

Google Affiliate Network closes - ConceitedCode
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/04/17/google-affiliate-network-closes

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ConceitedCode
This just showed up in my inbox.

"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
constantly evaluate 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 the Google Affiliate Network
and focus on other products that are driving great results for clients. "

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austenallred
As a long-time affiliate, I've never really had to pay attention to GAN. This
is a shutdown that is completely justified; there are a half dozen companies
who do a better job, and Google hasn't put the time and effort into making
their affiliate network successful or compelling.

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AtTheLast
When Google purchased Double Click they got a bunch of cool Double Click
advertising technology along with the Double Click affiliate network. They did
an ok job with the affiliate network (GAN), but you could tell it was never a
priority of theirs.

This will cause some trouble for affiliates, but most major stores are in
multiple affiliate networks already.

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eksith
GAN wasn't really panning out to be anything special. It seemed that they were
too distracted to really make it a worthwhile service or at least a better one
than existing companies before and since they bought DoubleClick.

Shame they didn't shut this down first instead of Reader.

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kintamanimatt
Is something going on inside Google, perhaps revenue-wise? Maybe it's just
increased media coverage, but they really seem to be trimming the fat.

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booruguru
I honestly don't understand why Google got into this business in the first
place when there were so many established companies do a much better job than
they ever aspired. "Google Affiliate" always seemed like a me-too/just-
because-we-can service.

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jonknee
They bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion... This was their deal.

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mh-
to be clear DCLK had (IMO, was not in either side of the deal) many valuable
assets and technologies. the self-serve stuff that became GAN was a rather
small aspect of that.

