Google rocked the affiliate world last night with the announcement that it has made the "difficult decision" to retire Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving results.
While the search giant did note that it will continue to support its customers as it winds down the product over the next few months, Google's Plus page shows no signs of slowing down, even welcoming new publishers, offering advertiser tips and simplifying the application process for its affiliate, Paycare - all within the last week or so. Additionally, the Google Affiliate Network sign-up process is still active and everything seems to be business as usual on the network's website.
This change to the affiliate space will clearly have a ripple effect across the other major networks.
Google's full announcement is below:
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.
