A five-point, 20-minute checklist — EPC, approval and hold, competition, the funnel as a user sees it, restrictions — that filters out most weak offers before launch.
Most failed CPA launches don't start with bad targeting — they start with an offer picked in five minutes based on a single number in the network's dashboard. The 20-minute checklist below is the minimum that filters out most obviously weak offers before the first euro is spent.
Payout isn't margin
Look at EPC (earnings per click) for the last 7–14 days, not the advertised payout: it shows what the network's traffic actually earns on average, after hold and rejected leads.
Approval and hold matter more than the rate
An offer with a 20% higher payout but 35% approval and a 30-day hold loses to an offer with 70% approval and next-day payment — on cash flow and on real margin.
Competition on the offer
Check how many affiliates are already running this offer and for how long: a fresh offer with growing demand leaves room to scale, an overheated one brings fast audience fatigue and rising CPC.
Quality of the advertiser's funnel
Walk through the funnel yourself, from a mobile device, in the target GEO through a VPN: the form, load speed and how relevant the offer is to the audience are visible in two minutes and often explain a future low CR better than any statistics.
Traffic and creative restrictions
Confirm with the network manager the traffic-source policy, allowed creative formats, and whether the offer has a cap (daily lead limit) — hitting a cap on a scaling campaign stings more than never launching at all.
In short
- Check EPC over 7–14 days, not the advertised payout.
- Compare offers by approval and hold, not just by the rate.
- Check competition and freshness of the offer before launch.
- Walk the advertiser's funnel yourself, from mobile and through a VPN in the target GEO.
- Confirm traffic, creative restrictions and the cap before starting.
There's no universal recipe here, but the mistakes listed above cost the most and repeat the most often.