Are you an Amazon Associate or an affiliate with another retailer with hundreds or even thousands of loyal followers that you engage with via Facebook groups? If so, this post is for you!
We’re going to show you how to generate mobile app links or mobile app URLs to open the Amazon app—or any e-commerce app, for that matter—directly from your Facebook group. If Facebook Groups are central to your promotional strategy, this linking method is the key to increasing your commissions.
Some call these links mobile app URLs or app deep links, but whatever you want to call them, they’re a must-have when linking app-to-app!
Let’s paint a picture and consider why regular affiliate links cannot reach their sales potential, and therefore your commission potential!
The Influencer: You are an Amazon Associate or affiliate that is using their influence to promote your favorite products while sharing links that lead to Amazon and other marketplaces. You share them in your Facebook group virtually every day, where your audience discusses the products and their experiences and opinions. It’s a community of like-minded shoppers!
The Shopper: An avid Amazon (or other marketplace shopper) who is a part of your Facebook group and is a big fan of your Amazon picks, and who tends to purchase a lot of those products based on your recommendations.
Now let’s say that you’ve just shared a link to a dress that you love (you’re a big fan of Amazon Fashion!). Your follower (let’s call her Susan) sees it and thinks to herself, “Wow, this would be perfect for that party I’m going to next week!” So she clicks on the link. Mind you, Susan is chatting in the Facebook Group and the link is posted there.
The Amazon page opens to the right product, but the page itself does not open in the app. Instead, Susan is stuck in Facebook’s embedded browser inside the Facebook app, she has to log into her account on the mobile website to make her purchase.
She sighs, then goes to the Amazon app herself. She types the product’s name in the search bar, and it’s the first thing listed in the results. In a matter of seconds, she decides to buy the dress at that very moment. Great! Right? Not exactly.
Actually, no, not great at all because the connection to your Amazon Account was lost. Susan uses the Amazon app, so when she sees that website login she decides to look for the item herself in the app. When she jumps over to the Amazon app herself the attribution tags on your affiliate link are not passed so the connection to your commission is not maintained. Did Susan ever buy the dress? Who knows. Big yikes.
This is where URLgenius can multiply your affiliate commissions instantly by opening the app when it’s installed and passing your affiliate attribution tags.
How? Simply by updating the regular Amazon link with URLgenius and turning it into an deep link (or as some people say a mobile app URL). Then you use that updated URL instead of the regular Amazon link. Your URLgenius link can then open the Amazon app to the right screen and Amazon can credit you for the sale.
This concept applies to other marketplace apps as well like Walmart, Target and Mercado Libre.
Sounds simple right? It is! So you might be wondering what’s wrong with the regular Amazon link? The answer is nothing! It’s just that regular web URLs are not meant for app-to-app linking.
Okay, so before we show you how to update your links, let’s dig into why you need them in the first place. In other words, why was your follower kept in the Facebook app instead of being taken to the Amazon app (or Walmart, Target, etc).
The walled garden. The walled garden, as coined by the industry, is that web login friction when attempting to go from app to app.
The walled garden—a barrier attached to nearly every app out there, mind you—works specifically to keep users in the app that they are using. (This probably made sense years ago, at a time when apps were fiercely competing for users.)
When a user clicks on a link within a social app or any app, they’re sent to the login page of the destination app—in this case the Amazon—thus keeping them in the “walls” of the Facebook app.
Today, however, consumers prefer to be sent directly from app to app as they shop, do their banking, or whatever it is that the app does or offers, and we at URLgenius have a patented process to make the app-to-app journey easier. This also means more commissions and measurable sales for affiliates!
Alright, let’s go ahead and jump into it! Here are all the steps you need to update your Amazon links with a URLgenius deep link that opens the Amazon app from your Facebook group!
Creating an Amazon app deep link? Easy. At URLgenius, we’ve perfected the process— you don’t need any technical resources and there’s nothing to install.
URLgenius is the only verified Amazon Ads partner that can pass Amazon Attribution tags (seller or affiliate( in-app from social media all without SDKs. In fact, you can follow these steps and update your campaign links right now. Open another tab in your browser and follow along.
First, create your affiliate link like you normally would and enter that link into URLgenius. If you enter the link without your affiliate tags, Amazon cannot measure your commission.
The Amazon icon is highlighted which tells you that URLgenius understands the type of link you pasted. You can customize the end of the link to match your campaign to make it easy to find later.
Click “Compose” which takes you to the settings page for your Amazon app deep link. You can copy it to place it into your Facebook Group. Test the behavior of the link by scanning the QR code or emailing it.
Note different features on the settings page. Contact us if you’d like a demo of all the different features.
Pro Tip: Your app deep link will look like this example but you can use your brand’s domain for all your app deep links. This helps you extend your brand name and inspire trust in the link.
Doing a multi-channel campaign in coordination with your Instagram ad? Lucky for you, every URLgenius app deep link also has a corresponding QR code.
Create QR codes for products on Amazon and other e-commerce marketplaces, for use online or offline! Use them in posters, displays, events, tradeshows, and giveaway promotions.
If someone scans and buys, you’ll get the commission! Just click on ‘QR Design Studio’ to customize and download your QR code for Amazon.
You’ll view your commission and Amazon traffic just like you do today that doesn’t change but URLgenius will also give you some basic reporting that you can use to understand the direction of your campaign.
At a glance, URLgenius will give you insight into how many times the app opened and if your audience has an iOS or Android device.
In addition to seeing the number of app opens, you’re able to see insights to referring URLs and apps when available—as well as the city from which your audience is clicking.
App deep linking to marketplace apps like Amazon is a great way to maximize your commissions, but you can also use URLgenius links in other channels like SMS and email.
The concept applies not only to Facebook, but to other social apps like Instagram or shopping apps like Amazon and eBay (or any other app).
More in-app engagement, more $$$—need we say more? It’s time to maximize your social media promotions with app deep links.
At URLgenius, we’re here to help! Contact us for a demo or with questions at info@urlgeni.us about Amazon app deep links and QR codes.
If you found this post helpful, check out our other popular how-to posts for affiliate app deep linking:
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