Why CPA Should Replace PPC Programs - Who Cares?
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So who cares about the advertisers? After all, contextual ads are the rage, and everybody is happy. The advertisers are "where the eyeballs are;" how dare they complain! The search engines get people to see the ads in an unobtrusive manner, real people do click on them, and the site owners make sales. The advertisers shouldn't be concerned with a few scam clicks. Who is on the advertisers' side?
The Search Engines
The search engines get paid per click, and they are the medium; do they really care? It seems Eric Schmidt does not care. Google keeps the way it polices for click fraud highly secret -- so secret that I wonder whether it polices at all. Lack of transparency makes advertisers view PPC programs with suspicion.
The search engines are making an effort (their credibility is at stake) but it seems like this is the part two of search engines versus web site owners. Like part one, in which the black hats keep Google dancing, the search engines may find that they are one step behind click fraudsters (let's call them "flicker" specialists). The search engines also run the risk of turning into policing and monitoring agencies, instead of just being in the business of providing relevant SERPs. The motivation exists for them to reduce click fraud, however, so that they do not lose their advertisers.
The Web Site Owners
That's you and me! Do we care about the advertisers? Actually we do -- under certain circumstances. It is only when you are an affiliate, or selling a package for which you get paid only if the other site gets paid, that you consider pre-selling your product. When you get paid per click, the more clicks the better. Your business is that you get paid.
It is when we have to work for our money that we care about the site on the other end of the click through. In that case, you're trying to get traffic to your site not because of the ads by Google on your site; it is actually because you want traffic on your site. Only web site spammers build sites just so that the one in ten user can click on an ad (and they certainly do not care about "flickers").
How CPAs Work
A cost per action ad means that the referrer site only gets paid when an action is performed (I hear the howls already). An action can either mean an actual sale or a lead generated (such as an opt in form filled out). It is also called pay per performance. It eliminates click fraud, as well as another more insidious feature of PPCs.
Next: Cost Benefits to Advertisers >>
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