Affiliate Marketing and Pay Per Lead Programs - What is a Lead?

What is a Lead? - Affiliate Marketing and Pay Per Lead
Online affiliate marketing generally falls into one of three main categories: Pay per sale, pay per lead, and pay per click. The first and last are pretty much self-explanatory, pay per sale means that you get a cut when the program you are promoting sells a product or service due to the traffic you send it, and pay per click works in the same way as the major online advertising networks such as Google Adsense, i.e. you get paid for every single visitor that clicks-through to the promoted website via your links.

But what is 'Pay Per Lead'?

What is a lead? - A ‘lead’ or more specifically a ‘sales lead’ whether online or in the physical world is the term given to a person or entity (such as a group or business) that may be interested in purchasing or subscribing to a product or service, and this represents the first stage in the sales process.

JOIN: 'SHARE A SALE' - The Ultimate Affiliate Network

Affiliate Marketing Pay Per Lead Programs

Pay per lead affiliate programs effectively fall smack bang inbetween 'pay per click' and 'pay per sale' programs, and also fall directly within the category of 'pay per action' programs. Because in order for the visitors you send to another website to qualify as a 'lead' they will need to perform some kind of pre-specified task, such as signing up for a companies newsletter.

And the fact that visitors are not required to part with any money in order to qualify as a lead can make pay per lead programs much easier to convert than pay per sale programs, and they are generally more profitable (depending upon conversion levels) than pay per click.

Cost Per Action / Pay Per Lead Examples

The task required to turn a visitor into a lead will vary per online entity. Common required actions include: entering an e-mail address, signing up to a newsletter, making an enquiry, or filling out a survey. And generally speaking the more complex the action required by the visitor to qualify as a lead the more the pay per lead affiliate program should pay.

How to Make Money with Pay Per Lead Affiliate Programs

The secret to making money with pay per lead affiliate programs is the same as with virtually every other program for making money online - targeted traffic.

There is little point in sending thousands of visitors from your vegetarian website to an affiliate program selling the book '101 Ways to Eat Meat'. But by picking programs that are related to your topic or niche, and especially if they are for products or services that you yourself would purchase, then you stand a good chance of making some money from pay per lead affiliate programs.