Google Affiliate Network Review
Are you surprised that Google has its very own affiliate network? I know I was when I came across it. This is not something Google came up with overnight. The affiliate network originally came from Performics which was acquired by DoubleClick. In turn, Google bought out DoubleClick and eventually inherited Performics which got renamed to Google Affiliate Network.
What Is An Affiliate Network?
An affiliate network is like a virtual store selling products to your website visitors. But instead of manufacturing products you are selling a retailers products and taking a cut off the profits. An affiliate website can be seen as a middle-man which is diverting web-traffic to a particular location. But instead of blindly paying for clicks the advertiser only pays when the visitor buys something. This is also known as Cost Per Action (CPA) advertising or performance-driven advertising.
Google Affiliate Network is completely separate from AdSense or AdWords and as a website publisher you must submit a separate application even if you already run Adsense. The bar for admission is not very high and the rules for eligibility for a website are quite vague. Google requests that you ”are an expert in driving and converting visitor traffic” and manage a site that” attracts a desirable audience” in a particular niche. Of course you will also need to be able to test different affiliate advertising offers and promote the ones that have high conversion.
Google has to keep its reputation of high quality. This is reflected in some of the advertisers participating in the program. There are no Cash4Gold or Rich Dad schemes. Some of the partners in Google Affiliate Network are Verizon, Kohls, Citibank, Office Max and Barnes & Noble. So you might be thinking another day, another affiliate network polluting the internet – what’s in it for you? Well, Google has something called AffiliateVIP status which will give you access to exclusive promotions, deals and help you stand out with the advertisers.
Google Affiliate Network – The Application Dashboard
The Google Affiliate Network dashboard can be over whelming at first. There are four major tabs – Home, Links, Advertisers and Reports.
- Home Tab: This is the default view which gives you a snapshot overview and status of all the promotions that you are following and advertising on. It gives you the most important stat that drive any affiliate – Earnings Per Month (EPC) broken down for the past 3months range and for the past 7 days. I also gives you the Network Rank within the Google Affiliate Network. The higher your rank the better your chances of landing some exclusive promotions directly with the advertisers. On the left column on the page you also see some basic stats such as total number of advertisers you are promoting, total impressions, visits to the landing page, conversion rate and amount earned. There is also a big prominent block of hot promotion listings which highlight several good deals that might interest you. The top header of the page also has links to payment data and any messages you might have.
- Links Tab: This page shows the latest text and image ads based on the advertisers in your network. Most ads have a tracking URL along with a Creative URL which makes it very easy to copy and paste it on the webpage where you wish to run the ads. Each link also shows detailed description if they are included with the ad by the advertiser. It also provides a quick link to the landing page which will help you write effective ads titles and descriptions. Links tab also has a sub-page showing product RSS feeds and Hot Promotions section.
- Advertisers Tab: This is where most newcomers will spend a majority of their time selecting advertisers and products.
- Reports Tab: The reports tab allows you to run performance data over certain time periods for one or all your advertisers. If you have a particular report that you run often then there is a way to keep Saved Reports.
Google Affiliate Network has a lot of great advertisers who have tons of products. More importantly almost all the products have certain coupons and discounts that make the job of all web promoters very easy. Overall Google Affiliate Network is worth a shot.
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