Understanding Referral Units

Recommending products and services to others on the Web has been a
concept for as long as the Web’s been around. Probably one the best known
referral programs (okay, referring to something in this context is the same as
recommending it) is the one that Amazon.com offers for the books and other
products that are available to buyers around the world. Everyone has seen
the little Amazon boxes on Web sites that allow you to click through to buy
the featured product.
Google AdSense offers the same type of service. The difference is that
AdSense offers the ability to refer other programs or Web sites, rather than
just offer the products that you like. For example, I use the Firefox Web
browser, which is a personal preference, but I love it and think everyone who
tries it will love it too. I include an AdSense referral button for Firefox where
space allows on my Web sites. Then, each time a user clicks through that
referral button and downloads Firefox, I get a small payment added to my
AdSense revenues.
Referrals are a neat feature that can seriously help to bump your AdSense
earnings if the referral ads are targeted well to your Web site audience. The
key is in the targeting though, as you see when you get a little deeper into this
chapter. There are two kinds of referral products — Google products and non-
Google products — so you’re not as limited in what you can refer your users
to as you might be with other referral programs.
But why referrals? (Did you know I can hear you asking these questions?
Well, okay, not really. But I do imagine you asking them.) The answer is
simple really. Some of the best advertising that any company can ever get is
based on word-of-mouth referrals.
No advertising in the world sells a product better or faster than when someone
loves the product and shares that fact with others who then share it
with others. If you’ve seen the commercials on TV with the domino effect cell
phones, that’s a really good graphical representation of the concept of wordof-
mouth advertising, which is also dubbed buzz.
One person tells two who then tell four who then tell eight. This buzz grows
exponentially until it seems like everyone is talking about the product and
even rushing out to buy it.
That’s the same effect advertisers hope for when they place their products in
the AdSense referral program. They hope to take advantage of the buzz that’s
created when one person loves a product and recommends it to others who
also love it and recommend it to others. As the ad-placement person, that’s
good for you because advertisers are willing to pay to generate good buzz.