CPA SEO? 5 Reasons Performance Based SEO may not be right for you

A CPA SEO deal may sound like a tempting option. After all, with a pure performance deal you only pay for the value the SEO-provider creates for you and not for the actual time spend on the work involved.

But is a CPA SEO deal always the best option? What are the things you should consider before making this type of deal? Are you doing it for the right reasons?

Over the past many years I have engaged in many CPA SEO deals but I have refused even more. Most often because the client was not fully aware of the consequences of this type deal and was not willing to accept the fair terms I put forward.

In this post I will take a close  look at things you should consider before considering a CPA SEO deal …

– The Top 5 Reason a Performance Based SEO deal may not be right for you.

What is CPA SEO?

Basically, with a CPA SEO deal you will not be paying your SEO consultant for the hours spend on optimising your website but rather the results of it.

And here comes the first challenge: How do you define “results”?

Is it for the top ranking of specific keywords? For the amount of search traffic generated? Or is it based on the value – leads, sales or other conversions made?

Pay for rankings

Pay for rankings is the most tricky solution and the single one that I have experienced creates far the most conflicts between the client and the SEO consultant. So I usually never offer CPA SEO deal based on rankings.

First of all the problem is how you define keywords.

Some SEO consultants would off course like to pick keywords that are very easy to rank for. Sometimes they manage to “trick” clients into a SEO CPA deal based on keywords with no real value. When the client later realise this it can be expensive to get out of the deal.

Remember, just because you rank for a specific keyword does not mean it will actually create much traffic or any valuable actions.

On the other hand you may be smart enough to require much more hard to rank for keywords with much more potential value. However, this may be too hard for the (not so smart) SEO you hire on a CPA deal and you end up with nothing.

But even if you can agree on the right keywords to target how do you measure the rankings?

If you check the rankings manually they will most likely not be exactly the same for you as they appear to your SEO consultant.

Off course you can agree on a tool to use – one of the many ranking tools available but even if you do that you may not fully accept the results if you can’t reproduce them in your own browser.

Most of the Pay for Ranking deals I have seen end up in conflicts between the client and the SEO consultant. For that reason alone I do not recommend it.

Pay for traffic or actions

Paying for traffic or actions that comes from search is much better. First of all, there is a real value in that and also it is much easier to measure.

But what if you already have some search traffic and conversions from it?

At first sight it would off course seem most fair to exclude existing search traffic and conversions in the deal. However, it can be very difficult to separate your existing search traffic from the new traffic and conversions generated from your new CPA SEO deal.

Setting a simple baseline on how much search traffic you have now and then just pay for anything above that may not be completely fair. What if your existing search traffic drops (maybe because you make some mistakes)? As an SEO consultant I would not like that deal.

In a CPA SEO deal you would typically have to go all in.

But beside these basic considerations lets look at the 5 top reasons why CPA SEO may not be right for you …

1. CPA SEO will cost your more

If you think CPA SEO will end up being a cheaper way for you to get SEO done then its not the right deal for you! Think again …

The SEO consultant will take a risk in a pay for performance deal. If for, whatever reason, he do not perform well and create the expected results he will get very little or no pay. Its a risk. So if he is actually good and reach the goals you set then off course he should be compensated better than if he just did the work on a normalt consultant fee basis.

In other words: CPA SEO is more a sort of insurance. If you get no value out of it you pay nothing. But if you do get great results – which off course is what you as well as the SEO hope for, then you have to accept ending up paying more, maybe much more, that you would have to otherwise pay the same consultant if he took no risk.

That is fair but you have to accept this.

2. A CPA SEO deal will limit you freedom to edit your website

When I enter into a SEO CPA deal I want full control of your site. Off course. I will not invest my time in optimising your website, creating new pages and building links only to see it all go down the drain because you or your IT team mess it up.

So you have to accept that if you sign a SEO CPA deal you will no longer have full freedom to do whatever you like on your site. At least, you will have to consult with your SEO consultant first.

If you cannot accept this then a SEO CPA deal is not right for you.

3. A CPA SEO deal is a long term commitment

SEO takes time and results often don’t show immediately. We all know that.

In the beginning you have to do a lot of work with very little results. Later, if you did you work well, you can harvest the values of what you did.

So for that reason a CPA SEO deal should off course not be made short term. I would not accept that. And if you are looking for a short engagement performance based SEO is just not the right type of deal for you.

4. A fair CPA SEO deal comes with an exit price

If I invest my time in optimising your website the value of that investment is likely to continue long after I stop working on it. Thats how SEO works.

Therefor it is only fair that if you want to cancel an ongoing CPA SEO deal you pay an exit price for that.

In the deals I have engaged in I have most often required 6-12 month continued pay of the average share I got in the past 3 month prior to cancelation. The value of my work will in most cases last longer than that so its not a bad deal for you.

If you do not think this is fair then you should not ask a SEO to invest in your website on a CPA deal.

5. Your CPA SEO may end up with a better monthly salary than you – for less work

The goal of a CPA SEO deal is to get great results – lots of search visibility, relevant traffic and leads or sales.

If your SEO consultant reach the set goals then he should also get well compensated for it. Be happy about it because if he earns well its because he performes as you expected.

You should not set an upper limit to how much your SEO can earn because if you do he will stop working the minute he reach that goal. Look at it like affiliate marketing – the more he makes the more your company makes.

Just keep in mind that on an individual level this may not translate into comparable salary levels. Maybe you have a fixed salary for full time work. A CPA SEO do not. If he do very well he may end up making more than you working much less time.

I have had CPA SEO deals where I did a really great job but eventually the client could not accept that I ended up with a much bigger monthly salary than him doing much less work. But hey – I am on a performance deal and I performed really well. Accept it or don’t do CPA SEO!

Should you engage in SEO CPA?

Maybe. If you can accept all the conditions in a performance based SEO deal as outlined above then maybe you should. If you can’t accept it then don’t.

If you do decide to move on and try to cut a CPA SEO deal then make sure you find the right SEO to do it with. Off course you should always be carefull when engaging with a SEO consultant – or any consultant for that matter but in a long term CPA type of deal you hav to be extra careful.

Please share your experience …

I would be very happy if you would share your experience with CPA SEO in the comments below.