Google has launched a new referral program and according to this post, it is still in beta and the beta test is restricted to the AdSense for content in the U.S. Most of the industry pundits believed this referral program will roll out in the market in less than two months. It is not the “pay-per-click” model that we familiar with, i.e. the Web site owners that enrolled in this program generate revenue when visitors either click the advertisements on a “per-click” or “per-thousand-impressions” basis. This referral program is based on the “pay-per-action” where the Web site owners would get paid when the visitors that visit these particular Web sites actually complete a transaction respectively. In this case, a Web site owner would only get paid if his/her visitors buy a product, sign-up a newsletter, or completes any other actionable task from the advertisements appeared on the Web site.

I wonder the beta launched of this “pay-per-action” is due to the concerns of click fraud. There is an increased concerns in the Advertisers’ market on the invalid click matters in which hundreds, or thousands of dollar spent in the wasteful ways. Though the invention of some click tracking programs, advertisers’ education and the efforts put in by Google in the prevention of click fraud, it seems that “pay-per-action” is the ad-hoc strategy to overcome this type of problems. However, this “pay-per-action” referral program had not gone unnoticed, it is likely the same model that offered by some affiliate marketing networks such as Commission Junction or LinkShare operate in the market today. Theoretically, pay-per-click and per-per-action is two different concepts, but my sense is that per-per-action is much more appealing to the advertisers/Google’s customers that disappointed with the pay-per-click model. But it’s another great news for the bloggers or Web site owners that want to generate more income through the Google’s AdSense.