How to Create Affiliate Link for WooCommerce Store​?

Having a unique WooCommerce affiliate link for all the brand advocates and referral partners will help in automating your affiliate marketing.

Tracking affiliate product sales and affiliate commission along with monitoring affiliate performance can be seamlessly managed through affiliate link tracking.

In this blog, we’ll learn everything about creating, optimizing, and managing affiliate links for WooCommerce. These strategies can help affiliate marketing management while boosting traffic and sales for your WooCommerce store.

What is a WooCommerce affiliate link?

An affiliate link in WooCommerce is a URL that is unique to each marketer. This link helps to promote the WooCommerce products in exchange for a commission.

WooCommerce affiliate link is the foundation element for effective partnership programs. In addition to helping with your word-of-mouth marketing strategies, these trackable affiliate links assist the commission-based design of affiliate marketing for WooCommerce.

Benefits of Using Affiliate Links in WooCommerce

Affiliate links management is one of the key best practices of WooCommerce affiliate marketing.

Here are the benefits of using affiliate links in WooCommerce:

• Expand your store’s market reach by collaborating with a network of WooCommerce affiliates
• WooCommerce affiliate management becomes easy by having control over the affiliate links
• Increased brand awareness and credibility by partnering with trustworthy influencers for promotion
• Gain access to targeted traffic from people visiting your online store through trusted affiliates from your niche.
• Increase the traffic using partner links in eCommerce by enhancing SEO through organic backlink generation.
• Choose the right affiliate products to sell and create WooCommerce product-specific affiliate links for better reach.
• Scalable marketing efforts as the upfront cost is minimal to generate custom URL affiliate links for all affiliate marketers.
• With tools for WooCommerce affiliate tracking, you can monitor the performance of each affiliate and optimize your strategies.
• Easily convert WooCommerce customers to affiliates and create referral links for them.

Prerequisites for Setting Up Affiliate Links

Before you set up your WooCommerce affiliate link, make sure you have all the prerequisites required.

• A fully functional WooCommerce store.
• WooCommerce affiliate plugins selected based on your business needs
• Set WooCommerce affiliate commission that is competitive and attracts more affiliates
• You can create and customize affiliate registration forms in WooCommerce to onboard many partners
• Decide on the terms and conditions for your affiliate program
• Set up a dedicated support team to guide your affiliates
• Have in place marketing materials and brand guidelines to help in the promotion

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Affiliate Links in WooCommerce

The three major steps involved in creating affiliate links in WooCommerce are:

• Step 1: Setting Up an Affiliate Program in WooCommerce
• Step 2: Generating WooCommerce Affiliate Links
• Step 3: Sharing and Managing Affiliate Links

To help you with this task, you can take the help of an efficient and user-friendly WooCommerce affiliate plugin like WPRelay.

Step 1: Setting Up an Affiliate Program in WooCommerce

Install WPRelay which has all the features to help you create a customized affiliate program with a flexible commission rate.

Ensure your affiliate program in WooCommerce has the following elements:

1. Create an affiliate program for WooCommerce
2. Set flexible WooCommerce commission rates
3. Discount percent
4. Payment options
5. Cookie duration
6. Create a Signup form in WooCommerce for affiliate recruitment

Step 2: Generating WooCommerce Affiliate Links

For an affiliate link to be generated, an affiliate should first become part of the affiliate program.

This can be achieved in two ways:

• Sign up for registration
• Manual affiliate creation by admin

Once an affiliate signs up for the affiliate program using the registration form. A unique WooCommerce affiliate link will be generated automatically.

In addition to that, you can also manually add affiliates to the program and generate affiliate links for them.

Here, is an example of adding an affiliate to the “Give 10% Get 10%” program.

To achieve this, go to WPRelay dashboard -> Affiliates -> Create Affiliate

You can enter the details of the affiliate and click Save

Once an affiliate is saved and added as part of the program, a unique affiliate link will be generated automatically.

Step 3: Sharing and Managing Affiliate Links

Once your WooCommerce affiliate link has been generated, affiliates need to promote it.

An affiliate simply has to access their referral link from the WooCommerce affiliate dashboard and share it with their friends and family.

Managing and tracking affiliate links is easy when using WPRelay. Affiliate sales are automatically tracked, and recorded and the related affiliate commission is awarded to the respective affiliate automatically.

By using an efficient WooCommerce affiliate plugin like WPRelay, manual tasks can be eliminated. You can conduct affiliate tracking in WoCommerce with precision and accuracy.

How to Personalize Affiliate Links for WooCommerce

It is important to personalize affiliate links for WooCommerce because that will offer a sense of authenticity.

Here are some tips to help you understand the personalization of affiliate links better

1. You can shorten WooCommerce affiliate links with brand or affiliate names.

With WPRelay, you can easily customize affiliate links and referral codes.

Go to Affiliates -> Click affiliate name -> Click edit icon near affiliate’s name.

On the affiliate details page, click the edit icon near the Referral code.

You will be led to the page where you can make changes to the referral code, which will be reflected in your affiliate link.

The following screenshot shows the changes in the affiliate link once you make changes in the referral code.

2. You can add dynamic parameters to allow affiliates to track their campaigns by appending parameters like UTM tracking, custom identifiers, campaign-specific tags

Here is an example of affiliate link structure:

https://yourstore.com/product/special-widget?ref=affiliate123&utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=spring_promo&utm_content=affiliate_banner

Breakdown

Base URL:

https://yourstore.com/product/special-widget

Affiliate Identifier:

?ref=affiliate123

UTM Parameters:

• utm_source=affiliate: Specifies the traffic source as the affiliate channel.
• utm_medium=referral: Identifies the traffic medium (referral traffic in this case).
• utm_campaign=spring_promo: Names the specific campaign associated.
• utm_content=affiliate_banner: Provides details about the specific affiliate content, such as the banner or text link used.

Optimizing Affiliate Links for Mobile and SEO

Optimizing affiliate links for mobile and SEO is important because most people tend to use their phones for Shopping.

Therefore, making your affiliate link easy to access on a mobile is important to reach a larger crowd.

To achieve easy use of affiliate links in mobile, follow these steps

• Responsive Design: Make your website and affiliate dashboard mobile-optimized to enhance user experience.
• Fast Loading Speeds: You can optimize your store’s performance with compressed images, reduced scripts, and a reliable server.

On the other hand, affiliate links can help SEO by building a strong backlink bundle from reputed affiliates and influencers.

To organically contribute to the SEO of your site using WooCommerce affiliate links, you can recommend optimizing the anchor text wherever the affiliate link is used. This will build authority and authenticity to your link.

Best Practices for WooCommerce Affiliate Links

Some best practices for WooCommerce affiliate links that can help your online store, as well as affiliates, are:

1. Set Clear Policies
   Draft policies that include affiliate commission structure, payment method payment threshold, exit policy, conflict resolution, etc.
   Benefit: This will bring transparency, reduce disputes, and build trust with affiliates.
2. Use Reliable Tracking Tools
   You can use WooCommerce affiliate plugins like WPRelay which has built-in features to track affiliate links.
   Benefit: This will give accurate insights into affiliate performance. Data-driven optimizations can help achieve better results.
3. Optimize Links for SEO
   Use descriptive anchor text and custom URLs of affiliate links. Use SEO plugins in WooCommerce for better help.
   Benefit: You can improve search engine visibility, increase organic traffic, and boost click-through rates.
4. Reward Top Performers
   Identify top-performing affiliates using their affiliate link. You can also identify best-selling products and manage your inventory.
   Benefit: You can motivate affiliates to promote more effectively with incentives. This can bring higher sales and engagement.
5. Provide Marketing Materials
   Designing a marketing kit with banners, logos, copy, etc, and giving it to affiliates can help them promote authentically.
   Benefit: Simplifies promotion for affiliates, ensuring consistent branding and better conversions.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Affiliate Link Generation

When setting up WooCommerce affiliate links and tracking, avoid these common mistakes:

1. Inadequate Testing Procedures
   Mistake: If you don’t test affiliate links, it can lead to broken URLs. This will result in lost traffic and frustrated affiliates.
   How to Avoid It: You can regularly test all your affiliate links to ensure they function correctly and are tracked properly.
2. Poor Communication with Affiliates
   Mistake: If you fail to communicate updates or provide guidelines, it can result in affiliate dissatisfaction.
   How to Avoid It: You can maintain open communication with affiliates. To share updates, tips, and best practices you can use SMS plugins in WordPress.
3. Complicated Commission Structures
   Mistake: If you set complex commission structures, then you will confuse affiliates and discourage participation.
   How to Avoid It: You can set simple and transparent commission plans by adopting affiliate marketing strategies.
4. Unreliable Tracking Methods
   Mistake: If you have inadequate tracking systems, it can lead to inaccurate calculation and payment errors.
   How to Avoid It: You can use reliable WooCommerce affiliate tracking plugins to ensure accuracy in reporting.
5. Lack of Proper Documentation
   Mistake: If you don’t provide documentation for your affiliate program, your affiliates will be uncertain about rules and processes.
   How to Avoid It: You can create comprehensive guides and FAQs explaining how to use affiliate links effectively.
6. Insufficient Security Measures
   Mistake: If you fail to secure affiliate links, it can expose your program to fraud and abuse.
   How to Avoid It: Use secure protocols, unique link identifiers, and fraud detection tools to protect your WooCommerce affiliate program.
7. Poor Affiliate Support
   Mistake: Neglecting to support affiliates with resources or assistance can lead to low performance and dropouts.
   How to Avoid It: You can provide excellent affiliate support that includes training materials, quick responses, and dedicated assistance.

Conclusion

Creating and managing WooCommerce affiliate links will become easy with end-to-end information in this blog.

Start by choosing a reliable WooCommerce affiliate plugin, customize your links, and monitor your performance to refine your outcome. This will lead to higher traffic and improve your WooCommerce store sales.

Further Reading

• The Ultimate Guide to Affiliate Marketing on Social Media
• How to set up a referral program in WooComerce in simple steps?
• 8 High-Performing WordPress Themes for Affiliate Marketing
• A Complete Guide to Referral Marketing in WooCommerce