I’m actually surprised that this came so late. I fully expected this discussion to start in the blogosphere and on forums the day Google announced their entrance into the CPA market. But, it’s here now, and people are talking about it.
Will Adsense Die When Google CPA Takes Over?
I don’t know. Again, I’m a marketing and branding guy. I’m not good at answering questions about billion-dollar business models and whether or not they have legs. Guys like this can answer that question.
What I am good at is looking at these types of issues from the 40,000 foot view, and from the eyes of small business owners and entrepreneurs. What that being said, I think that we’re asking the wrong question.
It shouldn’t be, “Is Google CPA going to kill Adsense”? The question should be, “As a publisher, does Google CPA make more sense for me than Adsense?”
The answer to that question is yes, and no, depending on who you are and what you’re doing.
If you’re a black-hat seo’r who creates thousands of crap, Google-clogging, niche topic pages and who loads them with Adsense ads, then no, you’re going to lose a lot of money if you have no clicks to collect from. Why? Because if Adsense is dead, then you’re stuck with CPA, and crappy, single, spam pages will not convert a CPA ad, they just won’t.
On the other hand, if you’re everybody else, then yes, CPA will make sense for you, and I argue it will and can make you more money long-term. Why? Because CPA only works when you presell, and/or you have good content and trust built with your readers.
So, by the very nature of creating high-quality, consistent good content, you’re going to be able to create trust, which will allow you to presell, which will in turn let you be an effective affiliate marketer.
Oh yeah, I forget, that’s a lot of work, yuck. It is, but it’s worth it. Again, you want the quick buck, or you want the long-term brand, AND the bucks? Make your choice.
Adsense removes the question of whether an affiliate offer will convert on your site or not or if the offer converts well at all. Its that gauranteed revenue people like. However, in my opinion, affiliate programs produce more revenue on targeted websites or content than adsense does. Other people may have differing opinions, and I suppose it matters the type of site, but I think affiliate offers are the way to go unless you can’t find any good converting ones for your site or find that adsense peoduces more revenue for you on your site…
Seems to me that Google is letting the Publishers absorb the risk again (with CPA or PPA or whatever Goog calls it), while they just sit back and collect the dough. At what point does Google try to partner with the publisher? After all, without the publisher, Google loses its almighty power. At ContextWeb, we’re opening things up for the publisher. They’re going to get a guaranteed CPM – the publisher tells us what CPM they want from their ad network – and they can still work with AdSense.