Google launch Pay-Per-Action today. Trouble for affiliate networks?
Today Google launched their Pay-Per-Action (beta) as mentioned on the Inside AdWords blog. OK so its a beta and its only available in the USA on a “limited basis” so why should you care?
Well as an affiliate it means you will have a bit more choice when it comes to selecting CPA offers for your site. As I understand it you plug in a few keywords to the interface and Google will come up with some CPA deals based on your keywords. Then as usual you can customise and configure the ads to fit in with the look and feel of your site, just like AdSense. This is good as payouts on CPA’s are usually better than per click. However it is bad as you won’t be able to select exactly what CPA deals you can promote on your site, Google will do that for you. Also, Google being Google you won’t be able to pick what the CPA prices are that you are advertising on your site. In the usual AdSense kind of way it will all be very vague and you can’t alter that.
So I guess this service will only really be of use to affiliates that currently utilise AdSense as a way of monetising their sites. For your traditional affiliates who run ppc sites, cashback sites, directories, blogs etc. then I think affiliate networks are still the way to go.
But what about affiliate networks? Should they be worried? Well if you are Tradedoubler, Buy.at, CJ etc. then I doubt it. These big networks offer a really valuable service to advertisers and you can’t compare them to the new Google proposition. But what about the smaller “self service” networks? The ones that offer little or no service to the advertiser and just charge an over-rider. Will they be under threat by Google’s new baby? Maybe; as knowing Google it will be a simple process for an advertiser to sign up, and most probably fully automated. So if I were a small advertiser looking to get into CPA marketing I would be *very* tempted to give Google a go first. And if that does well then maybe move onto the small to medium size affiliate networks, so bypassing the small networks altogether. Just my 2p worth.
What I’m listening to right now: Joss Stone - “Introducing…”
Affiliate Marketing - Google Pay Per Action
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
March 21st, 2007 at 4:20 pm
It will also be interesting to see how this affects a pseudo affilite network like Agloco.
It Google ever places these ad on it’s toolbar, it won’t share it with it’s surfers.