So would this be why they have been testing out their referrals with just google products and firefox? Will this service just be an extension of referrals?

Surely this is what GBuy is all about isn't it? Making it easier for advertisers.

Dave titles his blog post "Google Launches ValueClick Killer" and suggests that this is a full-on-assult to the affiliate marketers – his closing comment says it all "This morning, soon after the market opened, I shorted ValueClick. Stock buyback or not, this spells the end of ValueClick’s Commission Junction business"

Interesting approach by Google, but will Google make any revenue with this ? Surely Google will attract a large number of advertisers.

So is Google trying to increase clients and reduce Profit Margins

While fewer clicks will result in revenue for a site owner leasing the space, I would think those few clicks will be much more valuable, as an actual sale (or other desired action by the advertiser) was completed...not just a possibility as it is now. For that I would imagine an advertiser has to pay significantly more.

Of course the problem with Pay-per-sale, except with GBuy, is that the advertiser starts abusing it and pretending the user didn't buy

Splasho, wrong

If the payment is handled with Google Purchase (and that is a MUST) Google can clearly track which user clicked and bought something. The user has to pay Google the x dollars, Google gives x-G (G is Googles Profit/Comission) to the advertiser/seller. That is how other systems work

Hybrid of those two would be nice. Small amount of money for click and much more for sales.

I don't see the necessity for the Gbuy tie in. Affiliate networks have had their own conversion tracking systems for years (either tagging confimation pages or relying on the advertisers themselves to provide conversion data which gets tied to the referral source).

I wonder if technology from Google Analytics will be doing the tracking of the user's path through the merchant's website.

Corsin, note the 'except with GBuy' in my post :)

"Content Referral network. During the test, publishers will be sent a weekly email report of their earnings"

any publishers in here beta'ing ?

The thing which is really interesting is "Today's Earnings: $8707" – Do you really make that much?

Nope, it's just a joke :)

really?

>>"Hybrid of those two would be nice. Small amount of money for click and much more for sales."

Thats a great idea Ludwik, I hope Google go down this route too.

Maybe three-fold:
- micro amount per view -> $0.0001
- small amount per click -> $0.1
- big amount per sale -> $10.00

I would never use this, I prefer to work with the smaller companies who have affiliates. Trying to get more $ out of google or get a problem solved seems like too much of a hassle. Some of the companies I market for are small businesses in comparison to other ones and I prefer the personal touch, support, and flexibility I get from them. Also for most programs I inject data and have full tracking, no way I would take google's word for it that I made x amount of dollars today. Advertisers will abuse the system and steal. As an affiliate marketer I would boycott this 100%.

Oops I mean as a marketer I would boycott this 100%.

Do referrals really work for anyone? I've been with Amazon for months and earned a total of 1 USD. I never made a cent with Adsense's referrals. Normal Adsense works fine for me. Not big bucks, but a steady stream.

I know you're not supposed to disclose amounts of money, but maybe someone can give a percentage value (from referrals / from normal Adsense).

Amazon never worked for me. They pay too little. If they want to kick me out of the program for having said this, I wouldn't even care :)

I doubt it'll kill ValueClick or CJ with all the restrictions imposed by Google when it comes to promoting such ads unit.

After all nobody will by a $199 product when all you can say is “Try JetBlue today”

Is there a difference?

Cost-per-click multiplied by clicks-per-action equals cost-per-action.

Isn't the smart marketer already figuring their cost-per-action? Now you can use the one that yields the lowest cost-per-action. Will Google be charging a premium for these ads just to do the math?

[moved from new thread. -Philipp]

<<Google is adding another way of generating revenue – in the works is a new advertising network that will complement its current fraud-prone AdSense network.
The new cost-per-action, or CPA, network will pay only if net users perform a specific action such as making a purchase or generating a sales lead; in contrast, the AdSense model pays based on the amount of clicks a page receives and is particularly susceptible to "click fraud," the act of clicking on an ad multiple times to generate revenue.>>

more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,71229-0.html?tw=wn_index_5

i think AdSense is better..
do you? :/

Megaglobe.com is already launching a search engine with no click fraud.

I do not trust Google because they already said that this new adsense program will not only decrease the publisher’s commission but it will also increase the cost per click for EACH KEYWORD on Google adwords. Meaning
it will cost us more money to advertise on their search engine.

When Google brings a so called good news, there is ALWAYS an evil side effect and the advertisers are the ones who pays the price.

I don’t trust google at all!!

Angelina Bachello

Hmmmm, would this be a plus for advertisers or web owners?

Do anyone remeber Google settled a lawsuit for click fraud? Those bastards con publishers' money all that time. If they did not do that they can countersue for big money. No. Instead, they tried to quickly settle to keep media exposure to min. Google is guilty on click fraud. They will do that again on pay-per-sale.