Google launch affiliate-style CPA product

[Brendon]

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Hear that? It's the sound of the other shoe dropping. Yes, ladies and gentleman, the mighty G have thrown their hat into the affiliate ring. You can read the Adwords blog post here. For the moment at least, it's a flat fee only scheme. No %age of sale function yet, but watch out for a Q3 launch there, in time for the Xmas market perhaps, maybe tied in to the G Checkout system.

This isn't going to affect the UK much yet, unless you get into the aff side if you already do a lot of US business, but it's going to be worth keeping a beady eye on whats going on over the pond in the next few months. Interesting times, and all that

[3wdl]

Have they not been trialing this for the past year or so?

[KieronD]

No, they have been talking about it but the official beta launch is today. As far as I can see anyway, and I have scoured the web.

[hirschnathan]

It wont effect affiliate marketing for 2 reasons

Firstly who says publishers will sign up to it, most publishers will be happy on the pay per view or pay per click

Merchants do ppc already, but still need affiliates using ppc to cover the keywords that they have left out.

Its a good try but I dont think its anything to worry about.

[3wdl]

No, they have been talking about it but the official beta launch is today. As far as I can see anyway, and I have scoured the web.

Sorry, I mean they have been trialling it with selected US advertisers for a while - now in full beta mode though.

Google could well be the ultimate affiliate network in the future - they already have a huge amount of advertisers and publishers & to expand into CPA would be very cost effective for a number of merchants.

A long way off there yet though.

[beejeebers]

"Pay-per-action ads are only shown on sites in the Google content network."

Good luck with anybody trying to get "an action" off their crappy content network...

[Brendon]

>> Have they not been trialing this for the past year or so?

Since summer last year. The switch to public beta is worth noting, I think, as it's a clear step forward for the program, getting it ready for primetime

[hpops]

"Pay-per-action ads are only shown on sites in the Google content network."

Good luck with anybody trying to get "an action" off their crappy content network...

Have to agree here - if I ran sites that converted as badly as 95% of adsense sites, I'd be vaguely ashamed

[Sambernard]

I need to get my focus on UK then.

[Top banana]

Does anyone know what percentage "over-ride" google are planning to take - i assume its going to be a lot lower than currently 20 to 30% that the affiliate networks take. If that the case merchants may well get affiliates to switch to google by offering a high commission rate (becuase they have saved on the commission)

[Michael_Anthony]

I thinks this represents a huge oppotunity for experts in CPA marketing such as ourselves - we have the expertise in this area and already have well established buyers who know that we can do a better job for them than they could ever hope to do themselves. Just another way for us to buy leads is what I see.

[henriloisel]

This covers it: http://services.google.com/payperaction/faq.html

It is just pay per action adsense, still it's another fresh landscape presenting the opportunity to capitalise on growth as is matures.

Google know their content network is crap - this is their answer for advertisers, look after revenue source first.

[hmc]

i read recently, that their PPA network still in alpha.