New PPC Program for Amazon.com

[tedster]

This looks promising to me -- time will tell. As with any PPC program, the concern I would have is click fraud protections, but it's fun to see another PPC player get into the marketplace.

Clickriver Ads is an advertising program - currently in beta - that allows businesses to place sponsored links on Amazon.comŽ, next to search results and on product detail pages.... It's a closed beta at the moment. Apps accepted.

Resource Shelf Article [resourceshelf.com]

[jomaxx]

I wonder how this will affect affiliates. I already had to drop an affiliate program recently because they had become more interested in showing ads than making sales.

[sem4u]

That's a good point jomaxx. They already either show AdWords or Yahoo ads on Amazon.com or .co.uk - I can't remember which way round it is.

[bts111]

I don't use them as a merchant, but if I did they would be getting dropped like a hot potato. How ridiculous!

[wildbest]

Once I've received the beta key, when I try to log in to Clickriver Ads with my Amazon.com Sign-in, I get the following system error message:

Sorry, there's been a problem. Please hit your back button and try that again. If you continue to have problems, please contact Customer Support via the Help Desk. Be sure to mention incident #####.

We apologize for the inconvenience

However, I can not see any Help Desk link on their site! Anyone having same issue?

[La_Valette]

Obvious thing to do in hindsight. Amazon keeps posting lackluster results while Google is going like gangbusters. Jeff Bezos must have been itching to get some ppc action for a while.

[pdivi]

Any news of new PPC entrants is good news. Every competitor nipping at G's heels helps. Let's just hope some of them can get the volume it takes to be a real threat.

[swa66]

It's actually operated by A9, amazon's "search engine" turned msn search.

The trend for Amazon to try to capture visitors much earlier than they are ready to buy goods at amazon has been there for a while now.?No wonder if they were planning things like this.

[wrgvt]

Amazon has been running sponsored links on their product pages for a while.

[sun818]

I don't use them as a merchant, but if I did they would be getting dropped like a hot potato. How ridiculous!

I think it depends on when the ads are displayed. If they directly compete with your widgets, that is an issue. But if the ads appear when no relevant products are displayed - the ads can be a service to the buyer.

[wildbest]

Anyone having same issue I've described above?

[Easy_Coder]

I'm still waiting for my key... how long did it take for you to get approved?

[rebeccab2]

Does anyone know when or if clickriver ads is coming to the UK?

[shorebreak]

I expect this traffic to convert *way* better than Google, Yahoo or MSN traffic for the retail category at least. Visitors to Amazon.com go there with arguably much more buying into than is the case with G, Y! & MSN.

Anyone have any ROI anecdotes?

-Shorebreak

[1Lit]

Doesn't mention elsewhere on the website, but when you try to complete the form it says "U.S. only service."

How frustrating... treat 96% of the world's population as unwanteds.

[sun818]

> treat 96% of the world's population as unwanteds.

I would think online population and world population are different demographics.

[Pianist718]

I've signed up to try their BETA program for one of our companies. Have not heard from them yet. If/when we're approved I'll be sure to blog on the results and stats.

My only concern is ... their content targeting within their huge site.