New York — Beginning from May 1, 2009, online retail giant Amazon has decided to bring about some changes to its Associates affiliate program, which will stop payment of referral fees to Associates that use pay-per-click programs on search engines to send traffic to amazon.com, amazon.ca or endless.com.
Crucially, the change only affects the Associates programs in North America. However, the change is not temporary, according to the news covered in the Amazon Associates FAQ section. Amazon will not reinstate payment of referral fees to paid search associates. The web retailer says the decision was made after an overall review of how the company invests its advertising resources. Only Associates Programs in North America will be affected.
“As long as you stop your paid search activities relating to our US and Canadian sites and otherwise remain in compliance with the terms of the Associates Operating Agreement (e.g., by sending users to our websites through links on your site), your Associates account will not be closed,” Amazon added.
Referral fees earned through April will be honored as long as users complete the purchase on or before July 29, 2009. Clicks that stem from paid-search clicks and result in shopping cart adds after May 1st will no longer be eligible.
Amazon is not very communicative about the reasoning behind the decision, but the company sent affiliates the following email laying out what is ahead (via Marketing Pilgrim):
Dear Amazon Associate:
We’re writing to let you know about a change to the Amazon Associates Program. After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you’re not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.
As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.
This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.
We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program. If you have questions or concerns, please write to us by using the Contact Us form available on Associates Central.
Sincerely,
The Amazon Associates Program
That FAQ page with more information can be found here.
In another attempt to boost its net revenue at the expense of Associates, last month Amazon debuted a program called Product Ads, which enables third-party e-commerce sites to promote their own items on Amazon product pages.