Is Google Out To Kill Affiliate Marketing?

57 replies
Personally I kinda think Google is indeed looking to put an
end to affiliate marketing as a whole, and I'm working up to a
nice rant about this in the near future.
#affiliate #google #kill #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author Ironman77
    Do you have some insights? Why should they do that?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559868].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author TheRichLife
      Google makes it's money on advertising. Why would they try to kill something that generates them so much business?
      Signature

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559885].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author danabbamont
        Originally Posted by zoneinfinite View Post

        Well I'm not sure if they're trying to "kill" affiliate marketing, but they are definitely trying to undermine it in some way or another. One example is the addition of the "Shopping" results. It's really annoying to see it at the top of the search results. I bet you they did this because they saw too many amazon/ebay physical product review sites.
        They did this because they developed a good shopping engine and for the end user it's much more convenient to see product results. It's no different than returning video results for video related searches or lala results for song or artist names.

        Too many people in this business get in the mindset that Google is hurting them when they do things like this, but they forget how many people these updates help.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559935].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Alex Mensah
        I definately do agree with yah, google would not want to ban it all together but they will try to use more sophisticated means of separating the real from the fake...
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560736].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    Hmmm, It is much more likely Google is working up to increasing relevancy once again.

    If they feel like affiliate marketers are abusing systems to increase their ranking, you can be sure they will try to find a way to give those pieces of content and sites lower authority, and reduced rankings.

    If Google were not consistently working to keep their searches as relevant as possible to the desires of searchers, they would quickly be replaced by someone who is.

    High quality content, with limited affiliate links should be able to keep ranking high.

    Sites filled with affiliate links, will likely suffer in any changes Google makes in regards to affiliates.

    You can avoid most of the damage from this by using content to drive traffic to your own site, where you pitch the product. Don't worry so much about the ranking of the sales page, but focus on the content pages where there are no affiliate links. Those pages will always be able to rank high.
    Signature
    Brain Drained...Signature Coming Soon!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559880].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by KansasDragon View Post

      Hmmm, It is much more likely Google is working up to increasing relevancy once again.
      What he said.
      Signature
      "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560171].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by KansasDragon View Post

      Hmmm, It is much more likely Google is working up to increasing relevancy once again.

      If they feel like affiliate marketers are abusing systems to increase their ranking, you can be sure they will try to find a way to give those pieces of content and sites lower authority, and reduced rankings.
      Exactly ... I mean who else abuses their search engine like Affiliate Marketers. Some people are actually looking for information rather than a sales page when they use a search engine. Go figure.

      Give them that information on your site.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1562124].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Nathi Fakudze
    The last month of 2009 (December) has been an interesting month indeed in the affiliate marketing world. A lot of account-bannings have seemed to be the norm, on a very bigger scale than I recall hearing about before. And while some people are pointing fingers at the truly scammy advertisers and scam products, the fact is that this latest sweep has hit people at all levels of adwords advertising, from the tiniest "little guy" to some big Goliaths. I know people who only ran a few Clickbank offers that got banned.


    Personally I think Google has broader ambitions of shutting down affiliate marketing as a whole...
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559905].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author danabbamont
      They do what they can to systematically improve the quality of their search results, both paid and organic. People relying on affiliate marketing will always be hit harder and harder by regulations, changes to quality score, etc. You really can't blame them for not waning a search term to return 100 landing pages pushing the same affiliate product. That lowers consumer trust and Google is in the business of consumer trust.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559927].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Ironman77
    Hmmm...that's interesting. Probably they are afraid of losing their good reputation if they accept to many ads of "agressive marketers". I think about these "$100,000 month - guaranteed" ads.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559934].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author OpenBookSupport
    Wrong thoughts because if so why would Google make its own affiliate company ?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559945].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Nathi Fakudze
    CPA marketing in particular has been taking a lot of heat as being responsible for this latest crackdown... and I don't know if that's completely undeserved. Let's face it, an awful lot of CPA offers (but not all) are really sketchy at best.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559950].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author lenlatimer
    I can't argue with Google's success - but it makes you wonder if they know who their customer really is - They make billions though their PPC but act as though the searchers (who pay nothing) are their customers while treating the advertisers like riff raft they must put up with but would rather not. Not that the searchers are important - but they need a more balanced view.
    Signature

    Len Latimer
    Copy-In-A-Box, an amazing Word Add-in Tool that adds Dazzle & Personality to your copy. My WSO

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1559968].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
    What Google is trying to kill are all the crappy landing pages and scammy
    sites out there.

    I wish them the best in getting it done.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560033].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Paul Hancox
    Maybe they're realized they could make more money being direct affiliates themselves, than the PPC money being paid to them by others - that's the result of them having all that data, including conversion data.
    Signature
    PresellContent.com - How to sell without "selling"
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560058].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author mikemcmillan
    I understand what you are saying.

    But Google's primary and fundamental mission is to provide a quality experience for people using it's search function. If the percentage of users get nothing but crud returned by Google for searches, they abandon ship for other search engines. Google's entire PPC empire is driven by the principle that Google must return quality results for their users.

    Another thing to consider when people complain about their sites being "de-indexed" or banned is the fact that Google monitors the average time visitors stay on sites they click through to from the organic results. If someone has a spammy site and people are clicking out within the first 5-8 seconds, Google is going to realize that the site is of little interest to visitors and lower its listing position eventually. It's kind of like Dawin's natural selection or survival of the fittest.

    The key, then, is to make sure your sites are in the group of the fittest and you will be rewarded accordingly.

    Just my opinion.
    Signature

    I'll help you create a reputation-building evergreen product in any niche and launch it successfully!
    Check it out here.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560120].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    i would think so. when you compare all the other business models. "affiliate Marketing" seems to have a lot of black hat marketers
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560153].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author silvervixen
    Google is not trying to kill affiliate marketing. Google is just attempting to bring the most relevant results to the end user, as has already been said.

    Nothing has changed about this. So the end goal for any of us is to make sure our sites have relevant content in our niches. That is what niche marketing is about anyway, right? Building sites around concepts and then bringing in targeted traffic looking for information on those concepts?
    Signature
    Need High Quality Content? Visit: http://www.articleright.com
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560194].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    1.3% of Adwords users pay 98% of Google's Adwords income. They could ban 98% of their Adwords user customers and still retain 99% of their current Adwords income AND reduce overhead by a little over a billion dollars.

    If they can find a way to ban/close 98% of their Adwords customers, they will net over a billion more than they do now with that product. Banning 98% of the paying customers of Adwords is smart business.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560195].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
      Originally Posted by DogScout View Post

      1.3% of Adwords users pay 98% of Google's Adwords income. They could ban 98% of their Adwords user customers and still retain 99% of their current Adwords income AND reduce overhead by a little over a billion dollars.

      If they can find a way to ban/close 98% of their Adwords customers, they will net over a billion more than they do now with that product. Banning 98% of the paying customers of Adwords is smart business.
      Banning 98% would drive the CPC way down wouldn't it? Not sure how they could benefit from doing that. A billion dollars in overhead to maintain small time affiliates doesn't sound right either.

      From what I hear from Matt Cutts, they seem to just want the best user experience. If that's all they want then getting rid of "thin affiliates" is logical thing to do.

      The thing about forums is people come on here and complain about being banned but you never hear the full story. I'm willing to bet that 99% of the complainers are thin affiliates.
      Signature



      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560832].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author DogScout
        Originally Posted by Aaron Moser View Post

        Banning 98% would drive the CPC way down wouldn't it? Not sure how they could benefit from doing that. A billion dollars in overhead to maintain small time affiliates doesn't sound right either.

        From what I hear from Matt Cutts, they seem to just want the best user experience. If that's all they want then getting rid of "thin affiliates" is logical thing to do.

        The thing about forums is people come on here and complain about being banned but you never hear the full story. I'm willing to bet that 99% of the complainers are thin affiliates.
        98% is not a number of 'small time affiliates'. It is a huge number of customers that do not produce an ROI acceptable to the current regime. I/we know that they have banned for life a customer that is NOT an affiliate marketer and the reason for the ban is still vague enough that no one I know, knows why. That customer had an excess of $1,000,000.000 a month in spend.

        Google prefers an uneducated customer. If your QS is high enough and CPC is low enough, the ROI can lower dramatically. If a savvy customer with a million dollar spend per month has managed to lower the ROI on his account enough for them to ban him AND not give a reason AND there is no obvious reason other than he split tested ads, landing pages and everything else enough to pay a low amount for each click, I am willing to bet they do not care if those dollars go to Bing and Yahoo as eventually those accounts will become low ROI accounts for Google's competitors. (If they are not already.)

        As James stated, without Google, the world doesn't end and neither does the internet. All that has happened by that action is Google's overall ROI increased and the customer, no doubt, found other ways to maintain the traffic Google once provided for his measly 1 mil.

        Just note, affiliate marketers that do not split test ads or landing pages and/or have poor QSs have not been banned. Many are spammy berry juice ads. In my opinion, if the ROI is high enough, user (searcher) experience comes second to money earned in any given quarter. At least that is how corporate America thinks and Google is an American corporation. It would be odd if they had any other agenda.

        My opinion,
        Mark
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1561387].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Nathi Fakudze
    But the fact is that you can go do a Google search right now and still find plenty of CPA offers coming up in the PPC listings. So obviously SOMEONE is still able to run these offers. Do they know something you don't? That's a very likely possibility... after all one of the biggest advantages in this industry is having specialized knowledge (and of course, then implementing that knowledge in the form of action).
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560458].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author LetsGoViral
    Google is out there to kill low quality flogs and spam pages, but affiliate marketing - why would it? What would be the logic behind it? Advertising is what drives web-development in a way. Affiliates use Adwords, so Google benefits from this as well.
    Signature
    Time of thinking is over.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560464].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author DogScout
      Originally Posted by LetsGoViral View Post

      Google is out there to kill low quality flogs and spam pages, but affiliate marketing - why would it? What would be the logic behind it? Advertising is what drives web-development in a way. Affiliates use Adwords, so Google benefits from this as well.
      Affiliate advertisers on Google cost Google more in overhead than the income they produce. - Why wouldn't they kill them off if they could? (And probably will over the next 24 months or so along with a whole large number of advertisers whose spend isn't 7 figures a month or more.)
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560505].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Alex Mensah
      google would probably concentrate not so much on affiliate marketing but the types of methods people use to market. That is the key to weather your website will be slapped by google or whether it will take the wave and soar...
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560742].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    Google can't put an end to affiliate marketing ... Did you know some of the most successful top super affiliates do not even use search engines at all ...

    Google is only a search engine and nothing more, there are many many other ways to advertise and get traffic and make sales.. If google went out of business tomorrow the internet would not stop working.

    People would just adapt and move on like it was nothing...

    James
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560715].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author DogScout
      Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet View Post

      Google can't put an end to affiliate marketing ... Did you know some of the most successful top super affiliates do not even use search engines at all ...

      Google is only a search engine and nothing more, there are many many other ways to advertise and get traffic and make sales.. If google went out of business tomorrow the internet would not stop working.

      People would just adapt and move on like it was nothing...

      James
      I think they're deaf:confused:
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560749].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dlprentice
    It might simply be because their is the original landing page, than like 20234324234 copies of the same page.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560740].message }}
  • {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560760].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
      Originally Posted by Profit-smart View Post

      Affiliate Network - Google



      Do I need to say anything else?
      I can certainly say a few words on this

      Announcing Google Affiliate Network payments through Google AdSense - ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum

      On Nov 1st 2009, lots of affiliates were removed from their affiliate network because they did not have an Adsense account. This included quite a number of superaffiiates. Merchants would suddenly find they lose a lot of affiliates on Nov 1st. That thread alone in Abestweb had 509 replies and 17134 page views. This just shows how incensed the affiliate community was over Google's action and how much Google cared about their affiliate network.

      They did not start their affiliate network but took over an existing network when they took over DoubleClick. This network contributes very very little to their overall revenue.
      Signature

      Do not get between a wombat and a chocolate biscuit; you will regret it dearly!

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1561335].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Nathi Fakudze
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560781].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Profit-smart
      Originally Posted by Bless5 View Post

      Now I know not everyone is a huge fan of Amish and Jay - after all they are definitely "bad boys" of affiliate marketing, willing to do *almost* anything to make their business profitable. They are well known for saying things like "screw Google, they're not the law" and opening up tons of Adwords accounts so that they can completely dominate markets. They're known for social network spamming, for blog farming, cloaking, and pretty much any other profitable TOS-breaking trick you can think of.


      But clearly whatever they're doing works, because they're still cranking away high volume CPA campaigns despite the most recent account shutdowns. I'm sure even they have felt at least SOME pain from the recent turn of events, but when your biggest problem is that your average daily revenue dropped from $20,000 to $15,000, then that's a pretty "high quality problem" in my book.
      What does this have to do with google trying to kill affiliate marketing?


      Edit-
      Spuh spuh spuh spuheeeeehhhhmmmmm

      This post was lifted wholesale from
      http://tooltrainer.com/tools/blog/is...oogle-adwords/



      Edit-
      http://www.warriorforum.com/search.php?searchid=2908712

      Looks like every post hes made to this thread has been lifted from that blog post.

      If your going to try to bump your postcount, at least change the stuff you copy around a little bit. geeze

      Another thread-
      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ogle-slap.html

      Source-

      http://tooltrainer.com/tools/blog/is...oogle-adwords/


      I wonder if this is his blog? I'm doubting it, his grammar is fairly poor in his other posts; yet the ones copied from this blog are flawless.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560792].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author mariochase
    And always remember Google don't have 100% of the internet advertisement traffic.. I heard it's only some a small percentage.

    I'm sure Google is not doing this because they are trying to end Affiliate Marketing. It's more of a Win/Win for them. Even though they are losing money.. they are thinking of how much they would lose in the long term with bad affiliates.

    Logically there will be some good affiliates in the middel that don't have anything to do with bad things.. but what can we do.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560810].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author JK Nyerere
    I profit from affiliate marketing, but I think GG will be doing the internet a service if they eliminate Affiliate marketing sites.

    Such sites provide very little value with their false "reviews" and "comparisons". Who needs them.

    If I want ****-Berry, why would I want to go through a third party?

    Good riddance if you ask me.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560818].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Gavin Abeyratne
    Affiliate marketing goes a lot deeper than clickbank, and certainly a lot deeper than all the 'desperate niches' people are so passionate about targeting. 'thrush removal, penis enlargement, man boobs etc.'

    These sorts of niches lend themselves to massively scammy, fake blog, FTC nightmarish, junk that is perhaps worse than late night infomercials.

    Honestly, you really can't blame Google for wanting to put an end to that. Can you imagine if you were watching a TV station that blasted you with advertising like that? You'd get pretty sick of it pretty quickly.

    If you have a niche you're an authority in, with a list to which you provide good content, and occasionally make affiliate offers to, you have absolutely NOTHING to worry about.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560837].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ShaneRQR
    It's been stated before, but it bears repeating: It's about quality and relevancy in the results, nothing else.

    The problem is that "crappy" low-quality pages are easy to set up and convert fairly well. The type of page that makes a lot of overhyped promises, but gives away no information, making the visitor want to click on those large "ORDER NOW" buttons, works pretty well for making money. But it offers absolutely no real value.

    If someone types "[product name] review", then Google is not doing them a service by displaying thin sales-pages with the word "review" in the header and title and lots of backlinks pointing to them.

    That is the real issue, not whether there are a bunch of affiliate links on a page or not.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560851].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    From what I hear from Matt Cutts, they seem to just want the best user experience.
    LOL ... This is what google said when they released SideWiki and blantantly tried to take over others sites that they do not own ...

    James
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1560865].message }}
  • Google didn't grow to $21 billion by caring about affiliates. Google is going to do whatever is in their self interests.

    If your site is nothing more than a front to another company where products are purchased there is no reason to reward you with ranking when they could be charging that company to participate in one of their own advertising platforms.

    They only people Google has to fear is the Government.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1561111].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author reapr
    Originally Posted by Bless5 View Post

    Personally I kinda think Google is indeed looking to put an
    end to affiliate marketing as a whole, and I'm working up to a
    nice rant about this in the near future.
    Threads like this have been rampant since 2004. Each year just gets better.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1561243].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Menzess
    I don't think so,as google affiliate program is quite popular now.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1561361].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    From what I hear from Matt Cutts, they seem to just want the best user experience. If that's all they want then getting rid of "thin affiliates" is logical thing to do.

    (Remember, this is the same man that as much as admitted part of his job was to mislead people in regards to the ranking algorithm. I have the greatest respect for him while believing nothing he says.)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1561395].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author jokarl
    I really agree with that Jockpurtle. Stop worrying and focus on creating a website that provide something. Even if you have an affiliate site you should offer your readers something. Great content will always be needed and will still be used 20 years from now.

    However if you create spammy pages with just a lot of affiliatelinks you will get banned sooner or later. The big G will always try to give the best results to the searchers and a lot of people want reviews of products. However if these are just fake reviews they provide nothing.



    Originally Posted by jockpurtle View Post

    Affiliate marketing is just someone selling another person product

    Is the government banning car salesman ?

    No

    Becuase a car salesman is an affiliate of the car company

    Stop worrying about something that is traival and out of you control
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1562101].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author oneplusone
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1562340].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
      Originally Posted by oneplusone View Post

      If there are 20, 30, 40 or 50 people on here who have been banned from Adwords why not get together and take action?.
      my guess is that they broke G's T&C and as such have no case to present. next
      Signature
      | > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1562345].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author peterlaz
        If you are an affiliate forget about advertising in adwords. Google is only interested in the big merchants. Your presence only increase the average CPC and reduces the ROI for the big merchants.

        Google is attempting to bring the most relevant results to the end users directly from big merchants. Affiliates with their bridge pages are not welcomed however relevant and helpful your pages are to the end users.

        It took me two years to realize this after building new sites following each Google slap I received. Naively believing the idea of quality scores and being relevant to the end users, I complied fully. How can quality score drop from 7-10 to 1 overnight when it has been approved. I paid good money to advertise and I am not given a reason why I am not good enough.

        Google will never say in plain English that they don't want affiliates to advertise in Adwords. You much be smart to understand corporate terms such as "Corporate Greed" and "Saving your Ass from a Public Relations Disaster".

        I am out of Adwords.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639015].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Well, what can I say?

    IMHO Google is on a hunt to drop us dead somewhere. They systematically f*** us whenever they can: rankings, produts, maps, videos.

    They create a new rule every month.

    I have had a Youtube account banned for being flagged 3 times... BUT went reading and re-reading ALL the rules and NADA, no broken rule.

    Just damn original and creative videos with a link at right to an affiliate site. Guess this is why the account got banned. BUT if you check their TOS there is nothing there about where your links are pointing to - beside it was a link to MY SITE.

    Anyway, I say yep, Google is out to kill middle man.

    Oh and Youtube TEAM, wake the cuck up!!! This video has been flagged dozens of times: copyright infringement, cursing... this is a video for 4 year old kids for Christ sake!!! Wake Up and remove that piece of crap!


    Yeah, let's see how many weeks (months?? years???) will they need to remove this one...
    Signature
    People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639121].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Bitethehand
    I would be pleased to see affiliate marketing die out...im not a fan at all!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639124].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author OnlineProfitDevil
      Google is not out to kill affiliate marketing, they are out to kill low quality advertisers. They are a big company and not as well run as so many people like to believe, so when they shut down accounts, they will make mistakes.

      Besides, Google is just a drop in the bucket of traffic.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639144].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author peterlaz
        [DELETED]
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639726].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author peterlaz
          Originally Posted by peterlaz View Post

          "Google is not out to kill affiliate marketing, they are out to kill low quality advertisers. They are a big company and not as well run as so many people like to believe, so when they shut down accounts, they will make mistakes"
          If your are an affiliate then you are a low quality advertiser!
          Google doesn't make a mistake where the big check is coming!
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639745].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
      Originally Posted by Bitethehand View Post

      I would be pleased to see affiliate marketing die out...im not a fan at all!

      You saying big stores should close doors? Cause big stores use affiliate marketing too, you know? And pharmacies... and sport teams :rolleyes:
      Signature
      People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639159].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author simbat
    Google completely depends on ads, and cannot convince advertisers if they start to eliminate the publishers
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639143].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
    I believe Google is working to minimize mass spam of crap products that are promoted by hucksters under the false pretenses of borderline nonsensical, irrelevant content appearing as legitimate, meaningful search results.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639340].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author peterlaz
      Originally Posted by MichaelHiles View Post

      I believe Google is working to minimize mass spam of crap products that are promoted by hucksters under the false pretenses of borderline nonsensical, irrelevant content appearing as legitimate, meaningful search results.
      This is only part of the story. Yes such advertisers should be banned without any second thought. How about genuine advertisers who spent thousands of dollars taking up formal training and complying with all the terms and conditions. My accounts are not banned but my ads are not running. They are not telling me why. When I changed the landing page url to point to the merchant's url my campaign starts to run -of course there will be no commission for me. So there you have it. If you are an affiliate save all the trouble and pain by staying away from Adwords.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639792].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jay D
    If Google does that. They will be out of business!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639364].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author enco22
    I don't see why, they make lots money on affiliate.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639787].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author peterlaz
      Originally Posted by enco22 View Post

      I don't see why, they make lots money on affiliate.
      In the good old days affiliates sold the products for merchants. When the merchants saw how affiliate were making sales and they got into the game. When you have many advertisers the average CPC rises. If this is not checked the big merchants will not advertise as their ROI will not be attractive. Google is now getting rid of affiliates from the game and let the big players decide the average cpc. Google is going make more money from these merchants than affiliates.

      Try advertising for electronic goods as an affiliate in Adwords. You will slapped without failure!
      The sooner affiliate understand this the better it will be for them.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639839].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Erica Leggette
    Just get that content flowing and offer the best to your visitors. Not even Google can interfere with that unless one is dependent on Google.
    Signature
    Be easy.


    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1639975].message }}

Trending Topics