Can I Post Amazon Affiliate Links On Facebook?
The Amazon Affiliate program is still one of the most popular ones out there, even though Amazon slashed their commissions a couple of months ago. The change was so dramatic for some websites that they started using different affiliate programs, but there were some site owners who had to sell their websites, too.
Depending on the niche, the commission value dropped to half of its original value or less. Even with this change, people still resort to using Amazon Affiliate links because it’s one of the most trusted retailers in the world today.
So, the likelihood of one of your site visitors clicking and ordering something through the Amazon Associates program is far higher than if you were to use a different one.
In this post, we’ll look at several questions you might have about this affiliate marketing program and give you the answers you need.
Can you use Amazon Affiliate links on Facebook?
Back in the day, Amazon used to have a very strict policy regarding where and how you could share your affiliate links. These days, they are a little more understanding, so they do allow you to post your links on social media.
You still need a website to join the affiliate program, though, but the good news is that you don’t need a specific number of visitors, so anyone can join. However, there will be someone visiting your site once you generate the first sale and they’ll look at whether you stick to Amazon’s recommendations.
If your site goes against Amazon’s policy, you might be booted out of the program and you’ll receive a very short email about it.
What we’d recommend, if you want to share your affiliate links on any kind of social media network, no matter if it is Facebook or something different, is to use either Amazon’s link shortener (which you’ll find in the top bar when you log into the Amazon Associates program) or another type of shortener, like bit.ly.
People have started to realize that many of the links they click on on social media are affiliate links, so trying to circumvent this problem should be one of your goals. Generally, it’s better to include one piece of advice or another in the post so that it doesn’t look like you’re merely trying to sell something — your followers will be more receptive to this.
How to add Amazon Affiliate links to WordPress
Want to know how to use Amazon affiliate links if you have a WordPress website? Well, there are several different methods that you can try.
You can, of course, use Amazon’s own tools, including native ads, but they’re often not improved enough so that they go along with your site’s design. They don’t fit as well as others, and these days there are a variety of plugins that can help you include your links using your Amazon API.
The ones we’ve recommended in other posts, too, are AAWP and Amazon Images (AMZImage) as they work best for small to medium niche affiliate websites. With AAWP, the tables are created only based on the ASIN, so you have nothing else to worry about.
There is the option of you using TablePress for adding affiliate links, but its design is less user-friendly. As for the Amazon Images plugin, it’s also very easy to use and quite budget-friendly (as a license for one year and one site usually costs under $50).
How long are Amazon Affiliate links good for?
Do Amazon affiliate links expire? No, they do not. Of course, if you want to post them on social media, you will have to do so on a regular basis. But that doesn’t mean that a product link ever expires.
However, that product could go out of stock or simply be replaced by something different, and the bad thing is that Amazon doesn’t notify its affiliates whenever this happens. This means that you’ll have to check your website for bad links every month or every couple of months so that you don’t direct your users to a non-existing product (and a 404 page).
While Amazon Affiliate links don’t ever actually expire, the cookie does. It’s widely known that the cookie lasts for just 24 hours, which is a rather short amount of time compared to that of other affiliate programs.
This means that people who buy something from Amazon after they’ve clicked on your affiliate link (and haven’t clicked on somebody else’s after) will generate a commission for you, but only over a period of 24 hours. If they make a purchase after that time span, you aren’t going to receive any commissions.
This, combined with the lower commissions, has led to many affiliates dropping Amazon Associates altogether.
For higher paying and generally better affiliate marketing programs, check out these posts:
- Best Recurring Affiliate Programs
- Best Affiliate Programs for New Bloggers
- Alternatives to Amazon Affiliates
Want to learn more about affiliate marketing and SEO? We have several different courses and plans available. Feel free to get in touch!
Craig Campbell
I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years.
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