What the Google Affiliate Network Closure Means for Merchants

When the initial announcement was made on Tuesday, April 16, the innocuous headline gave no hint of the size of the news to come. It read: "An Update on Google Affiliate Network." But the news was huge. Google Affiliate Network (GAN), at the time the fourth largest affiliate network in the industry, would be shutting down in a few months.

The immediate implication was clear: thousands of merchants whose affiliate programs were on Google Affiliate Network would be displaced when the network shut down. Merchants would need to consider options and find new homes for their affiliate programs. Among the considerations they faced:

• Where would they go?
• How would they maintain existing affiliate relationships?
• What would happen to historical data?
• When would they need to have another option(s) in place?

Affiliates who had focused their efforts on GAN-managed advertisers also faced some tough decisions:

• Will I be able to maintain relationships with the advertisers I promote?
• How will I maintain the revenue stream I've created?
• What do I do to keep customers satisfied if I lose some brands or products?

The answer to the biggest question — where do I go now — was available from the start. There are many affiliate networks that are able to help advertisers who must migrate their affiliate programs off of Google Affiliate Network, which officially shuts down July 31.

Among the biggest affiliate networks are ShareASale, Commission Junction,
LinkShare, Google Affiliate Network, LinkConnector, Pepperjam Network, AvantLink, Affiliate Window and Impact Radius.

Within days of the GAN shutdown announcement, most affiliate networks had announced special discounts and speed-to-market options for displaced GAN advertisers. Affiliate networks weren't the only companies offering assistance. Agencies that manage affiliate programs (i.e., outsourced program management agencies or OPMs in the industry) were also offering GAN migration services to ensure that displaced advertisers and their affiliates would be able to make an efficient transition before GAN shuts down.

While being forced to move off an affiliate network within a few months isn't a happy arrangement, the reality is that the end of Google Affiliate Network has offered advertisers and publishers an opportunity to re-evaluate their options at the very moment that innovations within the industry are making new things possible.

Attribution modeling and more precise analytics and tracking offer affiliate marketers the big-picture view that's important to making informed decisions about the strategies and partnerships that they'll be using in the coming years.

Network options are growing, too. Alongside tried-and-true affiliate networks, emerging networks offer new technologies, tracking systems and tactics that make the future bright for affiliate marketers who are willing to try new things.

Wade Sisson is the director of marketing at Schaaf-PartnerCentric, an outsourced affiliate program management agency. Wade can be reached at wsisson@schaafpc.com.