You can tag products from Amazon directly in your videos, Shorts, and livestreams. When you tag your favorite Amazon items, your audience can discover and purchase them directly from Amazon. This helps you maximize your channel earning potential compared to description links.
Eligibility
To tag Amazon products and earn commissions, you must meet these criteria:
- You are enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program.
- You are enrolled in the YouTube Shopping affiliate program in the United States.
- You are part of the Amazon Influencer Program (AIP) or Amazon Associates Program (AAP) and your account is active and in good standing.
- You have linked your YouTube Channel to your AIP or AAP account.
- If you are not in the AIP or AAP, you can sign up and link your YouTube channel information.
- If you are already part of the AIP or AAP, you can link your YouTube channel via the Amazon Storefront portal using the steps below.
Tag Amazon products with YouTube Shopping
Link your accounts
If you are already part of the Amazon Influencer Program or Amazon Associates Program, you need to link your YouTube channel to your Amazon account before you can tag Amazon products.
If you linked your AIP or AAP account to your YouTube channel before September 2024, you will need to re-link your account following the steps below.
To link your YouTube channel to your Amazon account:
- Go to your Amazon Storefront.
- Click Edit profile.
- Click Link your account.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to verify your YouTube channel.
Tag Amazon products
After your accounts are linked and your channel gains access, you can use the product picker tool in YouTube Studio to tag Amazon products in your content.
- Tag available products: You can choose products to tag from a selection of Amazon products.
- If you want to suggest a product to be available for tagging, reach out to YouTube Creator Support and share the product URL.
- Auto-tag content: If you enable auto-tagging, or already have it enabled, YouTube may review your recent uploads to automatically identify and tag eligible Amazon products. Amazon products may also be included in auto-tagging for future uploads.
Understand your performance and payment
When you tag Amazon products, you’ll see performance metrics in YouTube Studio Analytics, such as clicks and estimated revenue.
Your finalized Amazon earnings are paid through your AdSense account with your existing YouTube Affiliate program payments.
- Payment timeline: Commissions lock on a monthly cycle. You can always check your earnings from YouTube Affiliate links in YouTube Studio.
- For example, earnings that lock in January are paid out to you during the March AdSense payment cycle.
- Returns and negative balances: Returns from previous sales can result in earnings and other metrics being temporarily negative in analytics reports.
- If a customer returns a product from a previous sale, that commission is deducted from your current balance. This deduction may temporarily cause a negative value in your revenue reports.
- If your balance is negative at the end of a monthly cycle, the balance rolls over to the next month and payments resume once your earnings are positive.
- Qualifying sales and international viewers: To help you maximize your earnings, YouTube Shopping may automatically match your tagged product with a trusted local merchant offer allowing you to earn commissions on eligible international purchases. If a local match isn't available, the tag may continue to route to the Amazon US storefront or the viewer's local storefront.
Troubleshoot common issues
Account linking errors
If your Amazon account does not link to your YouTube channel, check that you have entered the correct YouTube channel credentials inside your Amazon portal. Note that after you link your accounts, there may be a delay before you can start tagging Amazon products in your content. You will receive a notification in YouTube Studio once your account has been enabled. If you continue to experience errors during the setup flow, send an email with your channel URL and Amazon storefront link to youtubeshopping@amazon.com.
Tagging is disabled
If you received a notification that you are no longer eligible to tag Amazon products, this happened for one of the following reasons:
- Your Amazon Influencer Program account or Amazon Associates Program account has been closed.
- You can submit an appeal by contacting Amazon Associates Customer Service.
- Your YouTube channel was unlinked from your Amazon Influencer Program account or Amazon Associates Program account.
If you continue to experience issues with tagging Amazon products, send an email with your channel URL and Amazon storefront link to youtubeshopping@amazon.com.
