Google Pay-per-Action Beta Goes Global

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One of the hazards of a PPC advertiser is the possibility of Click Fraud. Google is one of a few companies to have tested a Pay-per-Action (PPA) model where the advertiser doesn’t pay for the click, but pays only when the clicker goes to the website and completes some pre-defined action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase.

PPA is a brilliant, albeit partial solution to click fraud that works for websites that have a measurable action. It does not work for information sites or affiliate sites where the purchase takes place on the merchant’s website.

Google has just extended its PPA beta globally, reports MediaPost, but in a staged roll-out, beginning with publisher sites that have turned on Conversion Tracking and have had over 500 conversions this month. Yes, only Content sites will show the PPA ads initially; I imagine this is because advertisers are shying away from the Made-for-Adsense (MFA) sites.

The price for a PPA conversion is defined based on the type of action. The official Google AdWords Blog says, “For example, you may wish to pay $1 every time a user fills out a lead form on your site and $5 when a purchase is made.

If PPA pricing is similar to the pricing for Google’s Pay-per-Call beta, then I bet you will be paying a lot more to have your ad showing high, in the first ad unit on the publisher page. I will be among the last to be invited to this beta, so you will know the real cost before I do.

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