| LED Digest 2194: The AdSense Pay-Per-Action Program |
|
|
|
==================================================
The LED Digest
Moderated Discussion List
"Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997"
Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom
pair Networks: The LED's Web Host
Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader
pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains
==================================================
List Moderator: Published by:
Adam Audette LED Digest
adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com
..............................................
June 30, 2006 Issue no. 2194
..............................................
.....IN THIS DIGEST.....
==== CONTINUING =================
--== AdSense PPA Beta Program ==--
~ Chris Nielsen
"I think this is going to catch on more..."
~ Claudiu Spulber
"What will be interesting is how they're going
to trace that 'action'..."
--== Selling on Amazon ==--
~ Scott Marino
"We love Amazon and what it does for our
business."
~ Paul Campanella
"[Do] your Amazon sales outweigh your negative
views about the marketplace?"
======== CONTINUING ===============================
From: Chris Nielsen
Subject: Google PPA
> I thought I would give people a heads up on a new
> beta program which [AdSense] is now testing. It is
> a pay for performance model.
- Mary Lee, LED 2193
We've been trying CPA for a couple of months now for two clients and
ourselves with a different provider with mixed success. I think this
is going to catch on more not just because of fraud issues, but also
because many companies can generally convert a higher percentage of
those that contact them when they can talk to them. I know that I
can convert about 80% of serious callers.
True, there is not click fraud in the same sense. But if your ad
gets too many impressions and no calls it can get paused and you are
then required to make changes so people call before it can be shown
again. But if CPA also moves to the content network we may start to
see "Call Fraud", where people call and stay on the line long enough
for the call to be charged to the advertiser.
I think the sooner we mostly dump the CPC (Cost Per Click) model and
move to more of a CPI (Cost Per Impression) the better it will be
for the industry. Google now offers this with their "Site Targeted"
option. We initially had problems with this service, but now feel it
is providing some value. There is still the possibility of
"Impression Fraud", but the return to the site owner is much less
for the effort, and a site will lots of impressions and no
conversions will be dropped by the advertiser.
Personally, I would like to see some methods involving conversions
from a content provider resulting in extra revenue for the provider.
If the ad network and the advertiser see verifiable positive good
results (sales/conversions) from a publisher, then some extra reward
could be made. Sites that don't produce valid conversions would not
be rewarded and could be dropped by the advertiser.
But what I would really like to see is more of a "flat-rate"
advertising option. Pricing per month or week could still be set via
bidding, but it would remove all of the nasty aspects that we now
see, don't see, or won't admit to with current PPC model. Aside from
normalizing the costs for advertisers it would also provide a more
regular income for publishers. Would the income go down for legit ad
publishers? Perhaps. Would it be a better situation for advertisers?
Yes, in my opinion, and they are the customer.
Chris Nielsen
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: Claudiu Spulber
Subject: Google PPA
Yes it's an interesting program from Google. What will be more
interesting when this goes public is how they're going to trace that
"action". I assume that the advertiser will have to add some JS code
on the page where the action will be performed (i.e. the order
page). Now, I'm not sure how advertisers will feel about giving
Google yet another set of statistics about their business (getting a
little paranoid here, hinting at Analytics).
Also, this program will not replace PPC, it will be an additional
service from Google. The PPC program is Google's revenue core.
Reading through a list of FAQs regarding this PPA program (via
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/003988.html), I see a clue on
the advertisers:
-------------------------
"Where do these CPA ads comes from?
"The CPA ads come from a limited group of high quality advertisers
that are interested in displaying ads on a CPA basis. They pay you
whenever a site visitor performs a specified action, such as
generating a lead or purchasing a product."
-------------------------
So another idea spurs, what if, in order to become a "high quality
advertiser" your products (or your company) will have to pass some
tests? This might become another advertising channel for products
that already sell very well and are well-known. Other ideas: it's
possible that the products listed through PPA to be sold exclusively
via Gbuy, retail products only.
Regards,
Claudiu Spulber
-------- new post - new topic ---------
From: Scott Marino
Subject: Amazon selling
In LED 2193 "R Black" wrote a very negative piece on selling on
Amazon. Maybe he was referring to selling in the marketplace rather
than being a 3rd party seller in one of the stores (we are a store).
We do not share his experience.
We have been selling on Amazon as a retailer in apparel for over 2
years (have had our own site for 7 years) and have a positive
experience.
Amazon's ability to move product for us has fueled solid growth in
our company. Amazon provided the tools needed to automate the
loading of products and inventory into their database and to extract
orders in a format for loading into our systems.
They have worked rather quickly whenever a technical issue has come
up. Their site has gone down on occasion (it happens to the best of
us) and they have restored it promptly AND posted notices announcing
that a problem occurred.
I could go point by point on over more than half of R Black's list
and write how I have had the complete opposite experience. I won't
make this post too long, so I won't do that.
To be a successful seller on Amazon, it's pretty simple. All you
need to do is:
1) Write accurate product descriptions
2) Only sell merchandise you have in stock
3) Ship quickly via a traceable method
4) Answer any questions promptly and politely
We range from a 99% to a 100% positive feedback rating from nearly
4,000 reviews by doing those 4 things.
Amazon.com is basically amassing a huge product offering via a
drop-ship type arrangement with it's sellers. They own the customer
when the sale is complete. There is always some overflow of traffic
from Amazon to our site as comparison shoppers find us direct, but
we are happy to pay Amazon for the high volume of sales they refer.
It might be a little work to integrate your products into Amazon,
but once there, they will sell if priced right. As a retailer, we
only pay a percentage on the sales, unlike Ebay that charges a
listing fee whether the product sells or does not sell. Amazon also
handles all the credit cards and as long as you ship via a traceable
method, there are virtually no chargebacks.
Bottom line - We love Amazon and what it does for our business.
Scott Marino, President
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: Paul Campanella
Subject: Amazon selling
> I'm not going to use my real email address as
> we all know what happens to sellers who speak
> the "truth" about Amazon selling. They get canned.
- R. Black, LED 2193
After reading your 16-point checklist of complaints, I am confused
as to why you are still using Amazon as a marketplace to sell your
goods. Is it my understanding that you feel your Amazon sales are
enough to outweigh your negative views about the marketplace?
Regards,
Paul Campanella
-------------------------------------------------------
The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks:
pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains
© Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the
doorbell." - Anon. |
