Negative SEO blog : SEOassassin

It’s a US only beta for the moment, but Google are officially getting into the affiliate business. See the AdWords blog post, and the FAQ hereThreadwatch, via SEL.

Well, I’m late with this again. I did spot it and post over at A4U a while ago, but I’ve been busy… However, general consensus around the internet is that this a bit of a “so what?” announcement at the moment. It’s US only (although it is a genuinely public beta, rather than the invite-only program that it was), and it’s flat-fee only. It’s not 100% clear from my reading, but the implication is that “success” is being measured by Google Analytics spotting a call for the defined action result page (”Thank you for your order / registration” etc), and the defined fee is then paid out.

So, there’s no worldwide implementation, and crucially, there’s no functionality to allow commissions to be paid on a percentage of sales basis. Presumably, that will be added later, and may well be tied in to Google Checkout. It’s a first step into the affiliate marketing space, rather than a leap in with both feet. Given Googles patchy customer service history, that may prove to be a smart move - affiliate marketing is (or should be) a human resource intensive field, not one of Googles historic strengths.

So, an interesting move, and one to watch in the long term, but unless they ramp it up a LOT faster than their beta programs usually move (which is possible - this may be a significant part of their future revenue strategy), not anything to concern most people right now.