Are Pay per Action ads something we can refuse?

or have they switched us to that automatically?

[annej]

I can't find anything in my control panel to see if I'm getting Pay per Action ads. How can we tell and how can we see stats on them so we know how they are doing?

[bumpski]

You do have to choose and produce code to have PPA (referrals or affiliate ads) on your site. The Adsense team is alowly making this an easier process. You can then use channels to monitor PPA activity.

The thing to remember though:

The more advertisers you see in the Referral areas (there are now thousands) implies there are probably fewer advertisers choosing to use Pay Per Click (PPC)

To quote another thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

The correct system would be simply a hybrid of the two, giving the publisher at least the smart pricing income for a click on a Pay per Action ad! But now you're getting nothing for clicks on PPA ads so your income declines.

Google why not break out of the box and actually create something new, instead of copying what's been done already by thousands!

[annej]

Do we have any choice on which PPA advertisers show up on our site? I asked to have no site targeted ads on my site because some poorly related ads were showing up. Seems like this could happen with PPA as well.

Are enough people using PPA to tell if it is profitable?

[bumpski]

No, you won't have PPA/CPA ads showing on your site unless you go through the steps in the Adsense Referrals menus and add new Adsense code for CPA to your site.

So by default you don't have to worry about CPA ads showing on your site. All you really have to worry about in the long run is advertisers paying less for CPC because they are successful using CPA.

Of course as you've mentioned there are the Pay per Impression ads which you've opted out of by contacting Adsense. I too have opted out of Pay per Impression ads and I periodically check and have found that I remain opted out.

[annej]

Looks like we will just have to wait and see.

I get the feeling that not many people have opted into it yet so all those advertisers signing up for it may find there aren't that many good sites that will accept their ads.

If I could choose the advertisers I'd go with it. I want to be sure the ads are related to my information. Otherwise I doubt they would do very well.

added - I just looked at the AdSense referral options and they are not good. I'm getting far better related ads now.

[The Contractor]

I get the feeling that not many people have opted into it yet so all those advertisers signing up for it may find there aren't that many good sites that will accept their ads.

If I could choose the advertisers I'd go with it. I want to be sure the ads are related to my information.

My experience is one I have repeated a few times concerning PPA. I implemented a couple PPA on a few pages that should really convert well as a test and watched closely. The trouble is after a few hours everyday the advertiser would disappear and irrelevant ads would take its place.

The solution has to be one of the following:

Google needs to implement a "no" budget policy for PPA ads to their advertisers choosing this method, as there shouldn’t be a budget since it is only on conversion.
or
If the budget runs out for an advertiser you have chosen, the ad block should simply revert to normal AdSense CPC ads, not be replaced by an irrelevant PPA advertiser/ad you have not chosen.

Until one or the other is announced I will continue to stay away from PPA offerings.

[edited by: The_Contractor at 2:26 pm (utc) on Dec. 30, 2007]

[farmboy]

...as there shouldn’t be a budget since it is only on conversion...

Some advertisers might be using a "loss leader" type approach. They would likely have a daily, monthly, etc. budget.

FarmBoy

[MyNewPC]

Until a competitive ad filter is added, I will not use Referral ads.

[YesMom]

I've had great success with one particular ad, but the cost is just too high for me. The "cost" in this case is having to put up with Google showing ANY ads they want to -- regardless of my trying to choose NOT to have any other ads show. I've tried it every which way, and they still put in inappropriate ads. It isn't worth losing my very conservative audience over "singles" ads, etc. Grrrr...

If only I could actually choose to run just the certain product ad that does so well for me and be SURE nothing else was showing up! It isn't a budget issue, either. The ad I want shows up consistently -- just with many others cycling in as well.

If Google EVER fixes this, I'll jump back in!

YM