ADWORDS NEW AFFILIATE POLICY!

[mlevenhagen]

The rumor isn't new... You may have heard that Google may be changing things for the affiliate pretty dramatically.

Google Rumored to Limit Adwords to One Ad Per Page!

The problem is, it's creating a lot of tension amoung affiliates (including myself). They want don't know how to prepare... this could hit our pocket books pretty hard.

There's a thread over at WebmasterWorld.com that seems to leak the facts:

New Affiliate TOS

According to the report it looks like it will take effect the 12th of January.

If the rumors are true, I'm wondering if they will somehow integrate the
Sponsored Links Search...

Does anyone here know what's going on? Is there a source that the new TOS was posted from?

[mlevenhagen]

NEVER MIND!!!

The rumors are true... I just received this from Google:

Hello from the Google AdWords Team:

In January 2005, Google will incorporate a new affiliate advertising policy that is designed to provide a better user and advertiser experience.

What is changing:

With this new affiliate policy, we will only display one ad per search query for affiliates and parent companies sharing the same URL. This way, users will have a more diverse sampling of advertisements to choose from. As always, your ad will be displayed based on its Ad Rank for given searches.

For instance, if a user searches for books on Google.co.uk or anywhere on the Google search and content networks, Google will take an inventory of ads running for the keyword books. If we find that two or more ads compete under the same URL, we will display the ad with the highest Ad Rank.

How this will affect you:

If you are an affiliate, this means that you no longer need to identify yourself as an affiliate in your ad text. However, your current ad text will continue to display your affiliate status until you change it.

Affiliates or advertisers using unique URLs in their ads will not be affected by this change. Please note that your Display URL must match the URL of your landing page, and you may not simply frame another site.

What you should do:

We recommend that you continue to monitor your ads' performance and optimise your ads as needed to ensure that they are bringing you the best results. Please visit our Optimisation Tips page for more information.

We look forward to continue providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

Here we Go!

[Rational Beaver]

Recieved the same. The rumors were true.

I think that this is, overall, a good change. I think that because I don't like to compete against lots of other affiliates. Hopefully, most of them will be too lazy to make their own landing pages or sites and will give up.

Also, when I'm searching for stuff on Google, I hate seeing 6 or 7 ads for the same thing on the first page. I want variety. Every searcher wants variety. The more options presented, the more likely I am to find what I want.

Also, I appreciate the added bonus of not having to put 'aff.' in my adds. I can use that space for better things.

[mlevenhagen]

I agree with all your points. I think it's all good for people like us, but at the same time I feel bad for a lot of people though.

The problem is, there are many affiliates, that don't have the first clue how to begin creating a landing page or a website...

And You're right, many will probably just give up. It's unfortunate that a Change at Google can have such a great effect...

Luckily for myself I really tapered off sending directly to the merchant as I developed my websites. I'm not affected as much as I would have been back when that's all I was doing... although I will have profitable campaigns that will shut down because of this.

It was a great way to start out online way back when. It took me a while to develop my website, but I could start making income right away until I did start generating income from my websites... now people won't have that option.

It's a new day.

[Linda Buquet]

I have been watching the rumors closely and now we know what the rules really are going to be.

Here is a post I made yesterday on WMW before the officail email came out and so far I still think it’s a good strategy. I will be working today on more research and putting together something for our clients & affiliates.

======================== My forum post pre-announcement
If the rules ARE as rumored then affiliates will just need to send AdWords traffic to a landing page on their own site before it goes to the merchant. Actually if you take the time to do some nice pre-sell on your landing page and add some testimonials, it could end up improving your conversion rates even though it will create another click for the user. Although I realize it will be a lot of extra work, I'm just trying to think on the bright side.

We aren't making any recommendations to all of our affiliates until we see how the actual rules from Google play out. As soon as they are published our team will all jump on a conference call and strategize. Until then it's sit on the edge of our seats time.
==============================

Our big conference call is at 3 today. After we come up with a strategy I will try to remember to come back here to post some info.

[mlevenhagen]

Please do!

...could end up improving your conversion rates even though it will create another click for the user

I like that line of thought :)

[Linda Buquet]

If you want to read some great commentary on this new Adwords change, I have a bunch of links in my affiliate blog to other blogs from top affiliate marketing experts. Some VERY interesting viewpoints!!!

Affiliate Blog
http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.co...iate-blog.html

More later...

[mlevenhagen]

You could add my Blog if you like... I had some thoughts...

Adwords Affiliate Policy & Landing Pages

I'm not a top affiliate marketer though so maybe just peak at it for "the little guy's" viewpoint:)

...

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Matt,

Here are some other good ones.

Google Answers Some SPECIFIC Questions about new Affiliate Policy
http://www.corante.com/goyami/archiv...ate_policy.php

Todd Crawford Interviewed about AdWords
Google’s Affiliate Announcement and Commission Junction’s Response
http://www.corante.com/goyami/archiv...s_response.php

Google's New Affiliate Policy Brings Confusion and Speculation
http://www.corante.com/goyami/archiv...peculation.php