Quel est le potentiel économique du modèle CPA (coût par acquisition) au Canda considérant la forte croissance de ce modèle aux US ?

First, I would like talk about the definition of CPA. CPA more often refers to “Cost Per Action”, which is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement. But in advertiser’s aspect, it’s about acquiring something, like new customers, prospects or leads, so sometimes it refers to Cost Per Acquisition, too^[1]. Some people think that using the term “Cost Per Acquisition” instead of “Cost Per Action” is not a mistake. In fact, it’s more specified, because it refers to every effective action. So “Cost Per Acquisition” is included in “Cost Per Action”, but not all “Cost Per Action” offers can be referred to as “Cost Per Acquisition”. Compared to CPC (cost by click), CPA model avoid the click fraud and make the advertisement more efficient.

The practice of this new advertising method has been overspreading in America. On Tuesday 20th March 2007, Google launched a beta format of CPA model for advertisers in the US, which has undergone testing since the summer of 2006.  Also eBay, not long ago, has launched its AdContext program. Although, some niche players (Snap, ValueClick, Jellyfish, etc.) have already adopted CPA, but foray of big leader like Google and eBay into the market would be a huge step to broaden acceptance of this concept.[2]

In Canada, the companies might go after what have been adopted by US, and there are also some possible models which would be interesting for them, for example, Cost per Call, and Cost Per Purchase. Cost per Call, just as its name implies, advertisers pay only when they receive calls from their customers through the number published on website, and advertisers and their customers don’t need to pay for the calling bill. Ingenio Company[3] has adopted this model, and it has gained revenue of nearly 80 millions dollars in 2005, and more than 120 millions in 2006.^[4] In fact, Cost Per Call was also adopted by Google in 2005, but it’s said that Google has given up on this plan. In my opinion, if Google had acquired Skype, with the facility of Skype, the model could have been definitely carried on. Cost Per Purchase, it has been applied by a Canadian car selling website named text4cars ^[5] ,  as it announced “Sellers are not subject to paying for advertising costs which only gives them a limited window of opportunity to sell their vehicle…You only pay for results! If your vehicle interest buyers, then only the serious buyers will contact you. We only charge when a buyer contacts you. ” In this way, the publishers get commission of every transaction, and advisers can focus the advertising only for the promising buyers.

 However, there are also many problems with CPA model, for example: Difficult to manage, not immune to fraud, suitable only for medium/large businesses etc. ^[6] It is obvious that CPA alone is not the panacea for advertisers, so that many advertisers regularly shift between several types of campaigns – including CPM, CPC and CPA. 

[1] Google launches CPA model for advertisers in the US, http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/google-launches-cpa-model-for-advertisers-in-the-u.asp/3614/

[2] CPA, the holy grail of online advertising? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cpa_holy_grail.php

[3]  http://www.ingenio.com/documents/corp/company/default.asp

[4] The execution of Ads (Chinese): http://www.ciweekly.com/article/2007/0521/A20070521596658.shtml

[5] http://www.text4cars.com/

[6] CPA, the holy grail of online advertising? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cpa_holy_grail.php