June 21st, 2006

Google Finally Launches CPA Ads?

According to a contributor over at SeekingAlpha, Google has just started putting a Cost Per Action (CPA) advert model (a.k.a. affliate marketing) on trial with selected publishers. This comes after speculative discussion over at the Digital Point forums on the issue.

For those who are not completely sure what CPA ads are, they are adverts that reward publishers only if a site visitor performs a specific action (e.g. registers or purchases a product) after clicking the ad. A few of the more popular CPA networks are Commision Junction, Clickbank and Amazon.

Now, Google launching new ad models is good and all, especially for Malaysians like me who can’t officially register for Clickbank and Commission Junction. But I feel that Google’s trial implementation of CPA ads is lacking in one key department. They are based on AdSense’s current ad unit sizes. For Google’s CPA ads to dominate its opposition, it’s going to have to embrace text links, and give even greater flexibility on the text compared to what it already provides for its AdSense text link referrals.

At the very least, there seems to be some positive signs. According to the email sent to the contributor at SeekingAlpha, Google is allowing you to say things like “I recommend this product” or “Try JetBlue today” next to the CPA ad unit – unlike its current stand of putting nothing except “Advertsing” or “Sponsored Links”. Hopefully, we’ll see Google transcend to pure text links (and of course, open the CPA programme to international publishers).

[News via Mashable]

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