Google announced today that it will discontinue its Google Affiliate Network, saying in a statement that:
“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.”
Google added that publishers can continue to earn revenue through its Google AdSense network and marketers can take advantage of other CPA-oriented Google tools.
Google plans to disable publisher relationships from advertiser programs on July 31, 2013 while making certain functionality available through October 31, 2013 for retrieving reports, reconciling orders, and processing payments.
Google’s announcement comes on the heels of online affiliate giant, Groupon, Inc., reporting heavy losses in its 4th Quarter.