Google and Affiliate Marketing

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Vin

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Feb 10, 2007
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This article just landed in my RSS Reader :)
Is Your Business Model In Line With Google's? - Legitimate Advertisers Getting Caught In The Google Affiliate Crossfire. - RedFly Search Engine & Internet Marketing Blog

Gave it a read, gave all the linked articles a read and I'm not sure I agree with what's written here. First of, Google does not hate affiliates. They even own their own Affiliate Network.

It's clear that Google doesn't like certain offers. Rebill is not done in their eyes. But so do a lot of other companies out there.

I do agree with the fact that for the long term we need to think more like publishers. Recently I found this website: Recombu Mobile Phones - Mobile Phone Reviews, Comparison & Deals from Recombu :: read > compare > buy Which I think is a pretty good job given that they're primary if not only revenue source is affiliate marketing income.

So what do you guys think, and what other big publications have you seen rely affiliate marketing as a primary source of income.
 


IMO that first article is total and complete bullshit.

"If you’re not adding value, and a lot of it, you’re in trouble."

Yeah, that's right, we all need to become socially responsible people because everyone who doesn't is completely fucked. :1orglaugh:

Amway is a huge company (8 billion in global revenue) and they're an MLM. There are legit MLMs and AM campaigns out there, the problem that many online affiliate marketers are running into is that the rebills are extraordinarily high right now which means that these products produce a lot of people who are upset when their credit card is nailed for $160 worth of charges.

Google has been harsh with AM campaigns because things like Acai, Colon Cleanse, and Obama's Grants produce lots of negative PR. Google wants your damn money, they just don't want people to stop using their search and stop clicking their links because they are getting defrauded.

The future of AM is fine because AM adds value. The whole point of Affiliate Marketing is that companies who couldn't otherwise assume the risk of advertising can mitigate that risk and only pay for the sales that actually get completed. That is added value to thousands and thousands of companies and products.

I'd also like to point out that this article is complete bs -- How to Survive the Affiliate Marketing Evolution - Sugarrae

It was written in '07 and here are some of the gems:
start buying brandable and not keyword laden domains.
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Tell that to PRODUCTreview.com

Learn what unique content really is and start creating it and whether or not you’re blogging, top bloggers can teach you a thing or two about creating great content for any site.
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Yup. Look at how poorly the "I lost weight with this amazing combination I call my dual action formula of xxx" did. Yeah, unique content that adds something back to society. Riiiight.

Give your site the ability to create a dialogue instead of a monologue. What I mean by that is that commercial and a lot of informational websites were originally someone publishing content and visitors reading it.
Click to expand...

He's right! Create dialogue by having closed comments sections with fake posts. That's a dialogue, not a monologue folks.

What I’ve found over the last year or two is that design matters. I’m not saying an ugly site can’t survive...
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Tell that to Becky's Weight Loss, Kathy's Teeth, and all the other guys who basically proved that these statements were complete and utter bullshit in 2007. In fact what pushed AM to its current state today are guys who did the exact opposite of this advice.
 
No they hate affiliates that don't promote through their affiliate network, period. I don't push rebills anymore and my campaigns keep getting slapped, even on pages with lots of content, user forums, etc ... When Google bought an affiliate network they created a clear conflict of interest. I guarantee campaigns running through the Google affiliate network don't get slapped.

Regardless I think Google needs to be sued. How can you discriminate on specific advertisers? Isn't that illegal?
 
Im gonna go and sue the shit out of Google for banning my accounts promoting Google Money Tree!!!! yweeeeeeeee! Im gonna become a multi-billionaire weeeeeee!!!! Google discriminates me and thus owes me monies for life weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
 
Tireswing said:
Tell that to Becky's Weight Loss, Kathy's Teeth, and all the other guys who basically proved that these statements were complete and utter bullshit in 2007. In fact what pushed AM to its current state today are guys who did the exact opposite of this advice.
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By pushed it to it's current state today do you mean how everyone on all sides is upset and complaining, etc?
 
cheshire said:
I guarantee campaigns running through the Google affiliate network don't get slapped.
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Nah, that would seem to obvious. I've applied to their network a long time ago. Didn't get approved. Anybody here running some traffic through their network?
 
Tireswing said:
IMO that first article is total and complete bullshit.
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Thanks for the long reply :)

While most of the "gems" you pointed out are true, I do feel we're at a turning point right now. You see Google dropping the banhammer on *most* rebill offers. Yahoo media buys are no longer allowed for rebill.

Where one company leads, others will follow.

The problem I'm having with it, is that they don't provide clear guidelines for what is allowed.

For example, if Google said: if you:

>Provide real testimonials
>working user comments
>product videos
>a +800 support line
>24 hour support team

you are allowed to run on search, that would make sense.

In my oppinion seems to work out better for them too right, they have high quality stuff, they take our money. And for us, its better too. We can build and work towards something, since we don't have to worry about slapped campaigns etc. We can create ad copy with higher ctr, which generates more income for them as well. Plus they eliminate the n00bs as well because they usually dont have any budget for these things.

Just my 2 cents..
 
Bad example.

An on page 800 number would kill conversions for affiliates, and a post buy 800 would be impossible for Google to police.

For what you're suggesting they would not only have to manually review every account, but do due diligence on them as well. You can't start writing algorithms to check for 24 hour support teams.

Those guidelines would be impossible to police on any scale and that's why Google doesn't lay them down.

However, you are completely free to promote completely legit products by building out small sites that add value to the user and have relevant high CTR ads. Do it right (the google way) and you won't get slapped. If you do, speak to your account rep and they will fix it. But that's all assuming you're running fully legit, above the board, quality campaigns.
 
Tireswing said:
IMO that first article is total and complete bullshit.

"If you’re not adding value, and a lot of it, you’re in trouble."

Yeah, that's right, we all need to become socially responsible people because everyone who doesn't is completely fucked. :1orglaugh:
Click to expand...

In fairness, he's talking specifically about AdWords. Not a general "if your not adding value, you'll be in trouble with the FCC" which is what you're implying.

Have you actually read the linked article?:
AdWords Quality Score: Can Your Business Model Be Banned?

I can't find a fault in it and it's as relevant now as it was when it was written.

Tireswing said:
The future of AM is fine because AM adds value. The whole point of Affiliate Marketing is that companies who couldn't otherwise assume the risk of advertising can mitigate that risk and only pay for the sales that actually get completed. That is added value to thousands and thousands of companies and products.
Click to expand...

While I completely agree with you here, you missed the point again. Of COURSE AM provides value, to the advertiser, not as much to the customer. He says that it's googles job to help the searcher find what he/she is looking for and not the AM. If the AM provides no value, what's the point in pissing off their searchers?

Oh, and Rah Hoffman is a chick (I think).
 
Kyle said:
Bad example.

An on page 800 number would kill conversions for affiliates, and a post buy 800 would be impossible for Google to police.

For what you're suggesting they would not only have to manually review every account, but do due diligence on them as well. You can't start writing algorithms to check for 24 hour support teams.

Those guidelines would be impossible to police on any scale and that's why Google doesn't lay them down.

However, you are completely free to promote completely legit products by building out small sites that add value to the user and have relevant high CTR ads. Do it right (the google way) and you won't get slapped. If you do, speak to your account rep and they will fix it. But that's all assuming you're running fully legit, above the board, quality campaigns.
Click to expand...

Well, since each domain, pretty much gets a manual review anyway. It shouldn't be too hard to do it:

Just sent a email to support or call their phone number. If you get a response it's most likely legit. Dunno, I'm just speculating here. and the items I listed is purely served as an example. My point is, that Google should lay down ground rules and not keep affiliates in the dark. Laying down ground rules is a win for everybody.
 
coppings said:
In fairness, he's talking specifically about AdWords. Not a general "if your not adding value, you'll be in trouble with the FCC" which is what you're implying.

Have you actually read the linked article?:
AdWords Quality Score: Can Your Business Model Be Banned?

I can't find a fault in it and it's as relevant now as it was when it was written.



While I completely agree with you here, you missed the point again. Of COURSE AM provides value, to the advertiser, not as much to the customer. He says that it's googles job to help the searcher find what he/she is looking for and not the AM. If the AM provides no value, what's the point in pissing off their searchers?

Oh, and Rah Hoffman is a chick (I think).
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Yes, but if a Google Searcher is looking for TeethWhitening Offers. They want to know which is better than the other. Of course there's non better than the other, and it's just a matter of payout and conversion / epc what determines why certain products are #1. But, consumers always want to compare be educated why to choose a certain product. You don't just type in "Buy car" in Google and buy the first result. You want to compare and learn.

Btw, they shouldn't worry so much for dropping ctr's if people don't buy their ads. For 3 out of my four niches, my CTR is higher on MSN and Yahoo than it is on Google. And Yahoo and Google pretty much don't care WHAT you promote.
 
They've done a pretty good job at constantly wiping the content network clean, but Google's search is still flooded with rebills. I'm assuming its due to internal differences in the two systems, but its interesting to me.
 
I'm not running content atm, but I think all the above applies to that as well. especially since they repressent so many websites these days.

The performance marketing alliance recently announced their board members, Performance Marketing Alliance they also brought somebody from Google on board (from their affiliate network anyway) Should that make a difference?
 
The day the rebill is banned from Google is the day the search marketing industry gets cut in half, and the day Google loses half its profits :)
 
Bevo Ryan said:
The day the rebill is banned from Google is the day the search marketing industry gets cut in half, and the day Google loses half its profits :)
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I can guarantee you that rebills are a very small portion of Google's search revenue - nowhere close to half.
 
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