March 23, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Search engine giant Google (google.com) announced Tuesday that it has started beta testing its pay-per-action advertising affiliate program with both advertisers and publishers. With its already massive existing base of pay-per-click advertisers, many anticipate Google to rapidly become a disruptive player in PPA.
PPA affiliate programs, which offer a fee for customer referrals from third-party Web sites, have become more prominent in the past year as more Web hosts have started referral networks. PPA programs differ from PPC programs in that it only offers a pay out when a customer signs up for a hosting account, whereas with PPA, advertisers are charged a fee each time a visitor clicks through to their site.
The strong competition for customers can be seen in the high payouts for affiliate conversions, with at least 10 hosting companies currently offering between $100 and $150 per referral at affiliate programs management provider Commission Junction. Those fees are typically offered when a customer signs up and pre-pays for a term of at least one year.
Some Web hosts have accused Google's AdWords of employing a "click inflation" strategy as reasons for shifting its focus to affiliate marketing, where each payout produces a customer instead of a Web site visitor. However, industry experts say it is too early to project whether a similar pattern would occur for Google's PPA program.
Eventually in long term , google will lose it's own customers as people will directly to the customer site without using the search engine. Worst decision by Google. I have a website named say "criticalaid.tld" , once the cusotmer knows ,he will directly go this site .he never goes through google. posted by: ragu | March 23, 2007 10:28PM
