| Advertising sales are critical to the success of many business and trade-offs between pay-per-click and pay-per-action models, sponsored search and keyword advertising, can have dramatic impact on company revenue performance, yet little is known about the inner workings of these complex and important processes (Evans, 2009; Jansen & Schuster, 2011; Karmarkar & Dutta, 2010). The specific problem this study sought to explore is the gap in the literature explaining the complex and important process of the cost-per-action model. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore and describe the experiences of marketing professionals and other managers in an e-commerce business based in the U.S. about the benefits and drawbacks of implementing a cost-per-action model. The sample of this qualitative single case study was comprised of e-commerce marketing professionals and other managers at the organization of study. The participants in this qualitative single case study were interviewed on the benefits and drawbacks of the implementation of the cost-per-action model. The findings of this qualitative single case study provided implications and results relative to the implementation of the cost-per-action model at an e-commerce empowered organization. The results of the qualitative single case study indicated 13 themes of benefits and drawbacks of implementing the cost-per-action model. The themes of marketing cost control and spend level patterns, marketing investment, revenue growth, brand awareness, brand expansion, profitability, social media, mobile marketing, marketing channels and customer migration, and inventory control were identified as benefits of implementing a cost-per-action model. The themes of third-party relationships and ad publishers' hesitancy to engage in cost-per-action deals were identified as drawbacks of implementing the cost-per-action model. The theme of third-party relationships was identified as both a benefit and a drawback of the implementation of the cost-per-action model. Three recommendations for the practice of e-commerce marketing were presented, as well as two recommendations for future research relative to the study of the implementation of the cost-per-action model ad an e-commerce marketing strategy. |
