Google Launches CPA Affiliate Network

SeekingApha published in their news column today Google's announced of the beta launch of their newest Addition to Google AdSense. CPA Ads.

AdSense offers already the option for Advertisers to select specific publishers to display their Ads. Payments are done on CPM basis, which stands for Cost per Mill or Cost per 1,000 Ad Impressions (Displays).

CPA on the other hand stands for Cost per Action. The Advertiser pays a specific amount in commission to the publisher who refers a customer to the Advertisers site that performs a desired action.

This is Affiliate Marketing and not classic Display Advertising anymore. Relationships based on CPA integrate the publisher into the sales process. It is of the interest of the publisher as much as it is for the Advertiser to send quality leads to the Advertisers offer instead of just displaying the Ads or just care about the clicks.

This is huge. Google enters the domain of companies like ValueClick. Was the announcement of CJ's LMI just a counter measure of ValueClick who probably saw this coming? What will be up next?
I don't think that it will be a ValueClick killer as the flashy Head Line at SeekingApha states, but it will certainly cause some movement in the Advertising industry; hopefully to something better, safer and more measurable.

I guess we will see. The new CPA System provided by Google will be a very interesting alternative to current compensation models for some publishers. Too bad, that you must get an invitation to participate in the beta program.