My understanding is that self-promotion Ambassador links which look like regular product links (nothing added and no ?rf code) in the link will only track back to us and work for referrals IF the link is created using Zazzle’s ‘share tabs’ on the various pages.
I’m adding this info for creators who like me may have just copied the product page URL (unaware of unseen code added to link to track) to add to social media and blogs etc. (let’s say when the share to Facebook feature wasn’t working properly, so we did things manually). Now I understand that those link were NOT a tracked link so would not result in any referral.
It makes sense of course because customers could for example earn us a referral if they decide to share our product page links. But I guess with massive multi-tasking and zero knowledge of how the behind-the-scenes things work, I was not mindful of this.
Now I do know … I have some questions so I don’t miss out and other creators don’t miss out again especially regarding the issue of PINS
Bearing in mind customers can also use the pin feature…
‘Pinning from images’ - please confirm if pinning from our product pages includes the required ambassador tracking info so we earn a referral via pinning. And I am assuming we must be logged into our accounts for that to apply?
If we PIN other creators products will the cross-promotion ID be added?
Are you saying that if we create manual Pinterest pins by clicking the share link and copying the “copy link” option that appears (NOT the Pinterest link) so we can build our manual pin with a tall image and add our own keyword rich description, that link will not track back to us for referral purposes when a customer clicks on our pin?
I am not sure this is an accurate interpretation.
I have had self-referrals in May, June, July and August after the terms took effect. I primarily share my links on Facebook using the copy and paste method, It’s possible I’ve used the “copy link” before, but I honestly don’t remember 100 percent for sure on which products I’ve done that.
Would it be helpful for me to go back and look at these posts that prompted sales? Anything to be looking for?
That doesn’t jive with what I’ve been told. Waaay back when they launched the Promoter 2.0 program I had an email conversation with someone at Zazzle (it might have been @Heather but I’m not sure.) Anyhow, I was incredulous that they could track a “clean link” without any parameters on it. I was told that if the customer came in via one of my pages (product, collection or store) and it could not be traced back to another source (i.e. the link they used did not have another rf code attached) that the referral would be credited to me. I don’t think that has changed with the Ambassador program. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
Now, there may be other reasons to pin/share using Zazzle’s tools (it may create a product pin vs. an image pin etc.) but I don’t think that the links generated from the share tool add some sort of invisible tracking code. You can test this by opening the share dialog and clicking on the copy link button. Paste the link into a simple text editor (like Notepad) to see exactly what is being copied to the clipboard. Then copy the link from the URL address line and paste it in as well. The two are identical.
Yes. That’s my understanding at least. Of course, posting the correct link and actually getting the referral are two different things, but there is nothing in the Ambassador program literature that says you have to share via the share tools. Here’s what’s in the FAQ:
Q: What exactly is a “Self-Promotion Link,” and how does it work? A: A Self-Promotion Link is a URL link without parameters that you use exclusively to promote Products that feature your own designs. Using these Self-Promotion Links, your Earnings (including Royalties) will be between 35%–50% of Net Referral Sales, rewarding your efforts to drive your own traffic. You can share Self-Promotion Links on: ● Your Public Product page(s) ● Your Collection page(s) ● Your Store page(s) ● Your Member Profile page(s) ● Create-a-Product API page(s) In simple terms: A Self-Promotion Link is a URL link without parameters, used exclusively by Ambassadors to promote Products incorporating their own original Content.
and
_ Q: If Self-Promotion Links have no Referral code, how does Zazzle identify and credit _
_ these Referrals accurately? _
_ A: When you enroll in the Ambassador Program, we automatically associate your Ambassador ID _
_ with all direct visits to your Products, Stores, Collections, Member Profile, and API pages. Zazzle _
_ automatically credits these Referrals to the correct Creator without needing URL parameters. _
Right. Somewhere in the FAQs for the Promoter Program, they addressed how clean links work. It’s not because of any unseen special parameter in the URL - the higher rate applied when the link in ‘can’t be attributed to any of our known marketing channels.’ Those known marketing channels would be like, Zazzle’s own emails, their paid ads, and their own postings on social media. It even said that you can earn the Promoter rate if for example someone else happens to share a link in say an email to a friend or whatnot. So it doesn’t matter who is sharing the link or where; if it wasn’t Zazzle, it would be treated as a self-referral (assuming of the course the visitor doesn’t already have someone else’s ‘cookie’ active).
I can’t see why this would have changed with the switch to the AP. And nowhere in the documentation does it say anything about needing to specifically use their Share button to be eligible for the Self-Promotion rates.
It would actually be really nice if @CreativeLeahG was right, because that would mean that the dismal rate of return that we’re seeing on self-referrals could be improved by using the share tool to create links. But alas, I don’t think that’s the case. Sigh.
I don’t think this is correct. I’ve never shared my products the way you’re describing, and while they’re low, I do get several self-referrals each month.
Agreed. My understanding is that cross-promotion links (other people’s products) must contain the rf parameter and self-promotion links must be “clean” (ie no rf parameter) but that it doesn’t matter how the links are generated. Clarification would be nice though.
There has also been conflicting guidance as to whether or not it’s OK to include other parameters on either sort of link (tracking code TC parameters or parameters specifying which view is shared). Some places say it’s fine to share with other parameters, others say it could foul up the referral tracking, so some guidance there would be nice too.
Not sure if that means that they won’t respond to questions on the forum or what, but you might want to post the question there just to cover all bases.
Yes I think that would be helpful thank you! I’d check mine too but my referrals for post April won’t relate to anything new shared as I haven’t done anything (barely) re marketing in this regard this year. So any of my self referrals will be from old p2 links. I think based on what others have said copying the url should be ok?
so looking at this again I think they mean the tracking ‘behind the scenes’ relates to the ?rf cross promotion code. NOT as I thought clean links with actual behind the scenes invisible cloaking stuff going on. I don’t feel it’s clearly worded but that could just be my Aspie brain.
The PDF doc may say something else but I’ll look at that with fresh eyes tomorrow or Heather or someone will kindly confirm if it’s a straightforward " nope Leah you’re wrong". And that’s ok with me!
For now I’m assuming I’ve misunderstood and while trying to understand this more ..
"
Yes — even if a link looks “clean” (i.e., no explicit UTM parameters, tracking IDs, or redirect wrappers), it can still be tracked for referral purposes in a few different ways:
1. HTTP Referrer Header
When you click a link on Site A that leads to Site B , your browser usually sends the Referer (sic) HTTP header.
This tells Site B the URL (or at least the domain) of the page you came from.
Some sites strip or alter this with rel=“noreferrer” or CSP policies, but by default"
"
Cons of clean links for affiliate tracking
No unique affiliate ID = no way to separate one partner’s traffic from another’s.
Referrer headers can be stripped (e.g., from HTTPS → HTTP, email apps, privacy browsers).
Affiliates need precision to avoid commission disputes, so “clean” referral-only tracking isn’t dependable."
so all good I think? Especially given I likely won’t get a reply here after all from the team as it’s in wrong format. I’ll accept the majority vote on this one!
Thank you all and especially @Cat and @ColsCreations
You wouldn’t be the first. Coming to “terms” with the terms has been quite the . . . experience.
I really do think you can share your self-promotion link either with the copy and paste from the web address method or the share button route. I understand the desire to want to read between the lines, and we all know that sometimes it makes a very large difference indeed!
I bet you will get a clarification from the mods. They’ve been pretty responsive on the topic of the terms, but it likely won’t come today, as it is a holiday here in the States.
