How will PPA effect adsense publishers and will it mean reduced revenuein Tourism sites?

The PPA adverts will be shown ONLY on the content network and not the search network so this will amplify any effect in this area.

The PPA program isnt exactly a new model and is basically the same as most affiliate programs that only pay for purchases or signups. Unlike normal adsense ads that analyse the content of a web site to determine relevent ads to show on the site adwords PPA allows the publisher to choose which ads to show on their site.

For publishers that don't wish to trawl through directories of adverts there will be an option to let Google choose the highest paying relevant ads from various topic areas. Revenue earned will most likely be comparable to PPC revenues for sites though but earned through a low volume of sales as compared to a higher volume of clicks.

It impossible top predict what will happen but it certainly will be interesting to see how things pan out. Google is a pretty savvy operator in this field so will probably have its plans well founded and make their latest product a big player in this area very quickly. They will need to ensure that the publishers can earn as much or more than the PPC network using PPA though or no publishers will sign up for the program. If there are no publishers , and remember this relies purely on publishers as it is on the content network only, then there will be no advertisers.

Google will surely realize this and most experts expect when the program comes out of beta then there will be plenty of incentives for publishers to sign up.

For publishers that dont put the work in with the new program and choose adverts that aren’t very relevant for their readers then they will most likely not have much success with PPA.Those that know their markets or have very niche focused sites could make good profits. Expect to see lots of new sites starting up to focus purely on google PPA topic areas also.

More info on googles PPA program can be found here : Google Pay Per Action

So Why Did Google Launch Pay-Per-Action PPA?

So why is Google launching a new Pay-Per-Action PPA product if the PPC click is working so well? Will it eventually move completely away from the PPC model that redefined online advertising and offer just PPA advertising?

Most likely Google will wait and see how the markets change before making any decisions. Are advertisers concerned enough about click fraud to jump ship altogether or will they see PPA as an addition rather than a replacement? Most likely both will remain side by side although most experts expect many advertisers to move away from PPC to PPA.

For some tourism advertisers the PPA action model will definitely be a better option. Resort and cruise tourism operators with online booking facilities will mostly benefit as they can run a campaign that they will only pay fees whenever they make an actual online sale so they are guaranteed to make profit or not pay any advertising fees if they get no conversions. It eliminates the risk for operators and will probably attract new customers that have previously stayed away from PPC which can be costly and ineffective if the conversions are low.

Other operators that sell lower value products and services or don't have credit card booking facilities online, such as small dive centres and tour operators, though may be forced to remain with PPC as PPA might cost more than their profit margins as competition for keywords pushes prices up.

For Google however there isn't really much risk launching PPA. It will most likely attract some new customers and if customers leave PPC to use PPA then they have kept those customers happy by offering them another option and maybe retaining customers they would have lost to other affiliate schemes. Its one more string to Google's bow and again places them at the fore-front of online advertising options.

So what exactly is Pay Per Action (PPA)?

The Google AdWords (for advertisers) and AdSense (for publishers) programs currently charge/pay each time an advert is clicked on and this is open to abuse by fraud publishers clicking on their own adverts or using automated click-bots to gain revenue.

Google is oh so very aware of this and some sites are quoting figures of up to 30% of all clicks could be considered fraudulent.This is a hell of a lot of profit for the fraud-gangsters and a huge cost for advertisers even if only a small percentage of this is undetected.

Despite the click fraud problem the advertising model does work really well and continues to attract both advertisers and publishers. This just shows how effective online ad campaigns really are!

Google Pay Per Action PPA

Google announced recently that they will be offering Pay Per Action (PPA) advertising in addition to their well established Pay Per Click (PPC) program.Currently in beta, and only available to US based subscribers, will this new program make huge waves in the affiliate advertising community?

See the Google website here...

Here's what Google say themselves:

"Increase your advertising reach while paying only for actions that you define. First, you'll create an ad and define the action that you want a user to perform when they visit your site, such as signing up for your newsletter or purchasing a product. Then you'll set the amount that you're willing to pay when this action is completed. Finally, you'll install conversion tracking code on your website so that we can verify when an action has been completed.

Once you've completed these steps, publishers in the Google content network can choose to place your ads on their website. You'll only pay when a user clicks on your ad, visits your site, and completes your desired action.

Pay-per-action ads complement your current campaigns by providing a new pricing model that extends your reach and allows you to pay only when a defined action is completed on your site. This beta feature is currently available to AdWords advertisers in the United States on a limited basis as part of our beta test."

In the next few days I will answer some of the obvious questions in regards to this enw program which holds a lot of promise for the SME Tourism Products out there.