Cost Per Download or Cost Per Install marketing is a pay-per-performance model often run through affiliate programs for software and adware providers.

While the marketing method was originally mainly created by adware providers in around the start of the millennium, it has now become more and more a part of the gaming industry. Quiet a few MMO’s/MMPORGs and other types of games use this method through CPA Affiliate Networks to promote themselves, only paying when a person actually downloads and installs a game onto their computer.

Similarly, the method has been used to promote search engine toolbars and similar products. Bing, the search engine owned by Microsoft has used this technique extensively and it is credited for giving Bing a significant market share of searches.

Benefits of Cost Per Download / Cost Per Install
- Great way to get enormous amounts of traffic.
- You can make money on cost per download on your product by bundling other products

Problems with Cost Per Download / Cost Per Install
- Lots of fraud in the CPD industry, since a lot of people will “incentivize” the offer. May never result in real users.
- If promoted through junk or spammy methods, could get your app or game blacklisted by a anti-virus company or security company.

Things you need to ask any CPD company
- How many downloads can you produce a day?
- Are you bundling?
- Are you incentivizing?

Written by Pace Lattin

Pace Lattin is one of the top experts in interactive advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his dedication to ethics in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the industry, and has written numerous articles for publications from MediaPost, ClickZ, ADOTAS and his own blogs.

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