Google starts their PPA network

Google has launched their performance based „pay per action“ ad network and opened it up to selected advertisers, writes clickz.

Some believe the pricing model will reduce the impact of click fraud since PPA ads won’t fall prey to automated bots designed to click ads to boost keyword prices or generate more revenue for AdSense publishers. Instead, an actual action must be performed by the user in order for the publisher and Google to be paid by the advertiser.

Yes, there might have been fraud, but why should I participate in the business risk of the advertiser? What if the product is unsellable? What if the creative is really bad and attracts people who click (which would be good for publishers in a way), but will never buy the product (or request info, or whatever the „paid action“ will be).

But Google solved this, too:

Publishers in the AdSense network can search for available CPA ads and review them before choosing whether they want to accept them for placement on their sites. The PPA ads will only appear on AdSense publisher sites, not in Google’s search results, as CPC buys do.

This whole thing is really bad news for all the affiliate networks out there…