Google announces a major revamp of how it measures affiliate traffic and defines clicks and impressions, which could have a significant impact on marketers.
Google will be removing YouTube affiliate clicks from out of organic traffic figure, which could result in creators seeing a “one-time significant drop” in traffic.
This change is one of four updates the tech giant announced to Merchant Centre performance reporting. Three out of the four updates are set to take effect from 24 August – no date has been given for when the final one will be rolled out.
Google said the updates will “improve clarity and provide a comprehensive view” of creators and brands’ product impact. It also aims to offer “greater consistency” across Google’s ecosystem “by aligning reporting definitions between Merchant Centre and other platforms like Google Ads and YouTube”.
The YouTube affiliate split
Currently, creators earn commission through YouTube affiliate traffic by tagging a merchant’s product in a video, a short, or a live stream and a view clicking through.
Those clicks have been folded under the ‘organic’ label in Merchant Centre reporting, alongside free listing clicks from Google search, Google shopping and other unpaid platforms.
However, from 24 August, products eligible for commission will now be reported as ‘distinct interaction type’ and will be tracked under a new label called YouTube affiliate.
This will be excluded from the organic reporting value, which Google said could potentially cause a “one-time significant drop in organic traffic, but will provide a clearer view of your standard free listing performance going forward”.
Products that are not eligible for commission will continue to be reported under the ‘organic’ category.
While this update will be rolled in two weeks, it will affect historical data from 1 July 2026. It means affiliates could see one figure for the July reports today, but a completely different one once these changes take effect.
The second change, which affects the affiliate programme and will be rolled out at the same time, will see Google update its definition for organic clicks and impressions related to YouTube traffic.
The tech company didn’t disclose what the previous definition was, but said the update will ensure “performance data remains accurate and provides consistent measurement across the Google ecosystem”.
It also confirmed that this would affect data from 1 July and could lead to drop in reported organic traffic figures.
YouTube first launched its affiliate programme in the US in 2023 for creators with a minimum of 500 subscribers. Since then it has slowly been expanding this offering to other markets and while simultaneously slashing its subscriber threshold.
In April, the firm made its third reduction in a year, lowering it from 5,000, to 1,000 and then to 500.
In July, the video platform partnered with Awin to launch its affiliate programme in the UK, which included Marks and Spencer, Next, Etsy, Boots, and Currys among the first group of retailers participating.
And just last week, YouTube announced it was changing its revenue distribution for YouTube short creators in its partner programme from 1 February, 2027.
Expanding Google Ads reporting
The third update will see Google update its ads produce-level report to include performance from all channels and formats.
It will include data for all networks in Performance Max campaigns as well as metrics for video, app and Demand Gen ads.
The changes mean Google Ads now offers a centralised view of how campaigns and products perform. It also could cause a “one-time increase in metrics such as impressions, clicks and more”.
This builds on the changes the Alphabet-owned company rolled out in June on how Google Analytics and Google Ads share consent signals, which could have a significant impact on the tracking set-ups used by affiliates and marketers.
The final update, which is due to be launched at an unspecified date in the future on Merchant Centre, will include new performance segmentation capabilities.
In order to improve transparency, Google said it will add a new “network dimension”, which is similar to Google Ads, and will allow users to “better analyse channel-specific efficiency and compare performance” across its network.
While Google has said affiliates and marketers will see one-off spikes or drops in figures as these changes take effect, the long-term effect could be more significant.
