Google Announces New PPA Network.

There has been a buzz in the internet marketing community about it since as far back as June 2006 but finally Google made the official announcement that their Pay-Per-Action (PPA) program has officially launched its beta release.

So far, the beta launch will be limited to Adsense Users in the United States alone. Advertisers will be given the chance of paying only when the web surfer performs a desired action (such as filling out a lead form, buying a product, or signing up for a newsletter) or whether they continue to use the Pay-Per-click model of paying out when a visitor is delivered to their site via a Google Ad. According to Google’s Pay-Per-Action FAQ, advertisers in the program will spend only what they are willing to pay for the actions they wish to see accomplished by browsers, "You determine how much you’re willing to offer for each specific action to be completed on your site, whether it’s $5 for a purchase or $1 for a newsletter sign-up."

Advertisers will be able to choose between text and image ads as well as a new offering from Google of ‘inline ads’ i.e. adverts which look like hyperlinks and which can be placed within a paragraph of text.

Publishers that are invited to participate in the beta release will be able to opt in and out of the program as they wish and will be able to choose from a variety of ad sizes and clusters.

Insiders speculate that Google believes the Pay-Per-Action model will be a hit with many of their current Adwords advertisers as a result of a growing weariness to Cost-Per-Click campaign click fraud scams. Though increased policing and tracking of the program by Google has been moderately effective, no one can really know how widespread the problem remains to be. This leaves more and more advertisers that have been bit before increasingly cautious with their Adwords budgets.

The Google Pay-Per-Action program is being touted as an extension of the Adwords program instead of a direct competitor to LinkShare and Commission Junction. Rob Kniaz, Google’s advertising product manager denied any intention on Google’s part to compete as an affiliate network, "We think this is different from the traditional affiliate marketing industry. (It’s an) extension of the current Adwords product."

Even with these assurances from Google, the general consensus remains gloomy about the future of smaller affiliate marketing networks. Google’s sheer size and reach make it impossible for any existing network to compete, no matter what their existing market share. If "Big G" is can offer the "Wal-Mart" effect of volume to potential advertisers, there is no telling how long other networks can remain competitive.

Contact us to discuss digital marketing.