Deep linking is when you link a user directly to a specific product, category, or content page on an advertiser’s website rather than their homepage. This lets your audience bypass general landing pages and arrive at content most relevant to them, potentially improving conversion rates by reducing the steps to purchase.
For example, while the general Awin website URL, https://www.awin.com/, brings users to the homepage, a deep link like https://www.awin.com/gb/publishers directs them to the publisher-specific page.
Creating deep links
You can create deep links in two ways: by using Link Builder or manually.
- Using Link Builder
Awin’s Link Builder tool streamlines the process of creating affiliate links. To learn more about using Link Builder, see How can I use Link Builder to create deep links?
- Creating links manually
You can also create deep links manually, which may be helpful if you need specific link structures for platforms with unique requirements, like social media.
A deep link URL typically includes the following components:
Awin domain: https://www.awin1.com/cread.php
Advertiser ID: awinmid=ADVERTISER_ID
Publisher ID: awinaffid=PUBLISHER_ID
Encoded destination URL: ued=ENCODED_DESTINATION_URL
To learn more, see What does an affiliate link look like?
- Creating your link with code
To ensure your link is encoded correctly, you can use the following sample code snippets for PHP and JavaScript.
PHP:
https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=XXXX&awinaffid=XXXX&clickref=&ued=<?= urlencode('https://www.example.com') ?>
JavaScript:
document.write('https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=XXXX&awinaffid=XXXX&clickref=XXXX&ued='+encodeURIComponent('https://www.example.com'));
Important: To ensure the link works across different platforms, you must replace 'XXXX' with your specific Advertiser and Publisher IDs, and ensure the destination URL is correctly encoded.
Product data feed deep links
You can also access the pre-made deep links that advertisers provide in their data feeds. This saves you from having to create the link yourself. To learn more, see How can I access a Product Feed?
Troubleshooting deep links
In some cases, advertisers may not allow deep linking. If an advertiser’s program doesn’t support deep linking, an error will appear when you attempt to create a link to their page. For details on how to promote a specific program, refer to the advertiser’s terms or contact the account manager.
To learn more about contacting advertisers, see How can I contact an advertiser?
For more information about how you can create affiliate links using Awin’s tools, see How can I create an affiliate link?
