System maintenance from Sept 19-22

We are nearing the final stages of retiring our legacy systems and moving all Google Affiliate Network functions to Google systems. You have likely already noticed some of the changes associated with this process such as improvements to your account homepage, new reports, and faster-loading pages.  

In order to complete the final stages of migration, we will need to take the user interface down for maintenance from 8:00pm - 11:00pm CDT each evening from September 19th through September 22nd.  Please note that tracking will not be affected during these maintenance periods.

The releases taking place next week are important steps in completing our migration process and have been tested extensively by our engineering team.  However, if you notice any issues, or have any questions, please contact your account manager or send us an email at affiliate-migration@google.com.  

Posted by Mark Coppin, Technical Solutions

New Google Affiliate Network Features: Data Feed UI, Link Subscriptions and Batch Creative Uploads

We deployed some new features over the weekend that we hope will help our users manage some important day to day tasks. 

Product data feed setup in the UI

Publishers can now sign up for data feeds from through our user interface by navigating to 'Get Links > Product Feeds.' The page will be populated with your approved advertisers that offer a data feed, establishes a file naming convention for all of the feeds the you select to receive from Google advertisers and validates your FTP information. If you have previously set up feeds via our support team your existing settings have not changed, but any settings you adjust in the interface will override previous settings. 

Link Subscriptions (formerly known as OrangeLinks)

We've also made a minor name change to our service that delivers feeds of promotional data to publishers. OrangeLinks will now appear in the interface as Link Subscriptions. The functionality has not changed; publishers who sign up for link subscriptions receive a daily file of new ads that their approved advertisers have created in the system. If you are already signed up, you should be aware that the filename format will be changing to "Link Subscriptions_MMDDYYYY.xls". If you haven't signed up, you should navigate to 'Get Links > Link Subscriptions' to get started; many publishers use this feature to quickly review every promotion their advertisers offer. 

Batch Creative Upload

Advertisers may now upload creative assets in large batches. Loading creatives one by one is time consuming so we've added a feature to creative management that allows advertisers to upload zip files containing multiple creatives. We expect this will be a huge time saver in the busy Q4 season for many of our users.

Help Center

In case you missed it, we recently announced that we've launched a new help center. There is a lot of great content in there and we'll be adding more in the future. If you haven't checked it out yet, please take a minute to browse the advertiser and publisher docs.

Regards,

Larry Adams

Product Manager

Google Ad Planner Data Now Available in Google Affiliate Network

This weekend we introduced new site profile links in our interface to provide users with better information about the traffic profiles of their marketing partners. Advertiser and publisher users will now see "Site Profile" links in a variety of locations in our interface. Advertisers can view them from their list of approved publishers or from any individual publishers account profile. Publishers may view this information on their not joined, approved pages as well as in the interface to retrieve links (ads).

The links will produce an overlay containing data provided by Google AdPlanner. The profile contains information on unique visitors, page views and visitor demographic profiles; data may not be available for sites with smaller audiences. For more information on Ad Planner, please visit theirsupport site.

Larry Adams

Product Manager

Searching for Publisher Opportunities?

We just updated a new feature for advertisers that should benefit both our advertisers and publishers.  Advertisers can now view lists that highlight high performing publishers that are either underperforming for the advertiser, or have not joined the advertiser's program.

Advertisers:

    My network displays a list of publishers that are doing better on a relative basis in your category than they are for you.

    Rest of network displays a list of publishers that are not in your program that have a history of performance in your category.

  

If you are looking for a way to improve the productivity of your affiliate program, this is a great place to start.  The feature can be found by navigating to Publishers > Opportunities.

  

Publishers:

    In order to be visible to advertisers looking for new publishers, you must opt in to not joined opportunities on your communication preferences page.  To be visible to your existing advertisers that may be looking to expand their relationship with you, opt in to receive promotional communication for each advertiser to which you want to appear.

On behalf of the affiliate team,

Larry Adams

Opportunity Center for Publishers (Beta)

We’ve just released a new feature that automates the process of finding new advertiser programs. The Publisher Opportunities Center generates a list of recommended advertisers that have the best potential to generate conversions from your website traffic. Recommendations are based on internal data including publisher-advertiser category matches and the advertiser’s performance with your peers.

All Google Affiliate Network publishers can visit the new Opportunities beta tab after signing in to Google Affiliate Network. If we have adequate information on your website, the list of recommendations will be available immediately. From this screen you can view information about the recommended advertisers such as program-wide 3 month and 7 day Earnings Per 100 Clicks (EPC), a standard logo banner, primary category, links to the commission information and program terms, as well as a simple click to join button. You can also export this list as a CSV or TXT file. Note: You’ll also see a link to ‘Dismiss’ a recommendation if you’re not interested in a particular advertiser. Once you ‘Dismiss’ the advertiser listing, it is permanently removed from the Opportunities tab.

If you don’t see any recommendations it means we need more information about your website. You will be prompted to fill out a short form. Recommendations will be quickly generated based on your response.

Results will be updated daily, so publishers are encouraged to check their recommendations on a regular basis.

We will continue to iterate on the beta and we invite you to provide your feedback in our Help Forum.

On behalf of the Google Affiliate Network team.

posted by Sheila Parker, Product Manager

Affiliate Exclusive Holiday Offers from Select Google Affiliate Network Advertisers

Google Affiliate Network is pleased to announce affiliate exclusive holiday offers from select Google Affiliate Network advertisers. The special offers will be available for Monday, December 13th, one of the busiest e-commerce days of the year. Offers will be live and valid only on December 13th.

Any Google Affiliate Network publisher who has a relationship with the participating advertisers will have access to these exclusive offers. If you are not currently a publisher in Google Affiliate Network but would like access to these exclusive offers, sign up today with your AdSense Publisher ID.

Participating Advertisers:

Below please find the advertisers, offers and application links to the advertiser’s Google Affiliate Network program.

	New customers receive 25% off all personal products Apply Now
	LG Electronics 50" 1080p 600Hz Plasma. Now $766 Free Shipping* Apply Now *Additional exclusive offers available, search for “December 13 Offer” links on Dec. 13.
	$5 off $50 or more  Apply Now
	30% off your entire order Apply Now
	Free Shipping on all orders Apply Now
	$10 Off orders of $50 or more Apply Now
	16% off one item on December 13th  Apply Now
	30% off Xenon Double Puck Light Kit Apply Now
	One Day Only SAVE 25% on Gourmet Gifts and Baskets (min $29) Apply Now
	$20 off $100+ Apply Now
	Zenith 50" Plasma HDTV $565.99, save $134 Apply Now
	10% of $100+ Apply Now
	Save 20% on Personalized Gifts Apply Now
	Save 20% on Flowers and Gifts $39.99 or more Apply Now
	Free hat/cap with any regular-priced footwear purchase  Apply Now
	Save 15% on Unique and Personalized Gifts at RedEnvelope Apply Now
	15% off $100 plus Free Shipping from Road Runner Sports Apply Now
	Sharp 46" LED HDTV $849.99 Apply Now
	SAVE 25% on Hand-Dipped Berries and Gifts (min $29) Apply Now
	$10 Off All Orders Apply Now
	$15 off orders of $150 or more Apply Now
	Save 20% off The Thomas Kinkade Santa’s Workshop Bouquet Apply Now
	30% off your entire order Apply Now
	Free Shipping on all orders Apply Now
	Mug Mondays - 40% off mugs and magnets Apply Now

Tracking links will be available on December 6th via the Google Affiliate Network platform in theAnnouncements section within the Home tab.

The offers will not be live or valid until December 13th and all offers will expire at midnight. Affiliates may not post offers until December 13th. 

Further questions? Check out our Help Center for answers to frequently asked questions OR feel free to contact us with any questions. 

Posted by Mari Condon, Google Affiliate Network Publisher Team

Introducing faster publisher payments!

Google Affiliate Network provides an industry-leading publisher payments system in over 40 currencies and 80 countries, with a wide variety of payment options. We're excited to announce that starting next month, Google Affiliate Network will be making publisher payments faster by eliminating 30 days from our current payment schedule. This enables publishers to be paid within 30 days or 60 days of driving a valid conversion, depending on the advertiser's schedule. Multiple benefits to our advertisers and publishers include:

For advertisers:

• Unlock new distribution opportunities by attracting publishers who require fast payments
• Increase efficiency by managing publishers who were unable to work with our previous payment schedule under your Google Affiliate Network account

For publishers:

• Depend on fast, reliable, and flexible payments
• Assume less risk when floating marketing dollars up front, so you can focus on innovation and growth

For current publishers, the new payment schedule means that your Google Affiliate Network earnings for next month will arrive on October rather than November, as they would have under the former payment schedule. For next month only, publishers will receive a combined payment for July/August activity (which is already posted to your AdSense account) and August/September activity. Starting on October, both Google Affiliate Network and AdSense earnings will be on the same 30-day schedule and payments will return to normal levels. Check out our payment calendarfor a visual.

We're continually looking for new ways to keep improving payment and delivery options in different countries. Stay tuned to the Google Affiliate Network Blog as we work to improve the payments experience for publishers around the world!

For further information on payments, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Erica Sievert, Product Marketing Manager