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Amazon ‘Bans’ PPC referral fee and Gay Literature
In the same week that Amazon came under fire for being “homophobic” in its approach to ranking certain adult material, the online retailer wanted to send a positive message out that it was doing its best to combat PPC arbitrage.
Pay-per-click (PPC) arbitrage allows affiliate operators to purchase adverts through Google, Yahoo! and MSN, direct traffic to Amazon and then collect a referral fee from Amazon that is worth more than the cost of the original advert. Effective PPC Management has allowed operators to earn millions in Online Advertising, and whilst the practice is not illegal, it is certainly controversial.
Amazon has decided to call time on its affiliate referral scheme and announced that as of 1 May 2009 it would no longer pay affiliates for any adverts which send traffic to their American or Canadian sites. In the company’s Blog post, Amazon said: “After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates... through keyword bidding and other paid search”.
In the FAQ from Amazon, the company revealed that the decision was part of a review of how it allocated Internet Advertising resources. The choice must have been a difficult one to make, at the same time reducing the outgoings for ad spend but also reducing crucial traffic to the company’s websites.
Rumours have it that the ulterior motive behind Amazon’s move was to reduce profits made by the likes of Google and Yahoo! who benefit from the increasing price of keywords. If the intent truly was to throw a spanner in the works for Google’s Keyword Promotion scheme however, Amazon may have just cut its nose off to spite its face.
The positive PR against PPC arbitrage however, should take some of the glare away from the negative press Amazon has received after it started deranking “adult” material such as Brokeback Mountain. One user expressed their outrage: “The Anarchist Cookbook is ranked, The Joy of Sex is unranked – in other words, Amazon would rather you make napalm than get laid,” reported the Metro.
Online Advertising news posted by David Finklehorn on 14 April 2009
