Affiliate Roundup: Google AI Cuts Traffic, TikTok Tightens Rules, ShareASale Shuts Down, & More

This week in FMTC’s Affiliate Roundup: Google’s AI summaries slash publisher traffic by up to 14%. TikTok’s new rules curb AI content and ad practices. ShareASale sunsets as users migrate to Awin.

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• Brands increasingly differentiate affiliate marketing (performance-based traffic), influencer marketing (trust-driven persuasion), and UGC (brand-owned creative assets), each demanding its own measurement, ownership, and contractual frameworks.

• The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) will host a free webinar titled “Affiliate Meets Influence: Strategies for Growing Affiliate Sales with Creators” via LinkedIn on August 26, 2025 at 1pm Eastern.

• TikTok’s September 2025 guideline overhaul cracks down on AI content, tightens ad disclosures, and expands product restrictions, raising challenges for performance marketers.

• Google’s AI summaries cut publisher referral traffic in May–June 2025, with search clicks down 10% overall, 14% for non-news sites, and 7% for news outlets.

• Adweek and Tipalti will host a “Turn Trust Into Growth With Loyalty-First Partnerships” webinar on September 16, 2025 at 1 PM ET, focusing on how trust, automated payouts, and seamless workflows can help brands retain creators and affiliate partners.

• As of August 15, 2025, all active ShareASale users have been migrated to Awin, with the ShareASale platform officially set to sunset in October.

• Affiliate marketing platforms LTK and ShopMy are transforming into social-commerce hubs—adding features like public profiles, AI search, follow buttons, and feeds—to become one-stop creator-curated shopping destinations as social commerce nears $100 billion in U.S. sales.