Recently I went to sign-up as an affiliate for Grasshopper – a very cool phone system I’m using for my business – and found-out their affiliate program was part of the Google Affiliate Network. As a member of over ten different affiliate networks I had surprised that Google’s own affiliate network had never crossed my path!
So it turned-out, like a lot of Google products, the Google Affiliate Network has been out since 2008, but Google has done little to market it to publishers. The Google Affiliate Network actually came-out of Google’s purchase of DoubleClick which came with an affiliate ad network called Performics. Google re-named Performics and thus the Google Affiliate Network was born.
It looks like they are doing a good job of growing their advertisers and let’s be honest – Google does a pretty amazing job and just about everything they do!
It’s easy to search for affiliate products and find one that is a good match for your particular site. Since I’m only signed-up one advertiser through the Google Affiliate Network I can’t tell you how effective it is until I delve in a bit more.
What I’m looking forward to is the advanced tracking and data that Google can provide. I imagine that Google can tell me information about the person that clicked on my ad that might not be available to other affiliate networks. Also I’ve heard rumors before about Google giving preferential treatment to sites that monetize using their system so you can read between the lines on that one.
If you’re an affiliate marketer that’s used the Google Affiliate Network in the past across multiple products and sites I’d be very interested in learning more about your experiences. Even if you haven’t used the Google Affiliate Network just feel free to comment and share your thoughts!
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