Search Engines & eCommerce Frank Ross on 29 Mar 2007 08:35 pm
Pay Per Action - I like the Sound of It
Google recently announced a ‘Pay Per Action’ option to tag along with their Adwords program. Basically it means you (the advertiser) only pays when the specified action is taken. That action could be a sale, a newsletter sign-up and so on.
Such ads will only be shown across Google’s Adsense content network, but nevertheless, it creates somewhat of an advertiser’s dream: Only pay for the advertising when you get the desired action! Now that’s Common Sense eCommerce.
Details on the program are sparse at this point (like we don’t know the costs), but the Google press release can be found here. It is also rolled out in limited beta which means ‘by invite’. You can apply to be part of their beta program here. (You must have an Adwords account).
In general, this sounds very good, but you know what they say about something that sounds too good to be true! I suspect for something like this to work for Google, the costs may be quite high.
That aside, I have seen two different colleagues reference this in light of eBay stores - Randy Smythe and Phil Dunn. With eBay seeming to want to discourage eBay stores, this would be a good way to get out on the web and do business off eBay. If Adwords isn’t working for you anymore, maybe give this a try.
Tags: Google Pay-Per-Action, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, Google Per-Per-Click
on 29 Mar 2007 at 11:34 pm 1.Randy Smythe said …
Frank, thanks for the plug. PPA is just in Beta but shows great promise. I will be testing it with several clients in the coming weeks but it seems to be the answer for both the small seller as well as the large. The cost is controlled by the advertiser.
As an advertiser you state what you will pay Google for what action you choose. If it is a sale then you can say I am willing to pay 10% of sales for every lead that generates a sale. This give you complete control over the costs of the advertising.
on 30 Mar 2007 at 12:27 am 2.Frank Ross said …
Thanks for the info Randy, I have requested to be part of it, but have not received any details yet. I’ll be watching your blog to see how it works for you and your clients.
on 13 Apr 2007 at 7:40 pm 3.Common Sense eCommerce » Amazon Webstore Versus eBay Store said …
[…] A down side is that there is no apparent way to promote your Amazon Webstore from other Amazon venues like the Seller Marketplace. My rep tells me that may be planned for the future, but for now, you have to get your traffic by other means. But there are indeed other means - like Pay Per Action for example. […]