An affiliate payment model in which publishers earn a flat fee for each lead they generate — defined as a specific user action (email sign-up, free trial activation, quote request, account creation, demo booking). CPL rates by action type: basic email sign-up: $2-10; software free trial activation: $10-30; insurance quote request: $30-100; financial services lead: $50-200; B2B SaaS demo request: $50-150. When CPL is appropriate: financial services and insurance where sales happen through phone or offline process after the lead; subscription software where free trial is the acquisition event, not immediate purchase; services brands where quote or consultation request precedes the actual service sale; brands with multi-step sales funnels where online-to-offline conversion is common. CPL risk: the brand bears conversion risk — CPL pays regardless of whether leads convert to customers; brands should track lead-to-revenue conversion by publisher to identify which publishers generate high-value leads (high conversion rate, high AOV) vs. volume-only leads (high count, low conversion); publishers who generate high-volume, low-quality leads should have their program access reviewed or CPL rate reduced.
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