Affiliate Marketing

I just got an email that confirms what I have been saying for a long, long time. Most affiliates know by now that Adwords hates affiliates. They do not like affiliate so-called “doorway pages”. They do not like the fact that affiliate marketing is a lucrative internet business that they do not control. They do not like affiliates…..period. 

After Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick/Performics we have all been waiting to see how Google will deal with affiliates that are working “for them” and their advertisers. I digress…..now let’s take a look at the email.

Here is the exact email (don’t miss the bolded section):

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We’d like to help you get the most out of your AdWords campaigns. We’re offering Google’s team of specialists to help with your AdWords account at no cost to you.

Tell us about your AdWords campaign and how you’d like it improved, and one of our specialists will create a detailed campaign proposal designed to meet your goals. This type of campaign optimization can include ideas for your keywords, ad text, campaign structure, bids, targeting settings, and more.

The goal of our optimization service is to improve your campaign performance and help you meet your advertising goals. You’ll stay in full control of your account and can accept or decline the campaign options we provide.

If you’re interested, all you have to do is request a campaign optimization. (Please note that this offer is not available for affiliate advertisers.)

Learn more about Google’s optimization service. You can also check out our optimization tips page at http://adwords.google.com/select/tips.html.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team

I do have to point out that Google is now offering this feature about 18 months later than Yahoo. Yahoo has been offering to help me with my campaigns for over a year and believe it or not they don’t care that I am an affiliate. My money is as green as the next guy’s at Yahoo, but not at Google.

Affiliates should make it a point to support Yahoo and their recent affiliate friendly initiatives. At least one major player is showing respect to a method of marketing that predates Google itself…