One of the most common questions both new affiliates and even existing affiliates often ask their affiliate managers is whether they should choose a CPA plan or Revenue Share plan.

I’ve written on this topic before, and oddly enough my answers sometimes change from month to month. The answer to this age old question however is that “it depends”. In order to choose the right plan, you should have some sort of idea as to what your overall player value is. Obviously starting out, this can be difficult. However depending on what type of promotions or what type of site your traffic is coming from, you can get a pretty good idea.

Personally I think it is a good idea to be diversified and promote both revenue sharing plans and CPA plans depending on the room I am promoting. A couple of the factors I always look at when choosing the right plan are as follows:

• Is this site I’m promoting bringing in newbies or experienced players?
• Do I trust that the affiliate program will be around for a long time?
• If I were a player would I make multiple deposits there….(retention)?
• How big is the aff. programs CPA versus their revenue sharing percentage?
• Am I going to promote this room long term or just for a few months?
• And last but not least……….gut instinct.

There are really two main reasons to choose either revenue sharing or CPA;

Revenue Sharing: Usually when choosing revenue sharing, you are doing it in hopes of building a long term residual income. And if you know that your players are good players or players that will play quite often and rake a fair amount, this is by far the best plan to choose. Of course you may not make as much money up front as you will with CPA, but you will continue to earn on these players for months if not years to come.

CPA - Also known as cost per acquisition, the CPA plans have become more popular throughout the past few years. Many affiliates will forgo the long term residual benefits of revenue sharing when starting out in order to get the larger up front amount that is offered with CPA’s. A CPA plan is much riskier for both the affiliate and the operator. As an affiliate you could send a player that rakes $10K a month, and you will never earn more than your agreed upon CPA for that player. On the flipside, an operator could give you a CPA plan and pay you thousands of dollars upfront, only to find out months later that your players had terrible player values or did not rake anywhere near what they paid out in CPA.

There is also a risk to the affiliate that if they initially are sending low value players, they will not get paid their commission.

There is another article on this site about incentive marketing and how choosing a CPA plan while giving away free money or gifts can be a disaster. I will save that discussion for that article though. But when choosing a CPA plan, if you are planning on offering any type of incentive you should ALWAYS let your affiliate manager know ahead of time. Typically incentive marketing yields low value players and seldom justifies the CPA amount.

Important: Although I have personally always been a bigger fan of revenue sharing plans, there is something extremely important that needs to be considered. This is whether or not the room you are going to promote offers rakeback. Certainly if you plan on offering rakeback to your players, then revenue share is the only option.

However, if you are planning on making the standard revenue share at a room where other affiliates offer rakeback, you could find yourself disappointed. This has been a fundamental problem in our industry over the past two years, and it is one reason why more and more traditional affiliates are moving to CPA plans.

What can and does happen is that a new player will sign up on your tracker and produce a fair amount of rake, making you a nice commission. Unfortunately a few months later the player will learn about the benefits of rakeback and what rakeback is. Usually at this point your player will abandon their existing account and sign up a new account under a wife or girlfriend with a new affiliate that offers rakeback.

There is really no right or wrong answer as to which commission plan makes more sense. Each affiliates business will vary. As I mentioned in the beginning of the chapter however, it makes sense to be diversified and choose both revenue sharing and CPA plans based upon the individual rooms and the types of players you will be sending to those rooms.

Other Articles

• Beginner Search Engine Optimization for Poker Affiliates
• Prospering In The Poker Affiliate Market Through A Down Economy
• Building A Successful Online Poker Forum or Community
• Exact Match Domains for Poker Affiliates