Google Testing Pay for Performance Ads

[thejenn]

Authored by: Jennifer Laycock

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/007810.html

A Snippet:

What would happen if the largest online advertising network in the world decided to skip past issues like click fraud by integrating an affiliate style advertising program straight into their already popular network? Apparently, Google is ready to ask that question and everyone else is awaiting the answer.

[magicanswers]

Publishers are watching drastic decreases in Adsense payout. Advertisers are opting to pull their ads from the network for poor performance. SERP's are full of circle jerk adsense pages leading to more adsense pages... Google has to do SOMETHING in order to maintain their advertising revenue.

I think this is just the beginning. PPC advertising is going to go thru some severe changes within the next year....

C. Crawford
Webhosting
Affiliate Website Design

[murdergal]

Personally I think it is a fantastic idea from an advertisers point of view and we are the ones that actually control where our advertiser dollars are spent.

I do use Adwords, but I do not advertise on content sites (IE: no adsense) I tried it for 2 weeks and it sucked up 4 times as much as adwords with almost no sales. My conversion rate was about twice the cost of my product! There is no doubt in my mind that click fraud is a serious issue. I also see instances of it in adwords google, but not even close to as bad as content sites. In adwords I have to worry about spiteful competitors and when you are at the top of the pile they tend to aim for you. I think that pay for results will fix those problems.

I also think that it will be good for the content site. A site might want to carry my ads, but since I do not advertise in the content network they cannot. They are missing out in having a good choice of advertisers. More and more advertisers are pulling out of the content network. And with clickfraud becoming more of a problem every day, the ppc networks are going to be faced with finding a change that will work and prevent multi-million dollar lawsuits!

Count me in the moment it goes live

[jmjj215]

This has me very interested, to say the least. It would be the largest "affiliate" network on the internet I imagine. I wonder why Google then cares if you "incite" people to click on the link? It doesn't hurt the advertiser any, doesn't hurt the visitor... they would have to buy for it to have any (and then it would only be positive) effect at all.

[esearing]

I like the Adbrite model where as an advertiser I can pick the sites I want to advertise on, or as a publisher I can approve who advertises and set prices.
My only beef with Adbrite is the lack of quality and inconsistent pricing.

If Adsense begins allowing publishers to pick ads that would be fantastic.

[murdergal]

I think the Google rule not to incite people to click is meant to prevent hype and to provide quality promotion over sensational (and most likely false) promotion. My guess is they want the usage to be tasteful, which will result in more satisfaction for all parties. Those viewing the ads and those reaping the benefits of viewers clicking on quality ads. As a long time web person, I can tell you I am totally turned off to anything that is flashy, gaudy & tells me to Click It! These days you have to be leary of anything that incites you to click.

[jmjj215]

Originally Posted by murdergal

I think the Google rule not to incite people to click is meant to prevent hype and to provide quality promotion over sensational (and most likely false) promotion. My guess is they want the usage to be tasteful, which will result in more satisfaction for all parties. Those viewing the ads and those reaping the benefits of viewers clicking on quality ads. As a long time web person, I can tell you I am totally turned off to anything that is flashy, gaudy & tells me to Click It! These days you have to be leary of anything that incites you to click.

Yeah, you have a point there for sure.

[PaulMS]

What I find interesting that most of the pay for performance whispers are happening right when Snap.com is making noises. If you don't know Snap, it's being developed out by the same people that developed out Overture and ultimately sold it to Yahoo.

Snap specifically stated they were going to avoid clickfraud issues by going to a straight CPA model.