Amazon Bans Paid Search for its Affiliates
According to an email to Amazon associates, the shopping behemoth is no longer allowing its thousands of affiliates to use Google Adwords – or any other PPC network. Besides the usual problems of competing with its own affiliates on trademark terms or popular keywords, we’re not quite sure what the thinking behind this is. Here’s the full text of the email:
Dear Amazon Associate:
We’re writing to let you know about a change to the Amazon Associates Program. After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you’re not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.
As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.
This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.
We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program. If you have questions or concerns, please write to us by using the Contact Us form available on Associates Central.
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New York Herald: full disclosure, we have an affiliate relationship with Amazon although we are not very active with it, and no, we do not use paid search or any other paid marketing to promote Amazon products. The media and economy know-it-alls at BusinessInsider.com explains the move:
“The quantity of ads is probably negligible to Google. But the plan makes sense for Amazon: The e-tailer can determine which keywords ads are working, and can improve its margins by taking out the middleman.” In other words, Amazon’s own affiliates were probably driving up the keyword prices. We wonder if other major affiliate programs will follow suit. If so, this may be the beginning of the end for today’s current and troubled affiliate marketing model.
