The Extra Money Blog

Pay Per Click Advertising Alternatives to Google – Amazon Product Ads, Facebook

There is a new player in the pay per click advertising market, Amazon Product Ads, adding yet one more alternative to the pay per click ad market.

Google commercialized this market initially with the launch of Google Adwords, which is Google’s main revenue driver.

Find out how much Google makes annually in online ads in my post here.  This revenue model was soon followed by numerous smaller players, and more recently by larger companies such as FaceBook, Linked and now Amazon.

What does this mean for the advertiser? As in most cases, the consumer wins from the increasing competition.  Everyone wants a piece of the growing digital advertising market, and as more players enter the market, consumer advertisers should see more cost effective advertising options as well as freebies or all sorts.

If you are not familiar with pay per click advertising, it is a digital advertising mechanism where vendors / advertisers pay the advertising company a fee each time their ad is clicked by a web surfer.  Here is an example of what pay per click ads look like on the FaceBook Ads platform:

Here is how pay per click ads look on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn has the highest floor (minimum amount) per click from what I have gathered so far. At $2.00 per click, they are certainly making good use of the highly “targetable” and relevant user community they have.

And here is how pay per click advertising looks on the Google Adwords platform

Enter the Amazon Product Ads Program

As far as I know, Amazon is the last big player to enter the pay per click advertising market. Like the others, the Amazon product ads platform is a targeted cost per click program allowing webmasters and bloggers to drive traffic from the Amazon website to their own websites and blogs.

As you can imagine, this service is particularly attractive if you are selling products on your website. Most people visit Amazon when they are interested in making a purchase.  The Amazon Product Ads program allows you to intercept this traffic and drive them back to your own websites and blogs.

Why Amazon would do this is beyond my imagination. Any idea? Here is how the ads look on Amazon:

Regardless, there is a healthy incentive to get started.  Amazon is giving away $75 in free pay per click advertising dollars, so take advantage of that offer if you feel like you can benefit from it.

The way I look at this is that I am getting $75 dollars in free advertising on a highly popular and credible platform. What do I have to lose if I exhaust the $75 and stop? I don’t see a downside.  I have done exactly that in the past with LinkedIn through the American Express free ads promotion.

Pay per click is one way to generate traffic to your website or blog with the intention to make a sale or capture an email address through an opt in landing page.  Personally I can’t say no to free exposure.

What Does This Mean for You?

If you are selling products online, you don’t want to miss on this opportunity while the space is still relatively new (not saturated).  You may be able to drive high quality traffic to your website relatively cheap compared to what the future may hold.

I know this because I saw how Google and FaceBook Ads evolved over time in terms of advertising cost / rates and effectiveness. The more advertisers joining the bidding war, you can expect prices to increase over time.

If you don’t sell products online, or don’t want to use this paid method to drive traffic to your web properties, the Amazon Product Ads offers one of the more lucrative opportunities I have seen in the pay per click advertising affiliate space.

As an Amazon Associate, you can earn up to $155 in advertising fees for each advertiser you refer to Product Ads. The best part is that there is no limit to the number of referrals you generate.

How do you earn this money?  By signing up for the Amazon Associates program (their version of the affiliate program) and referring visitors to your website through your affiliate link.  Each time a referred advertiser signs up for a new account, Amazon will credit your account with $5.

Once the advertiser gets started with the program, Amazon will credit you another $150.

You can read more about the terms in detail on the Amazon Product Ads Associates Referral Guide (look at the navigation menu on the left side) and the Associates Program Advertising Fee Schedule.

The Fine Print: If you read the program rules carefully you will see that for you to qualify for the additional $150, the referred advertiser must receive his or her first click on a live ad within 30 days of registration.

Concluding Thoughts

I have used the Google Adwords, FaceBook Ads and LinkedIn advertising platforms with some success, especially when the programs were relatively new and the market not so saturated.

Amazon Product Ads introduce yet another opportunity for an early mover to jump in and capitalize on the targeted traffic before the other sharks jump in.

This can be a great opportunity for you if you are looking to drive targeted traffic to your website or blog with the intention of making a sale.  Even if you don’t sell anything on your website, as a publisher online, you have the opportunity to capitalize on the Associate program offer of up to $155 in commissions per advertiser referred to Amazon’s program.

I had some success with the Google Adword referral program that paid $100 per referral before Google discontinued it.  The new Amazon Products Ads program looks good so far, and I plan on using it personally as well as introducing it to potential advertisers as an Amazon Associate.

Do you have any experience with this or know anyone who has? What are your thoughts?

Disclaimer: I am part of the Amazon Associate program. I will receive a commission from Amazon for every successful referral.