Programme Setup
Affiliate landing pages and product feeds
Plan affiliate destinations and product feeds together so publishers share accurate product details and customers reach the right page.
An affiliate landing page should fulfil the promise that earned the click. A product feed should give publishers usable product facts and a route to that page. Plan them together: an accurate feed cannot rescue a link to the wrong variant, and a good page cannot correct an outdated price already shown in a publisher’s listing.
Match the destination to the placement
A review of a named product should usually link to that product and make the reviewed variant apparent. A buying guide covering several products may be better served by a relevant range page. An offer placement needs a page where eligible products and material conditions are easy to find.
Check the final page from the publisher’s link. Can an Australian customer recognise the promised item, see the current price and availability, understand delivery restrictions and take the next step? If a product URL changes, update the destination used by affected publishers. Sending a product-specific referral to a homepage can leave readers searching again.
Choose a destination that lets the customer verify the central promise of the placement without having to infer important details from the feed. If a partner describes a particular discount or shipping offer, check that the linked page makes the relevant offer and conditions clear as well.
Match the affiliate destination to the placement
- Named product reviewLink to that product and make the reviewed variant apparent.
- Buying guide covering several productsUse a relevant range page.
- Offer placementUse a page where eligible products and material conditions are easy to find.
- Product URL changesUpdate the destination used by affected publishers.
- Final page checkCan an Australian customer recognise the promised item, see the current price and availability, understand delivery restrictions and take the next step?
Give publishers data they can use
Start with stable product and variant IDs, clear names, a direct product URL, an image, price and currency, and availability. Add attributes that help distinguish the items being promoted, such as size or compatibility. The required fields depend on the chosen feed format and platform.
Awin’s publisher guide describes a data feed as a download listing all of an advertiser’s products. Each entry carries a deep link going directly to the product page, a name and description, price including discounts and shipping information, images, and additional information for the advertiser’s vertical.
Price, stock and product details can change between feed updates. Record when the source data changed and when the platform processed the feed. A processed feed does not show that every publisher refreshed a cached listing or edited an article. Tell publishers directly when a material change affects a prominent live placement.
Use partner needs to inform whether the programme should provide a feed at all. Awin says feeds are mandatory for content and comparison-site partners and for advertisers collaborating with Google Shopping CSS partners.
Core product feed fields to provide
- Stable product and variant IDsUse consistent identifiers for each item and variant.
- Clear names and descriptionsDescribe the product accurately.
- Direct product URLProvide a deep link to the product page.
- ImageInclude a usable product image.
- Price and currencyShow price including discounts.
- AvailabilityIndicate stock status.
- Distinguishing attributesAdd size, compatibility or other relevant attributes.
When Awin requires a product feed
- Content partners
- Feeds are mandatory.
- Comparison-site partners
- Feeds are mandatory.
- Google Shopping CSS partners
- Feeds are mandatory for advertisers collaborating with these partners.
Keep the click route usable
Map where a publisher link leads after network and site redirects. A page move must preserve the intended destination and the referral information required by the configured tracking method.
Awin’s standard source parameter, for example, returns a value of aw when the click was referred via an Awin URL. The identifier need not remain visible in every checkout URL; what matters is whether the configured integration retains the information it needs.
On Awin Classic, an accepted-domain control means tracking links containing your advertiser ID can only redirect to one of your accepted domains. That is an Awin-specific reason to check the final page and account settings after a move.
Awin also describes a passive deeplink domain verifier that checks links for malicious content. If a link is flagged, the customer is redirected to the advertiser’s default landing page, so keep that fallback relevant to the programme’s current offer as well as checking intended product destinations.
Coordinate feed and page operations
Feed exports and page edits usually sit with different teams and run to different schedules, so a change on one side can invalidate the other without anyone noticing. Keep a single view of which products are being promoted by which partners. A change to a product page should prompt a check of the corresponding feed entry. A change to a feed entry should prompt a check of the destination.
Coordinate feed and page operations
- Keep one viewTrack which products are promoted by which partners.
- Product page changeCheck the corresponding feed entry.
- Feed entry changeCheck the destination page.
- Material catalogue changeRecheck the feed and linked page together.
Keep product information consistent across the journey
Product information shown in a partner listing should match the destination page. Awin’s product feed FAQs describe colour and size options for fashion items as examples of the key attributes a feed contains. Consider whether the information shown in a partner listing gives customers a fair picture before they reach the page.
Respond when stock changes
Stock changes can leave a feed row and the destination page saying different things. The detail of how to respond to an out-of-stock item is covered in a sibling article; at overview level, treat the feed and the linked page as one customer journey and recheck them together after material catalogue changes.
The ACCC says it can require businesses to back up claims they make about their products or services, and may investigate and take compliance or enforcement action if a business misleads. Claims about products in a partner listing, a feed row and the destination page therefore need to be supportable, and any that can no longer be supported should be corrected.
In this guide
- Matching an affiliate landing page to the publisher's contextChoose an affiliate destination that fulfils the promise in a publisher’s review, guide or offer, then check the final page as a customer.
- Keeping tracking intact during landing-page redirectsMap affiliate page redirects, preserve the intended destination and required referral information, then check a controlled order against its affiliate record.
- Designing product feeds publishers can actually useMap product feed fields to publisher tasks, keep item IDs stable and check the downloaded data against live product pages.
- Preventing out-of-stock products from wasting affiliate clicksCoordinate product pages, feeds and publisher placements when stock changes so shoppers see accurate availability and suitable next steps.
