CPA (Cost-Per-Action) is the most advanced mobile advertising payment model. With this model, advertisers pay publishers for specific actions (like sales or registrations) that people make inside mobile apps after being engaged with ads.
To calculate cost-per-action for a specific action one needs to divide a total ad campaign spending on several specific actions that this particular campaign generated.
Pricing for various kinds of actions such as app installs, registers, purchases can vary from $4 to $75 per action. The CPA advertising model is the roots of digital affiliate marketing. We’ve analyzed the best CPA Advertising Networks in this directory.
CPA example
Source: BigCommerce
CPA Advertising Benefits
CPA advertising allows advertisers to control their costs and achieve specific objectives. The key advantage is that there is no cost to them until an action is taken, which maximises their return on investment.
This model of advertising is also a good choice because advertisers can track multiple channels with ease. Effectively this makes CPA advertising risk-free, and it is the job of the publisher to create compelling content that inspires customers to take action.
Of course, there is a downside to CPA: the cost. Advertisers will pay more for this form of advertising, although that comes with the safety of knowing that they will most likely achieve their advertising aims.
CPA formula
Source: The Online Advertising Guide
Other benefits include:
- It’s a good form of advertising for those who have a well-developed market
- Advertisers don’t have to rely on clicks to generate revenue
- It allows advertisers to generate site engagement with a specific action
Below we’ve listed the best CPA networks and platforms so you can get up and running without hassle.
List of the top CPA ad networks
PubMatic delivers superior revenue to publishers by being an SSP of choice for agencies and advertisers. With our leading programmatic mobile advertising platform, publishers and app developers can leverage the open exchange as well as advanced deal models to maximize their monetization and gain access to brand budgets.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS
- Campaign types: CPA, CPC, CPI, CPL, CPM
- Ad formats supported: Banners, In-App, Interstitial, Native, Rewarded Video, Rich Media, Video
- Targeting: Publisher, Geo, Audience Segment, Ad Format, Platform, Domain / App, Viewability
- Key markets: Global
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 51-200 | - | - | - |
Zoomd is dedicated to helping advertisers and publishers achieve their key performance indicators (KPIs) through a patented, performance-based advertising platform. The Company’s User Acquisition platform unifies more than 600 media sources under one dashboard including Google, TikTok, Samsung premium inventory and much more.
- Business Models – Choose your preferred business model CPC/CPI/CPO/CPE/CPA
- Fraud – Detection as part of the platform, adding you an extra layer of safety
- Measurement – integrated to all major 3rd party mobile measurement solutions
- Cost-efficiency – Save countless resources by managing all campaigns under one screen
- Data Play – Enjoy machine decisions based on more than 500Million data points a day
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | - | - | - | - |
ironSource is the leading in-app video advertising platform. It is one of the biggest and oldest mobile advertising platforms launched in 2010. Focusing on mobile games, it makes free-to-play and free-to-use possible for over 1.5B people around the world. Over 80,000 app developers use its technologies to grow their businesses, among these such leading companies like Kongregate, Zeptolab, Big Fish Games, Zynga and Playrix.
- Mobile platforms: Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Cocos, Amazon, AdobeAir
- Campaign types: CPC, CPE, CPA, CPV
- Ad formats supported: App Wall, Interstitial, Offer Wall, Video
- Targeting: Custom
- Key Markets: United States, Israel
ADEX
Ad Fraud Detection Tools, Ad Servers, Mobile Ad Network, Mobile DSP, Social Ads, SSP
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 10-50 |
ADEX is an expert in fraud-free advertising. We show you a real-time quality report identifying invalid traffic, fraud, and bots that drain your online advertising budget. Key Features Smart Detection and Protection - ADEX AI system detects and blocks more than 5 types of invalid traffic.
Learn more about ADEX
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 70 | - | - | - |
Adikteev is the leading app re-engagement platform for performance-driven marketers.
We help the world’s top-spending app publishers increase retention, reacquire churned users and drive incremental revenue. App publishers in gaming, eCommerce, on-demand, services and entertainment rely on us to deliver made-to-measure strategies, creatives and algorithms.
By combining science and creativity, we deliver best-in-class playable and interactive ads paired with top retargeting tech. We believe in creating a unique strategy for each client based on data to provide measurable and transparent results that increase user LTV and fuel business growth.
Adikteev is #10 among Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 fastest growing companies and ranked in the top retargeting partners of the world for two consecutive years by AppsFlyer Performance Index
| Employees | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 - 400 |
[masterslider id=\"309\"] Unified Audience Platform for Mobile User Growth A unified audience platform, Affle’s MAAS enables mobile advertisers and app marketers to acquire quality users at scale, across directly integrated publishers, programmatic platforms and relevant app recommendations.
Learn more about MAAS powered by Affle
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 51 - 100 |
We Are RevX Made for growth, built for app marketers. RevX helps app businesses acquire and re-engage users via programmatic advertising to retain and accelerate revenue. We\'re all about taking your app business to a new growth level! We help you build sound mobile strategies, combining programmatic UA, app re-engagement, and performance branding to drive real and verifiable results so you can scale your business: with real users, high retention, and incremental revenue.
Learn more about RevX
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 400 | $192m+ | 25k | 4m+ |
Founded in 2011, AdColony was created by mobile developers, for mobile developers and has grown into one of the largest mobile advertising and monetization platforms in the world with a reach of more than 1.5 billion users globally. AdColony is known for its exclusive Instant-Play™ HD video, Aurora™ HD Interactive video, and playable technologies, its global performance advertising expertise, its programmatic marketplace, and its extensive ad SDK footprint in the top apps worldwide.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS
- Campaign types: CPM
- Ad formats supported: Rich Media, Video
- Targeting: Demographic
- Key markets: US
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 11-50 | - | 5k | - |
Mobupps is are a performance-oriented ad network, with over 10 years of experience in mobile user acquisition. The network leverages an access to private media from over 4,500 direct app publishers, as well as direct integration to all of the major global traffic sources.
- Mobile platforms: Android, iOS,
- Campaign types: CPC, CPI, CPM
- Ad formats supported: App Icon, Audio, Banners, Content Lock, Coupons, Custom, In-App, Incentivized, Interstitial, Native, Notifications, Offer Wall, Pop up, PopUnder, Redirect, Rewarded Video, Rewards, Rich Media, Search, Social, Text, Video
- Targeting: App, Carrier, Category, Country, Demographic, Device, Network, White & Black Lists
- Key markets: Global
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 500-1000 | +100M$ | 1.5k+ | 2.5m+ |
Smadex is the mobile-first programmatic DSP engineered for growth.
We are a technology company led by engineering and data science, focused on uprising the global mobile programmatic landscape through our ad tech solutions.
Using a combination of our own programmatic advertising technology, machine learning, and first-party data, we have over a decade partnering with apps, brands and performance marketers to achieve their growth goals.
We take transparency very seriously. To guarantee our fully transparent platform remains that way, Smadex programmatic partners with the leading third-party platforms to provide innovative solutions and independent measurement at the very core of our service.
Learn more about SmadexAdAction
A full-service ad platform that connects mobile marketers to high-intent users worldwide.
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 10-50 | - | - | - |
AdAction is the leading full-service ad platform that delivers quality at volume with real-time, data-driven technology to optimize acquisition campaigns and drive maximum engagement.
- Services: Mobile Ad Network, Mobile Ad Platform
- Ad Format: Interstitial, Offerwall
- Models: CPI, CPA, CPE, CPC
- Trading Models: Managed Service
Learn more about AdAction
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 10-50 | - | - | - |
Hitapps focuses on your success as a whole. Perhaps you can manage a small-scale campaign but, if you want to develop an impactful ads campaign, it’s better to let us take over.
- Performance based marketing
- RTB solution
- Apps development and publishing
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 51 - 100 |
AdQuantum is a performance marketing agency. We help mobile apps and web projects reach new revenue streams and scale their businesses with new paying users. Our risk-free user acquisition solutions allow the biggest well-known mobile brands to achieve their performance goals.
Learn more about AdQuantum
| Founded | Employees | Social | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 11-50 | 3k+ |
Bidease is a mobile DSP platform for mobile marketers. Its built on a foundation of proprietary programmatic advertising technology, Machine Learning, and first party data. Bidease team optimizes campaigns across all major mobile formats for desired post-install behaviors at no risk to its clients’ bottom line.
- Mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Mobile Web
- Campaign types: CPI, CPA, CPM
- Ad formats supported: Banners, Interstitial, Native, Rewarded Video, Video
- Targeting: Carrier, Device, Gender, Geo, Interests, IP, OS
- Key Markets: global
myAppFree
High Quality Mobile Traffic & Exclusive Placements on SONY Xperia, Native SDK
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2-10 | $8.9m+ | 7k | 1.36m+ |
myAppFree is a performance-based advertising platform, founded in 2015 in Italy by Massimo Caroli and Riccardo Fuzzi, that matches advertisers and publishers. One of the unique features it offers in terms of inventory for advertisers is an access to 40 million plus Sony Xperia smartphone users, as well as own App Discovery that features the best mobile apps for users to discover.
- Mobile platforms: Android, iOS, Windows Phone
- Campaign types: CPA, CPC, CPI
- Ad formats supported: Banners, Interstitial, Native, Notifications
- Targeting: Audience, Geo, Interests, OS, Platform
- Key Markets: Asia, Europe, Latin America, USA
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 500+ |
InMobi is the largest independent mobile ad network with global reach in markets including the UK, Europe, US, South Africa and India. InMobi offers advertisers to reach over 1,5 billion mobile users across more than 32,000 mobile properties to choose from. With InMobile mobile ad network, advertisers can launch brand engagement, user acquisition or remarking ad campaigns. Acquisition of a mobile rich media company Sprout allows InMobi to offer premium mobile ads as well as a huge volume of other inventory. Advertisers include leading brands such as Ford and Levis.
- Mobile platforms: Android, iOS, Mobile Web
- Campaign types: CPC, CPI, CPA, CPX, CPM
- Ad formats supported: Banners, Native, Video, Interstitial, In-Game
- Targeting: carrier, channel, country, device, operator, os, time
- Key Markets: Europe, India, Japan, Kenya, South Africa, UK, United States
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 51 - 100 |
Golden Goose – global CPA platform that provides mobile traffic monetization tools for all participants in the global mVAS market. We are specialists in Mobile Content Offers for 15 years and we have experience on both side of mVAS market: we have been a content provider in the CIS countries since 2005 and in 2016 we have became a global mobile performance network.
We have created the biggest ecosystem of mobile traffic monetization for mVAS market all over the world. And it’s not a joke and idle talk!
In the end we announce that we have become a Global Mobile Performance Marketing Hub for Direct Carrier Billing services!
Learn more about Golden Goose
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 101-200 |
VEVE is a performance marketing platform from Affinity Global Inc. that offers unique advertising experiences across OEMs, browsers and telcos. With native, high-performing ad formats – Tiles , Notifications, Universal, unique media placements and customization opportunities, the platform is empowering brands to achieve their advertising KPIs such as sales, app downloads, website visits and user engagement. Additionally, it provides creative and operational support across different languages and locations including the US, UK, EU, IN, ID and CN. VEVE also has its proprietary reporting dashboard to access deep data insights to optimize conversions and user engagement. VEVE also unlocks newer monetization avenues for OEMs and browsers while enhancing users’ online journey.
Key Features
• Boost new user acquisition – Reach 500+ MN captive audience beyond search and social media network
• Achieve your advertising KPIs – All inventory bought is on performance KPIs such as CPI, CPA, CPC, CPV, etc.
• Highly engaging native ad experiences – Get high conversion rate with non-intrusive, user-friendly ad formats (Tiles, Notifications, Universal) and unique media placement
• 100% Brand safe environment – Custom reporting dashboards for complete transparency, real-time insights, and optimization opportunities
• End-to-end campaign management – Creative and operational support across different geographies (US, UK, EU, IN, ID, CN) and in multiple languages
Learn more about VEVE
FraudScore is an independent antifraud solution that evaluates the quality of mobile and web traffic in advertising campaigns. FraudScore clients are direct advertisers and ad agencies, ad networks & mobile developers from all over the world. FraudScore offers antifraud solutions for all steps of ad campaign funnel: from DSPs, to CPI, CPM, CPA and CPC. FraudScore is well known to be effective in combat against click spamming, bot, malware and adware, click injection, bot farms and many more.
Learn more about FraudScore
| Employees | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-50 |
DSPs, Media Buyers, Mobile Networks, and Apps - Scale your income by working with the Aragon Premium Mobile Marketing Agency. Our team manages programmatic budgets from dozens of established and rising brands across multiple verticals, but specializing in the FinTech space.
Learn more about Aragon Premium
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - |
Mobile ad planning, execution and analysis are complicated for startups because they cannot reach all available app marketing tools. App Samurai makes it easy for them without requiring in-depth mobile advertising knowledge!
Thanks to App Samurai, you can easily create, manage, and measure acquisition campaigns, boost campaigns, and video campaigns to acquire qualified users.
Learn more about App Samurai
