A media buyer's income is the gap between what they spend on ads and what they're paid for results. To know how to earn, you need to understand payout models.
The main models
- CPL (cost per lead) — paid per lead: contacts, sign-up, inquiry. Common in real estate, cars, insurance, education.
- CPA (cost per action) — paid per target action: purchase, first deposit, activated install.
- CPS (cost per sale) — a percentage or fixed amount per sale. Popular in e-commerce and travel.
- RevShare — a share of the advertiser's revenue from the customer, often lifetime. Typical for iGaming, finance and subscriptions.
- Hybrid — a fixed payout plus RevShare.
What matters in offer terms
- Cap — how many leads or actions the advertiser accepts per day or month.
- Hold — how many days a payout is verified before it's credited.
- Allowed sources — which platforms and geos you may use.
- Quality requirements — which leads count and which don't.
Your own budget or the company's
Own budget — the buyer pays for ads and keeps the whole difference between payouts and spend. Higher risk, bigger share.
Company budget — the team pays for ads, the buyer gets a share of the profit. Lower risk, bigger scale, but you must prove you can deliver profit consistently.
On our team the path is: a course graduate first runs live offers on their own budget and gets payouts; with stable results they move to company budgets.
What income depends on
- Finding and scaling profitable setups.
- Traffic quality: cheap but empty leads don't get paid.
- Testing speed and the discipline to cut losers.
- Access to good offers and rates — teams get better access than solo buyers.
We don't promise a fixed income: it depends on results. We do give you the knowledge, offers and support to get them. More on the traffic course page; about niches — in our article on verticals.