I just read an article by Mike Moran, the author of one of my favorite search engine marketing books, Search Engine Marketing, Inc. I had an opportunity to meet Mike after a speaking engagement a few years ago - his well organized, common sense approach to SEM has really shaped my thinking of the channel.

The article, titled “Economy Down and Google Up“, opened by pointing out Google’s recent revenue gains and moved on to a topic that is actually becoming very apparent in my own experiences lately. I’ve been working with a traditional broadcast media agency and can clearly see the shift in budgets to more performance-based interactive channels. I believe that it is a combination of multitudes of marketers finally “getting” interactive media and, as Mike’s article points out, the slowed economy which causes businesses to look for the most efficient means to reach their audience. I’m not one to complain.

Today I received an email from Google AdSense regarding the “retirement” of the AdSense Referrals Program. The program, which allowed publishers to use referral ads to promote Google products directly or 3rd party offers from AdWords advertisers. The email mentioned that Google AdSense Referral codes will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August, creating a lot of work for individuals participating in Google’s initial attempt at pay-for-performance marketing.

The email mentioned that Google AdSense Referral codes will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August, creating a lot of work for individuals participating in Google’s initial attempt at pay-for-performance marketing.

This does not come as a surprise, as Google was inevitably going to utilize DoubleClick’s affiliate platform (DoubleClick Performics) for it’s pay-for-performance offering. As a result, DoubleClick’s Affiliate Network will now operate as the “Google Affiliate Network”. I would imagine that with better resources and reporting, the Google Affiliate Network will become a force to be reckoned with. I personally found the outgoing AdSense Referral Program a bit quirky and lacking cohesiveness.
The actual email that I received reads:

Hello,

Thank you for participating in the AdSense Referrals program.
We’re writing to let you know that we will be retiring the AdSense
Referrals program during the last week of August. We appreciate
your patience during this transition and here are some alternative
options to consider:

* Google Affiliate Network: As part of the integration of
DoubleClick, 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. For
further details, please visit:
www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork.
* AdSense for content ads: If you have less than three AdSense
for content ad units on a page, you may wish to replace the
referral ad units with standard AFC ad units.

If you currently use referral ads, either to promote Google
products or offerings from AdWords advertisers, AdSense Referrals
code will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August.
We encourage you to take the following steps before the product is
retired:

* Remove the referral code from your site(s): Please take a
moment to remove all referral code from your sites before the last
week of August, so you can continue to effectively monetize your
ad space.
* Run and save all referrals reports on your desktop: Create
and save all reports related to the referrals program on your
desktop, so you continue to have access to your valuable campaign
information

Why is this happening?
We’re constantly looking for ways to improve AdSense by developing
and supporting features which drive the best monetization results
for our publishers. Sometimes, this requires retiring existing
features so we can focus our efforts on the ones that will be most
effective in the long term. For this reason, we will be retiring
the AdSense Referrals program. If you have any additional
questions, please visit our Help Center:
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14882

Sincerely.

The Google AdSense Team

When I navigated to one of the Facebook Networks pages yesterday (which I rarely do), I had a message waiting for me at the top of the page:

Facebook will be discontinuing Network Pages, a feature that stemmed from the early days when Facebook was solely for students. As some may recall, Facebook initially launched and gained popularity as semi-isolated micro-communities within the community, requiring a school email in order to join one of these networks.

When Facebook opened its doors to the masses in late 2006, Facebook Networks became more of a geographic based categorization that I felt was not very useful. Being a part of a group as big as a major metropolitan area reduces the overall relevancy of the information that is provided about activity in the area. I’d much rather be a part of self-selected niche groups that relate to what I am interested in and communicated this to several Facebook insiders in the past.

The official response that I received from Facebook when I inquired about this decision:

“Facebook has decided to remove the Network Portals because we have found that most users tend to get network information from their feeds, such as News Feed and Mini-Feed, rather than navigating to the portals. Groups, Pages and users’ feeds continue to enable users to connect with the people in their networks and discover the most relevant information.”

The Facebook Network Pages were a good idea when a network was a users school, creating that micro-community feel for users. I think that the people behind Facebook are on top of things and are making a lot of good decisions that will ultimately benefit them as Facebook continues to evolve.