Google Pay-Per-Action

Google have a new paid search service on trial at the moment. Google pay-per-action is different to Googles pay-per-click in that the advertiser sets an amount they are willing to pay should a conversion be made by a visitor that entered their site via a Google pay-per-action advert.

If the visitor aborts the sales funnel the advertiser pays nothing to Google. Fair enough say you.

Google Are A Clever Bunch

Google have cleverly introduced and made advertising accessible to even the smallest enterprises. People are now used to the concept of pay-per-click and many non-tech business owners quite happily manage there own Google Adwords campaigns. Now it would appear that Google are poised to introduce this vast market to a service previously used only by web savy affiliates.

Google pay-per-action will be affiliate marketing for the non-tech masses and in true Google style the potential is massive.

Web Affiliates have used ‘pay for completed action’ for many years. The system works well because if a website performs well the website owner gets paid, the advertiser gets paid, the buyer gets their goods and everyone is happy! Google have not reinvented the wheel here but it looks like the wheel is about to get bigger… MUCH BIGGER!

What does this mean for websites that do not achieve great conversion rates?

Well it’s in Google’s interest that the high conversion rate websites make it to the top of the Ad list, so Google’s algorithms will probably change to account for this. If your website logs poor conversion rates there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself to the back of the ad line position (I’m guessing here). This might result in a general improvement in websites that sign up for the service and that want to be competitive, which is a good thing, right?

Question is how will it work?

Websites that have thousands of pages will surely enjoy a higher number of conversions than a small ‘local store’. Now the small store’s conversion rate/ratio may actually be higher than the large store but the overall value of conversions may be a fraction of the big store’s.

What would you do if you were Google in that scenario? Would you favour the site with the higher conversion ratio put with lower earnings over the website that earns you 100 or 1000 times the income every day but with a lower conversation ratio?

I’m sure Google have this figured out a long time ago, they’re a clever bunch. Anyway, keep your eye’s peeled for a message in your AdWords account notifying you of a new Google pay-per-action service.