UPDATE - THERE IS NOW A SOLUTION.
SEE POSTS 9 & 10 IN THIS THREAD
THANK YOU GOOGLE, KYLE and MATT CUTTS
Affiliates - Merry Christmas from Google!
By now I'm sure you've read about the problem. Most Google Checkout merchants that are on CJ and possibly other networks are not able to track affiliate commissions that go through the Checkout cart. Everyone is blogging about it and I've been reading and researching over the weekend. In a nutshell when affiliates send traffic to merchants that have Checkout, if the customer buys through Checkout the affiliate sale will not be tracked and commission will not be paid. This is a serious leak. So check with your merchants to see if they offer Checkout.
Google is offering consumers <a target="_new" href="http://www.google.com/checkout/m.html">$10 off at participating merchants</a> and a TON of these merchants have affiliate programs. You can check this list to see if any of your merchants are on it. There are a few CJ merchants that are commissioning Checkout sales, but the transactions have to be batch processed after the fact and are not automatically tracked through CJ. CJ is trying to work out a solution with Google, since so many CJ merchants use Checkout and since CJ does not get paid for most of these sales either.
Connie Berg broke the story over at Revenews: <a target="_new" href="http://www.revenews.com/connieberg/archives/002504.html">Is Google Out to Put an End to Affiliate Marketing?</a>. It's bad enough that that sales are being diverted after the customer is on the merchant site. But in the comments, Adam Vener says Checkout logo is being added to some of his Adwords PPC campaigns automatically without his permission. Adam writes:
<blockquote>"If this is true that Google Checkout orders are not tracked by the affiliate networks, then Google is adding insult to injury to some search affilaites, <strong>I have seen some of my ads for merchants that I promote directly in search start to automatically show up with the Google Checkout symbol on my ads!!!</strong>
Did I authorize it, no. If it creates better click through rates, then great, if I don't get paid when they checkout, then yuck!!!!"</blockquote>
I seriously doubt that Google is doing this on purpose to hurt affiliates, they are just doing it to get more people using Checkout, possibly without even realizing the impact it could have on affiliate revenue.
Possible solutions: (I'm hesitate to suggest making changes during the holidays, but it's the merchants call.) Just like with 800#s the merchant COULD show a different check out page to traffic that comes cookied from affiliates, that only offers the standard cart and does not even show the CheckOut option. However if the merchant is heavily advertising the Checkout option on their site, some consumers may want to use it.
The Google Web Beacon could possibly be a solution if enough networks and/or merchants push Google to make that option work. Here is what Google tells consumers about the beacons which is the only info I could find.
<blockquote><strong>Google Checkout: Buyer Help Center - <a target="_new" href="http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43192&query=affiliate&topic=0&type=f">What does it mean if a seller tracks advertising campaign performance</a>?</strong> "Google Checkout allows stores to track conversions from advertising by adding a web beacon to the Google Checkout order confirmation page. A web beacon is an electronic image (1x1 .gif) within a web page that helps a seller analyze customer traffic, and track transactions."</blockquote>
OR if the Google web beacon can't be used possibly Google would allow merchants to place a CJ tracking pixel instead???
If you want to get more insight on this touchy issue, here are several other blogs about the Google Checkout problem. <a target="_new" href="http://www.costpernews.com/2006/12/01/google-checkout-affecting-cj-program-commissions/">Google Checkout Affecting CJ Program Commissions</a> by Sam Harrelson. Carsten Cumbrowski worte a really long analysis over at Search Engine Journal and talks abut the fact this could be hurting search marketers too.<a target="_new" href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=4059">Condemnation of Affiliate Marketers and Some Minor Technical Oversights by the Holy Father - Google Checkout</a>. Shawn Collins has an overview too. <a target="_new" href="http://www.affiliatetip.com/blog/archives/google_vs_affiliate_marketing.html">Google vs. Affiliate Marketing</a>.
SEE POSTS 9 & 10 IN THIS THREAD
THANK YOU GOOGLE, KYLE and MATT CUTTS
Affiliates - Merry Christmas from Google!
By now I'm sure you've read about the problem. Most Google Checkout merchants that are on CJ and possibly other networks are not able to track affiliate commissions that go through the Checkout cart. Everyone is blogging about it and I've been reading and researching over the weekend. In a nutshell when affiliates send traffic to merchants that have Checkout, if the customer buys through Checkout the affiliate sale will not be tracked and commission will not be paid. This is a serious leak. So check with your merchants to see if they offer Checkout.
Google is offering consumers <a target="_new" href="http://www.google.com/checkout/m.html">$10 off at participating merchants</a> and a TON of these merchants have affiliate programs. You can check this list to see if any of your merchants are on it. There are a few CJ merchants that are commissioning Checkout sales, but the transactions have to be batch processed after the fact and are not automatically tracked through CJ. CJ is trying to work out a solution with Google, since so many CJ merchants use Checkout and since CJ does not get paid for most of these sales either.
Connie Berg broke the story over at Revenews: <a target="_new" href="http://www.revenews.com/connieberg/archives/002504.html">Is Google Out to Put an End to Affiliate Marketing?</a>. It's bad enough that that sales are being diverted after the customer is on the merchant site. But in the comments, Adam Vener says Checkout logo is being added to some of his Adwords PPC campaigns automatically without his permission. Adam writes:
<blockquote>"If this is true that Google Checkout orders are not tracked by the affiliate networks, then Google is adding insult to injury to some search affilaites, <strong>I have seen some of my ads for merchants that I promote directly in search start to automatically show up with the Google Checkout symbol on my ads!!!</strong>
Did I authorize it, no. If it creates better click through rates, then great, if I don't get paid when they checkout, then yuck!!!!"</blockquote>
I seriously doubt that Google is doing this on purpose to hurt affiliates, they are just doing it to get more people using Checkout, possibly without even realizing the impact it could have on affiliate revenue.
Possible solutions: (I'm hesitate to suggest making changes during the holidays, but it's the merchants call.) Just like with 800#s the merchant COULD show a different check out page to traffic that comes cookied from affiliates, that only offers the standard cart and does not even show the CheckOut option. However if the merchant is heavily advertising the Checkout option on their site, some consumers may want to use it.
The Google Web Beacon could possibly be a solution if enough networks and/or merchants push Google to make that option work. Here is what Google tells consumers about the beacons which is the only info I could find.
<blockquote><strong>Google Checkout: Buyer Help Center - <a target="_new" href="http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43192&query=affiliate&topic=0&type=f">What does it mean if a seller tracks advertising campaign performance</a>?</strong> "Google Checkout allows stores to track conversions from advertising by adding a web beacon to the Google Checkout order confirmation page. A web beacon is an electronic image (1x1 .gif) within a web page that helps a seller analyze customer traffic, and track transactions."</blockquote>
OR if the Google web beacon can't be used possibly Google would allow merchants to place a CJ tracking pixel instead???
If you want to get more insight on this touchy issue, here are several other blogs about the Google Checkout problem. <a target="_new" href="http://www.costpernews.com/2006/12/01/google-checkout-affecting-cj-program-commissions/">Google Checkout Affecting CJ Program Commissions</a> by Sam Harrelson. Carsten Cumbrowski worte a really long analysis over at Search Engine Journal and talks abut the fact this could be hurting search marketers too.<a target="_new" href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=4059">Condemnation of Affiliate Marketers and Some Minor Technical Oversights by the Holy Father - Google Checkout</a>. Shawn Collins has an overview too. <a target="_new" href="http://www.affiliatetip.com/blog/archives/google_vs_affiliate_marketing.html">Google vs. Affiliate Marketing</a>.
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