If you are not part of the Amazon Associates (Affiliate) program I suggest you go sign up, I’ll wait…See, I knew you’d be back. It’s quick and easy to sign up and before you know you’ll have an easy source of income. This isn’t likely going to be ‘pay off your house next month’ type income, but it is more money than I’d want to just throw away or ignore.
Like most affiliate programs, Amazon requires you to use their tracking links so they can tell when you’ve referred traffic or sales. There are several ways to use tracking links–two ways you can do this are by adding links to the text in your post or creating Native Ads. Native ads look like this:
I’m going to show you how to create Amazon Native Ads. One of the reasons I decided to share this process with you is obvious: you can make easy money with these things! On the other hand, I know how easily they can be overlooked within the Amazon Associates affiliate program.
Most people who use the Amazon Associates program know that they can create text or image links for just about anything on the website. Any product you want to feature can likely be turned into a paying link or photo on your website or blog.
What you might not realize is that you can create blocks of products to feature on your site as well. These work well within posts, in the sidebar, as part of your footer or header space, etc.
Amazon Native Ads are a great way to put products that your readers are interested in right in front of them! There are options for customization that include key words, specific products, and even suggested products based on the user and page content.
How to Create Amazon Native Ads:
We’ll begin in your Amazon Associates homepage or dashboard.
From there we’re going to click on the “Product Linking” tab and it will show us just what we want! Click on “Native Shopping Ads” from that menu and you’ll be on your way!
After that you will be on the Amazon Native Ads page. This is where it gets really easy. All you have to do is select the type of ad you’d like to create.
Click the arrow next to “Create Ad Unit” and select your type. I’m going to show you the example of “Recommendation Ads” but you can choose the one that is best for you. Clicking the tabs circled in the second image will show you how to learn more about each type of ad. All of the Amazon Native Ads work in roughly the same way. They embed your tracking link into the system so that when someone clicks on your box of ads, or searches for something in your bar, you get credit for that purchase! Hooray for cookies, the kind you eat and in this case, the kind the computer leaves behind to follow up on purchases.
You will need to fill in all the parts that are indicated below. Make sure that you select categories and a keyword fallback that is related to your page content. It doesn’t really make sense to have ads for tires on a page about kitten sweaters. Try and make sure you keep things on topic with your Amazon Native Ads.
Once you have selected your categories and entered the keyword, HTML code will populate in the box under “Copy Ad Code”. All you have to do is click the yellow “Highlight Ad Code” button and then you paste that into your text area on the website or blog post! I’ll put the final product in here at the end of the post!
Amazon Native Ads are automatically programmed to show “interest based ads.” If you would want to turn that off for whatever reason, you can select “no” under “advanced settings” below the keyword box. I say take all the help you can get. If Amazon wants to do the work of figuring out what your readers want to buy, let them!
Hopefully this little post has shown you how easy it is to create Amazon Native Ads. They’re not all that scary but they can be a little daunting for a first time user! As always, if you have questions please feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to help you find an answer.
This was very helpful Becca, thank you! I was able to follow these steps to figure it out.
So happy to hear it was helpful!! I’m excited for you to see your earnings increase this month!