enough
resources to CARE if something is shady.

Some newer networks may take on an offer knowing full well that
it is on shaky ground—but they may feel too cash-desperate to
turn down a good-selling offer (even if in the long run it could
cost them).

Maxbounty, Neverblue, Peerfly, A4D, Convert2Media, Shareasale

are a few of the most established and trusted CPA networks going
right now. They’re not the only good networks. But they are some
of the best-known.

Are There Multiple Versions of The Offer

One sign that an offer is doing well is that there are several
different versions of it. A lack of variations doesn’t
necessarily mean the offer is going badly. But it’s usually a
good sign if the offer is available in a number of different
versions.

Variations on a basic core offer include:

• Different types of offer types for the same service or

product (short lead gen vs long lead gen vs free trial vs
sale, etc.).
• Different offers for different types of traffic (one
optimized for email and one for Web traffic, for example).
• The same offer with different landing pages (for testing,
or for different demographics).
• Free trial vs. full sale.
• Differing payment terms ($199 single payment vs. three
payments of $69)
• The same offer targeted towards different audience
demographics
• Mobile version(s) of the offer
Different versions of the offer will often have different
payouts. Keep in mind that a higher payout doesn’t necessarily
mean more money for you! The lower-paying version may convert
much better. The only way to know for sure is to test one
against the other.

Just a Few of the Angry Birds Variations

Why Copycat Offers are Indicators of Success

It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

In the CPA world, it’s also a great way to make money! So when
you see several different name brands of the same basic product,
service, or offer—that’s usually a good sign that the original
offer is doing really well.

This usually means there is a deep-rooted niche need for this

kind of product. Keep in mind that many customers in a niche
market make regular purchases. They will by similar products, or
even different versions of the same thing, over and over again!
Examples include multiple types of weight loss supplement,
exercise DVDs, dating sites, video games, bizopp offers, etc.

(By the way, this is only one of many reasons you should build
an email list. Sure, a list gives you multiple chances to make a
sale to your customers. But more importantly, it gives you
multiple chances to make multiple sales to your hottest
customers. Over and over and over again. At virtually zero
cost.)

You can use OfferVault to search for these types of offers

across networks. You can sort them by payout, network, offer
type, or market category. You can also sort them via which one
has been most recently updated.

(Sometimes the copycat offers may boost your profits more than
the original—you just have to test and see.)
 Garcinia Cambogia offers are doing very well right now.

The Advanced Search options will help you find offers suited to
the types of ads you use or the kind of traffic you drive. This
can be especially helpful when you’re just starting out and
using one type of traffic.
Offervault's Advanced Search option lets you see which offers can be promoted via your favorite traffic source--
among other things.

Are Other Affiliates Running this Offer?

Finally, are other affiliates spending money to run this offer?

As we said before, social proof in the CPA world usually means
that an offer is making money. Checking to see if other
affiliates are running the offer, is the ultimate litmus test
for CPA.

You can check on an offer with competitive intelligence tools

such as:

• WhatRunsWhere.com
• AdBeat.com
• BoxofAds.com

This sites don’t come cheap—but they do come with 3-day trial
periods. That trial period will let you do the research you need
when you’re first starting out. Any one of these tools is an
excellent investment at any time.

WhatRunsWhere lets you see which advertisers (merchants) and publishers (affiliates) are running an offer. You
can also check the top ads in your niche. You can also run a keyword search for the product’s name & targeted
terms.

It’s also important for you to stay aware of your niche and its
major publications, websites, etc. every day. Daily exposure to
your niche also lets you see new ads and offers as they appear.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that competition from other
affiliates is a bad thing. It’s not. It’s a sign that there is
money to be made with the offer. You simply have to come up with
your own unique take on it.

2. Has the Offer Been Running consistently?

Even if an offer is new, it might be a winner if it has been
running consistently. How can you tell?

The competitive intelligence tools we mentioned above are one

way to tell. WhatRunsWhere, for example, will show you how long
any ad has been running in any location.

This advertisement has been running almost 100 days at some locations.

A tool like WhatRunsWhere helps you find who is running an

offer, and then see how long they’ve been running it.
 Use these options together to check an offer's consistency.

You can search for the offer name by keyword, for example. In
the example below, we used the “Search by Keyword” tab to look
for ads promoting the Pure Garcinia CPA offer.

You can click each ad individually to see how long the ad has
been running. The chart will show you where the ad has been
running, as well (good to keep in mind for future campaigns).
WhatRunsWhere also lists the name of the site that runs each ad.
You can then plug that domain name into the dashboard to see how
long the site has been running other ads. Just select the “By
Advertisor” tab.

You can then click the links on the left to see how long the
advertiser or affiliate has been running the offer.
Of course you don’t want to do this with every single affiliate
or merchant who runs the offer. But checking a handful of sites
and ads will give you a clue as to whether the ad has been
running consistently or not.

Using WhatRunsWhere is just one way to see if an offer has been

running consistently. You can use the tools above, or places
such as:

• KeywordSpy (which can pick out ads based on affiliate ID)

• SpyFu (which doesn’t have as many features, but also costs
less than the above options)

These tools can be used later on to gather information about

your competition. For right now, you can use them to see if an
offer has run consistently You can also find a host of other
tools in the OfferVault Ultimate Affiliate Rolodex for 2014.
LINK
3. Has the Advertiser Recently Run a National Branding
Campaign?
A strong branding campaign can be a powerful force to help
promote any CPA offer. Why?

For one thing, national branding means that customers will

instantly recognize the product or service, so that you can get
straight to promoting the offer.

Name-brand recognition also provides a built-in trust factor.

This is especially true if the offer has been featured on a news
program or talk show. Even advertisements and infomercials lend
an air of legitimacy and trust to an online offer. Articles and
print ads help as well.

Does Christian Mingle's recent TV campaign help affiliates? You bet!

Good branding helps pre-sell the offer for you. It introduces

the product and its major benefit(s) for you. Your ads should
reinforce that.

We can’t emphasize enough how much trust matters when you sell
anything, anywhere—especially online. Even when people want
something, they often don’t buy because they just don’t trust
it. National branding helps people trust the offer you’re
running. This can make a HUGE difference in your profits.

National branding for an offer can include:

• News features, especially on TV (but also national
magazines, websites, etc.)
 • National ad campaign on TV, radio, Web, etc.
• Is the product endorsed by a celebrity?
• If not, are there any known celebrities that use it or is
it somehow linked to celebrities (maybe they use a similar
product).
• Does it have the endorsement of a particular group or
authority figure?
• Does it ride a current trend?
• Does it have an interesting story behind it, especially one
that involves the reader in the narrative?
• If the product isn’t well known to the public, is it at
least known in your niche?

Many garcinia advertisers feature Dr Oz on their landing pages--even though he doesn't officially endorse their brand.

Here are some ways you can work with the branding campaign to
leverage and capitalize on its strong points.
 • Drive home the same benefits in your copy as the brand uses
in its campaign. Introduce more benefits if you like. But
lead with the product branding campaign’s benefits (or
better yet, test leading with their benefits vs leading
with yours).

• Features and Facts: Use the brand-mentioned features and

facts to support these big benefits.

• Trust Symbols: Make use of any trust symbols the product or

service uses in its national campaign. If the product has
been featured in any major media,
feature that as well. (Some landing
pages include news video, although it
is your responsibility to make sure
that what you do is not in violation
of copyright, fair use, or other
laws.) Social media icons count if
the “Like” or similar count is big.

• Your landing pages should provide a smooth transition from

your site to the merchant’s site. In other words, your own
pages should be visually similar to the merchant’s page.
Many affiliates use the brand name logos on their landing
pages for that particular offer. Chances are this smooth
transition will increase your conversion rate.

4. Does the Offer Page Meet the Following Criteria?

Unless you have a great deal of time and money, you probably
can’t test out every single offer in your network. But you can
use the criteria below to evaluate an offer’s landing page, and
pick the best offer(s) to test.

We’ve also provided a one-page “cheat sheet” version of this

chapter at the end of this report. Print it out and keep it by
your computer. It’s an easy way to size up the
• Does the headline clearly state the product’s main benefit?

• Does the sales page lead with benefits—and not features?

Features and backing information help customers feel safe
and otherwise justify their purchase. But only benefits
make people want to buy. Features focus on the product, but
benefits focus on the customer. The customer is the most
important part of the CPA equation!

These benefits immediately follow the strong headline.

• Is the call to action clear and direct? Does it tell

readers exactly what they need to do? Does it tell them
(not ask them) in an authoritative voice? The call to
action leave any question about what the reader must do to
complete the action.
 Good Call to Action Bad Call to Action

• Speaking of trust, dose the use trust seals? Social media

icons that show plenty of followers (social proof)?

These are some of the most trusted seals in use on the Web.

• Testimonials. Some types of CPA offers rarely include

testimonials on the sales page (email submits, for
example). But any offer that asks for a credit card number
should have them—even if the CC is just to pay for shipping
or a free trial. Written testimonials work best when they
have a picture of the testimonial-giver beside them. Video
testimonials are even better
• If the product is a weight loss, muscle gain, or similar
product, does the landing page feature before and after
photos?
 Before/after photos work well for most health products.

• A lot of supplement offers explain the science behind the

product, complete with visuals. This kind of fact-based
backing info helps customers feel safe making their
purchase. It’s especially important for offers that require
a credit card submit.
• As important as these facts can be, make sure the landing
page leads with benefits instead of facts and features.
Ultimately, benefits are what sell.

• Does the page have an urgency element? Urgency elements

include countdown clocks, warnings of limited supply, or
even just today’s time and date at the top of the page.
 This urgency element is supplied by a WordPress plugin.

This one combines limited supply + limited time (+ seen on TV).

• A time-based element in the headline (“Lose 20 lbs in 2

weeks!” “Make $10,000 before the end of next month!”) or
call to action can serve the same purpose.

Urgency integrated into the Call to Action

• Is the page focused around a single customer, a single

product, and a single response?

• Does the landing page have any potential leaks that could
rob you of your commission? For example, if you see a phone
number on the page, double-check with your affiliate
manager to see if you will still receive a commission for
phone orders. The same goes for email opt-in forms, etc.

• Does the page’s visual design focus on two or three strong

colors, instead of confusing the viewer with a variety of
colors and design elements?
 This garcinia page focuses on green, orange, & brown throughout.

• Is the language concrete and does it invoke the senses?

• Video: Does the offer page feature video of some sort? Most
offers that require a credit card have one or more videos:
Testimonials, sales pitches, or “the science behind”/proof
elements.

Actor in lab coat explaining the science behind a muscle-building supplement.

• Does the call to action stand out visually? It should,

whether it is image-based or text-based. Text-based calls
 to actions are typically a different color (“link-blue”)
and larger than the body text.

Even text-based calls to action should stand out.

The orange button outperformed the other two by up to 95% in split tests.

• Is the call to action clear and unambiguous? Does it use

clear, firm language? The call to action should tell (not
ask) the consumer exactly what to do to complete the offer.

Two clear, short calls to action.

5. Are Networks Running Internal Traffic to the Offer?

This is something you don’t hear much about in the affiliate
industry. We’re probably going to get a lot of flak for even
mentioning this outside of closed doors. But we think it’s time
someone let the cat out of the bag.
6. Does it Have a Solid Payout Compared to the Amount
of Fields that Customers Need to Fill Out in Order to
Convert (re-check Russell’s email)

How can you know if an offer has a fair payout? Does it pay too
little for what it’s asking? Is the offer overly generous for
its offer type (this can actually be worse)? And what is a good
payment range for each type of offer?

Use These “Rules of Thumb” to Check an Offer’s Payout

The team here at OfferVault has decades of combined affiliate

marketing experience. We see tons of new offers every day. A
good percentage of those are updated on a daily or weekly basis.
We’ve put our experience and unique point of view together for
you in the following “Rule of Thumb” payout list.

One-field lead gen offers (email & zip submits)

$0.50-$1.50

2-3 field submits (some lead gen or simple dating offers)

$1.50-$5.00

4-6 fields

$5.00-$8.00

6-8 fields

$10-$15

2 pages

$15-20

Offers that require a credit card (including trial and “only pay
for shipping” offers)

$20+

Keep in mind that these rules of thumb aren’t the be-all and
end-all of CPA payout guidelines. But they should give you a
good yardstick to measure by.
Look on OfferVault to See the Current CPA Offer Payouts

Since OfferVault keeps track of over 34,000 offers across 124

networks. So if you want to see what a certain kind of offer is
paying out on average, you can get a very good sample by doing a
quick search on the site.

It’s easy enough to do a standard search—just type a term into

the search box and hit Enter.

But if you’re looking for just a certain kind of offer, or

offers that take a certain kind of traffic, make things easier
for yourself by using the Advanced Search option.

Click the "Advanced Search" button

Search by Keyword, Network, or Category

 Search by Traffic Type, Country, Conversion Type, and Payout

Once you’ve gotten the results you want, you can sort them by
Name, Payout, Type (lead, sale, etc.), Category (niche or offer
type), Network, or by date.

If you want to find out more about an individual offer, click on

the magnifying glass next to the Offer Name. You’ll be taken to
a page that has more information on the offer. This usually
includes a link to the offer’s landing page, where you can check
fields vs payout.

Know Where Your Offer Converts

Sometimes it’s not clear where your offer converts. For example,
some lead-gen offers look like a zip submit on the first page—
but then have several fields to fill out on the sample page. If
you’re not careful, you might have assumed it’s just a zip
submit with an unusually high payout (you wouldn’t be the
first).

Double-check your offer against the rules of thumb we’ve listed

above. If an offer seems to pay out more than it should, there’s
a good chance it doesn’t convert where you think it does.
7. Is the Offer Scalable?
Scalability is important with CPA offers. Offers that are
scalable can earn you a lot of profit for a little bit of work,
once you overcome the initial “hump” of learning what works and
what doesn’t.

Scalability means that once you find what works, you can easily
replicate it to bring in more. Long-term, you can have a HUGE
return on your investment this way. You can even do it on a
short term basis quite a bit of the time.

Why Running a Scalable Offer is Like Coasting On a Bike

Imagine riding a bike down a straight stretch of road. If you

pedal hard for a while (finding out what types of ads, traffic,
and landing pages convert the offer), you’ll be able to glide
for a long way (by buying more traffic, as well as replicating
your ads & landing pages with similar traffic sources).

The more scalable the offer is, the more you’ll be able to
glide. The less scalable an offer is, the more you’ll feel like
you’re pedaling uphill (fighting to show profit as traffic
slowly dwindles).

Some affiliates will go in the hole for thousands of dollars if

they think a campaign looks scalable. Then, once they figure out
which keywords, ads, etc. works, they put more money into the
campaign, make their initial money back…and much more besides.

Imagine riding a bike on a straight stretch of flat road. If you

pedal hard enough for a few hundred feet, you’ll be able to rest
your legs and coast, float, glide, relax for a few hundred more.

Scalable CPA offers work on the same principle: Once you’ve done
the hard pedaling (figuring out which ads and landing pages
work), you can sit back and coast (drive more traffic to the
offer using the methods you’ve found successful).

Scalability does more than just make your life easier. It can
make you a ridiculous amount of money if you do it right!

How You Can Know if an Offer is Scalable

Consider the following factors. An offer doesn’t have to have
all of them. In fact it might even be ANTI a few of the
following—and still be great for scaling because of other
factors. So let’s talk about it.

• How “Niche” is the offer? Can you scale outside of the

niche and sell to a wider audience? If not, does the niche
itself have a large audience? Does it contain several sub-
niches you can sell to?

• Is the offer relevant to a number of niches or sub-niches?

I.e. can you sell this to more than one niche, more than
one demographic, more than one audience? More than one
niche or even more than one market?

• Can this product solve more than one problem? If not, can
it solve a problem that many people have?

• Is the offer something that people will need to buy again

every month or year? If so, you may be able to sell it to
them repeatedly.

• Does your market buy different versions of the same basic

product? Many women who bought Acai in 2009 are buying
Garcinia in 2014.

• Is the offer compatible with several traffic sources? Or

does the merchant only want it to appear on one?

• Are there any other restrictions on how you can or cannot

promote the offer? Too many restrictions can hurt
scalability.

• Does the offer have a daily cap on it? If so, will the
merchant remove the cap once you start sending quality
traffic? Daily caps can make it difficult for you to scale
a good offer.

• Is the offer something you can sell year-round, or is it

only seasonal?

• Is it limited in its geography? (Can you only sell it to

Denmark, or to people who deal with snow 9 months out of
the year?)
• Is it tied to the release of a new product (Xbox, iPhone5,
etc)? These offers can convert extremely well and may even
be scalable for the short term. But not the long run.

• How long will this thing last? Will it go away just when
you have scaled up? Is it seasonal? If it’s seasonal, can
you get people to order next year, too?

• How established is the merchant?

• Are other merchants running similar offers? Or will you be

left in the cold if your current offer goes out of
business?

• Do many other networks have this offer or similar ones, in

case something happens with the first network? (Usually a
good offer will be on more than one network, but sometimes
a merchant may deal only in exclusives.)

• Does this offer exist in several different types—say, a

lead gen, a free trial, and a sale? This can help you scale
over different types of traffic, to different types of
customers.
 It’s All About You: How to Make Sure a CPA Offer is a
Match Made in Affiliate Heaven

We created this report to help you understand what makes a good

offer, regardless of your own history or circumstances. But you
also bring a unique set of skills and interests to the table.
Let’s talk about how to leverage those when you’re looking for a
good offer.

The following list will help you leverage your own unique
talents, experience, and interests when it comes to picking a
profitable CPA offer.

• Is it in a niche you already know? Like you know the

important stuff about what’s current in the niche and you
know the topic? More importantly…

• Is it being sold to an audience you know well?

• Do you know any audience(s) that would value this offer—

audiences not currently being sold to? You can make a lot
of money by being the first to introduce an offer into a
niche or sub-niche.

• Does the offer accept the type of traffic you’re running?

• Would you personally want to buy it? Even if your copy

skills aren’t as good as you’d like them to be, your
enthusiasm will show through. Your enthusiasm by itself
well help your ads and landing pages convert.

• Can you easily explain how it works and why someone would
want it? It’s important for you to be able to do this with
any offer. If you can look at an offer and immediately
understand why someone would want it (and be able to
explain it in a short sentence or two), you’re already one
step ahead of the game.
Offer Page Evaluation Checklist:

__ Headline is clear and leads with main benefit

__ Intro paragraph continues the headline

__ Intro paragraph, sub-header, and bullets prominently feature benefits

__ Call to action is clear and commanding, tells the reader exactly what to do

__ Call to action stands out visually

__ Trust seals appear on the page

__ Testimonials appear on the page

__ Video appears on the page

__ Other Social Proof appears on the page

__ Benefits are prominently featured

__ The offer’s features back up the stated benefits

__ Urgency: Time-based “Act Now or…” element: Clocks, countdown clock, featured date, “supplies
limited,” etc.

__ Page is focused around a single action

__ No off-page links (unless it’s to the offer’s shopping cart)

__ Money-back guarantee (for straight sale pages)