One of the most frequent reasons I hear for not promoting Amazon products is cookie duration. Most people are told and believe that Amazon cookies only last 24 hours. Not so fast!
I uncovered a great piece of the puzzle that I wanted to share and will hopefully put those of you neglecting this income source at ease. While Amazon defines a “Session” as 24 hours from the time a person clicks your link, you can actually be credited for sales up to 89 days after that initial click:
Subject to the exclusions set forth below, a “Qualifying Purchase” occurs when (a) a customer clicks through a Special Link on your site to the Amazon Site; (b) during a single Session that customer either (i) adds a Product to his or her shopping cart and places the order for that Product no later than 89 days following the customer’s initial click-through, (ii) purchases a Product via our 1-Click feature, or (iii) streams or downloads a Product from the Amazon Site if the Product is a Digital Product; and (c) the Product is shipped to or streamed or downloaded by, and paid for by, the customer.
As long as that customer adds items to their cart during that initial Session, you may earn a commission for that sale up to 89 days later. Eighty-nine days is a pretty good cookie duration! You can read the Operating Agreement in its entirety here.
One more thing that was brought to my attention recently is that you must clearly disclose your relationship with Amazon on your site with the following verbiage:
You must, however, clearly state the following on your site: “[Insert your name] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to [insert the applicable site name (amazon.com, endless.com, amazonsupply.com, or myhabit.com)].”
I hope this sets you a little more at ease when it comes to promoting Amazon products. This is one of the most recognizable and trusted merchants online. Take advantage of their Associates opportunity if applicable to your site.
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About Angie Nelson
I do use Amazon links from time to time so, this is good to know. Actually, I didn’t even about the 1 day cookies. I need to look into info like this for the other affiliate links that I use. Thanks for the information.
Usually cookies last 30, 45, 60 or 90 days. Occasionally you will run into a lifetime cookie, but those are the exception.
Adding the disclosure to my site now! Thanks for sharing!!
Happy to help, Miranda!
As well as the 90-day cookie duration – which is extremely generous – you also have to factor in that Amazon converts like crazy.
If you can get someone to Amazon there’s a better chance than with most other retailers of making a sale and getting a commission.
Well, the person has to add to cart. That means in a session the person will do an impulse buy or you got to hope like hell they go back through your link. As you know (yes) people do in some cases buy first go but in a lot of cases people will opt out for the moment and comparison shop and ummm and arghhh and then your link is forgotten and they will go direct using just an easy to remember url aka amazon.com therefore cutting you out.
24 hours therefore is rubbish. 4% is rubbish.
Terrible. cookie should be like a lot of shareasale and other sites eg. 60, 90, 120 days perhaps. 10%-25% commissions. etc
I’m sorry your experience has been so negative, Phil. A good portion of my blog income these days comes from Amazon. It often converts at a much higher rate and with less effort than any other merchant (most likely because shoppers often head to Amazon for price comparison and free shipping).