There is a growing trend in online advertising toward “pay-per-action”. Pay-per-action is a pricing model in which the advertiser pays a specified amount of money for the completion of some action on his web site, such as a sale or newsletter signup. There are some ad networks that have already begun selling advertising in this matter, but now Google is getting ready to enter the market, so it’s about to take off.

The ads will run on Google’s content network, and Google content partners can choose what ads to run. They can view advertisers’ product names, descriptions, logos, defined actions and offers. Advertisers can also supply a URL and other information to give potential advertisers more information. Ads can be text, image, or text link format. The text link format is interesting because it is a simple piece of text that can be placed in-line with the publishers’ other content.

The new advertising model is being rolled out over the next few months on a rolling basis, so some advertisers will be able to begin using the model very soon. We expect that high volume, high revenue advertisers will be given priority.

Another interesting aspect of the new model is that Google is now competing with affiliate marketing networks such as ClickBank. You will now be able to offer a commission to Web publishers who sell your products, which is exactly what affiliate networks do. And Google has a leg up on the affiliate networks because advertisers can now integrate pay-per-action into their Google campaigns.

We highly recommend taking advantage of pay-per-action whenever it becomes available to you. Pay-per-click greatly mitigates the risk associated with traditional advertising by only displaying your ad in front of targeted prospects. Pay-per-action takes it one step further by eliminating the remaining risk, because you only pay if the specified action actually occurs.

For help managing a pay-per-action campaign for your web site, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.