CPA (Cost Per Action) and CPL (Cost Per Lead) advertising practices in Russia

Quarter Billion Agency Group specializes in CPA advertising, a relatively new segment in Russia. Following the footsteps of Europe and the United States, this marketing strategy has gained popularity as it allows for targeted user engagement while minimizing advertiser risk.

Cost per action (CPA) advertising on the Internet offers a risk-free approach for advertisers

The prevailing trend in the modern online advertising market revolves around CPA, which stands for “cost per action” or “pay per action.” This collaborative model between customers and CPA agencies involves compensating for specific results. These results are defined as “beneficial actions” taken by potential clients of the customer, such as:

• Completing a questionnaire, query, or application form.
• Registering on the site.
• Subscribing to a service.
• Gathering information of interest.
• Reviewing prices.
• Adding items to a wish-list.
• Uploading or downloading an online application, and more.

Each of these events, which guides the consumer towards making a purchase, is evaluated and determined by our experts using the concise term “lead.” The process of acquiring leads is known as lead generation.

Advantages of engaging in voluntary activities for prospective clients

Lead generation empowers businesses to make significant strides by attracting a surge of potential clients with specific interests. In this scenario, we take on the responsibility of delivering clients, relieving businessmen of the need to organize advertising campaigns, maintain marketing professionals, analyze collected data, and handle other marketing tasks.

Leads offer several distinct advantages:

• They deliver the most promising and high-quality consumers who have already shown an interest in specialized goods or services.
• They are generated through legal means, resulting from voluntary actions taken by clients.
• They are the most current and time-sensitive, as they are promptly transferred to customers within an hour.
• They serve as tangible records, whether in paper or electronic form.

Let’s recapitulate!

By utilizing all accessible traffic, we specifically target consumers who possess a genuine interest in a particular product or service. Simultaneously, we obtain not just their contact information but also their explicit permission to provide feedback via email or phone call. Our approach grants customers access to a top-notch database of industry-specific clients, increasing the likelihood of successful conversions into sales. This is the essence of the appeal behind CPA-advertising.

Additional bonuses of lead generation

Lead generation, originally, is a risk-free approach to promoting business. The benefits for customers are evident as they only pay for measurable outcomes. They are relieved of the burden of coordinating advertising strategies with contractors, approving layouts, or financing video clip production. Instead, they can eagerly anticipate the results without worrying about potential errors or miscalculations by staff or hired marketers.

Moreover, leads offer the opportunity to define the task precisely by implementing specific criteria. Customers can choose the particular product they wish to promote, the target market of interest, the social status of potential consumers, and even the desired cost of each lead. Essentially, they have the freedom to select the most “high-quality” consumers from a vast audience.

Furthermore, we provide our customers with the option to set a manageable monthly quota of leads. This allows for optimal budgeting of their business, ensuring they receive a quantity of leads that aligns with their capacity to handle them effectively. While we cannot guarantee absolute precision, the overall volume of leads specified in the client application is carefully monitored by our team.

What is the origin of the leads?

Currently, lead generation encompasses four primary areas:

• Contextual advertising
• Converting organic traffic from highly visited successful internet projects into leads
• Affinity marketing

To ensure our customers are not charged for all incoming website traffic, we invest significant intellectual resources and time into lead generation. It requires substantial effort to attract target customers, utilizing various advertising types such as PPC, banner, media, outdoor, as well as employing search engine optimization and social media advertising techniques. We employ a combination of our own innovative approaches and established methods to deliver field-specific consumers who can generate desired profitability for our clients.

For each specific order, we determine the most effective lead generation methods through testing and assessing the profitability of suitable sources. Consequently, the budget allocated to each campaign varies across different business sectors.

What is the appearance of the leads and what supporting elements do they come with?

In most cases, a lead comprises an application presented in a specific format and containing a concise set of information. This typically includes the customer’s contact details (such as name, email, or phone number) along with a brief description of their request. We deliver leads to customers either as they are generated or in the form of a package presented in a table format.

Our system follows specific guidelines for lead rejection, often aligned with the customer’s preferences. Leads obtained from certain sources are validated as they are inherently informative. If a customer desires “warmed up” leads, we promptly deliver them without confirmation or rejection.

Furthermore, we maintain comprehensive statistics on lead quality and the frequency of rejections for each area covered. If we observe a notable increase in customer rejections within a specific category, our specialists swiftly adjust the lead generation strategy to address the issue.

What is the pricing for the leads?

Certain customers, particularly those accustomed to traditional advertising agency models, sometimes perceive the lead generation market as lacking transparency due to its unique pricing characteristics. The primary principles guiding pricing are straightforward:

• The more challenging it is to acquire an interested consumer, the higher the associated cost.
• Leads for various business categories are obtained at different price points.

In general, the cost per unit falls within a range of 0.5 to 100 US dollars, which considers factors such as the subject matter, complexity of lead generation, customer budget, and potential generating capacity.

Here are some pricing examples:

• A “hot” email confirmed by a user for internet trading typically costs around 0.8-1.5 US dollars. The potential generation of leads can reach up to hundreds of thousands.
• The cost for a user to download a mobile application is approximately 1.2 US dollars. The volume of lead generation depends on factors such as the operating system used, the application’s rating, and its quality.
• A bank loan application (covering all of Russia) ranges from 4 to 9 US dollars, depending on the bank’s rating, loan type, and the channels used to generate traffic. The potential generation of leads can reach tens of thousands.
• Auto insurance leads (for Moscow and Leningrad regions) are priced at around 8 US dollars. The potential generation can reach up to 8-10 thousand leads.

Future Outlook for the Lead Generation Market

Experts predict a promising future for the advertising market, envisioning the sale of leads as a readily available marketing product. The services offered for lead generation are expected to proliferate and improve, assuming the responsibility of delivering high-quality clients to customers promptly and in the desired quantity.

Currently, the primary focus of CPA services is to ensure the availability of leads with just a click. Ideally, customers should be able to select their desired lead category, set their targeting preferences, and pay for their chosen package.

Traditionally, lead generation has been predominantly associated with the banking and legal sectors. However, there has been a noticeable increase in CPA budgets within the e-commerce, construction, tourism, automotive, “Forex” markets, mobile applications, and social media applications segments. Additionally, directions such as education (linguistic centers, personal growth training), medicine, and auto repair are also considered promising for lead generation.