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An Overview of the brand new Amazon Associates Link Builder for WordPress

Sep 15, 2022
amazon associates link builder plugin

There's a lot of plugins that support the Amazon Associates Program. A few of them are available for free in WordPress Plugin Directory, others are available under a commercial license. In this post we will go into detail about the official Amazon Associates Link Builder plugin, released just few weeks ago, and it is currently in beta.

The Amazon Associates Link Builder plugin is a new option for WordPress users. It was released just a few weeks ago (December 2016) it provides an easy to use shortcode that enables affiliates to embed advertising units into post content with different formats.    At the time of writing, Amazon Associates Link Builder (v. 1.3) operates only on WordPress table prefixes that begin with "wp_". This is a known issue and should be solved within the next few months. If the WordPress database uses the default prefix you may be safe and ignore this.

The plugin is able to add to the WordPress content editor a search box for searching for items within the Amazon Product Directory.

The Amazon Associate Link Builder search form
This is the Amazon Associate Link Builder search form

The Link Builder provides an admin panel where users are able to select up to nine items including ad unit templates, associate ID and Amazon marketplace.

The Amazon Associate Link Builder interface allows to easily build the amazon_link shortcode
Amazon Associate Link Builder interface Amazon Associate Link Builder interface makes it easy to build the shortcode for Amazon_link.

After that, the user submits the form. The plugin inserts the amazon_link shortcode into the post content. Here's an example

[amazon_link 
 asins='B00OCFMVHE,B01KHV5O1G,B01JRS6WR0' 
 template='ProductCarousel' 
 store='test-21' 
 marketplace='UK' 
 link_id='6d481d2c-c629-11e6-bd13-b900ba731a80']

Shortcodes come with the following characteristics:

  • "asins": a comma-separated list of ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Number). ASINs are a type of identification that is unique to each item. ASIN can be described as an alphanumeric code that is unique to identify an item.
  • "template" Template HTML0: HTML template that is used to show the ad to users of the website. The plugin comes with four templates to choose from: ProductCarousel, ProductAd, ProductGrid, PriceLink. Moreover, users can build your own templates.
  • store is the name of an Associate ID which is utilized to track sales and traffic from an affiliate website. The value could be a store identification number or a tracking ID.
  • "marketplace" is the name used to describe Amazon's marketplace. Amazon marketplace.
  • "link-id' The link identifier for an ad unit. The shortcode generator generates it. creator.

The Settings page of Amazon Associates Link Builder provides the options that must be made before we use the program.

The Amazon Associates Link Builder Settings page
It is located on the Amazon Associates Link Builder Settings page

The two fields in the first option require the access key and the associated secret affiliates are able to generate on Amazon's API Account page (see the steps to becoming an associate on Amazon online help).

Your Security Credentials console
Your Security Credentials console

Following, the associate ID field allows to create a store ID, or an additional tracking ID and are used by Amazon to track sales and traffic. Tracking IDs and store IDs can be registered in Amazon Affiliate Central (see associate documentation for the full list of Amazon sites).

Associates can set their tracking IDs on the Amazon Affiliate Central website
Associates can set their tracking IDs via Amazon Affiliate Central's website. Amazon Affiliate Central website

After we've established a value for the associate ID, we can select the default marketplace. We can promote items from several marketplaces, but it is important to ensure the possibility that an associate ID may be valid in a specific marketplace. If you plan to advertise products in several Amazon sites, it is recommended to create a store ID, or one (or several) tracker IDs in each marketplace. Then, we'll be able to set the default template for ads.

Advertising Templates

Amazon Associates Link Builder plugin includes four template templates to insert ads to blog posts.

The first built-in template displays items in a carousel slider
The initial built-in template shows things in a carousel slide

Product Ad: the second template looks remarkably similar to the carousel template, but it shows only one item at a time.

The Product Ad Template embeds a single item ad into post content
The Product Ad Template embeds a single item ad into post content

Product Grid The template is the grids of articles within the content of the blog post, allowing readers to easily look at different products.

The Product Grid Template displays several items in the same grid
The Product Grid Template displays several products in one grid

Price Link This template contains an embedded text link in the post content

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Alongside built-in templates, the Amazon's plugin allows users to alter the style and appearance of ads by making customized templates using the the Mustache templates engine. Let's dive deep.

Building Custom Templates

Mustache is a basic web template system built on tags surrounded by curly braces.
 Mustache tags can be used to create variables or segments:

  • variables find a value in the current context (i.e. Title). If no value is found, nothing will be printed.
  • sections create either one or two sections of text, dependent on the meaning of the key in the context of. The opening section tag starts with a pound. the closing tag begins with a slash (i.e. InStock|InStock} text InStock|"InStock"}).

By supporting Mustache template engine By allowing Mustache template engine to be used, the Link Builder provides the following tags:

  • SIN| SIN|"SIN"} is the standard Amazon Identification Number for the product
  • itle|"title"|"titled"} is the title or the name of the item
  • etailPageURL|"etailPageURL"} is the URL that allows linking back to Amazon
  • argeImageURL| argeImageURL|"argeImageURL"}: large image URL
  • MediumImageURL: medium image URL
  • mallImageURL|"mallImageURL"|"mallImageURL'}: small image URL
  • y|y} The name of the creator, author or brand
  • urrentPrice|"urrentPrice"} It's the present price. If the price is not accessible, a link to Amazon is displayed instead.
  • CurrentPriceValue: the current price in raw format
  • trikePrice|"trikePrice"}: manufacturer's recommended price
  • StrikePriceValue: the strike price in raw format
  • aving|"Saving"|"saving"} the price of the strike price
  • avingPercent|"avingPercent"}: saving in percentage
  • avingValue|"avingValue"|"avingValue'}: saving in the raw format
  • rime|"rime"} Indicates if the item qualifies to be Prime
  • erchant|"merchant"|"Merchant"} Returns Amazon if the item is sold and shipped via Amazon. There is no value to marketplace sellers.
  • inimumPrice|"inimumPrice"} the minimum cost for new items
  • MinimumPriceValue: minimum price in raw format
  • nStock|"nStock"}: indicates if the product is in the stock.

This list is non-exhaustive The best resource to learn how to use Mustache tags on the Link Builder for Amazon is on the plugin's Templates administrator page. If you are planning to develop advanced templates you must take time to have a read at the documentation online for Mustache.

That being said, let's make a simple custom advertisement unit template. First, we'll find the code for this template. PriceLink template:

#Items
 #Item
 #aalb
 CurrentPrice!
 /aalb
 /Item
 /Items

Built-in templates are not customizable. In order to customize a built-in template, first we have to clone the template. Then, we need to assign a new name for the copied copy. Then, we can modify the template, like in the following examples:

#Items
 #Item
 #aalb
 #InStockTitle: CurrentPrice! /InStock
 /aalb
 /Item
 /Items

In this custom template we've added the nStock|"nStock"} section tag so that the HTML information won't show in the event that the item is unavailable.
  itle|"itle"|"itle'}, etailPageURL|and etailPageURL|The etailPageURL} and urrentPrice|the urrentPrice} variables will show the item's information.

The Templates admin page allows affiliates to create and edit ad templates
The Templates administrator page permits affiliates to design and modify ad templates

You can alter the unit structure, as well as the layout of the unit because of a variety of CSS classes. At the moment of writing, Amazon developers do not provide documentation for these classes, so we can just have a take a look at the stylesheets on Templates administration screen.

The advertisement unit is enclosed inside a division using the the aalb-pc ad-unit class. The aalb-pc-ad-header class is applied to the H2 heading. To illustrate, we can customize the appearance of the text in a ProductCarousel clone by editing the following declaration block:

.aalb-363-pc-ad-unit .aalb-363-pc-product-title a 
 display: block;
 width: 100%;
 overflow: hidden;
 white-space: nowrap;
 text-overflow: ellipsis;
 font-size: 13px;
 color: #111111;
 text-decoration: none;

Notice the numeric substring in the class selectors. It's a numeric number added by the plugin to every class name when a template is duplicated. We should ever take it into account when altering templates.
 Change the value of the text color from normal dark grey to red:

.aalb-363-pc-ad-unit .aalb-363-pc-ad-header a 
 color: red;

Another class that is worth looking into one to consider is no-truncate that prevents the plugin from truncating the content of text in an advertisement unit. no-truncate should be added alongside the AALB-pc-ad-unit class. This is an example of how:

...

In the end, it is possible to be aware of the distinctions in the built-in ProductCarousel template and the custom replica.

The image shows the output of the built-in ProductCarousel template and a custom version of the same template
The picture shows the output of the template built into ProductCarousel and an adapted version of the identical template

Amazon Associates Link Builder provides a quick and easy way to promote Amazon's products through WordPress websites. It doesn't require knowledge of programming, and the template functionalities should cover the most common requirements of websites owners. If you're in need of greater features, a support service, and a deeper control over the product presentation, you should compare the official plugin to one or more tools released under a commercial license.

Amazon Affiliate for WordPress (AAWP)

Another popular premium plugin that is a popular premium plugin is Amazon Affiliate to WordPress It is a robust yet simple to operate plugin designed for Amazon's affiliates. Like the Amazion Associates Link Builder, AAWP uses the Amazon Product Advertising API for retrieving the information about products directly from Amazon directories. The plug-in comes with a collection of templates built into the plugin to easily build ad units for selected products. Additionally, users are able to modify the presentation of ads through editing templates that are already in use or creating their own templates. This is explained in AAWP Templating tutorial.

In addition, the plugin allows to retrieve and display individual data fields website owners are able to use in the creation of sophisticated product tables.

A product table built using single data fields
A product table built using single data fields

The other strengths of AAWP are widgets, a cache feature, automated lists of new releases and bestsellers, and an efficient support service. The plug-in is available with three options: standard (EUR 39.00) and commercial (EUR 99.00) as well as Developer (EUR 199.00). The plans come with a year of support and updates. Amazon Affiliate currently supports the countries listed below: Germany, USA, UK, France, Japan, Italy, Canada, Spain, India and Brazil.

Summary

On the other hand, commercial plugins like AAWP generally grants a greater degree of control over the product advertisements, but they're not completely free. Therefore, if your primary objective of your site is promoting Amazon's products, AAWP may be the best option for your needs. Rather, if your goal is to create content, and recurrently promoting items, you may prefer the Amazon Associate Link Builder plugin.

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