It seams that the news about Google’s latest move into CPA arena is dominating some circles, in particular those of the affiliate marketing and search engine marketing. Michael Arrington, in a post about new Google product, is offering almost a prophetic vision:
Affiliate marketing networks like Commission Junction and LinkShare are screwed….
Google is going to eat them alive.
Michael’s comment about stock price of Value Click may make his readers believe that the price indeed was plummeting. I am glad Jim Kukral points out on his blog that ValueClick’s stock price change was hardly significant, and I personally believe may not be related to the Google PPA news .
In any event, TechCrunch had just lost few points with me over this rushed statement. I am sure Michael has his reasons to write what he writes, and probably has some inside information that we do not have. After all that is the reason I visit his blog so often! But I do believe that Google may have hard time swallowing if it were “to eat them alive”, and may find itself in need of a Heimlich Maneuver.
While Google maybe ahead of the game in terms of all AdSense publishers lining up for the new product, CPA networks are ahead of the game when it comes to the inventory of merchants, but also the quality of publishers. Successful CPA affiliates (publishers) will tell you that to produce an action, be it lead or sale, there is much more to it than just placing a link on your website. If any one thinks that a merchant will give preference to be advertised on sites like this over the websites like this, he is probably out of his mind. For Google to be able to even step up to the plate, they need first to reeducate their publishers.
Many affiliate marketers had utilized extensively AdWords. But if you ask the leaders in affiliate marketing about PPC strategies, they will tell you that if you are new to affiliate marketing not to get involved with so called “content” advertising on AdWords. No wonder why?
While Google may have larger number of publishers than CPA networks, none of the AdSense publishers can measure to the quality of some of the CPA publishers.
Update. Since this seem to be the topic of the day I am going to ad some great reads on this topic as I find them:
Scot Janrgo – Will Google CPA Eat CJ and Linkshare Alive?
Jimmy Daniels- Google’s CPA, or PPA, NetworkÂ