From the inventor of pay-per-click comes a “new” model: pay-per-action.

“Bill Gross, the entrepreneur who first showed Google how to spin cyberspace searches into real-world gold, hopes his new search engine will teach Silicon Valley a new lesson in Internet advertising….the irrepressible inventor of the pay-per-click advertising model rolls out his latest take on search technology today — a relaunch of Snap.“

Advertisers pay only when a customer buys. This model will sound familiar to those who work with affiliate programs. The way it works on Snap.com is that advertisers pay a non-refundable $50 deposit, then bid for the keywords they want. They only pay if a visitor completes a desired action.

The problem is, of course, volume. How are Snap going to get a significant volume of search queries?  Gross doesn’t spell it out, but acknowledges it will be a challenge.

Hmmm….I wonder if they plan to distribute the ads, similar to Adsense or Yahoo! Publisher?

I’ve asked them that question. I’ll wait to hear back.