DISQUS

As head of Marketing for Hydra, the largest pure CPA ad network, I can confirm your assertion Scott. While my big ad agency brand campaign-centric friends are biting their nails and watching for pink slips, we keep growing. And free impression is one of our selling points. Will be interesting to see if Brand Marketers get hip to the new reality and start unleashing accountable cost-per-engagement (CPE) brand advertising. We have our fingers crossed in hoped they do!

CPA is currently irrelevant to branding... but it won't stay that way. Advertisers have been looking to drive ad engagement. And that CAN be a trackable action and thus perfectly suited to CPA. In fact, it already has a name - CPE or cost-per-engagement and some advertisers have already broken the ice. Microsoft paid for views of a video, and Kellogs paid for kid to play a game for an Eggos line extension launch. So why be content with just having your ad where people might see it. How about knowing for sure that they did with CPA. All it will take is more bold and creative advertisers to create actionable engagements and be willing to pay for them.