Thursday, May 10, 2007

AdSense Referrals Beta

I love it that now Google is starting to experiment with true performance-based advertising. The idea is for the advertiser to pay only for actual well defined gains and not just for page impressions or even clicks on the ad leading to the advertiser's web site.

Google is now offering AdSense Referrals Beta for select group of its publishers. The idea is not a new one, it has been out there long time ago and I remember Yahoo HotJobs was one of the companies that made use of such true performance-based ads by which it paid publishers only if they managed to refer users to the hot job web site and those users actually signed up at the Hot Jobs site or submitted their CV. I believe it was Commission Junction that Yahoo used back then for such referral opportunity.

I consider this as the peak of advertising and that it would entice many advertisers into using AdWords as they will be paying for actual results with zero doubt in the process. It is like paying a commission to a sales man without paying him any salary.