
Digesting Google's New PPA Advertising Product - python_kiss
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/21/digesting-googles-new-ppa-advertising-product/
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zkinion
Yeah, this is nice. The existing aff marketing networks are filled with all
sorts of shysters. Shaving sales and unjustified termination of accounts
before payment is sent is very very very common. This will put alot more
honesty in the affiliate marketing area, which is a cesspool now.

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python_kiss
PPA is certainly a great relief for advertisers. An interesting question,
though, is whether such an offering is actually beneficial to the publishers?
Domain-parking sites, in particular, might fail to generate profits through
PPA and therefore stick with CPC instead. This advertising model might fail to
scale if it is not mutually beneficial for both, advertisers and the
publishers.

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joshwa
I think you'll see minimal impact on the landscape for publishers-- if they
used CPA/aff before, they'll continue to use CPA-- Google is just another CPA
source to them. Same with CPC.

The only shift I can imagine happening is that some CPC publishers will shift
to CPA, as the overhead associated with evaluating the various affiliate
brokers and opening accounts, etc, just got eliminated, as the publishers
already have an existing relationship with Google.

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chandrab
If some advertisers shift from PPC to PPA, it sounds to me like there will be
a drop in PPC prices. Which in turn may lead to revenue problems at many
advertising supported sites. Also, not every site is suitable for PPA - since
they won't convert well (domain parking being an extreme example). It will be
interesting to see if there is any impact on Google's short term revenue.

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joshwa
Money quote:

"Affiliate marketing networks like Commission Junction and LinkShare are
screwed. These networks also operate on a cost-per-action basis, mostly with
online retailers. Even though some of them have scale, they will not have the
ability to compete with Google on sheer size of network."

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python_kiss
AdBrite coexists with Adwords despite having a similar CPC model. CJ and
LinkShare can either choose to have a head-on fight with Google, and lose. Or
they can innovate to provide the same product (PPA) with a better service.

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joshwa
It's true that the market has room for more than one player. It's just that if
one of the players is Google, and since Google is offering significant
integration advantages with Adwords (see comment #4 on the techcrunch
article), then CJ and Linkshare are going to lose serious market share. The
"800-lb gorilla" title is going to shift overnight. They are in a pickle, to
be sure.

