7 Comments

Amazon’s “Omakase” links on beta

Jul 25, 2006
by

Not sure when exactly Amazon.com started displaying its Omakase contextual advertising links for affiliates, but I understand that it has been around for the past 4-5 days at least.

With a combination of text and images, these ads look very much like products picked up from a product catalog instead of a regular image ad. I must say they look good.

It is definitely an interesting option for content publishers to test out, especially if the audience is of the type likely to end up shopping. However, it seems that placing Omakase links and AdSense links on the same links would constitute a violation of the AdSense terms and conditions (says Dave Taylor).

Google has a lot to say about user experience. Wouldn’t allowing greater choice (even if it is from another party, may or may not be a competitor) to the end user contribute to enhancing the experience? What’s more, the publishers benefit with multiple monetization options. I doubt if Google’s advertisers lose out either. So, why prevent other similar/competing contextual advertising on the same page as AdSense ads?

Filed under: Contextual Advertising
  • Jonathan Hitchens

    Not sure who Dave Taylor is and the link doesn't work but I don't think he works for Google and makes the rules there. But after looking at the links, I think you can use them along with Adsense since they work like the other Amazon links in that you only get paid if there is an actual purchase, different from Adsense where you get paid for the click. So different models in that sense.

  • http://www.affiliatetip.com Shawn Collins

    Jonathan –

    Dave's post is at http://www.askdavetaylor.com/what_is_the_amazon_o… – he's not employed by Google.

    The TOS violation he mentions is due to the fact that the new Amazon ad unit is contextual.

  • Jonathan Hitchens

    I can the part where Google talks about contextual and I bet they'll have an update to their terms to address it. It's contextual but I also think it's a big difference in that its pay per sale and not pay per click like YPN. It's something Google will have to address specifically.

  • http://adjungle.com Brad Waller

    Beat me to it! I just saw them in action Monday and wanted to talk about it, but I didn't post yet. I definitely see a possible conflict with Google's TOS, and I see no update. Considering Google's testing of CPA ads, this is even a closer match to possible Google services and maybe bigger competition.

  • http://www.ontarget-media.com Manoj

    Jonathan is right — I had requested the AdSense team for a clarification for a client of ours and this is what they came back with.

    *********
    I'm happy to tell you that according to our program policies, Amazon's Omakase ads may be displayed on the same page as Google ads on your site. I want to emphasize, however, that these ads may not mimic Google ads.
    *********
    I think that's good.

  • http://www.askdavetaylor.com/ Dave Taylor

    Manoj – you beat me to it. I also communicated with Google's AdSense team and they also told me it's fine. My theory: the Omakase blocks are contextual, but they're not *advertising*, hence they don't compete and don't violate the terms of service.

  • Jonatha Hitchens

    Oh, it's advertising. It's featuring products to sell. If you take a look at them, they look just like the other links they've always had. Product links based on keywords or categories you choose or some of the Easy Links. The only difference is that's it's contextual. It's probably what I posted above in that it's not like Adsense in that you get paid for an actual sale and not for the click. It's why you can have Adsense on pages with affiliate links. Affiliate links = getting paid for actual sales.