Understanding Amazon Attribution: Features, Tags, Links (and more)

As an Amazon seller, you might think great marketing is all it takes to drive traffic and boost sales. But there’s one more key ingredient you need if you want to avoid bleeding money.

This missing piece is precise tracking and analytics. You need to know where your sales come from and which promotions work best. Without it, you might spend money on campaigns that don’t perform and ignore the ones that do.

In this post, we’ll show you how Amazon Attribution can help with tracking. At Archer Affiliates, we use this free tool to automatically attribute sales to the affiliate marketers and influencers who generate them.

Join Archer Affiliates today to tap into a pool of vetted affiliates and enjoy great marketing that sends you targeted external traffic and sales. All without any worry about tracking results.

What is Amazon Search Engine Advertising?

Amazon search engine advertising is an advertising model that sellers can use to bring their offers in front of people who search for different products on the platform. It’s similar to Google Ads but within Amazon’s platform. This means that ads only appear in Amazon’s search results and product detail pages.

When running ads on Amazon, you have the Amazon Advertising console to look at and review performance - impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.

But suppose you’re also interested in expanding your reach and driving traffic from outside of Amazon. In that case, you’ll need a different tool, called Amazon Attribution, to track and analyze where your traffic and sales are coming from.

What is Amazon Attribution?

Amazon Attribution is the tool that measures the performance of all your external promotions.

Whether you’re running ads on search engines or social media, blasting email marketing campaigns, or partnering with affiliates to promote your products in their blog posts with affiliate links, this tool tracks it all. It can even track the off-Amazon display ads.

Who Can Use Amazon Attribution?

Vendors and Brand Registry sellers can use Amazon Attribution. But so do agencies that manage Amazon accounts for brands and tool providers that develop and offer software solutions for Amazon sellers and vendors.

How to Get to Amazon Attribution on Seller Central

To access Amazon Attribution from Seller Central, you must first go to the Amazon Advertising Console:

1. Log in to Seller Central;
2. Click on the Advertising tab;
3. Select Campaign Manager, which opens the Advertising Console;
4. Log in with your credentials if prompted;
5. Find the Measurement & Reporting section on the left-side menu within the Console;
6. Select Amazon Attribution.

The Amazon Attribution tool is free, but you must set up your account when you first access it.

Amazon Attribution Features

As an ads measurement and analytics solution, Amazon Attribution works with several components and features:

• Campaign: A collection of all the ads or ad groups that promote a single product or a specific group of products.
• Ad group: A collection of ads within a campaign that target a specific set of keywords or audience segments.
• Tags: Unique tracking URLs created for each external campaign to monitor all the activity and clicks.
• Channels: The type of marketing effort, such as display, email, search, social, or video, used in the campaign.
• Publishers: Specific platforms or sources within each channel, such as websites, apps, Google Ads, or Facebook Ads.

How to Create Amazon Attribution Tags

As a seller, you can’t just create your tags. Instead, Amazon Attribution generates them when you’re setting up your campaign. And you can set up a campaign manually or use a bulk upload option.

Below, we’ve put these two methods side by side for a quick comparison:

To help you better understand this process and where the Amazon Attribution links pop up, we’ll look at step-by-step instructions on how to create and configure a campaign.

How to Build an Amazon Attribution Campaign

The manual configuration requires the following steps:

1. Go to Amazon Attribution;

2. Click on ‘Create a Campaign’ and enter the campaign name;

3. Start creating your ad groups one by one, specifying the name of the ad group, products, publisher, channel, and click-through URL;

4. Click ‘Create’ and wait for the confirmation screen, where you’ll also see the tags it generated for each ad group - you can copy them individually or download them as a CSV file.

5. Apply your newly generated attribution tags to each campaign's relevant campaign manager - for example, if you’re running an ad on Facebook, you’ll add its Amazon attribution tag to the Facebook Ads Manager.

If you want to use the bulk creation method, follow these steps:

1. Click on ‘Create a campaign’ and select the “Upload a file to create in bulk” option.

2. In “Bulk upload settings,” select Google Ads or Facebook/Instagram.

3. Download the bulk file template and follow its instructions, including the required columns from the publisher's report.

4. Fill out the template with the necessary data and save it as an XLS/XLSX file.

5. Upload the completed template in the advertising console under “Bulk upload settings.”

6. Select eligible products in the products pane.

7. Segment your campaigns by product groupings.

8. Click “Create” to generate tags (the process takes about 10 minutes).

9. Download the tags file once the process is complete and apply the tags to the relevant campaign managers.

Use Archer Affiliates to Connect With Amazon Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive more external traffic and sales to your Amazon listing. If you’re wondering how to find reliable affiliates and adequately track their sales, you’ll find your answers with Archer Affiliates.

Our network has 2,500+ vetted affiliates and influencers, and we use the Amazon Attribution tool to measure every affiliate’s marketing efforts efficiently.

We can create your attribution links automatically by connecting to accounts via the Amazon advertising API. So, you won’t have to do any manual work but still count on accurate attribution tracking.

Connect with Amazon publishers and influencers to discover how they can help you sell more and effortlessly manage sales attribution.

Amazon Attribution Tools for Sellers

While Amazon Attribution is the handiest tool for monitoring non-Amazon marketing for free, there are some other options you can look into:

• Google Analytics is a popular free alternative. This powerful web analytics tool tracks website traffic and user behavior from external sources like Google Ads, social media, and email campaigns.
• ClickMeter is a tracking and link management tool with both free and paid plans. It provides analytics on traffic sources, clicks, and conversions. And it has many features for click tracking, redirecting, and analyzing traffic per individual links and campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here’s what else you should know about Amazon Attribution, wrapped in this short FAQ:

How Accurate Is Amazon Attribution Data?

Amazon Attribution is considered highly accurate because it comes straight from Amazon and uses real user interactions and purchases. The “14-days, last-touch” model counts a sale if it happens within 14 days of the user clicking on the ad/link and attributes it to the last ad/link they’ve clicked on.

Are There Any Alternatives to Amazon Attribution?

Yes, there are alternatives like Google Analytics, ClickMeter, UTM.io, AnyTrack, Affluent, or Bitly. All these can track non-Amazon traffic and sales.

What is the Amazon Ads Attribution Lookback Window?

The Lookback Window is the time period during which a sale or conversion is tracked and attributed to a specific ad interaction. For Amazon Attribution, this window is typically 14 days.

Conclusion

Amazon Attribution is a solid tool that:

• Precisely tracks your external marketing efforts
• Gives you insights into where your Amazon sales are coming from

Among the available options, it stands out as the most accurate and perfectly integrates with the Amazon platform.

At Archer Affiliates, we make it easy for you to enjoy this free tool and get the most out of your affiliate partnerships. Plus, you can earn a 10% commission through the Amazon Brand Referral bonus.

So, why not let our vetted affiliates contribute to your marketing and boost your sales? Join Archer Affiliates today, and we’ll help you use Amazon Attribution to its full potential!