Which Network Do You Think Has The Most Brand Bidding Groups?

[aotagain]

So thats a very clear cut case of a network basically working like a PPC agency.
Good sales pitch. Forget the damage eh ?

Surely this is a huge conflict of interest, to have one group of affiliates brand bidding and overwriting the other group of affiliates, while claiming to be an affiliate network.

Using the CPA carrot gives them a competitive advantage over pure PPC agencies.
Closing the brand bidding group stops affiliates competing to earn brand commission for a merchant, so it keeps the brand bidding viable for those affiliates.

If it was a truly competitive market, affiliates would push each others costs up and the brand bidding perhaps wouldn't be viable, so the merchant would have to go to a PPC agency or do it in house, because affiliates wouldn't be interested.

It will be interesting to see who has got deeper pockets, as of course non-closed group affiliates can now bid on brand keywords for one merchant and direct them to another.

Here come the court cases then... one for every mis-spelling, one for every grey area, one for every domain variation etc. etc.

imo time for the networks to decide whether they want to be a network or an ad. agency as this could completely wreck the affiliate principle.

[aotagain]

Shane, that chimp is clearly over-qualified for the job, he's in the process of proof-reading the works of Shakespeare that he wrote yesterday.