The Geo Contextual Widget of Amazon Associates

The Amazon Associates allow you to place a contextual widget that shows best products to your visitors. Amazon uses big data and some undisclosed intelligent algorithms to determine which products are most likely to appeal to your visitors, which is similar to the adsense contextual ads units.

However, since the visitors are from different locations geographically, is it possible to show the Amazon products in the users’ regions? For example, if the users are from US, show the amazon widgets targeting US, if the users are from UK, then shows the ads unit from amazon.co.uk etc.

Here is the customer support from Amazon Associates:

At this time, all Amazon Associates Programmes are completely separate. Each site requires a unique application, and you’ll have a different Associates ID for each. Links formatted for one programme won’t earn you commission at another site.

You may choose to participate in multiple programmes and have multiple links for each item, one for your British visitors and the others for your American and European visitors.

Here you’ll find a complete description of each programme:

https://www.amazon.com/associates
https://www.amazon.co.uk/associates
https://partnernet.amazon.de/
https://afiliados.amazon.es/
https://www.amazon.fr/partenaires
https://programma-affiliazione.amazon.it/
https://www.amazon.co.jp/associates
https://www.amazon.ca/associates
https://associates.amazon.cn/
https://affiliate-program.amazon.in/
https://associados.amazon.com.br/
https://afiliados.amazon.com.mx/

Please note that to be considered for the Brazil Associates Programme, you must be located within Brazil.

Therefore, if you have a page that is mainly attracting the visitors from China, it is better to register the amazon.cn associate account. Do we have a better/possible solution? Yes, but it is not easy to implement.

First, you need to find a public/paid or free IP Geo Library that can determine where the users are from geographically, therefore the psudo-code looks like this:

$IP = GetVisitorsIPAddress();
if (Geo($IP) == USA) {
   // show amazon.com affiliate ads
}
if (Geo($IP) == CHINA) {
   // show amazon.cn  affiliate ads
}
// and so on

$IP = GetVisitorsIPAddress();
if (Geo($IP) == USA) {
   // show amazon.com affiliate ads
}
if (Geo($IP) == CHINA) {
   // show amazon.cn  affiliate ads
}
// and so on

–EOF (The Ultimate Computing & Technology Blog) —