All Amazon Associates in North American programs today received an email in which Amazon has notified us of program changes. As of May 1, Amazon will no longer allow associates to drive traffic via pay-per-click ad campaigns.
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.
Many programs know that PPC is essential for some affiliates, so it’s interesting that Amazon would chose to alienate these affiliates from their program. I wonder if this is related in any way to the #advertisingtax California AB 178 that we’re working on killing. Only time (or an Amazon insider) will tell!
