Amazon.com, which runs one of the most well known affiliate programmes (Amazon Associate Program) has announced that, as of May 1 this year, any affiliates who are signed up to its North American programme will no longer be able to earn commission on any sales they generate originating from paid search activity. This process sees users go directly from an affiliate's paid search advert to the Amazon.com website. While it remains to be seen whether or not this change in policy will be rolled out to Amazon's other affiliates outside of North America, it could be a nasty blow for UK-based affiliates should it come into effect. According to Econsultancy's 2009 UK Affiliate Census, 37 per cent of affiliates in the UK use PPC to promote merchants and drive traffic to their site, meaning any developments are likely to be watched very closely by affiliates, merchants, agencies and networks alike.
Amazon will also no longer provide a product feed (an integral part of any retailer's affiliate program) for the purpose of sending users to their site in the US or Canada using paid search.
Amazon.com, credited by many as being the founder of affiliate marketing, has taken this decision after careful review of how it invests its advertising resources, according to an email it sent to its affiliates (reproduced on Lee McCoy's Affiliate Marketing Blog). In the current economic climate, this is the kind of review that many brands may undertake over the coming months to ensure that their online marketing campaigns are working in synergy and providing the highest return on investment possible.
Although this decision will be seen by many of the affiliates on the North American Associate Programme as detrimental to their own affiliate earnings, there does not appear to be anything stopping them from continuing to promote Amazon.com through paid search but directing the traffic firstly to a landing page then onto the Amazon.com website. This method ensures that the affiliate is adding value to Amazon by pre-qualifying traffic before it arrives at Amazon's website. In the affiliate marketing arena this is usually seen as the most effective way to work with paid search affiliates, as a high quality landing page can really add value to the merchant and help drive sales and revenue without being detrimental to the merchant's own paid search campaign.
