Have questions about CPA advertising? Hydra's got the answers.

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What is CPA?

A performance-based advertising pricing model, CPA stands for Cost-Per-Action or Cost-Per-Acquisition. Under the CPA model, advertisers specify a desired consumer action based on the objectives for a specific CPA advertising campaign—such actions can include making a purchase, filling out a lead form, submitting an email address, or engaging with an online ad. A third party network, agency or publisher places media at a cost to itself, and charges the advertiser a set fee (or "payout") pre-determined by the advertiser each time a user completes the specified action. Because CPA only charges for results delivered, it provides a means for advertisers to run results-based advertising with no risk and predictable ROI. top

What's a Conversion Rate?

The conversion rate of a campaign is a metric, expressed as a percentage, that is used to gauge a campaign's appeal with consumers and its performance overall. Used the same online as it is used in offline direct response, conversion rate is generally calculated by dividing the number of consumers who click-through to a landing page and complete the specified action of the campaign (and are thus "converted" into a customer)—and dividing that number by the total number of consumers who click-through to the landing page. For example, if ten users click on an ad and arrive at a campaign's landing page, but only one user completes the action and makes a purchase, the conversion rate would be 10%. top

What are Payouts?

Payout refers to the fee advertisers pay and third party publishing partners earn for each successfully concluded consumer action generated by that partner, as reported and verified through Hydra Network's proprietary tracking system, and reconciled with our advertisers' tracking. top

What makes Hydra Network different from other ad networks?

Most networks are aggregators of display-only inventory (the lowest-converting channel), which they sell on a CPM basis. Hydra offers distribution across all online channels, on a CPA basis.

Hydra provides a full turnkey service specifically geared to customer acquisition through direct response, with no add-on fees required beyond the CPA payout. So you get a much higher volume of results, with little effort required on your part, no set-up or add-on fees so you only pay for results delivered, and the freedom to stop anytime.

Versus other "pure performance" CPA ad networks, Hydra imposes a higher level of restriction on both advertisers and publishers to assure full FTC compliance and traffic quality. In addition, we operate an exclusive, invitation-only network that restricts the number of active publishers to those who have proven themselves over time as delivering high volume and high quality and operating high professional standards. Fewer, higher-volume publishers also allows us to also to provide more in-depth monitoring of the activities of each. top

Does Hydra charge set-up or maintenance fees?

No, Hydra does not charge set-up or maintenance fees of any kind. Nor is there a minimum spend. You pay only for results as you have defined them. top

How does Hydra track campaign performance?

When a consumer clicks on an ad placed by Hydra, their browser is sent a "cookie" that identifies them as having responded to that ad placement. Hydra also provides a piece of code called a "tracking pixel" that the advertiser inserts into the web page served upon the consumer's completion of the desired action (usually a confirmation page). When the page loads, that code calls up a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image from our server. When the pixel "firing" and cookie match, we credit that conversion as having been driven by us. Cookie-based pixel tracking is the standard for our industry.

Hydra's new HN 2.0 platform, however, increases accuracy of performance tracking by supporting cookie-less in addition to traditional cookie-based tracking. Cookie-less tracking works by capturing and storing a wide range of data associated with each click, so that consumer actions can be recorded and measured even for those consumers who have cookies turned off in their browsers. By offering this "hybrid" tracking approach, HN 2.0 provides advertisers with more accurate data for evaluating performance of their online ad campaigns, and benefits Hydra publishers as well by ensuring they gain credit for all traffic driven to advertisers' offers, whether a cookie is present or not. top

How do I get started running my campaign as a Hydra advertiser?

Simply use the sign up form on this web site, or call 310-659-5755 and speak to an Account Executive to get started. Read more about campaign setup here. top

How do I get started running campaigns as a Hydra publishing partner?

First, you'll need to apply here. If you have just joined Hydra Network and are approved to publish, you will receive an email with your log-on instructions. Once logged in, you can browse campaigns and payouts (the CPA amount), select creatives to place, enable tracking, view your performance reports, etc. Also, a Hydra Network Affiliate Manager will be assigned to your account to help you get familiar with using Hydra Network, determine which campaigns to run, how to pull tracking links and creatives, and place them in your media. top

What is a "Hydra"?

We're glad you asked. In fact, we've written a whole page about the varied uses of Hydra. top