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.
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23 Responses to “Pay Per Click Advertising Alternatives to Google – Amazon Product Ads, Facebook”
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Sunil
Amazon is becoming huge in PPC, I’m seeing their ads all over the place especially in blogs like ours.
amazon has a huge inventory and they are loaded with physical products, I’m taking your advice and thinking about joining their ad program
I think it’s a great play for ecommerce businesses. I wished it was out when I was running my ecommerce business. let me know how it pans out for you Kenny I am interested
Interesting info Sunil, I’ve also been noticing those ads for some time now but have never really giving them any attention.
How is the challenge going?
Thanks for the revelation, will look into it.
you’re welcome Theodore. the challenge is going well, everyone is sending in more updates. my focus right now is content. will provide more updates soon on the portal
Great way to earn extra money by the sounds of it…must admit I was ignorant about .pay per click advertising,but understand it more from reading this post…thanks.
perhaps you can try it with your books Fern?
Very interesting Sunil.
I’ve been focused on other things and I hadn’t heard about this.
how are your books doing Cristina? any other projects you are working on?
good post Sunil. I will try this option. thanks
let me know how it goes Suresh
Is anyone using PPC ads on Amazon to sell products there on Amazon? If an author has a book available for sale, could she push her Amazon product page?
Thanks for the post. I wasn’t aware of the ads on Amazon.
most definitely Michael. from everything I know about this promotion method, it works best for retailers/folks with products to sell.
Your sharing is very interesting and useful. I have used Google Adwords to promote my website and blogs. This alternative is a must to be tried. Thanks a lot.
how has your experience been with Adwords?
Thanks for the info. I haven’t had a lot of luck with turning PPC advertising into sales in the past with other offers, but I’ll give this a shot for my taco seasoning.
yum. let me know how it pans out Edward
So far, I have only tried Google Adsense. I have heard about Amazon Product Ads and still learning the ropes. I would like to try it but I need more time studying the market. I am also thinking if I should do it now and learn more while on it or learn the ropes first before plunging on it.
why not set aside a small budget and try it while it’s not as saturated of a space as Adwords is?
Awesome! Thanks again!
most welcome
Very interesting post, but so far I only have tried Google Adsense and it works just fine. But this time I’m going to give Amazon a try.
Eric – can you share with us how you are using Adsense and the kind of success you are seeing with it?
Interesting article.
I am thinking about starting a new website in combination with Amazon Associate. But I was wondering about tips to really lure your visitors into clicking the amazon products. Optimize your website, the best way to adress your visitors. Any tips to help?