How to honor existing affiliate IDs in a link

Force programmatic links to use whatever tracking ID is in the product URL

Matt Mustarde avatar
Written by Matt Mustarde
Updated over a week ago

Normally, if you build a geni.us link with a product URL that includes an Amazon (or iTunes) tracking ID, this ID is not used - instead we use whatever IDs are present on the Affiliate page of our dashboard.

However, for programmatically built links, it's possible to override this behavior and use the affiliate ID present in the original URL itself. This is known as Preserve exisiting affiliate settings and is as

If you have a site filled with editorial content such as product reviews added by multiple editors, chances are you've created multiple Amazon Associates IDs to keep track of clicks and commissions individually for each editor. 

You can now honor the default ID that is already added to your links across your site, ensuring those editors continue to get the credit they deserve for helping you earn those affiliate commissions.

Please note:  this feature will only honor the tracking ID for the storefront the original link went to. For example, if you use an amazon.com link with a US tracking ID, we will honor your amazon.com ID added to that link, but when we globalize that link for you, we'll still use the international IDs you've added to your Geniuslink account to ensure you're still getting credit for international sales.

How to enable for the JavaScript Snippet and WordPress plugins:

For both the Javascript Snippet and Link Engine WordPress plugins, there is a checkbox for 'Preserve existing affiliate settings'. As long as this box is checked, you're good to go!

How to enable for Quick Build:

Follow the steps in the Quick Build documentation to make sure you properly encode your URLs, then add the additional parameter of "dtb=1” to the end of your links.
As an example:

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