Toys R Us PPC rules - a year on has anything changed?

[dunklk]

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A year ago Kieron and Frostie were blogging about how the Toys R Us programme on AW doesn't allow ANY kind of PPC activity whatsoever.

I thought a year down the line things might have changed but when I tried to sign up to the TrU programme on AW today I got this message...

"There are currently strict guidelines for the pay per click channel - There is NO PPC activity allowed on this campaign (including brand or generics or using landing pages). Any affiliate found to be driving traffic from the PPC channel will be immediately suspended from the campaign and commissions will be declined. Promotion for Toys R Us will be through the affiliate creative options and soon to be finalised datafeed."

Seriously now!? Has anything actually changed in the last year? All I want to do is promote a few kids toys through a price comparison landing page, it'd be nice if I could include the Toys R Us prices if only so the customer can see the "full" price picture, I don't even care if Toys R Us only offers a miserable 3% commission!

As I recall the reason behind the restrictions was a cautious board of directors, stock fulfillment and brand representation worries etc. Isn't a year of speculation and indecisiveness more than long enough for Toys R Us to realise that almost every national and multinational toy retailer operates a successful affiliate programme (and welcomes PPC activity) and that they have little to worry about?

This is business, whatever happened to the saying "speculate to accumulate"?

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Yes it is time for them to re-address that aspect and perhaps it's an oversight on their behalf, however I am concerned that Toys R Us has been a pretty poor (really poor) convertor, as it's a program that was wanted for a few years, but so far may not have quite delivered.