Amazon Associates Reporting Problems

[Ryuzaki]

For you guys who've been doing well with Amazon for a long enough time, can you give any insight into their current and past reporting problems?

I remember them having reporting issues in the past but I wasn't pushing enough volume for it to matter or be able to see any results of them fixing the issue.

For the past week their reporting has been down. It's popped up here or there and shown a single item having sold and maybe another one or two having shipped. For my account right now this is absolutely not right.

My click counts are tracking, but my conversions are on the floor. My question is whether you've gone through this before and been able to follow along with enough volume to tell me...

• Is their tracking still working?
• When the reporting is fixed, will they play catch up and credit us with a ton of sales?
• Or are we going to get hosed this month?

Thanks.

 

[blackwar85]

Hey,

I have been using Amazon as main monetization method for 1-2 years now and have not noticed anything unusual this month.

I am not quite sure what problem you are experiencing right now ( just low conversion rate, or many orders, but no shipping ?)

For me tracking seems to be like usual though.

However, I remember couple of instances where I have had ridiculously low conversion rates compared to previous months like you seem to do right now.

At that time, I even contacted customer support and asked them is everything OK with tracking. They said I could buy something through my own aff link to be sure.

However, I think it was just random, unlucky month.

 

[andreint]

My click counts are tracking, but my conversions are on the floor.

Same here. This month's reporting is really strange.

I went from 20-30 ordered/shipped to 5-10 with the same # of clicks.

Something's messed up on their end I guess

 

[Ryuzaki]

For days I've been getting a big read outlined box with red text on the order of:

Reporting is down right now. Please try again in a few minutes.​

It's definitely not just me, but may not be loads of people either. Here's a couple current threads on their own forums about it:

• Is live reporting down for others?
  
• Reporting is down again, after being up most of today.

You can see it's been long enough that people got excited that it came up for a few hours before it tanked again.

726 x 296​

 

[Calamari]

I've been getting the same error on and off for about a week, but when it's working properly my stats seem to be right.

I've been with them for many years and have never seen as many errors as I have this week.

 

[Sinclair89]

Not sure if it's too late, but, yes, Amazon Associates frequently has reporting issues. Most days it's fine, but there will be periods where reporting is inaccurate or down. They recently (in the past year) transitioned to the new (near) real-time reporting system which has been amazing for old school associates like me, but somewhat temperamental.

I'm not on here as often as I'd like, but feel free to message me with any questions (six figures+/year in associates earnings for the past few years). This goes for anyone.

 

[Ryuzaki]

@Sinclair89, do you use geotargetting to redirect traffic to the appropriate 9 or so affiliate programs? Also, how "live" is the live updates? Is it real-time or every few hours or so?

 

[Sinclair89]

@Sinclair89, do you use geotargetting to redirect traffic to the appropriate 9 or so affiliate programs? Also, how "live" is the live updates? Is it real-time or every few hours or so?

@Ryuzaki I do. I have used Chris Guthrie's EazyAzon for geotargetting for .CA and the EU markets. I've also been using/testing out GeniusLink. GeniusLink has the advantage of showing a local listing, not just the default "search results" page that EazyAzon displays in, say, Amazon.ca. I know the founder of GL and he is working on new features. In this sense, I think GL is the better long term geotargetting/smartlinking associates tool. For now, I still really like how easy it is to add links with EazyAzon.

And to your second question: it varies. I only know this because I accidentally ordered though my own link recently. It showed up within 10-15 minutes. However, my suspicion is that some days it's a lot slower as I'll get updates in bunches for unrelated items.

 

[ryandiscord]

You probably got it too but, Amazon just sent out an email about pushing back the deprecation date of the classic reporting view. I wonder if they ran into a snag as they were transitioning and that caused some reporting issues.

 

[backwoods]

Here is that email for those wondering:

We are writing to inform you of an update to our reporting interface. An initial deprecation date for Classic Reporting on Associates Central was set for September 30th, 2016. However, we will be extending the timeline based on feedback we have received to ensure all necessary functionality has been included in the new reporting system and to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Once the updated deprecation date has been established you will be contacted well in advance to allow ample time for submitting any additional feedback and updating your workflows.

You can continue to use the Classic Reporting interface by clicking 'Return to Classic Reporting' link on the top right corner on the reports page.

For additional information about the Reporting Center's capabilities please visit our FAQ. If you still have questions or need assistance, visit the Customer Service page for contact information.

Sincerely,
The Amazon Associates Program