As the costs of clicks drifts upwards for PPC and the resource time (i.e. cost) of managing increasingly complex PPC campaigns, with increasing numbers of more refined search phrases, also increases, I'm hearing of more and more merchants who are deciding not to bother at all with PPC (and, sometimes, 'organic' SEO) in favour of leaving it up to their affiliates to bear the risk, and effort, involved.
It does seem to make sense - why risk bidding against your own affiliates, or why take on any risk and effort at all, if you can just pay an affiliate a commission on resulting sales? You don't then have to worry about all this complex, time and money-consuming SEM..?
I'd argue that organic SEO work is still very important for the merchant, and some tactical use of PPC to meet ad hoc needs (e.g. promotional micro-sites) or plug certain holes, is still required. But what do others think about this apparent increasing reliance on affiliates effectively to manage SEM for merchants? It seems to throw up an intriguingly grey area between what an SEM agency would do for you and what an affiliate does for you?
My other observation in relation to this is the growing tide of user complaints we hear about search results being dominated by affiliates (including the likes of Kelkoo). This might, in part, be due to the above trend. It is also, no doubt, due to those affiliates expending enormous efforts on their own SEM as their ability to draw traffic and refer it on *is* their business - no rankings = no business.
However, given that search engines in turn need searchers to have a business they cannot afford to continue to frustrate searchers with results perceived to be poor. So might they strip, or deprioritise, affiliate sites from their results in the future? I don't see why not. In its simplest form I imagine the spider could report to the central index whether a particular site appears to take transactions or not (e.g. by looking for https) and then prioritise that site for relevant product searches over another site that does not appear to take transactions (and might, therefore, be just an affiliate).
Could it then be that merchants will rely on affiliates increasingly until one day those affiliates suddenly disappear from the natural search rankings? It's certainly a further argument not to postpone work on your own organic SEO.
Oh and one final thing, who is best to run your PPC for you..? A few thoughts:
1. DIY - good fun for a while, cost effective, soon becomes to much work to manage in-house..?
2. Affiliates - let them do it for you and just pay them on resulting sales so outsource the risk completely?
3. Media buying agency - it is buying ads after all and isn't rocket science... but do these guys really understand how to get the most for you..?
4. Specialist SEM agency - they really know this stuff and can also make sure that natural SEO and PPC are managed holistically?
My impression is that at the moment most people are doing a bit of 1 and 4 above, a small minority (retail, financial services, gambling) have done more of 2, and quite a few are wondering where 3 is going to come into play.
Anyways, that's enough SEM thoughts for the day. Any feedback welcome.
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, Ashley , 29 Feb 11:25 As the costs of clicks drifts upwards for PPC and the resource time (i.e. cost) of managing increasingly complex PPC campaigns, with increasing numbers of more refined search phras ...
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, Julie Brown, 1 Mar 06:08 SEM and organic SEO ?????
Do remember there are folk on the first or second
rung of the e-commerce ladder ! Julie,,, The Winchester Diet ...
RE: Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, Ashley , 1 Mar 06:26 Hi Julie
SEM = Search Engine Marketing and SEO = Search Engine Optimisation. It's all about how you use search engines to help drive relevant traffic to your site. As with anyth ...
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, johnm, 2 Mar 09:20 Hi Julie
For a. I hope - let me know, expalntion of the more popular areas of SEM SEO & PPC please have a look at our website(not that I am advertising)
www.websitemarketing-uk ...
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, Jess, 3 Mar 16:31 For what it is worth, I allow affiliates to do PPC but not on our name or trade mark.. If you do take this route, you need to give your affiliates clear instructions as to what the ...
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, TallTroll, 5 Mar 12:32 Hmmm, I was about to rip into you, Jess... then I realised who you are :)
As far as the whole PPC / affiliates thing goes, it is a fine line to walk for anyone. Obviously, self- ...
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, Jess, 5 Mar 14:46 Lol, infamy!
I think I need to state that my beliefs can be compromised when it comes to these kind of issues. First of all, I have to follow the guidelines as set by my employe ...
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, GogoPertov, 5 Mar 21:51 Try http://www.click-share.com
I am working with them from 6 mounts and have very good results with very high CPC.
They also provide text and products ads. ...
Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, Loz, 10 Mar 17:16 Hi Cost-Per-Click isn't a good thing ;)
L
On 21:51:48 5 March 2006 GogoPertov wrote:
Try http://www.click-share.com
I am working with them from 6 mounts and have very ...
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Pay per click (PPC) and affiliates, Ashley 
