News
Google Affiliate Network
By Shawn Collins
Jun 30, 2008, 13:43

DoubleClick Performics announced today that they are now the Google Affiliate Network.

I think this is noteworthy on a couple of levels. First, Google doesn’t always attach their name to acquisitions. I can only speculate on the reasons for this, but I’d think it’s an indication that Google sees a big future in affiliate marketing.

Second, they retained the “affiliate” moniker at a time when some folks in the space are wigging out over whether affiliate marketing should rebrand to performance marketing or some other ambiguous name.

And third, it raises the profile of the industry overall. That’s always a good thing.

Anyhow, it’s neat to see the evolution of the company that I knew as Dynamic Trade ten years ago.

They rebranded some time around the spring of 2001. I remember this, because they changed names shortly after my book, “Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants,” went to print.

People still ask me whatever happened to Dynamic Trade.

DoubleClick then acquired Performics in 2004 and later changed up the name to DoubleClick Performics.

So when Google acquired DoubleClick Performics in March 2008, I wondered what they would name the company (if they re-named it).

So farewell, Dynamic Trade > Performics > DoubleClick Performics. And welcome Google Affiliate Network.

Below is the text of the announcement from Chris Henger, Group Product Manager for the Google Affiliate Network:

We are pleased to introduce Google Affiliate Network . Effective Monday, June 30, 2008, DoubleClick Performics Affiliate will operate as Google Affiliate Network. The integration with Google’s brand is a reflection of efforts to quickly assimilate our business and teams, as well as reinforce Google’s commitment to the Affiliate channel. Together with our new colleagues at Google we are creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion and innovation in Affiliate Marketing.

Within the next couple of weeks you will see some exciting changes to the user interface reflecting the new brand. The platform will continue to be hosted at www.ConnectCommerce.com, but will eventually migrate to a google.com product url.

As noted in earlier communications, DoubleClick Performics’ Search operations are being spun off and sold to a third party. While many advertisers have relationships with both DoubleClick Performics’ Affiliate and Search, there have always been separate account teams and product-specific specialists servicing clients’ search and affiliate programs. These teams remain intact. While the formal separation will occur when the Search business is sold, the businesses are functionally separate today.

We are proud of what we achieved as Performics and this name change signals a new milestone. Google provides world-class resources and enables us to continue to attract the best talent to support our advertisers and publishers. Now as part of Google we have an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to advance our industry. We remain committed to ensuring you receive the quality service you have come to expect from us.

We appreciate your business and look forward to doing great things together.

Sincerely,

Chris Henger

Group Product Manager
Google Affiliate Network

More details at http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/index.html.