It had to happen somewhere along the line following Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick. From the end of August Google Referrals will be no more. The referral network will be replaced by the affiliate network.
Earlier in the year Google reduced the number of referral sellers by restricting them to certain regions, concentrating mainly on the North American continent. It seems the affiliate program will also concentrate on this region. At present there is no indication from Google whether publishers will be restricted to this region or if the right to become an affiliate will rely on your traffic statistics.
The story has been released through the official Adsense blog:
…..we will be retiring the AdSense Referrals program during the last week of August. We appreciate your patience during this transition…..
The article goes on to add:
The DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network will now operate as the Google Affiliate Network for advertisers targeting users located in the United States. Similar to the AdSense Referrals program, the Google Affiliate Network enables publishers to apply for advertiser programs and get paid based on advertiser-defined actions instead of clicks or impressions…..
If you have Google Referral ads running then I suggest you check the procedure for removing these ads and, more importantly, for following any current referrals that may be due in the near future.
