Google has announced that it will be charging a pay per usage fee of $0.25 per thousand queries of its Adwords API.
To those business owners that didn’t have a clue what I just said here is the scoop. First of all, this really does not ‘directly’ have anything to do with you, but it may affect you indirectly. You see Google’s Adwords API allows advertising agencies with inhouse PPC management software to directly interface with Google’s Adwords system to conduct searches so that they can keep up to date on the status of their client’s campaigns. Up untill October 1st, 2006 it was completely free to use this interface but that has now changed since Google is now charging $0.25 per thousand uses. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but for agencies that have hundreds of clients this will add up to a great deal of money over time. And as we all know, the more money it costs a vendor, the more it will ultimately cost you, the consumer.
In short, I expect that ad agencies who specialize in Adwords promotions will be passing on some significant new costs to their clientele. Fortunately, StepForth is not in the position to be disturbed by this shakeup because we do not use such software. As a result, our clients will not experience any negative effects in their StepForth-managed ppc campaigns.
If you would like more information here is Google’s ratesheet.