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Should I build my links manually or programmatically (with the Amazon Link Engine)?
Should I build my links manually or programmatically (with the Amazon Link Engine)?

Do you value easy setup or powerful customization? Perhaps a blend of both?

Joey White avatar
Written by Joey White
Updated over a week ago

An interesting question! Both approaches serve a particular need and have their own strengths and weaknesses. 

Please read on for the exact details.

 

Link Creator:

Build links manually in our dashboard, with the link creator. The end result is "geni.us/xxxxx" shortlinks.

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

  • Configuration takes time: Setting advanced rules can be a time consuming process if you're updating a lot of links.

  • You have to build your links one at a time.

 

Amazon Link Engine WordPress Plugin (ALE) & JavaScript Snippet:

These tools are functionally the same, since they use the same code. Once configured, they automatically convert any raw product URLs into long-form "buy.geni.us/proxy/xxxxxx..." links whenever the page is loaded. 

Raw product URLs look like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Burts-Bees-Moisturizing-Original-Peppermint/dp/B0054LHI5A
https://amzn.to/2L2lkEt
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/its-gonna-be-me/303171298?i=303171383

Strengths:

  • Instantly converts an entire page/website of links when the page loads. A great option if you've already got a website with plenty of affiliate links

  • Configure it once and it can convert millions of links with minimal oversight

  • Preserve URLs until click time”: This lets you stay Amazon compliant with virtually no effort. The link will say "Amazon.com" up until someone clicks it.

Weaknesses:

  • Resulting links are Simple Links: it’s not possible to set advanced rules if our translation doesn't land where you want. However, you can always resolve this by replacing that link with a manually built geni.us link.

  • Clicks are reported in bulk: These links are created anew every time the page loads, so we're not able to tell you how many clicks each individual link is getting. The closest you can get is a per-article or per-page tracking, but this requires using our group feature to set up a different Javascript Snippet for each page of your site.

  • Cannot be used with Amazon Native Ads, or any other ad plugin that serves up product data dynamically using an iFrame, as these kinds of ads don't contain a product URL at the time of pageload.

Note: There are other options for building links programmatically, like using our API or the Quick Build method, but the Javascript Snippet / WordPress plugins are by far the most popular methods of programmatic link building.

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