Good morning performance marketing industry!
If you had taken a poll on what industry news you’d wake up to this morning, how many of you would have picked “Google shuts down the Google Affiliate Network” as the news of the day? I’ll be completely honest, I would have told you you are crazy. And then I’d be here, posting this bit of news.
So, if you don’t have twitter, facebook, email, a publisher account with GAN or an Advertiser Account with GAN, or you have been on vacation this week, you didn’t hear that yesterday afternoon Google announced the rapid shutdown of their affiliate network. Quite a surprising development. You can read their announcement here: https://googleaffiliatenetwork-blog.blogspot.com/.. Within moments of Google’s announcement, the news was everywhere.
Our goal with Google Affiliate Network has been to help advertisers and publishers improve their performance across the affiliate ecosystem. Cost-per-action (CPA) marketing has rapidly evolved in the last few years, and we’ve invested significantly in CPA tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer. We’re constantly evaluating our products to ensure that we’re focused on the services that will have the biggest impact for our advertisers and publishers.To that end, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.
We’ll continue to support our customers as we wind down the product over the next few months. And there are other products that can help you achieve your goals. Affiliate publishers can continue to earn AdSense revenue through the AdSense network. And marketers can take advantage of other CPA-oriented Google tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer to drive valuable online sales and conversions. These areas are growing rapidly and we’re continuing to invest heavily in them.
Thanks for your support of our affiliate product, and we look forward to helping you grow your business in the future.
Posted by: J.J. Hirschle, Head of Google Affiliate Network
For many of you who are not working with GAN, you are not affected in any concrete or immediate way. If your affiliate program is on the Google Affiliate Network, then you are affected and you’ll need to make some rather quick decisions.
Here are the basics: GAN is shutting their program down quickly and you’ll need to migrate your program to another networks on a very tight schedule.
We had a chance to get more information from a trusted sources at Google, in the affiliate division. Here are some specifics we received this morning:
- Advertisers Services will be shut down on May 1
- Publisher Support will be ending July 31st
- Reporting and tracking will be ending October 31st
It is worth mentioning a few other things that we heard. They are rapidly scaling back their tracking platform, and are encouraging migration as quickly as possible. This timeline is not concrete and is subject to change. So, it’s not a time to panic, you have time, but you’ll need to move quickly.
When we hear news like this, our first thought is how it affects our clients. Our second thought is how it affects our colleagues, peers and friends at GAN. The good news we heard this morning, is that no jobs will be lost, no one is being let go and all will be absorbed into the larger organization of Google. Truly great news that we were definitely glad to hear.
Now is the time for you to evaluate your options, develop a transition strategy, negotiate with the network(s) and start migrating as quickly as you can. JEBCommerce has done many network transitions and network launches, in fact we have over ten unique processes and systems in place to make the switch painless and any potential loss of revenue negligible. If you need help, whether it be strategy, network options and/or migration, or you’d just like to map out a plan for your over the phone, let us know. Our teams are standing by ready to assist you. You can contact us via phone (208-904-2893), Live Chat and email at sales@jebcommerce.com.
