R.I.P. Google Affiliate Network
I received an email today from the good folks at Google today announcing they will officially be “retiring” the Google Affiliate Network. Some of you might be thinking to yourself, “Google has an affiliate network?” That’s probably part of the problem. Google didn’t really promote the service very much and unless you went out searching for it chances are you probably looked right over it. My guess is that it just didn’t make them enough money. Ever notice how much they promote AdWords?
According to the email, most of the GAN services will be discontinued as of July 31st, and the entire program will be completely removed on October 31st just in time for Halloween. Google made a post on their blog earlier this month about ending it, but now it’s official. They say they will be focusing on their other services that provide better results for their advertisers and publishers.
Basically what it all boils down to is that people really weren’t using GAN. In the internet marketing world, Google is much more well known for Adsense and Adwords. So the Affiliate Network is an afterthought for most. I actually just started using their service for one of my sites this year. They actually had some pretty good stores that you could advertise but oh well. I’ll just stick to Commission Junction, ShareASale, and Media.net.
Here is the email Google sent out:
Dear Publisher,
As you may have read in our recent email, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Google Affiliate Network (GAN). According to your GAN Online Program Terms and Conditions and AdSense Terms and Conditions, we will suspend all GAN services, except for certain reporting and payments functionality, on July 31, 2013. On October 31, 2013, we will suspend and terminate any remaining GAN services.
Publisher payments will be disbursed for your GAN network activity generated through July 31, 2013. For clarity, the last day that new activity will be tracked through GAN (including conversions) is July 31, 2013.
Affiliate publishers can continue to earn AdSense revenue through the AdSense network. Thanks for your support of our affiliate product, and we look forward to helping you grow your business in the future.
Sincerely,
The Google Affiliate Network Team
