CPAlead Advertiser Guide: Setting Up Your First Campaign

Setting up a campaign on CPAlead takes only about 5 minutes. This guide will show you how to create your first campaign, focusing on CPI (Cost Per Install) offers. While we'll cover CPI setup, the process is similar for CPA (Cost Per Action) and CPC (Cost Per Click) campaigns.

Before You Start

When you submit a new CPA or CPI offer, there is a $5 fee. This fee helps us test your offer with about 50 initial clicks. These test clicks are important because:

• Your offer will be ranked based on how well it performs compared to other offers
• Better rankings mean more free organic clicks
• If your offer doesn't get any leads during testing, it may not receive more clicks after the first 50

Video Overview

Want to see everything in action? Watch our comprehensive video guide below that walks through each step we've covered. This video demonstration will help reinforce the concepts and show you exactly how to implement everything we've discussed.

Step 1: Finding Good Campaign Opportunities

Check Traffic Sources

In your advertiser dashboard, click the "Top Traffic Sources" tab to see where the most traffic is coming from. Higher demand means more potential traffic for your offer. For example, if you see lots of Android traffic from the United States, creating an offer for US Android users will likely perform better.

Choose Your Offer Type

You can add these types of offers:

• CPI (Cost Per Install) - Pay when users install your mobile app
• CPA (Cost Per Action) - Pay when users complete a specific action
• CPC (Cost Per Click) - Pay when users click (easiest to set up, no tracking needed)

Step 2: Creating Your Campaign

Basic Setup

Click "Add Campaign" in your advertiser dashboard and follow these steps:

1. Choose your campaign type (CPI, CPA, or CPC)
2. Enter a campaign name (this is just for your reference)
3. For mobile apps: Enter the app store URL to auto-import data
4. Write a clear campaign title that will show on our offer list
5. Add a simple description explaining what users need to do

Choose how your campaign pays

CPA and CPI support one paid action or multiple event rewards. CPC campaigns pay for clicks.

• One paid action: Pay once for one signup, install, or other completed action.
• Multiple event rewards: Set a separate payment for each completed event.

For example, pay $0.50 for an install and $1.25 for reaching level 5. The maximum total is $1.75 per participant. You pay each completed reward separately; the total is not an extra payment.

• Save 1–10 events with fixed USD payments and permanent numeric IDs. Add an install event explicitly if you want to pay for installs.
• Each event can pay once, in any order, within 30 days of the original click. Another visit does not restart the rewards or extend the deadline.
• The payment mode and event list lock after real traffic starts. Copy the campaign to change its rewards later.
• Pausing traffic does not cancel eligible outstanding rewards. Keep enough funds to pay them.

Set up event tracking before sending traffic. Read the event postback instructions and use Guided Test on your signed-in Postback page. CPI campaigns using AppsFlyer follow the dedicated Integrated Partner setup, rather than the standard postback below.

Step 3: Setting Up Tracking (Most Important)

This section is crucial for CPI and CPA offers. If you're running a CPC offer, you can skip this part. Let's break down exactly how tracking works and why each step is important.

Tracking URL Setup

Your tracking URL should look like this:

http://yournetwork.com/click.php?offer_id=12345&aff_id=6789&aff_sub={CLICK_ID}&aff_sub2={PUBLISHER_ID}&aff_sub3={CAMPAIGN_ID}

Important parameters:

• {CLICK_ID} - Tracks each individual click
• {PUBLISHER_ID} - Identifies which CPAlead publisher sent the traffic
• {CAMPAIGN_ID} - Identifies which of your campaigns received the click

Postback URL Setup

The standard tracking examples below show one paid action. For an event campaign, also send the matching event value using the instructions above.

CPAlead provides you with a unique postback URL that looks like this:

https://net.go2trck.org/aff_lsr?id=YOUR_POSTBACK_ID&click_id={YOUR_TRACKING_PLATFORMS_MACRO}

The postback URL is your network's way of telling CPAlead about successful conversions. Here's what you need to know:

• Each advertiser gets a unique ID in the URL
• Replace {YOUR_TRACKING_PLATFORMS_MACRO} with your network's click ID parameter (e.g., {aff_sub}, {sub_id})
• The click ID value must match what you passed in your tracking URL's aff_sub parameter
• Always test your postback setup before launching campaigns

Example Tracking Setups for Popular Networks

Step 4: Campaign Targeting

Select Your Target Country

Choose which country you want traffic from. Pick countries where your offer is available.

Choose Device Type

For CPI offers, you can only choose mobile devices. For CPA and CPC offers, you can also target desktop users.

Set Your Payout

For one paid action, this is how much you pay for each conversion. For example:

• If you earn $0.60 per install from your network
• And you set your payout to $0.50 on CPAlead
• You'll earn $0.10 profit per install

For multiple event rewards, set the payment on each event instead. The form shows the maximum total and uses it to check the payout and minimum daily cap.

Step 5: Advanced Settings

Daily Caps

Start with a daily cap that meets the form's minimum, then adjust it as you review results. For event campaigns, a participant counts toward the cap at their first paid event only. Later events do not count again, and eligible earlier clicks can finish after new traffic stops.

Traffic Types

For single-action campaigns, available traffic choices include:

• All traffic types (recommended)
• Only tool traffic (content lockers and offerwalls)
• Only direct traffic (social networks and websites)

Event campaigns support direct promotion and Offerwall V2. They do not support lockers, classic offerwalls, pixels, or the tools-only setting.

Final Steps

Purchase Test Clicks

You must buy at least $5 worth of test clicks. This helps:

• Show publishers your offer converts
• Establish your offer's ranking
• Build trust with our publisher network

Wait for Approval

Our team will review your campaign within 48 hours. After approval:

• The test click fee will be charged
• Your offer will go live
• You'll receive an email notification

Need help? Contact our support team or check our documentation for more details.

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