Google Goes CPA! Affiliate Marketers VOICE Your Opinion!

[Linda Buquet]

HOT OFF THE PRESS!

Affiliate marketers were buzzing back in June about Google's plans to launch a CPA network. Well it's official - it's launching and Google Adwords is starting the CPA Beta test phase.

Will this rock our world and change affiliate marketing as we know it?

I don't think so, but you will see an abundance of
doom & gloom posts saying the end is neigh.

Inside AdWords - The official source for information about AdWords has is the full story.

Google Pay-per-action Beta Test "Is there a specific action on your site that you want visitors to complete? Do you know how much that action is worth to your business? If so, you may be interested in our pay-per-action beta test...

Pay-per-action advertising is a new pricing model that allows you to pay only for completed actions that you define, such as a lead, a sale, or a pageview, after a user has clicked on your ad on a publisher's site. You'll define an action, set up conversion tracking, and create ads that publishers in the Google content network can then choose to place in new ad units on their site. Let's run through the details.. More...

Marketing Pilgrim has one of the 1st stories about the news.
Google’s Launches Pay-Per-Action; a Threat to Affiliate Networks? Andy writes:

"To me, it sounds like a clear threat to the likes of Commission Junction or LinkShare – or any other affiliate marketing network. Google, for all intents and purposes, has just entered the affiliate marketing arena, with the battle cry that they can do affiliate marketing better than the affiliate networks can." More...

WHAT DO YOU THINK???

[Linda Buquet]

Above I posted about the new Adwords CPA announcementfor advertisers and merchants that want to promote products and services via CPA instead of CPC. Well here's the corresponding Adsense announcement inviting Adsense publishers to join the beta and start pushing the new CPA ads.

Look out, Google is trying to take over our world.

Google AdSense Referrals Beta "Now, you can expand the earning potential of your website even further by directing users to products and services from our base of AdWords advertisers...With referrals, you'll be paid when your visitors click through to an advertiser's site and complete an action defined by your advertisers, such as a sale or sign up. Because these actions are often more involved than a simple click or impression, advertisers pay more for these referrals, which can translate into higher earnings for your site. Further, you'll see the expected earnings and advertiser performance ahead of time, so you can make the best decisions about what to refer. You can also choose to target the keywords that will ensure you get the highest-paying referrals for your ad space."

What do YOU think about all of this???

[Edwin]

Hi Linda,

Do you perhaps know of a working example of this new implementation?
I'm confused if it is a traditional unit or a CPA Link that is to be displayed in your content.

It would have been nice if there is some visual presentation available on this.

Edwin

[Larwee]

-Edwin- This might help to give you a few ideas https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...y?answer=62943

[Edwin]

Thanks Larwee!

[maranda]

If I'm understanding this news correctly, It's not the end. Weren't people worried when Google Adwords stepped onto the scene? There are a lot of people now disheartened by that PPC service. Understandably, I think a PPA program from Google will get people excited at first, however, what about personalized customer and technical support? Will Google give just as much attention to this part of the business like we do? There's still areas that can always be managed better by other affiliate marketing networks.

That's just my two cents.

[Linda Buquet]

Want to see what the Google CPA beta conversion tracking setup page looks like from the advertiser/merchant side? Webkidsan gratiously shares this pic with us on Flickr. Looks pretty straight forward. Pay per sale, lead or other are the options that are currently offered.

Google CPA - PPA Merchant Set-Up Screen - Click to Zoom


Thanks go out to Barry Schwartz who discovered this image & blogged it over at Search Engine Roundtable and to Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal who lead me to Barry's post.

[Linda Buquet]

Ok here it is. This is it! Barry shows us step by step with screenshots how the Google Adsense Publisher side of the new beta CPA program works. Above I showed a screenshot of the view from the merchant/advertiser side of the Google CPA program. Here is the affiliate side.

AdSense Publisher View Of Google Pay Per Action "Last week Google launched Pay Per Action in beta version for some AdSense publishers and AdWords advertisers. I logged into my Google AdSense account this morning, and noticed that my referrals section was redone to allow me to start placing Google Pay Per Action referrals on my site.

Below I will take you through a screen by screen view of Pay Per Action from the Google AdSense publisher side of things." More...

[Linda Buquet]

After reading yesterday's Inside AdWords official Google blog post, I realized at least in it's current iteration, Google Pay per Action is not going to be a viable option for most retail affiliate programs. In spite of recent speculation about how the new Google CPA offering could potentially change the landscape of affiliate marketing, in light of this new info I don't think it will rock our boat much at all.

Why? Currently Google does not offer the option to pay a % of sale - only a flat fee amount. Retailers with multiple products won't be able to be competitive since they can only offer a set fee per action and could actually loose their shirts if they try. Example: if a company like zZounds, one of our 5 Star clients paid a CPA of 20 per sale - that would not be as high as an affiliate could earn through the affiliate program if the sale was a big one as many zZound's sales are. On the other hand, zZounds would loose money on the $20 CPA if the sale was only on some guitar strings.

"Q: Is it possible to set a cost-per-action (CPA) value (i.e. the amount I'd like to pay for a specific action) as a percentage of the amount of the purchase rather than as a fixed amount per purchase?

A: We don't currently offer the option to set a CPA value as a percentage. The cost-per-action value must be a fixed amount."

Additionally the Google pay-per-action ads can only be shown on the content network and not in the Google or partner search network. Merchants offering pay per lead intead of pay per sale, will most likely be leary of the content network for obvious reasons.

"Q: Do pay-per-action ads show on Google.com or on sites in the search network?

A: No. Pay-per-action ads are not eligible to show on Google.com or in the Google search network. They're only eligible to display in the Google content network."

Here is the rest of the new Google Cost Per Action questions and answers plus there is a link to the original FAQ.

[john238]

I've heard about this Google CPA stuff. I just hope that it's good for the advertiser and the publisher, but I also hope that it doesn't affect the current CPA affiliate networks to much as some people are doing very well with them at the mo.