The Amazon Associates Link Builder WordPress plug-in can help you integrate Amazon products into your site in an easy and attractive way, with just a few clicks. The Link Builder is a free, official WordPress plug-in that is designed to make it easy for Amazon Associates members to search for Amazon products to include on your site. With the plug-in, you can link directly to those products – all with just a few clicks, and without having to leave your WordPress Editor. Using the Amazon Associates Link Builder means you don’t have to manually integrate important product information, such as product names, descriptions and preview images. Instead, the Link Builder plug-in generates shortcodes, which you use to select Amazon product data in different display formats and then output on your own website.
Signing up for the Associates Program
You need to be a valid member of the Associates program in the locale that you wish to use the plugin for. To become an Associate, create an Amazon Associates account using URL for the appropriate countries:
- Brazil – https://associados.amazon.com.br/
- Canada- https://associates.amazon.ca/
- China – https://associates.amazon.cn/
- France – http://partenaires.amazon.fr/
- Germany – https://partnernet.amazon.de/
- India – http://affiliate-program.amazon.in/
- Italy – https://programma-affiliazione.amazon.it/
- Japan – https://affiliate.amazon.co.jp/
- Mexico – https://afiliados.amazon.com.mx/
- Spain – https://afiliados.amazon.es/
- United Kingdom – https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/
- United States – https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
Choosing a Template
As a member of the Amazon Associates Program, you want to show Amazon products on your website. There are various templates within Link Builder to do this, for various use cases – such as a price link, a product box, a product carousel and a display of several products in a grid view. In addition to these templates, you can also create or use your own existing templates (To customize templates though, basic HTML and CSS programming is required). We recommend you play with the existing templates to see what works best for you and then take the extra effort to customize templates once you have a good understanding of each template.
Generating a Short Code
After selecting a template, its short code can then be automatically inserted into the text field of your WordPress Editor. The short code also automatically includes the tracking ID of the website participating in the Associates Program. The plug-in also accesses the Amazon Product Advertising API in real-time, and provides up-to-the-minute information on product images, prices and the availability of the respective products via this interface.
Geo–Targeted Product Links
- Register in the appropriate marketplace Amazon Associates program Depending on which countries you have international traffic from, you should ensure that you have registered as an Amazon Associates, and created store-ids or tracking ids in each of your accounts.
- Configure the plugin for international monetization. In your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Associates Link Builder > Settings. For each country that you’ve registered in, ensure that there is a row in the Tracking Id(s) section, along with all the tracking ids that you would like to use in your WordPress site. You may select any one of your marketplaces as your default marketplace using the links in the right-most column. Please see the following screenshot as an example:
Note that AALB does not validate the tracking ids entered, so please make sure that the correct tracking ids as configured in the respective country Associates Central portal are added to your configuration, else you might lose attribution and revenue. Additionally, make sure that accurate PA API credentials are configured in the PA API credentials section. These credentials should be linked to the same accounts as the tracking ids configured for your site. Once all the settings have been configured correctly, the Amazon Search box and button should be enabled on your Add New Post page.
- Content Creation Workflow You can post any search term (similar to searching on the Amazon retail sites), and click the search button. The Add shortcode dialog will open, along with search results from your default marketplace:
You can now:
- Select the Ad Template to use to display the selected products in. Please note that the same ad template will be used to display products in all countries. However, the actual products that we display will be targeted to the traffic spouce of the visitors to your site.
- Select products to display customers in your default country.
- Change the Search Phrase to select from a different set of products
- Click the Add ProductSet for Country tab to add a tab and product set to display for a different country. You can add product sets for as many countries as you have configured in your plugin settings.
The above steps can be performed in any order, and you can keep editing your selections, before you click the Add Short code button. Once you have selected product sets for all countries that you want to target for, then you can click the Add Short code button to insert the short code in your post.
Once you have clicked Add Short code, you will see a short code of this form inserted in your post:
[amazon_link asins=’B0753VX2CB,B074PCR86M,B076FGMBJR,B075NT6T39|B00YD545CC,B01N9YOF3R,B00YD54HZ2,B071W3DDM7,B00YD546IA|B0764FLPKQ,B0714DP3BG,B01LZKSVRB’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’br-1|us-1|in-1′ marketplace=’BR|DE|IN’ link_id=’f863a353-cea3-11e7-a36d-bbeba5c8a631′]
After you have published the post, visitors to the page will see the products that you have selected for the marketplace from which they are visiting. In the above example, visitors from DE will see the products selected for the Germany marketplace, product titles in German, and price in EUR. Visitors from BR will see the products from the BR marketplace will see the products selected for the Brazil marketplace and so on. Visitors from countries that you haven’t selected products for will see the products from your default marketplace, or the first marketplace in the short code.
Other Key Features
Other features of the Amazon Associates Link Builder WordPress plug-in at a glance:
- Search for Amazon products from the WordPress Editor
- Display up-to-date product information of advertised products on your website
- Easily integrate various affiliate links via shortcodes – where ready-made or custom templates can be used
- Choose between responsive design for your product boxes or fixed, custom display sizes
- Control each user’s access by setting User Roles in WordPress