Partner Marketer

Big news this morning.. Microsoft is launching an incentive portal and are opening up a CPA network.

In an attempt to generate more market share in the search space Microsoft has just launched a new cash back portal. You search for products and services featured on their cash back portal and get a certain percentage of each purchase back in cash. When your cash back balance has reached $5.00 you can redeem it.

As an example a Canon Powershot A470 digital camera is featured on the home page with most stores offering 2-5% cash back to consumers. Featured merchants include Home Depot, Barnes and Nobles, Circuit City, Sears, Overstock, New Egg, Office Max and others.

They also launched their brand new CPA network. Advertisers can advertise their products with a cash back offer and only pay for generated customers.

The cpa network is currently available to businesses that are:

• Headquartered in the United States
• A retail site with e-commerce capabilities
• Able to fulfill the physical shipment of a product
• Able to create and maintain a product data feed
• Able to implement a standard tracking pixel on your website’s order confirmation page

There is no open self-service sign up so to get started you have to fill in a form or talk to your existing Microsoft account executive.

Will this work? Microsoft is definitely going to get a fair amount of market share from discount buyers and consumers already interested in cash back offers. Is it the silver bullet they are looking for? Not likely.

It’s an impressive launch for sure and will be intriguing to test and follow for anyone remotely interested in affiliate programs and incentive-based shopping.

What do you think? Will it be a hit with consumers?

-Ola