A “target action” or “action” is an action you expect from a user, namely placing an order, filling out a form, signing up on a website, installing an application, etc. For actions users perform, you pay the publishers who led those users to your website.
There are 3 main types of actions: sale, lead, and installation (installation of a mobile app). Installations are sometimes recognized as leads.
Which actions you pay for depends on your choice, your goals, and your program’s category. Online stores usually pay for orders, online services, banks, and online games use cost-per-lead models, while paying for installations is an option for mobile programs.
Types of actions
In our system, all affiliate programs are divided into 6 categories, each of which has a set of typical target actions.
Click your program category to expand the list of available actions.
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Action name Payment model Action description Confirmed application CPL A user filled out a service form (e.g., furniture pre-order/production/measurement), and it was confirmed by the advertiser’s call center. Confirmed order CPA A user placed an order, and it was confirmed by the advertiser’s call center. Paid order CPA A user placed, paid for, and received an order. A user can pay when placing or receiving the order.
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Action name Payment model Action description Confirmed application CPL A user filled out a tutor/engineer visit form, and it was confirmed by the advertiser’s call center. Confirmed order CPA A user booked a ticket or ordered flowers, and it was confirmed by the advertiser’s call center. Paid order CPA A user placed and paid for an order. A user can pay when placing or receiving the order.
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Action name Payment model Action description Confirmed registration CPL Registration that a user confirmed by email. Effective registration CPL A wide-ranging term that includes everything more complex than registration but doesn’t require too much user effort (e.g., confirming an email address, completing a tutorial, reaching Level 1, etc.). Active player CPL Achieving a certain level. Access selection CPA Buying game access. In-game purchase CPA Any in-game purchase. The advertiser can pay for the first purchase, every subsequent purchase, etc.
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Action name Payment model Action description Install CPI Installing and launching an app. Sign up CPL Registering in an app. Active player CPL Achieving a certain level. Placed order CPA An order was placed and confirmed. Paid order CPA In-app purchase. Trial CPL Activating a trial version. Loyal user CPL Opening the app for the third time. Returning user CPL A user returned on the Nth day.
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Action name Payment model Action description Placed booking CPA A user booked an airplane or railway ticket, hotel room, etc. Confirmed booking CPA A user booked something, and their booking was confirmed by the advertiser’s call center. Paid order CPA A user placed, paid for, and received an order. A user can pay when placing or receiving the order. Confirmed tour purchase application CPL A user submitted a tour purchase application, and it was confirmed by the advertiser’s call center.
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Action name Payment model Action description Completed application CPL A user submitted a credit, loan, insurance, credit card, or other application. Confirmed application CPL A user submitted an application, and it was confirmed by the advertiser’s call center. Approved application CPL The user has submitted a request, and the advertiser approved it.
Confirmed application ≠ Approved application. The former is when the advertiser just confirms that they received a user’s application. The latter means they approve the application.
Loan granted/card issued CPA The user has taken a loan or gotten a card.
If none of the standard actions works for you, you can create a custom action.
Moreover, there’s another trick you can use for all program categories. It’ll let you distinguish and compare:
- New users who perform a target action for the first time, and current users who perform such an action again.
- Purchases made with or without a coupon or promo code.
Applying this additional categorization, you’ll be able to pay for such actions in a different way, depending on your marketing objectives. For one, you can pay more for new users or purchases in particular categories. Learn more about paying for actions
Note
1. Actions like “Paid order/application/booking” and “Confirmed order/application/booking” are registered in the statistics when a user comes to the thank-you page (saying something like “We have received your order”, “Your application has been accepted”, etc.).
2. During reconciliation, you don’t want to confirm actions like “Paid order” until the return deadline.
By default, the action works for all publishers. But you can create exclusive actions with special commissions and rates that will be valid only for a specific channel.
What a rate is
A rate is a reward you’re ready to pay a publisher for generating a particular action.
You can associate an action with:
- One rate if this action should be paid in a certain amount.
- Multiple rates if you need to set up some additional options that will determine the reward.
How rates and actions are configured depends on the program. For instance, one can associate actions from different regions with one rate or set an individual rate for each region.
Your manager will determine the final rate-action association depending on your program’s specifics.
Using rates, you can set rewards for:
- Actions performed by current and new users
- Purchases with or without a coupon
- Purchases of products from different categories
- Actions from different regions
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Different order amounts
Actions performed by current and new users
Address your marketing goals by setting different rates for new and current clients. For example, increase the rate for new users to acquire more clients. On the other hand, if you want to retain the existing customers and enhance loyalty, scale up the rate for the current users.
Purchases with or without a coupon
Reduce the rate for orders in which users apply coupons or promo codes.
Different product categories
Promote sales in particular categories.
Imagine that you run a sports gear store and notice that bicycle sales have plummeted.
For one action—for example, a paid order—you can create a special rate in which you pay 7% for every bicycle sale and 3.2% for sales in all other categories—to encourage publishers to drive more traffic to the desired category.
Actions from different regions
This option can come in handy if you want to focus on promoting in certain regions.
For instance, if you want to attract users from the US, set a higher rate for this region.
Specifics:
- Set up geotargeting in your program to create individual rates for different regions.
- In mobile programs, you can create rates not only for specific regions but also for specific cities.
Different order amounts
For instance, you need customers to place large orders. In this case, pay 3% for orders under, say, $70 and 3.5% for orders that cost $70 and up.
Setting different rates for different order amounts is possible in certain program categories if a payment amount is passed as one action. For instance, when a user purchases a service bundle:
If an order amount consists of prices of various items (e.g., in online stores), you can’t apply an increased reward to the entire amount. Instead, it will be calculated individually for each item.
For instance, if there is one table and six similar chairs in one order, the reward will be calculated individually for the table and for the total price of chairs.
Though our system provides rich opportunities in terms of configuring actions and rates, we don’t recommend that you create a rate scale that’s too complicated with a dozen actions with 15 rates in each. This may frustrate publishers. In most cases, you can go with 1 to 4 actions and rates. Flick through the Admitad Store catalog and see for yourself.
How do I know how much I should pay for an action?
You decide the reward or commission; there are no limitations or restrictions. If you don’t know which commission to set, align with your rivals’ practices or ask your manager for advice.
The commission is set in your program’s currency and can be:
- A fixed amount.
- A percentage of the order amount. In this case, you won’t be able to use it with leads and installations where there is no order amount.
Example of a fixed commission:
Example of a percentage commission:
What is a hold period?
Once you’re done with actions and rates, you need to decide on the hold period, i.e., how much time you have to process an action (approve or decline it) after it was performed.
You can set different hold periods for different actions, but all rates in one action will have the same hold period.
The standard hold period is 45 days.
How do I add an action?
To create actions for your program, provide the following details to your manager:
- The actions you need (select from the table above or create your custom actions or suggest yours if the one you need is missing).
- Whether you need to set different actions for existing and new users, purchases with and without promo codes and coupons, product categories, order amounts, create exclusive actions for channels.
- The commissions you need to set for all actions and rates.
- The hold period you’ll use, and whether it’ll be the same for all actions.
After your manager finishes creating your actions, you’ll see them in your account: Program → Actions.
To check which reward is set for each rate, click 
in the Tools column.
After actions are added, tracking department specialists will send you the codes you’ll need to deploy on your thank-you page. Without that, the program won’t be started.
Changing rates and actions
If you decrease commissions or actions, you have to notify publishers no later than five days before such changes take effect. Be sure to notify your manager a bit earlier, so they have enough time to prepare and send the newsletter.
If you plan to increase a reward, you need to notify publishers and your manager one day before.
Managing target actions and rates
If you are not authorized to manage target actions and rates, contact your account manager to make such changes.
How to manage target actions
Specifics:
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You can only change target action settings if your program is currently inactive or being tested. If the program is already active, it's only the manager who can make changes.
- You can't delete the actions you have already created due to the technical specifics of the system.
Available actions
You can:
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Deactivate an action. For that, click
in Tools.
In this case, the action will be deactivated, get the Inactive status, and be hidden from publishers.
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Activate action. For that, click
in Tools
In this case, the action will get the Active status and will be shown to publishers in Rates (in the card and on the program page).
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Edit action. For that, click
in Tools.
You can do the following:- Change the action name
- Select the channel or group for which the action is used (if the channel and/or group are not specified, the action will be active for all publishers)
- Change the hold time. Learn more about it above.
- Change the action status to Active or Inactive.
- Add or change rates for the action. Learn more in the the guide below.
Don't change the settings in Allow for cookies lifetime and Vendor action.
How to manage rates
Specifics:
- You can only change the rates if your program is currently inactive or being tested. If the program is already active, it's only the manager who can make changes.
- If creating or changing a rate will decrease the reward for publishers who have been cooperating with the program, be sure to notify them no later than 5 days before the change. For that, let the account manager know about the planned change.
- If you plan to increase a reward, you need to notify publishers and your manager one day before.
- You can change the current reward only starting from the next day.
How to add and set rates
Read above to learn more about rate types and what a rate is.
If you need to add a rate, do the following:
1. In Actions (Menu → Program → Actions), find the action for which you want to add a rate, and click in Tools.
2. Click Add new rate to the right of Rates and fill out the following fields:
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Name. Specify the rate name so that it's understandable to publishers (e.g., Tablets and smartphones). The name must be unique: Make sure it doesn't match the name of the rates that have been added earlier. If you see the error when trying to save the rate, try to change its name.
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Status. Select the rate status.
- Active. In this case, the rate will apply right after saving.
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Inactive. In this case, the rate will be created but will apply only after activating.
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Rate rewards. The following settings are available here:
- Period (1). This is the date on which the rate will apply. By default, this is the next day. To edit, click on the date and select another day in the calendar.
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Default reward (2). Specify the amount and type of the reward.
- To set the reward, click
and type the value. - To select the reward type, click the % (percentage of the order amount) or currency sign (fixed amount).
- To set the reward, click
If necessary, you can set additional rate settings so the reward would change depending on the action date, region, or amount of order items. How to do that
3. Click Save changes.
How to set up a complex rate
Read below to learn how to set up complex rates where the reward depends on the following:
You can use any of these settings separately or combine them.
Rate splitting by action date
If you need the reward to change depending on the date of action, do the following:
1. When setting up the rate, click 
(Split time interval) above the Period line.
On the line, a point will appear that will split it into two periods.
2. To the right of the separation point, click 
and specify the date from which the new reward will apply.
- If necessary, you can add several periods with various rates.
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To delete a period, click
above it.
3. Specify the amount and type of reward for each period.
4. Click Save changes.
Example
You want to temporarily boost the rate from 10% to 12% for the period from March 14, 2022 to April 14, 2022.
You need to add two intervals: one from March 14 with the rate of 12%, the other from April 5 with the rate of 10%.
The rate will automatically increase on these dates, and get back to the original value after the period ends.
Rate splitting by region
This setting is only available if geotargeting is enabled in your program.
If you need the reward to change depending on the user region, do the following:
1. When setting up the rate, click 
(Separation by countries) above the Period line.
2. In the new window, specify the country or city for which you set the new rate, then click Save.
- If necessary, you can add several regions at once.
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To delete a region, click
to the right of it.
3. Specify the amount and type of reward for each region.
4. Click Save changes.
Example
You want to set different rewards for users from Russia, Germany, and Belarus. For that, add each country and specify a respective reward for each of them.
Starting from the specified date, the publisher reward will depend on the region from which a user performed a target action.
Rate splitting by amount of order items
If you recalculate the order amount (in case of a partial redemption) but don't pass the new publisher reward, it will not be recalculated automatically and will remain the same.
If you want the reward to change depending on the amount of order items, do the following:
1. When setting up the rate, click 
(Split by amount) to the right of the Default reward or to the right of the region (if you use them).
2. In the new window, click (Split) and specify the amount of order items for which the new reward will apply, then save the changes.
- If necessary, you can add several amounts for which different rewards will apply.
- To delete splitting by amount, click above it.
3. Specify the amount and type of reward for each amount.
4. Click Save changes.
Example
You want to set an increased reward if the amount of order items exceeds 10,000 RUB and 20,000 RUB. For that, add splitting for these amounts and the reward amount that will apply if the requirement is met. Starting from the specified date, the publisher reward will depend on the amount of order items.
