One Customer Per Landing Page

[AussieWebmaster]

Though they are not going to implement this before the holidays and start the Florida panic of last season... Google is going to restrict the number of affiliates that can sned traffic to the same place (tracking/affiliate code not counted).

I dropped this into an earlier thread (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?p=22557#post22557) but since we are fast approaching the end of the year I hope affiliate marketers and the like are fully aware of this soon to happen event.
The criteria for who gets the ad will be based on rank (CTR and CPC)... though back-ups will be in place for when the spend is gone for one so another can come in etc.

[AussieWebmaster]

This is going to have a serious impact on AdWords advertisers that use this as their biggest source of traffic. I hope someone is taking note and getting ready for this change over.

[GoLinks]

AussieWebmaster: Will this to be determined by URL?
Is there any speculated behaviour towards URL redirects?
(e.g. first affiliate links to www.merchant-site.com while second
links to www.merchant-domain.com that simply
301/302 to www.merchant-site.com)

[seobook]

I am sure it is going to be hard to police that rule.

[McFox]

Can someone please explain this for me? The shock has left me unable to process information.

Does this mean that ALL affiliate advertising will be dropped from Adwords?

Thanks

McF

[powerofeyes]

Does this mean that ALL affiliate advertising will be dropped from Adwords?


No there has been some rumour saying only one affiliate per Merchant or per landing page,

This thread ( http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum81/3886-2-10.htm ) discusses that,

And this is Adwords Advisor's reply in that thread,


...as was mentioned in my intro to WebmasterWorld, I'm not really able to comment on AdWords business plans, or what the future may hold for AdWords.
Such things are not at all a part of my realm here at AdWords, and as a consequence I have no first-hand knowledge on the subject of affiliate advertising that you've inquired about.
What I can offer is this: I'll happily pass your concern on, verbatim, in the report that I send out to many folks here at Google each week. A pretty high percentage of the readers of this report are the decision makers to whom you'd want your concerns known....


With all of that said, and still holding true, I did go looking for more information, and was given this info to post:
Google’s affiliate policy has not been changed. This means that your approved affiliate AdWords ads will continue to run on Google.com. Please be assured that we have no current plans to completely block affiliates from AdWords. If we do make any changes to our affiliate policy, you’ll be notified.


I can certainly understand the strong feelings this topic engenders, and suggest that it probably best to not pay a great deal of attention to rumors, as they can easily get out of hand. And, as stated above, if the policy were to change, advertisers will be notified.

[McFox]

Thanks powerofeyes, that helps clear things up a bit.

Much appreciated. :)

McF

[AussieWebmaster]

AussieWebmaster: Will this to be determined by URL?
Is there any speculated behaviour towards URL redirects?
(e.g. first affiliate links to www.merchant-site.com while second
links to www.merchant-domain.com that simply
301/302 to www.merchant-site.com)
I was told that they were going to limit the ads to one per landing page - and this would be decided based on bid position (when the highest meets its spend another would then get to take its place) not sponsor vs affiliate...

as far as redirects go I have no idea as that was not covered... though since popups are not allowed they may filter redirects also - that others who use redirects would be more savy with.

This is not a rumor ... but everyone can feel free to question this and wait for the roll out in the New Year to realize it wasn't... I am just giving a heads up.

[AussieWebmaster]

The information has been hotly discussed at WebMasterWorld and they have just about the same input as has been discussed here.
It is agreed it is happening (well in most cases - there are still those that need it to be fully accredited to Google - and there was mention of a document from Europe being available there soon).

[ephricon]

Pardon my general ignorance on the subject here... but does this effect only those AdWords advertisers who are running ads that link directly to the *parent* company's site? I.E. does it solely affect 3 seperate advertisers all running ads that link to www.companysite.com with some sort of ?ref=advertisername tracking code?

Surely they won't be able to police all the ads to go to www.affiliateswebsite.com and then link to the *parent* company's site???

As of current I don't run any affiliate campaigns and know very little about them, but this seems like some pretty significant news...

[AussieWebmaster]

Pardon my general ignorance on the subject here... but does this effect only those AdWords advertisers who are running ads that link directly to the *parent* company's site? I.E. does it solely affect 3 seperate advertisers all running ads that link to www.companysite.com with some sort of ?ref=advertisername tracking code?

Surely they won't be able to police all the ads to go to www.affiliateswebsite.com and then link to the *parent* company's site???

As of current I don't run any affiliate campaigns and know very little about them, but this seems like some pretty significant news...
Not so ignorant you have the concept in full.

[ephricon]

Thanks so much. So in essence this would effect only those affiliate marketers who run AdWords ads that link directly to the site providing the actual product/service?

As a general thought, I would think it would be quite a difficult business model to run successfully when the only service provided in the affiliate process is from AdWords link to company's site. Surely if it were highly profitable - such as being paid $1 per visitor brought to the site and my AdWords average 90 cents per click than everyone would be doing it... Even in the likely event that commissions are only a result of sales - if I could figure that 1% of my referrals turn into a sale, and lets say a sale gets me $100 commission (for simple math's sake) than $100 x 1% = $1. If I can run ads for anything less than $1 per click and keep that same conversion rate than I win.

Is this the general thought process of those running this sort of campaign? Again its new to me but I would venture that for many others it is not. I do all my work in organic SEO but like to keep up with the latest happenings in PPC, etc.

I would imagine the competition is pretty tough... Perhaps the real success factors are proper evaluation of the numbers and the ability to write convincing AdWords copy so as to attract more visitors at a lower CPC.

[seobook]

I would imagine the competition is pretty tough... Perhaps the real success factors are proper evaluation of the numbers and the ability to write convincing AdWords copy so as to attract more visitors at a lower CPC.
signing up for the best programs and solid keyword targeting (doing deep keyword research to find good words that are under market value) are probably rather important too.

[AussieWebmaster]

SEObook has the other main elements - but yes the growth of affiliate marketing by savy AdWords people has been around for awhile and the competition for it has grown so large that other listings are being pushed out and thus the need for Google to address it.

[Dave Hawley]

AW, are you saying we should ignore the Adwords Advisor's statementPlease be assured that we have no current plans to completely block affiliates from AdWords. If we do make any changes to our affiliate policy, you’ll be notified.
I can certainly understand the strong feelings this topic engenders, and suggest that it probably best to not pay a great deal of attention to rumors, as they can easily get out of hand. And, as stated above, if the policy were to change, advertisers will be notified. Do you have anything concrete? You seem adamant that this is going to happen but it seems to only be based on rumour.

[AussieWebmaster]

This is going to happen... my ad rep at Google and the entire sales staff (well the high end client ones at least) were told about it and told to warn their advertisers...
there has to be a few other serious spenders here that could get a confirmation.
This is going to happen... no rumor... less they are using the fact that I moderate here as well to fly a trial ballon on me... in which case I throttle back the 300k a month and give Overture a chance to run with a larger spend.

[Dave Hawley]

Did they give a date?

[AussieWebmaster]

All that I was told was it would not been done before the holiday season.

[ephricon]

Since they are only allowing one advertiser per landing page - how would this affect scenarios that are not affiliate-based, but still involve more than one AdWords account sending traffic to the same page???

How would this actually happen? I have a small client that I run an SEM campaign for that is 90% SERPs and 10% PPC. In my contract it states that I will contribute $X per month on the AdWords campaign and manage this amount contributed so as to acheive the most possible resulting leads (to the best of my ability). For a while this was the only money being spent.... However, in the last couple of months the client has done very well and gotten alot of business, made some new hires and wants to continue to be aggressive. I'm not a real experienced PPC guy so I shy away from managing real large dollars, so he opened an account he manages himself. Thus, two accounts, both sending visitors to the exact same URL.

[seobook]

I think it is per keyword.

[AussieWebmaster]

No it is keyword and landing page.... so yes you are going to have problems... you could set up an information page on a separate domain that takes you to the purchase page at the other companies domain and you have no worries as yet.

[erusch]

From the ranks of the ignorant... If (as in my case) the company I am an affiliate for uses a unique URL that I supplied and brands their site with my logo on each page, will that still constitute the "same" landing page as other affiliates with their own logo & URL but otherwise the same page?

[AussieWebmaster]

From the ranks of the ignorant... If (as in my case) the company I am an affiliate for uses a unique URL that I supplied and brands their site with my logo on each page, will that still constitute the "same" landing page as other affiliates with their own logo & URL but otherwise the same page?
I think you should be okay... but until it is actually rolled out it is hard to say.

[ckilmer]

Will google actively kick off ppc direct links when there are more than one linking to the same merchant or will they simply not let new links to come in.

[ckilmer]

Google is going to cut down on direct ppc links to the merchant.

These are the most valuable affiliate links to the merchant on the results page. Among trademark names, direct affiliate links to the merchant are the most valuable affiliate links on the page.

Why?

Consider. The tussle over ppc between google and merchants is happening because merchants can have some control over ppc. They have no control over natural search. So there is no struggle there.

But what is actual difference in value to the merchant between the affiliate links that come from natural search and the affiliate links that come from ppc--say on the merchant's trademark names. The only difference in value there could possibly be to the merchant is how well these links convert to traffic and then sales to the merchant.

Anyone who has been doing this for awhile knows that the faster the customer can get to what he wants to buy--the more likely it is that he will buy. So if it takes two or more clicks to get from the trademark name keyword results page-- it doesn't matter whether the click comes from natural or ppc search affiliate. Already traffic is being bled off.

The best affiliate link --whether ppc or natural seo on the search results page-- from the merchants POV -- is the direct link. (Because conversion is better.)

This is precisely the link that Google is targeting.

[AussieWebmaster]

Ckilmer.... we are well aware and agree with you that this is going to be harsh... but since there are terms that may have 5-10 people advertising for the same thing, it would be like allowing one person the top 10 spots for a term... no one else gets a chance.

[ckilmer]

Ckilmer.... we are well aware and agree with you that this is going to be harsh... but since there are terms that may have 5-10 people advertising for the same thing, it would be like allowing one person the top 10 spots for a term... no one else gets a chance.
///////////////////////////
The question I was asking was not whether affialiates had to jump. Rather the question was how high.

On the day of the announcement will all direct links from the 3rd-nth spot drop off. Or will Google just stop new direct aff ppc links from being submitted so as to close out direct aff ppc links by means of attrition over time.

[AussieWebmaster]

Ckilmer.... we are well aware and agree with you that this is going to be harsh... but since there are terms that may have 5-10 people advertising for the same thing, it would be like allowing one person the top 10 spots for a term... no one else gets a chance.
///////////////////////////
The question I was asking was not whether affialiates had to jump. Rather the question was how high.

On the day of the announcement will all direct links from the 3rd-nth spot drop off. Or will Google just stop new direct aff ppc links from being submitted so as to close out direct aff ppc links by means of attrition over time.
As the title implies it is going to be one customer per landing page... does not matter whether that is the vendor or his affiliates... the one that has the highest CPC will be the one that gets to run.... when the money runs out the next in line gets a chance etc.

[kwilson]

Can we define landing page... suppose I am an affiliate that wants to set a network provided tracking url (such as the www.qksrv.net at Commission Junction) with appropriate tracking codes as the url. This will resolve directly to the landing page for the specific product of the advertiser.

1. If there are many affiliates doing this, will only one to two of us be allowed to have the ad display per keyword?

2. If the network provided tracking url (www.qksrv.net) directs to a landing page url that is similar in domain to the advertiser adword landing page, is it possible that Google would consider those two "landing pages" the same?

Thanks,
kwilson

[ckilmer]

Say an affiliate uses a network provided landing page. Many of the networks currently have content links which affiliates can use for pps as landing pages. Would Google judge the landing pages as being the same--and only allow one per merchant or would they look at the urls and see that they had different urls and judge them to be different landing pages and therefor acceptable.

[AussieWebmaster]

Say an affiliate uses a network provided landing page. Many of the networks currently have content links which affiliates can use for pps as landing pages. Would Google judge the landing pages as being the same--and only allow one per merchant or would they look at the urls and see that they had different urls and judge them to be different landing pages and therefor acceptable.
The work around in the short-term seems to be hosting the landing page yourself and thus it is not the same domain etc. Once customer actually buys you can move them to the other site as it did not go there directly...

[ckilmer]

Google gives affiliates the ability to batch drop up to about 2000 product links at a time that link to the internal product pages of a portal site like, say, yahoo. Each of these links comes paired with a keyword. Sometimes taken together these can add up to over 100,000 links for one large portal site, (like yahoo.) These links are generally direct links.

Is it safe to assume too, that these links too will fall under the new ruling?

[AussieWebmaster]

Google gives affiliates the ability to batch drop up to about 2000 product links at a time that link to the internal product pages of a portal site like, say, yahoo. Each of these links comes paired with a keyword. Sometimes taken together these can add up to over 100,000 links for one large portal site, (like yahoo.) These links are generally direct links.

Is it safe to assume too, that these links too will fall under the new ruling?
That I don't know but I can find out for you early next week... they have another long weekend over at Google.

[dannysullivan]

A new thread with confirmation from a member that this will happen this week has been started, so I'm closing this one so that fresh discussion on any actual changes that emerge can happen over there: AdWords - 1 affiliate per merchant to be announced tomorrow (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3633).