Amazon Associates Tracking IDs: The Complete Guide (+ a System That Gives You Real Data)

Most guides about Amazon tracking IDs tell you the same two facts: you can create up to 100, and they end in -20. Then they stop — right before the part that actually matters. The value of tracking IDs isn't how many you can make; it's how you structure them. Structure them well and Amazon's own reports become a breakdown of which sites and which content earn. Structure them badly — one tag for everything — and you fly blind. This guide covers the basics, then gives you a naming system and a planner that most affiliates never get shown.

What an Amazon tracking ID actually is

A tracking ID (Amazon also calls it a "tag") is the identifier appended to every affiliate link, like tag=mysite-20. When a sale happens, Amazon credits it to that tag — and its reports let you filter and group by tag. That last point is the whole game: the tracking ID is the dimension Amazon reports on. Whatever distinctions you bake into your tags are the distinctions you'll be able to see in your earnings.

On Amazon US, tags end in -20 (older accounts may have -21, -22). The suffix is the marketplace; the part before it is yours to design.

The mistake almost everyone makes

Here's what most publishers do: they get their default tag — mysite-20 — and use it on every link, across every article, on every site. It works. Links track, commissions arrive. But at the end of the month the report says one thing: "mysite-20 earned $X."

That number is useless for decisions. It can't tell you whether your reviews out-earn your comparison posts, whether Site A beats Site B per click, or which content type deserves more of your time. You've thrown away the one reporting dimension Amazon gives you — before you even started.

The fix costs nothing and takes an afternoon.

A tracking-ID architecture that gives you real data

Instead of one tag, use a small, consistent system of tags that encodes two things you'll always want to compare: which site and which type of content. The pattern:

<site>-<contenttype>-20

So for a cooling-products site, cool-rev-20 tags links inside reviews, cool-cmp-20 tags links inside comparison tables, cool-guide-20 tags buying guides, and a bare cool-20 catches everything else. Now your Amazon report isn't one number — it's a table:

| Tracking ID | What it tells you | |---|---| | cool-rev-20 | Earnings from links inside reviews | | cool-cmp-20 | Earnings from comparison tables | | cool-guide-20 | Earnings from buying guides | | cool-home-20 | Earnings from homepage / sidebar links | | cool-20 | Everything not yet tagged |

Suddenly you can answer real questions. If cool-cmp-20 earns triple what cool-rev-20 does per link, you build more comparison tables. That's a decision your reports now make for you — and it's the exact insight the "you can make 100 tags" guides never help you reach.

Three rules that keep the system usable:

1. Keep the codes short and fixed. Decide your content-type codes once (rev, cmp, guide, best, home, deals) and never improvise. Consistency is what makes reports readable.
2. Don't over-split. A tag per page sounds tempting but you'll hit the 100 limit and drown in noise. Site × content-type is the sweet spot — meaningful, and it scales.
3. Add a placement layer only when you need it. If one article's table and inline links behave very differently, a cool-cmp-tbl-20 vs cool-cmp-inl-20 split can help — but add that surgically, not everywhere.

Plan your tracking IDs

Set your site and the content types you publish, and this generates the exact tags to create in Amazon — consistently named, ready to paste:

How to create tracking IDs in Amazon

Once you know your list, adding them takes a couple of minutes:

1. Sign in to your Amazon Associates account.
2. Open the account menu (top right) and choose Manage Tracking IDs.
3. Click Add Tracking ID, type the name (Amazon appends the -20 for you), and save.
4. Repeat for each tag in your plan.
5. When you build a link with SiteStripe, pick the right tracking ID from the dropdown — or edit the tag= parameter directly to match where the link lives.

That's it. From now on, links carry the tag that matches their content type.

How to read your reports once tags are structured

In the Associates reporting dashboard, open the earnings report and group or filter by tracking ID. With a structured tag set, you can now compare content types side by side, spot which site pulls its weight, and see trends per format over time. Export it and you have a clean data set to work from. The report didn't change — your tags did — and that's what unlocked it.

The ceiling: what tracking IDs still can't tell you

Be clear-eyed about the limit. Even a perfect tag architecture tops out at tag granularity — site and content type. It will never tell you which specific page or which specific link earned, because Amazon simply doesn't report at that level for ordinary Associates. (SubIDs exist, but standard accounts can't see SubID-level earnings — only high-volume accounts on the data feed can.)

So there's a gap between "comparison tables earn well" (tags can show this) and "this comparison table on this page earned $47 from that link" (tags can't). Closing it needs a second data source: your own outbound-click tracking, joined to these earnings. Track clicks per page and per link, line them up against tag-level earnings, and you can attribute revenue down to the page — estimating per-link value even though Amazon won't. That join is exactly what Clickolytics automates: it records every outbound click by page and placement, then reconciles it against your imported Amazon earnings, so the per-page picture your tags can't give you appears anyway.

See the page-level breakdown Amazon hides: import your Associates earnings and Clickolytics maps them to the pages and links that drove them. Explore revenue attribution →

Frequently asked questions

How many Amazon tracking IDs can I have? Up to 100 by default; contact Associates support for more. With a structured system you'll rarely need many.

What does the -20 mean? It's the marketplace/store suffix. Amazon US tags end in -20; other countries differ.

Can Amazon show earnings per page or per link? No — only by tracking ID. Structuring tags by site and content type is the closest you get inside Amazon.

Tracking ID vs SubID? The tracking ID is the account-level unit Amazon reports on. SubIDs add data to a link but aren't visible in standard earnings reports for ordinary Associates.

A different tracking ID for each site? Yes, at minimum — then add a content-type layer to see what earns.

Related reading

• What Is EPC (Earnings Per Click)? — the metric your structured tags help you measure.
• Affiliate Revenue Attribution Explained — tying earnings back to pages and clicks.
• Amazon Commission Calculator — estimate earnings by category.
• How to Read Your Amazon Associates Reports — getting the most from the dashboard.