Amazon OneLink

Prentzz

Prentzz

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I'm not sure whether this is brand new or if I've somehow missed it. I googled it and couldn't find any information on it, so I presume it's relatively new.

Essentially, it allows you to link US, UK and Canadian Amazon affiliate accounts using a simple piece of code. Looks like Amazon is aiming to get rid of the plugins which people have to localize links. Thank God because they suck and I'd rather it be done through Amazon.

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I found it by looking at my Amazon earnings. There was a link under the "fees" tab.
 
It's new. Just released today. Something to split test, as I've been doing with EasyAzon and Genius.

All have pros and cons, but advantage of Amazon providing it is that you don't have to worry about the TOS. Wth Geo location the key component for me always comes down to how well it matches to the same listing or "most related" listing in the respective foreign storefront. EasyAzon is bad at this (generally sends to search results page) and Genius is better, but EasyAzon has a better WP plugin...

Ultimately, I'll be leaning towards using as much Amazon approved tools as possible for future ground up builds. Existing sites is a different story... overall OneLink is a great development. Seems like they are really trying to make up for the cut in commissions.
 
Just set it up. I was signed up for both other programs, but hadn't bothered dealing with it because the expected monthly gain wasn't worth the time investment relative to other things.

We'll see how it does. I'll use this over > * non-Amazon product though, just from a risk perspective.
 
Is this for only UK/CA people trying to monetize US...

IE. Should a US affiliate join UK/CA for the benefits?
 
contract said:
Is this for only UK/CA people trying to monetize US...

IE. Should a US affiliate join UK/CA for the benefits?
Click to expand...

It's the other way around. US affiliates can now send traffic to the UK and CA sites.

But UK and CA people could apply this in the exact same way to monetize their own foreign traffic. I know several CA and UK people who target US SERPs anyways. And regardless, they often get US traffic like we get theirs.

I'd be real happy if they'd toss AUS in the mix here. I'd let everything else go to waste, but AUS would be real nice.
 
How is this going for anyone? Any sales? Seeing clicks? I read some people say that Ad Blockers are killing the redirection too, which doesn't sound right. I can't imagine they've picked up on this already or even care since it's not a display ad or deceitful.
 
I made one UK sale yesterday.
 
I spent a solid chunk of the day messing with this feature. Here's what I gathered:
  • Only works with long links, not the short amzn ones.
  • It detects the long amazon link after the DOM paints and replaces it with an absurdly long new link.
  • This means anyone using pretty links won't be able to use this without reverting back to the original amazon links.
  • I tried to solve the above pretty links problem in a ton of ways, grabbing the destination link out of the HTTP header and more, considered a redirect buffer page, etc. No matter how you solve it, it will be ugly and not preferable.
  • According to the Amazon forums, the Javascript file can interfere with other .js files and cause stuttering scrolling issues. Might be those scroll bar highjacking scripts, not sure. I take 99.9% of the stuff those users post with a grain of salt.
  • Watched a video where a guy showed that Amazon's ability to find the matching product is pretty horrible, pulling the wrong stuff, etc.
  • Apparently Ad-Block is already killing the redirection, probably based on some tech being used for their CPM ads and Recommendation ads.
My thoughts:
  • This would be a 5%-10% revenue lift immediately,
  • But I have to abandon other systems I have in place.
  • Could tack on another 3%+ with Australia.
  • Receiving payment seems like a pain. Gift card or slow international check with fees.
I decided in the end to just wait and see how all of this shakes out. If they add AUS I'll be real tempted, but I'd rather not have 800 character scrambled text links pointing out of my site to the wrong products right now, with a lot of it being ad blocked as it is.

Any other opinions and discussion are appreciated. This is a good opportunity for us even as it is, but even better if we can find solutions for some of these issues.
 
You mentioned that it only works with long Amazon links. However, I only use the shortened Amazon links (the ones that Amazon provides), and it tracks correctly. I'm getting clicks and have gotten a few sales from UK.
 
I tested with a vpn and the short links work fine! I'm also using mostly short links and getting clicks and sales.

I also tested with Ublock and can confirm that the blocker kills the redirect. But it sends you to the original .com destination.
 
Cool, I stand corrected. I only looked at the links physically changing on the page, but it sounds like they can change the shortlinks after you click them. I couldn't see them change on the page though. Yeah the ad blocking part sucks because these aren't even remotely display ads or invasive or visually distracting.
 
I've testing this too. There's a problem with Ublock and Chrome. It blocks the link

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Safari is ok because they don't include that list
 
I'm back with a weird update on this.

My conclusion is that the ad blockers makes this entirely not worth using. The reason is that affiliate links aren't blockable like display ads (normally), allow you to finesse the user into making a purchase, etc. It's the good stuff with higher value.

But the ad blocking ruins it here. I had no intention of using this but I accidentally forgot to take the javascript out of my footer.

Then I had a month of Amazon revenue that was pathetic. It was the earnings I was seeing 6 months ago before my last bout of growth. I thought it was an anomaly or just this niche's fluctuations for that month of the year.

Then I was tinkering with my analytics and noticed the ad code, and I removed it. IMMEDIATELY the next day I was back to top earnings and every day since then.

So definitely, I can't imagine UK and CA earnings outpacing the amount of US people using ad blockers. I know it should default to your normal link if they block it, and technically it shouldn't have even affected my set-up due to the way I have it structured on the backend, but it did. Somehow it was stopping the cookie from dropping on browsers with ad block.

That's a heads up. It sealed the deal for me. I won't be using this at all until they move that JS file to some file path that's not the same as their native ads and CPM ads. Probably won't then either.
 
Ryuzaki said:
But the ad blocking ruins it here.
Click to expand...

This. It's not difficult to create your own version of OneLink and defend against ad blocking anyway. But if OneLink gets integrated to native shopping ads, that will be immediately useful.

I'm seeing good conversions on my amazon native shopping ads.
 
Ryuzaki said:
I'm back with a weird update on this.

My conclusion is that the ad blockers makes this entirely not worth using. The reason is that affiliate links aren't blockable like display ads (normally), allow you to finesse the user into making a purchase, etc. It's the good stuff with higher value.

But the ad blocking ruins it here. I had no intention of using this but I accidentally forgot to take the javascript out of my footer.

Then I had a month of Amazon revenue that was pathetic. It was the earnings I was seeing 6 months ago before my last bout of growth. I thought it was an anomaly or just this niche's fluctuations for that month of the year.

Then I was tinkering with my analytics and noticed the ad code, and I removed it. IMMEDIATELY the next day I was back to top earnings and every day since then.

So definitely, I can't imagine UK and CA earnings outpacing the amount of US people using ad blockers. I know it should default to your normal link if they block it, and technically it shouldn't have even affected my set-up due to the way I have it structured on the backend, but it did. Somehow it was stopping the cookie from dropping on browsers with ad block.

That's a heads up. It sealed the deal for me. I won't be using this at all until they move that JS file to some file path that's not the same as their native ads and CPM ads. Probably won't then either.
Click to expand...
Hey guys. My first post in a long time (not that I posted that much in the past!)

Did anyone find any resolution to the OneLink thing re adblocking and low sales with the script implemented?

Just noticed this over on the JustStart Reddit forum, which led me to this post - https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/comments/8we05y/amazon_onetag_sales_drop_off/

Seems like even now someone is finding some of the same issues. I've had it installed pretty much since I launched my site, have now removed it to see if it makes a difference. I always use the amzn shortened urls anyway, so probably wasn't working anyhow :-)

Any updates on how this has or has not worked?

cheers
 
Jasper68 said:
Any updates on how this has or has not worked?
Click to expand...

I've been seeing the same thing as you basically anywhere affiliate marketing is discussed. Nobody can explain why, but the correlation is very tight: somehow Ad Block is hurting sales even though it shouldn't.

It's a shame because it's becoming more and more attractive on the surface, with them adding more countries, and talking about eventually rolling out one global payment system so you don't have to get a dozen checks from various parts of the world.

And the new OneTag thing with the dashboard reporting is super tasty. Seeing which pages are earning you the most and their conversion rates is super nice.

I'm not sure what the deal is, and I'm not confident they'll acknowledge it or even look for it and find it for a long time. Because at the end of the day, people are still getting sales and Amazon earns more cash if the cookie happens to not attach itself here and there.

If the OneTag file doesn't get blocked, I'd like to try it out one day without OneLink. Have you tried it yet?
 
Thanks for the reply. I'm not really sure of the difference between onetag and onelink, will have to look into it. Have seen a rise in sales 2-3 days after removing the onelink stuff, but I am not convinced it was holding me back, just a few slow days. Plus I'd had onelink on for ages. I was just hoping that taking it off would see some gargantuan rise in commissions. Unfortunately not the case :-)
 
Two and a Half Years Later...

Who's been using OneLink? Have they sorted out the problems?

I know the main problem was that it gets ad-blocked due to them using the same Amazon CPM ads domain to host the javascript. I think that's still the case.

But before people were reporting income dips by adding OneLink, even though if the ad-block occurs it just doesn't convert the URL to a localized version. Somehow, people were claiming, it was still interfering with conversions or tracking.

What's the deal now? Anyone with any insight?

I'm considering it on a new site and possibly even swapping an old site over to it (if the new site pans out). I'd just like some more info now that plenty of time has passed.
 
I used OneLink on a reasonably large site that I recently sold. It automatically converted links from US to Canada and UK. However, it really only applied to text links, as most of my images and "buy it now" buttons were linked to AAWP, so they went through that system of localization.

I didn't notice any significant change in conversion rate when I switched from Genius to OneLink. It's possible that the niche I was targeting was relatively non-tech-savvy and didn't use AdBlock a whole lot. Or perhaps the Adblock didn't have much impact. Regardless, I didn't see a change in conversions.

The one aspect of OneLink that I really liked is that once you use it, you can get information through the Content Insights tab of Amazon Associates. You can get reports that show which pages are providing the most sales, and Amazon will recommend other products that you will likely have success in marketing, based on your existing audience.

I don't believe those reports work without OneLink.
 
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