ResourceBlog Article: Google Launches Pay Per Action Ads (Beta) and Some Search Advertising History

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Wednesday, 21st March 2007

Google Launches Pay Per Action Ads (Beta) and Some Search Advertising History

+ Google Launches Pay Per Action Ads
Barry "RustyBrick" Schwartz has the lowdown on a limited beta of a new Google ad program in this Search Engine Land post. Since RS is not an SEO or SEM blog, we will leave the heavy lifting about the new beta to Barry at SEL. Bottom line?

The advertiser sets the price per action; for example, an advertiser can decide to pay $5 per lead acquisition, as opposed to paying per click or per impression...Advertisers can only set a flat price prior to building out the ad.

Similar programs are based on a percentage vs. a flat fee.

The NY Times also covers the story and mentions that other companies offer this type of advertising. Three of them are ValueClick, Commission Junction, and LinkShare.

A search engine (lots of interesting features, btw) that has offered their own cost-per-action advertising program since it went live in 2004 is Snap (also mentioned in the NY Times article). The founder of Snap is Bill Gross. Why make note of the founder? Here's some history. Mr. Gross is credited by many as a key player in the pay-per-click ad business, first at Goto.com which became Overture and is now known as Yahoo Search Marketing. You can read more about Gross and a bit of pay-per-click history in this excerpt from Battelle's book, The Search. So, once again, the name Bill Gross gets mentioned when it comes to advertising, marketing and search. We wonder what his next idea will be? :-)
+ See Also: Rise of New Payment Models for Search Advertising (via BusinessWeek, 4/12/2005)
From the article:

A search engine called Snap.com allows advertisers to choose their own criteria for paying for search ads. Businesses can pay a fee for every subscription or a product bought through a search ad, for example.

The trend has also held some surprise for Bill Gross, the entrepreneur and software designer who was one of the pioneers of Internet advertising in the mid-1990's and is widely credited with inventing a way to make money from Web searches. "I thought that the Internet was fantastic, and I was sure that it would become the ultimate direct marketing tool," he said yesterday. "But I had no idea that pay-per-click would ultimately be this big."

+ See Also: Note to information pros. It's not only interesting to follow the business side of search but it's also important to have an idea of how it all works. While we bring you the big stories, our coverage is not in this area. Here are a few sites you might want to monitor:
+ Search Engine Land (SEL)
Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman's new home.
+ Search Engine Roundtable
Very useful since it's focus is digesting and analyzing what's happening on countless message boards including WebMasterWorld. Selection and analysis by Barry Schwartz who is also at SEL.
+ Searchblog
Industry Expert, John Battelle
+ Search Engine Watch
Rebecca and crew.
+ Pandia.com
Direct from Norway.
+ SEOMoz
News and comments from Rand Fishkin.

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