CPA Networks, Ad Networks

The Microsoft/Yahoo PPC alliance was always going to have teething troubles and give advertisers some headaches. We are gradually learning just where those are going to come from.

The most complicated issues are likely to spring from the differences in the way that Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft's adCenter treat keywords. adCenter in general provides much finer control over management of keyword mis-spellings and plurals, significantly greater limits on negative keywords, as well as taking a different approach to geo-targeting.

The winners in the online marketing space have always been the fast movers. Quick and agile people who see an opportunity and have the motivation and resources to act rapidly. But as we’re seeing in the mobile marketplace right now, new opportunities are being fenced in by the biggest companies who control the platforms. In the evolving world of online advertising, the big beasts are making their presence felt.

Consider three data points:

Will fraud kill affiliate marketing?

It is up to you. You choose.

But here’s a clue: the BP oil spill probably just killed the Louisiana wetlands. I think we should take that as a warning of just what can happen.

The affiliate marketing industry is an ecosystem. It consists of a web of interdependent species: affiliates, merchants, networks, merchant processors, etc. Sometimes they compete, sometimes they are symbiotic. But they all rely on each other for survival.

The recent discussion of the importance of brand to CPA network survival generated a fair amount of feedback. For an industry rooted in performance, where everything is measurable, the idea that product functions and features aren’t all important is a hard one to accept.

But it’s true. Let’s look at exactly why that is.

We’ll use Adam Viener’s post on WiseAff as a starting point.

The CPA network space is in tumult. If your favorite CPA network isn’t dead already, it’s probably refinancing, merging or crouching in a defensive posture.