Google Affiliate Network + AdWords

AdWords affiliate network versus other affiliate networks

[Dlocks]

A snippet from the Inside Adsense Blogspot that was posted today:

Many publishers are very good at recommending just the right stuff for their users. We love seeing influential publishers in all genres — from foodies to techies to moms to shopping experts — delight users by giving them access to products and services that they believe in. When these trusted publishers recommend a book, a gadget, or a new perfume, their audiences are very likely to follow.

Have you ever wondered if your users buy the products you recommend? Have you wished you could be rewarded for driving sales and conversions? You can. With Google Affiliate Network, publishers can access cost-per-action (CPA) or affiliate ads. This means that you can start working with advertisers who will pay you a performance fee for driving a sale or other conversion. Many AdSense publishers have already started using Google Affiliate Network to complement their AdSense ads and earn additional revenue.

[..]

Can I promote my Google Affiliate Network ads?
You may promote Google Affiliate Network ads on your site. If you endorse the product that you are referring, feel free to let your users know. By adding your personal review of the products you refer, you can help your users make more informed choices

Isn't Google AdSense / Google Affiliate NetWork with the above encouraging publishers to do something what is seen as very low quality content and/or no added value for visitors and/or bridge page by Google AdWords?

In other words, isn't Google AdWords banning clients when they use affiliate links on websites they promote?

[mromero]

We've dabbled in the past with affiliate networks but most appear to be U.S.A. centric and frankly dealing with various networks with differing rules and moving goal posts we gave up.

If we dip into this again for sure our approach would be to recommend only products we have purchased or evaluated and used and reviewed, i.e. a genuine recommendation and nothing else.

As an authority site in our niche our readers / visitors would expect nothing less.

Having just skimmed the email we feel it may be a good move.

[netmeg]

There's affiliates and there's affiliates.

If you are just sending traffic without adding any value, and you're just one of a thousand people running essentially the same ad for essentially the same product or service, and/or your ad doesn't *really* convey what your offer is, then AdWords probably doesn't want your business.

If you're actually adding value - providing a review, providing more information, in other words, significant unique content that you didn't just get from the affiliate website - and you're very clear and up front about your offer - then you're probably okay.

For example, I may have a site in the tech field, where I use a combination of hardware and software to perform a certain task. It's not a commonly known usage, and my method is a slightly different take. So I put up a site, I explain in detail what I'm doing, why I'm doing it this way (the advantages), and I give step by step instructions on how to do it my way (maybe with some video and screen shots) and oh by the way, here are the links to buy the hardware and here are the links to buy the software. And I run ads offering a new way to perform this task.

This would be an example of an affiliate site with added value.

I may or may not be speaking about one or more of my own sites.

[mrguy]

There are affiliates that don't earn Google money, and there are affiliates that use Google's Network so those are OK.

Talk about a double standard.

[netmeg]

Never seen any reason to think they give preference to GAN affiliates, but I don't see it as any more of a double standard than eBay requiring everyone to use Paypal. These companies are not in it for public service.

[mrguy]

I realize their not a public service company, but let's be real about Google.

They have gone from being the darling of everybody to now being the company people love to hate. Sure, it was bound to happen. I called it when I first learned they were going public. Once a company goes public, it's like selling your soul to the devil in this case the devil being profits.

If Google is in fact giving affiliates a pass who use their network, that is an antitrust investigation waiting to happen and honestly I don’t put anything past them anymore.

On the other hand, anything you read that has been publically posted by anybody at Google you have to take with a grain of salt anyway since so many Google employees like to sow disinformation amongst webmasters and seo types alike.

5 years from now, I personally don’t think Google is going to be in the dominate position anymore just based on the things they have done over the last couple years.

I don’t know who it will be, but something is going to come along and take over just like Google took over from Alta Vista. It will probably be in the form of some type of social network like Facebook which has already passed Google in the number of people who visit the site.

[jimbeetle]

If Google is in fact giving affiliates a pass who use their network...

I'm confused. Exactly how is Google giving "affiliates a pass who use their network"? In what specific way?

[netmeg]

I don't worry about what Google's doing. I worry about what I'm doing.

Contrary to popular belief, Google doesn't hate affiliates, either in their own network or outside of it. They don't choose to do business with thin affiliates, bad affiliates, dishonest or misleading affiliates, or affiliates that provide no added value. Just like you and me - they get to decide whom they want to do business with. You either match up with their business model or you don't. If you don't, and you want to advertise through AdWords, then you have to adjust your business model or find an alternative to AdWords. Nobody is *entitled* to use AdWords.

[Dlocks]

There's affiliates and there's affiliates.

[..]

If you're actually adding value - providing a review, providing more information, in other words, significant unique content that you didn't just get from the affiliate website - and you're very clear and up front about your offer - then you're probably okay.

Contrary to popular belief, Google doesn't hate affiliates, either in their own network or outside of it. They don't choose to do business with thin affiliates, bad affiliates, dishonest or misleading affiliates, or affiliates that provide no added value.

I know there are 'bad' and 'good' affiliates.

But what is the added value of a review with an affiliate link versus a review without an affiliate link? In my opinion the review without an affiliate link is more trustworthy.

By encouraging publishers to use affiliate links Google might be (unwillingly) encouraging publishers to make (partitially) less honest product recommandations.

Versus:

Does an affiliate link versus direct link in a review have any added value for the visitor? Answer: no it doesn't.

So the result of this might be a lower quality of some websites.

[netmeg]

You want Google to be the Web Police even more than they already are?

[Dlocks]

No that is not what I want. I'm only a bit surpised about the double standards Google seems to be using more frequently.

Not only with encouraging publishers to use Google affiliate links in reviews and product recommendations but also when it comes to a disapproval by Google AdWords for promoting a certain website because of 'low' quality and at the same time allowing AdSense ads on the same website.

Or a Google AdWords disapproval for promoting a certain website because of 'low' quality and at the same time putting the same website on the first page in the SERPS for some keywords.

About 8 months ago I asked AdWords support if it is fine to promote products/vendors from the Google Affiliate Network using direct linking. The answer was that is was no problem as long as the vendor allowed PPC marketing. My next question was if this would prevent any possible low quality warnings from AdWords for promoting in the future. They could not guarentee this because the landing page quality guidelines for AdWords was not the same as the Google Affiliate Network guidelines for vendors. (Google uses the term 'advertisers' for vendors in the affiliate network)

What is next? Encouraging publishers to send spam but only to gmail users so they can show AdSense ads?

[netmeg]

I guess I don't particularly expect them to be consistent between different departments or divisions (particularly when some of were acquired and not grown from within) But it pretty much comes down to what I said before. If you want to promote via AdWords, build an affiliate site with a lot of added value. If you don't want to build that kind of site, find an alternative way to promote it.

[mrguy]

The problem with Google is they are not consistant about anything.

I know several content deep affiliate sites, we are talking all unique articles about their passion that provided fantastic value to the visitor and they got booted.

With Google, your subject to the whims of who ever is reviewing your site and most of the time it's somebody sitting behind a desk in India.

Netmeg is right, you need to find other ways to promote your site whether it's an affiliate site or not because with Google, you just never know when the person reviewing your site is having a bad day and takes it out on you.