All Amazon Associate know about their affiliate id and how it is the unique code that lets Amazon know who referred the customer to Amazon.com. If you are not sure just go to Amazon Central to find it. It is the code that you put in your affiliate links and what enables Amazon to track affiliates and give them credit for a transaction. But many do not know about, or don’t use a unique Amazon affiliate tracking ID. So let’s take a look at what they are and why you want to use them.
What are Amazon Tracking IDs?
A tracking ID allows you to segment your traffic and sales activity as an Amazon affiliate. You can create up to 100 tracking IDs per Amazon Associate account. You can assign the tracking IDs to any product and you can use multiple tracking IDs on the same page or website. These separate tracking ids are critical to use if you have multiple websites and helpful for doing conversion rate optimization (CRO) within a website or page. Each website should have separate tracking ids.
How do I Create a New Tracking ID
To add a tracking ID log into your Associate account and go to Manage your Tracking ID. Here are the steps:
Once you have created multiple IDs you can pull them down and use Site Stripe like before. Most Amazon affiliate plugins let you add your tracking IDs and choose which one to use when building affiliate links.
Go to our Amazon Affiliate Marketing Guide for additional Amazon Associate information..
When do I Need Tracking IDs?
The most obvious time to get a new tracking ID is when you have a second affiliate site using the same Associate ID. You aren’t allowed to have multiple Associate IDs except in unusual situations. Without special permission from Amazon website owners can not have multiple Associate ids is a TOS Violation so don’t try that.
When you want to segregate your traffic and track Amazon affiliate links you use a unique tracking id.
If you have a special situation that requires a second Associate account contact the help group at Amazon Central. Amazon is very good at noticing when the same computer or user logs in so they will notice multiple Associate IDs from the same user.
You don’t want to get banned and have to explain what happened.
One of the major reasons to have unique IDs per site is of course to track amazon affiliate links and the sales and traffic going to Amazon from your individual websites. But what many don’t consider is that someday you may want to sell one of your sites.
If you have been using only one ID with no tracking there is no way to break out sales individually. You will not be able to claim any specific revenue for the site you want to sell. This will make the site unmarketable or only able to sell for a deep discount to its value. It also makes the affiliate look a bit shady or at least disorganized.
Again a deal buster.
Another time you want to use different tracking IDS is when you want to test different CTA links or otherwise do A/B testing. Maybe you want to test whether a button or plain text call to action is best. Just use two tracking IDs to evaluate the performance of each. You can use the reports module in your Associates account to see which CTA is working best.
How to Analyze MultipleTracking ID’s
You can view reports by Tracking ID. There is a Tracking ID Summary Report.
- Login to your Amazon Associate account.
- Go to View Report.
- Below the logo In the upper-left corner, is a pulldown with the Tracking IDs.
How to Delete Tracking IDs
You are limited in the number of tracking IDs and you may just be cleaning up your Amazon affiliate links. This is done simple by going to Manage your Tracking ID.
Conclusions
Using a unique Amazon Associates tracking ID is a must for unique websites. If you ever want to sell a site it is the only way to break out revenues. They are also valuable for conversion rate optimization and let you test different link positions, graphic links vs. text or buttons etc.
They are free and available to all Associates.
Successful affiliate track and optimize their links. It is your product after-all. Using tracking IDs is a key element in this process. Other affiliate networks also use unique identifiers for CRO and multi-site marketers.
Look for these and start monitoring and optimizing your links.
FAQ
What is an Amazon Associate tracking ID?
Tracking ids are unique identifiers that you create to be able to segment and track your Amazon clicks and sales.
When would you need tracking IDs?
There are a number of use cases for tracking ID. The two primary ones are; you have multiple websites that you want to track separately and you want to A/B test different CTA types (buttons vs text links for instance).
Why not just have multiple Amazon Associate accounts?
Amazon only allows multiple accounts on an exception basis. You risk de-authorization if you set up multiple accounts without requesting them from Amazon.
How do you create tracking IDs?
You create tracking IDs in your account at Associates Central. They are created in the account settings area.
