Almost
daily, at least one industry article discusses search and/or
one of the main players in search. Occasionally, these
articles will speak to some of the larger search firms
responsible for big brands’ presence on the pay per click
engines. When it comes to those responsible for arguably a
majority of the keyword buys in terms of breadth of
keywords, these companies, often just individuals, receive
the least amount of press. They are the affiliate marketers,
those willing to get paid on action – be it lead or even
sale – and pay out to the engines on clicks, and these
affiliate marketers receive very little mention.
The top groups of people in this space do upwards of two
million dollars per month or more in commission. This is in
contrast to blogs who receive countless articles in both
industry and mainstream press but whose total revenue
generation from ad inventory on a monthly basis doe not hit
more than two million dollars. These PPC marketers don’t
appear to have conventions, newsletters, or online resources
dedicated to them. Perhaps that is a good thing and like
cowboys, they prefer to stay under the radar. At the same
time though, like the wild west, there aren’t many
established conventions to guide their activity. It is this
very loose framework that both allows for great success and,
like a house of cards falling due to a slight misplacement,
could lead to a major setback for those whose livelihood
depends on search inventory.
While certainly the hot
inventory, search almost qualifies as old news, especially
by internet advertising standards. While the 468x60 banner
might claim seniority among all surviving ad placements
having first appeared prior to 1997, pay per click search
began before 2000. Search can practically claim seniority
over email marketing too. Unlike the banner or email though,
very little standards exist regulating affiliates’ use of
search ads. In fact almost everything that makes search
successful for affiliates goes counter to other types of
internet advertising that affiliates use.
In email marketing for
example, those levers which make a person successful are the
names themselves, the deliverability, and the ad selection.
Successful emailing requires little creativity; in fact it
restricts it. Creativity in email means understanding the
factors that enable successful deliverability – not the most
creative of areas. Advertisers as a whole have taken out
much of the creativity, i.e. anything related to the copy.
In an attempt to minimize risk, advertisers impose upon
affiliates, via the networks, that they do not and cannot
modify copy. About the only visual things left to the
affiliates control remains the look and feel of the
newsletter / email drop. Advertisers provide specific copy
along with access to the global unsubscribe as to allow
parties to comply with federal legislation. It’s as though
the advertisers sometimes imply, “Thank you for your help
but we could get rid of you at any moment.”
The same type of restrictions
that exist for email publishers exist for those displaying
web ads. More often than not, the affiliate / publisher has
little to do with the display of the ad. Either they have ad
coding on their site from the network or they have received
the ad code or files from the advertisers. Given that
designing good ads usually requires resources and skill sets
outside of the publisher purview, the incentive and desire
to modify it remains low. And those levers determining
success are generally volume of traffic and uniqueness /
interactivity of the users. As a result, similar to email,
the likelihood for modification almost doesn’t exist. This,
as alluded to earlier, goes absolutely counter to pay per
click search placements.
In pay per click search, one
of the chief levers at the affiliates’ disposal is the copy.
Given that for the most part affiliates are running the same
landing page, the difference comes in the form of
the combination of the keywords, copy, and engine. Were the
copy restricted it would diminish the affiliate’s
effectiveness. That certain keywords are prohibited makes
sense and allows for some basic protection. The difficulty
comes in controlling and finding the right balance of
restrictions for the other levers. Allowing affiliates to
write their own copy can lead to success, but it can often
lead to false claims and upset advertisers.
Unfortunately with no true
understanding of the market size and players, search may end
up going through a similar advertiser clamp down that email
did. In this case though, it could mean reducing affiliate
earnings by tens of millions of dollars monthly. Unlike
other avenues that were advertiser driven with respect to
innovation, pay per click search grew from the bottom up,
not the top down. Advertisers and publishers were left
playing catch-up, in many cases happy to do so given the
ever increasing revenues coming in. The bottom-up nature has
led to this market segment seemingly coming out of nowhere,
going from little to millions all under the radar. Now more
than ever, it relies on affiliates to act in the
advertisers’ best interests as that will insure their best
interests being met. Pay per click deserves the opportunity to mature
rather than be restricted before it reaches its potential
for advertisers, publishers, and networks.
Jay Weintraub
