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Learn about recent product releases, reminders, best practices, opportunities and industry articles. Click here today.

May advertiser newsletter

Click here to read the May Google Affiliate Network newsletter today featuring Google Affiliate Ads for Blogger, UK launch and publisher opportunities. 

March Advertiser Update

Click here to read the March advertiser newsletter today. 

February Advertiser Update

Click here to read our February advertiser newsletter today! Don't forget consumers are still shopping for Valentine's Day.

January Advertiser Newsletter

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September Advertiser Newsletter

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August Newsletter

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May Advertiser Update

We're pleased to share some updates and insights for your program at Google Affiliate Network.

Click here to read the complete newsletter including webinar and publisher opportunity information.

Announcements

• Keep your eye out for the Google Affiliate Network Advertiser Survey. We value your input. Please take a moment to complete. If you did not receive one and would like to submit, please contact your account manager or support team. 
• Q2 Exclusive Opportunities now available for submission. Participation assets due 5/16. See below for network insights regarding this program.
• Don't forget to submit Dad and Grads offers for our next publisher promotional communication. Offers due 5/25.
• Product Subscriptions Dashboard for Publishers released. This feature provides publishers a robust and simple interface with real-time access to product feed delivery information.
• Do you have an affiliate feed available through the Google Merchant Center? Thousands of Google Affiliate Network publishers receive product feeds; even more retrieve product feed content through the Product Search page in our platform. In addition, Google Affiliate Network publishers can take advantage of a new Google product API, a simple yet powerful programmatic interface, to make it easier to access and integrate product data from Google Affiliate Network advertisers. Review Google Merchant Center information in the Help Center for a data feed overview, improving data quality and troubleshooting tactics.

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Google Affiliate Spotlight

The Network Development team is focused on engaging Google Affiliate Network users through insight and communications to improve performance and drive productivity.  

Let's meet Josh and Jamie, two Google Affiliate Network veterans, on the Network Development team and see what they've been up to this year.

- Name and title: Josh Pyle, Network Strategist
- Background: Joined the Affiliate team in 2007. Prior to Google, I worked in Online Marketing at Classified Ventures, and in Client Services at MyPoints.com.
- Education: BA in Communications from Wheaton College, Wheaton IL

- Favorite band: Too many! Some current favorites are Amon Tobin, The Black Angels, and Sonoio. Favorite labels include Warp Records and Tympanik Audio. 

- Favorite activity: Enjoying springtime in Chicago with my wife and daughter

- Fun fact: Was an extra in The Dark Knight (didn't get any screen time).

- Name and title: Jamie Ross, Network Strategist

- Background: Started my affiliate career at Performics in 2003 after managing email campaigns at Yesmail for a few years and coordinating Ziff Davis print magazine ad buys post college.

- Education: BA in Business Administration from University of Illinois at Chicago

- Favorite band: I like everything POP!

- Favorite activity: Going to Brookfield Zoo.

- Fun fact: My 3 year old son, Geddy Lee, is named after Rush lead singer.

A variety of projects are under the Network Development umbrella. 

Here are a few examples of what we are working on: 

• External Communications: Network newsletters, Google Affiliate Network Blogs, Twitter, Forums and Platform communications.
• Incubation: Developing best practice materials and providing channel insights.
• Driving Adoption of Google Affiliate Network to accelerate the productivity of users.
• Improving User Engagement: Continuous Affiliate Network Help Center improvements to help users launch and optimize their programs. Obtaining actionable user feedback to help prioritize product improvements.

We are always thinking of you! Watch for updates to the above mentioned items and help us improve your experience by submitting comments via surveys, your account teams and feedback forms such as the one below.

The Network Development team looks forward to working with you!  

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Network Insights

• Advertisers who participated in our Q1 Exclusive Opportunities program not only benefited by an increase in year over year AND daily volume but also experienced a substantial increase in year over year approved affiliate applications. Advertisers that performed the best had a strong brand, compelling offer and made the offer visible on the landing page via the link provided to affiliates.
• Seasonal Trends:
  We have a wealth of information on what consumers are shopping for. Unsurprisingly, shoppers always respond to percent-off and free shipping offers. Check out the hot products and categories, as well as the top Q2 shopping days.
• Top Products and Categories:
  Consumers are thinking about mom... and traveling! Of course, flowers are a top seller leading up to Mother's day. As consumers plan vacations and holidays, the travel category trends up from May to June.
• Top Shopping Days:
  In general, Monday and Wednesday are typically the top shopping days of the week. Mother's Day is the top Q2 holiday, with shoppers starting 2-3 weeks beforehand. After Mother's Day, shopping volume peaks around Memorial Day, leading into the summer season. Father's Day shopping starts later than Mother's Day, with volume increasing the week leading up to that Sunday.
  

• Search Trends:As you can see using Google Insights for Search, consumers have been shopping for shoes, dresses and technology. It's all about looking good finding the best deals and portable electronics for gifts, vacation and personal use. If these items are part of your product mix, make sure to incorporate them into your affiliate program via product feeds, creating top selling product links and product specific promotions.

Looking forward, June's 2010 top searches include a variation of the above plus TV, air compressors and cameras. In this Insights chart, June 2010 searches also include standard Father's Day type gift items like tools. Don't forget about Dad! Use insights to plan ahead.

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Industry Insights 

The Arkansas Senate passed SB 0738 - the Affiliate Nexus Bill - on March 31, 2011. The bill, which was signed by Governor Mike Beebe on April 1, 2011, after clearing the senate just two days earlier, will take effect on June 9, 2011.

The Internet Taxman Cometh

Online shoppers could soon find themselves paying more for their purchases if state policymakers succeed in convincing Congress to sign off on a multi-state sales tax cartel for the Internet.

Source: Forbes 4/11.

Green Sites Not Best Place to Find Green Audience

Green consumers -- those who look for products with an environmental benefit -- actually spend less than 1% of their time online reading content on green sites, according to data from Resonate Networks.

Source: MediaPost 10/10.

Spring "Turf Wars" on Google

People are eager to shed their winter clothing for their shorts, t-shirts and bathing suits. Searches for [Spring] started rising in early-February with a tremendous spike the first week of April. People desperate for Spring to arrive are growing in number - fast!

Source: Google Retail Blog 4/11.

Mobile is the Next Marketing Frontier

More people using mobile devices, such as smartphones, to search for products, services and businesses means a bigger opportunity for online marketers to reach consumers.

Source: Performance Marketing Association 4/11.

Survey: Retailers' mobile plans

In a recent survey of 149 chain retailers, web-only merchants, catalog companies and consumer brand manufacturers finds that today only 8.8% of retail organizations operate a mobile commerce site.  But 75.9% of retailers expect to launch a mobile commerce site. Of those, 31.9% expect to be selling through mobile phones in under six months and another 52.6% in less than one year.

Source: Internet Retailer 10/10.

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Send Us Your Feedback

We're always looking for ways to improve our newsletter. Let us know how we can make this newsletter a useful monthly resource for you! 

Click here to give us your thoughts and ideas.

April Advertiser Update

We're pleased to share some updates and insights for your program at Google Affiliate Network.

Announcements

• Google Affiliate Network Exclusive Opportunities program available. This program which requires exclusive, short-term affiliate offers was launched for the 2010 holiday season and was so successful that we decided to implement an ongoing program. Each quarter, advertisers have an opportunity to provide an exclusive offer that will be included in publisher marketing efforts across Google Affiliate Network and other Google publisher properties. Do you want to increase publisher applications and increase sales? Click here to learn more about the Exclusive Offers program for Q2. Participation deadline is 5/16.
• Don't forget to provide your Dad and Grads offers in our next publisher promotional communication. Offers are due 5/25. Click here to submit your offers and review the editorial calendar for additional information.
• Want to attract publisher attention? Tweet your offers, affiliate toolkit and publisher incentives. Submit content for distribution on @GoogleAffiliate via our Twitter form and we'll get the word out!

Google Affiliate Spotlight

The Google Affiliate Network Publisher Management Team is focused on optimization and acquisition across the head, torso and tail of the publisher network. The key publishers have dedicated account managers who work across all advertiser programs to optimize for growth. We also have staff dedicated to inbound support and engagement. But as the network grows and we leverage new opportunities, we think it's the perfect time to showcase two key members of our Publisher Development team who focus on publisher Acquisition and Activation.

• Sarah Braunstein: Publisher Activation Lead
• Joined Google in 2007, working with the Ann Arbor-based AdWords team. Moved on to the Google Affiliate Network team in Chicago toward the end of 2010
• BA in English from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• High school mascot: Raiders; North Farmington High School, Farmington Hills MI
• Favorite band: I can't nail down an all-time favorite but I'm currently listening to Warpaint, Wye Oak, PJ Harvey, James Blake, and Ke$ha
• Fun fact: My cat is named Richard
  

• Erica Sievert: Publisher Acquisitions Lead
• Joined Google in 2006 as part of the AdSense team based in Mountain View. Moved to Chicago in 2010 and joined Google Affiliate Network
• BA in English at Wellesley College and Oxford University
• High school mascot: Colts; Logan High School, Union City CA
• Favorite activity: Exploring Chicago with my husband
• Fun fact: My fish has over 7,000 followers on Twitter

One of Sarah's priority initiatives on the Publisher Management Team is identifying and activating new-to-network and high potential publishers. It's an exciting undertaking as we continue to grow our productive publisher base and produce high quality results for the merchants in our network. Take a glimpse at a handful of Sarah's latest Jumpstart publishers: 

• Ask Sponsored Listings
• Edhance
• Olioboard
• PageOnce
• Plastic Jungle
• Social Shopping Labs

Erica is focused on bringing new-to-affiliate publishers into Google Affiliate Network. She works closely with Google engineers to promote our product to prospective publishers who use related Google products, such as AdSense, Blogger, Analytics, and Webmaster Central. Here are a few of Erica's Google Affiliate Network acquisition marketing opportunities:

A variety of efforts are used to on board and activate new affiliate publishers:

• A robust jumpstart program for the highest-potential publishers, who are provided premium support and individually matched to advertiser programs
• Consultation Calls for mid-tier publishers, who are provided with a phone consultation and given optimization advice for immediate revenue gains
• Webinars, forum and email support for long-tail publishers
• High-potential publishers who show consistently strong conversion rates and have sustained growth are awarded with a Rising Star or VIP status and quality for premium account management support 

Thanks Sarah and Erica for your effective acquisition and activation efforts! For additional tips and information, please see Network Insights below. 

Network Insights 

• 2/7/11 was the highest volume day leading up to Valentine's Day 2011
• Advertisers who have Google Affiliate Network co-branded application pages see more qualified publishers through this channel. Publishers who join a program through a co-branded application are more likely to be productive and more likely to be approved by advertisers. This suggests that co-branded applications do a good job of educating and qualifying publishers about your program before they join, saving you time and increasing the productive rate of your program. To learn more about how to create a co-branded application link on your website for Google Affiliate Network, please visit this Help Center article.
• The base of Google Affiliate Network new-to-network publishers has grown substantially over the last 18 months. The growth is due in large part to Google Affiliate Network's integration into other Google publisher products such as AdSense, Google Analytics, Blogger and Google Webmaster Central, exposing our network and our strong base of advertisers to thousands of new-to-affiliate publishers.

Industry Insights 

Creating a mobile-optimized website 

An essential part of any digital marketing campaign is the post-click experience from advertising. Is your website easy to navigate? Are there any hurdles to conversion that you can remove? These are the same questions that you should consider for your mobile user experience. 

Source: Google Retail Blog March 2011

Ecommerce Sales on Track for Healthy Growth

Retail ecommerce sales are growing much faster than overall US retail sales, according to eMarketer's estimates and figures from the US Department of Commerce, and ecommerce sales continued to post growth throughout the recession. "Three major developments will spur this growth: mobile commerce, social commerce and daily deal sites."

Source: eMarketer April 2011 

Let's get physical. Let me hear your body talk! 

Olivia Newton-John's famous early 80's song, Physical , sums up the thoughts of frantic out-of-shape Americans rushing to get in shape before being forced to bare their recently hibernating bodies in a swimsuit. Google Insights for Search 2010 trends indicate that there is a spike in interest for weight loss programs & exercise plans in April and May.

Source: Google Retail Blog March 2011

Send Us Your Feedback

We're always looking for ways to improve our communications. Let us know how we can make this  a useful monthly resource for you! Click here to give us your thoughts and ideas.

March Advertiser Update

We're pleased to share some updates and insights for your program at Google Affiliate Network.

Reminders and Requests

• Mother's Day seasonal communication assets are due 4/6. Click here for submission details.
• Want to Tweet your offers, affiliate toolkit, publisher incentives? Submit them via our Twitter form and we'll get the word out!

Google Affiliate Spotlight

As we continue to release product features such as Browse Advertisers Beta for Publishers, Browse Links Beta for Advertisers, New Product API for Google Affiliate Network Publishers and Opportunity Center for Publishers (Beta), this is the perfect time to showcase our Google Affiliate Network Product Managers.

Kurt Spoerer: Sr. Product Manager

New to Google Affiliate Network this year. Recently lived in Los Angeles where I ran product management for The Rubicon Project (ad network optimization/RTB space). BA in Business Administration and MS in Information Systems Development, both from The George Washington University in DC. High school mascot: Bearcats Favorite band: Too many to list.. and the list keeps changing. Ranges from the Grateful Dead to Menno de Jong right now with a whole lot of stuff in-between. Fun fact: Really likes I.P.A. (cause what's not fun about beer...)

Sheila Parker: Product Manager

Joined Performics in 2002. Prior to joining Performics, I worked in account management for Coolsavings.com and TMP Worldwide. BA in English from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MBA in Marketing from Loyola University Chicago. High school mascot: Eagles Favorite band: I love all kinds of music! U2, Coldplay, The Police, Air, Bent, Röyksopp, Sade...and many more! Fun fact: I was stopped by the police on my Big Wheel when I was 5 because I was "driving" to my neighbor's house

Product Management is acutely focused on two core missions this year:

1. Provide incremental value through work flow enhancements, usability improvements and new functionality as we complete our migration this year.
2. Support our growing network with technology to add incremental supply as well as expand into new areas.

You can read more about Google Affiliate Network's goals this year in the ReveNews interview with Dan Greene, Head of Google Affiliate Network. Here is an excerpt:

"First and more foremost, we want to continue to innovate on product in order to make the affiliate channel more measurable, accurate, productive, efficient, easier and effective for both our advertisers and publishers. Concurrently we want to delight our customers (advertisers and publishers alike) with the best account management services possible.


"Secondly and simply put, we are looking to expand the affiliate channel. Google Affiliate Network has support across products and teams at Google and we’re actively looking for greater integration points both with our advertising and publisher platforms. In 2010 we made significant progress in socializing the opportunity the Affiliate Industry represents across the most senior levels of the Google sales organization. In 2011, we want to leverage that mind-share and excitement to grow the channel.


"We want to continue to provide seamless advertising solutions to our advertisers and publishers by amongst other things expansion into new markets and integrating the Google Affiliate Network product with other Google advertising products as well as Google Analytics."

You can stay on top of future release announcements and updates by subscribing to the Google Affiliate Network blog today.

We also invite you to provide your feedback in our Help Forum.


Network Insights

Network Performance in Spring

• As you might expect, the Flowers, Edibles, and Gifts category is hot during the spring season. The volume in the category peaks from Valentines Day through Mothers Day.
• The Automotive category is also a strong performer in the spring season.
• The Travel sector ramps up in April with Spring Break and typically peaks in June.

Make sure your account is structured for optimal performance today. Review your links, creative, offers, commissions, pending publishers and affiliate communications. Visit the optimization checklist in the Help Center for additional areas to evaluate.


Webinars
Each month, Google Affiliate Network hosts a series of webinars to provide you with valuable information and insight. We're pleased to invite you to participate in the opportunities below:
Google training Webinars and Office Hours: View the schedule.

Ask Sponsored Listings Publisher Webinar: Ask Sponsored Listings offers a solution for merchants to capture lost users, specializing in direct navigation and address bar queries. By partnering with Ask, merchants receive highly targeted traffic with both brand-specific and generic keyword opportunities.

• Date: Thursday, 3/17/11
• Time: 1:30 pm, CST
• Meeting #: 965 148 131

Click here to register

Plastic Jungle Publisher Webinar: Plastic Jungle is the largest secured gift card exchange, where consumers can safely sell unwanted gift cards and buy secondary gift cards from over 400 premier merchants. Plastic Jungle has the ability to provide consumers with targeted merchant offers based on the gift cards they've purchased.

• Date: Tuesday, 3/22/11
• Time: 2 pm, CST
• Meeting #: 964 858 270

Click here to register

PageOnce Publisher Webinar: PageOnce is the largest mobile personal finance company in the United States with over 4 Million registered users. PageOnce promotes, recommends and targets offers to users via email, on mobile devices and through their web application.

• Date: Thursday, 3/31/11
• Time: 2:00 pm, CST
• Meeting #: 677 884 446

Click here to register

*The views expressed in these presentations are that of the publisher, not Google

Publisher Opportunities

CouponCabin Opportunity:
KID- K33282
State- IL
Q2/Q3 2011 Rate Card
Contact CouponCabin if you are interested in placements.

Ebates Opportunities:
KID- K320159
State- CA

Man Week Double Cash Back promotion: 3/27-4/3
Easter Promotion: 4/16-4/24
Grads Promotion: 5/9-5/31

Back to School Double Cash Back promotion: 7/14-7/31
Back to School Part II Double Cash Back promotion: 7/31-8/31



Industry Insights

Affiliate Nexus Update

Affiliate Nexus proposals have passed in New York, Rhode Island and North Carolina. In addition, on March 10, 2011, HB3659 was signed by the Governor, and the legislation has an effective date of July 1, 2011. The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) is an excellent resource to monitor activities around the country.
Follow the PMA blog
Consider joining the PMA

PMA Industry Report: The Iron Chef Version
The Performance Marketing Association is a fantastic resource for performance marketers. Listen to their latest Industry Report, a podcast dedicated to the most pressing issues impacting advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies. This podcast features "Mikey" Yack, the founder of FabulousSavings.com. Click here to read more.
Source: Performance Marketing Association February 2011

The Retail Rite of Spring
The thawing of spring transforms not only city streets--it also means abundant opportunity for retailers. Across industries--apparel, home goods, sporting goods, and more--sellers experience seasonal uplift as temperatures rise. Now is the time to add fresh creative with sunny themes, best selling seasonal products, winter clearance items and optimize your program for spring seasonality and holidays that affect your business. Click here to read more.
Source: Google Retail Blog February 2011

E-commerce Will Keep Rolling, Research Firm Says
Internet retail sales in the U.S. will grow 10% a year through 2015 as shoppers spend more time online, Forrester Research says. E-commerce will grow over the next four years as shoppers continue to shift their spending from physical stores to online ones. The 2010 growth rate outpaced that of 2009, when e-commerce grew 11%. The usual suspects aided e-commerce’s rise: the economy’s recovery, more first-time online shoppers and greater spending per online shopper. Click here to read more.
WSJ.com Blog February 2011

Tips and Tricks for Retail Advertisers
There are countless varieties of products, services, and companies within the Retail industry, but one thing unites us all: seasonality. Don't only focus efforts on the hot season; retail marketing should really happen year-round. Think of how much more time you have when you’re in the down season -- and use this time to optimize and grow your business in advance of the hot season. Click here to read more.
Source: Google Retail Blog February 2011


Send Us Your Feedback
We're always looking for ways to improve our newsletter. Let us know how we can make this newsletter a useful monthly resource for you!

Click here to give us your thoughts and ideas.