Google Confirms Testing New Ad-Pricing Model

location based services


Advertisers will pony up when consumers buy a product, qualify as a sales lead, or sign onto a mailing list. By Antone Gonsalves TechWeb.com Jun 22, 2006 06:38 PM
Google Inc. on Thursday confirmed that it's testing a new ad-pricing model that would have advertisers pay a fee when online consumers buy a product, qualify as a sales lead or sign onto a mailing list.
Testing of the new model, often referred to as "cost-per-action," was first reported in The Wall Street Journal. The new pricing is seen as a way to deliver a better return on investment to advertisers, and as a means to combat click fraud, the newspaper said.
Click fraud refers to the clicking of an ad link to either drive up the cost to advertisers or the revenue to publishers. Competitors sometimes perpetrate the former, while the latter by unscrupulous Web sites.
"We are currently testing a cost-per-action pricing model to give advertisers more flexibility and provide publishers another way to earn revenue through AdSense," Google said in an emailed statement. "We're pleased with how the test is progressing and will continue to gather feedback from advertisers and publishers."
The Mountain View, Calif.,