Hello Partners,
We have received many questions in regards to our new Link Generator Tool. Please read on to find more information that we have compiled by answering some of the most frequently asked questions thus far. In addition to this post, we have updated the help content to include a more detailed explanation about the tool.
The Link Generator tool has always had a number of parameters, in addition to the link text, that allow our tracking system to credit clicks to the appropriate account. These parameters are automatically inserted when you generate a new Link Generator link through the interface. Until now we have updated the rover.ebay.com/… part of the link with a number that lets MediaPlex (the third party tracking system we still use) know that the click is coming to eBay. It also includes your publisher ID, a campaign ID, a toolID, and a few additional parameters. You then had to copy all these over onto your website to get appropriate credit for a sale.
As we advanced in our April 22nd post we recently updated our Link Generator tool with a few new features. We also included an impression pixel by default, as a number of publishers had asked for this so they can better calculate click-through rates on links, etc. In addition, we added a few parameters to the links to prepare for landing page optimization features we’re working on for a future roll out.
As a result, our links have become a bit longer, but still work fundamentally the same way. For most people this shouldn’t matter, as when the link is generated, you can just copy and paste the link into your site and it should work properly. In fact, you should try to use Link Generator to generate as many links as you can, as this will reduce the number of errors in your links.
We know that some of our publishers with many different page templates sometimes try to replicate the link we generate across many pages through a script. If you find that you must create your own links, this is more advanced and you will have to make sure you do it without breaking the links. We thought it might be helpful to break down line by line and show you what’s included in the link format.
As you know, there are various ways you can customize a Link Generator link. One way is to specify an itemID and have the link point to a specific listing. Using this example, if you go into Link Generator, specify Item ID #130300099902, toggle geo-target to no with the US as the program, and specify link text “Navigation System”, you get the following link:
href=”http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5574628273&toolid=10001&campid=5335807210&customid=&icep_
item=130300099902&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg”>Navigation System
Let’s break this down:
href=”http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1 (Base URL, same as before, the number is an ID where the “711-53200” is a RotationID from MediaPlex that changes for each program and helps assign the click to the right program – see below for more details)
?icep_ff3=2 (Link type – tells us whether this is a home page link, item id link, etc, and whether advertiser is eBay or Half)
&pub=5574628273 (Your publisher ID)
&toolid=10001 (The descriptor that tells us which tool this came from, 10001 is Link Generator)
&campid=5335807210 (The ID of the campaign you specify, each campaign has its own ID)
&customid= (The related customID, if you specify one, this is not required)
&icep_item=130300099902 (Specifies the item_id)
&ipn=psmain (Parameter for future landing page optimization, do not edit, always same)
&icep_vectorid=229466 (Parameter for future landing page optimization, different by country/program)
&kwid=902099 (Parameter for future landing page optimization, do not edit, always same)
&mtid=824 (Parameter for future landing page optimization, do not edit, always same)
&kw=lg (Parameter for future landing page optimization, do not edit, always same)
“>Navigation System (Link text)
http://rover.ebay.com/roverimp/1/711-53200-192550/1?ff3=2&pub=5574628273&toolid=10001&campid=5335807210&customid=&item=130300099902&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]” (This is the impression pixel)
Please note that there are multiple types of Link Generator links (Home page, search results, item ID, store, custom URL, and ISBN/UPC/MPN for Half.com). You can also toggle geo-targeting on or off which will change the link structure a bit. While we can’t explain every link in detail here, you will find a lot of the parameters above common across most links. We recommend generating the base link from the Link Generator to see how the structure slightly changes for other links. Hopefully the breakdown above is helpful.
In case it’s also helpful, here is the mapping of RotationIDs and VectorIDs by program:
Site Rotation ID Vector ID
AT 5221-53469-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229473
AU 705-53470-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229515
BE 1553-53471-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229522
CA 706-53473-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229529
CH 5222-53480-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229536
DE 707-53477-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229487
ES 1185-53479-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229501
FR 709-53476-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229480
IE 5282-53468-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229543
IN 4686-53472-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229550
IT 724-53478-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229494
NL 1346-53482-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229557
UK 710-53481-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229508
US 711-53200-19255-0 icep_vectorid=229466
You can find more help in the user manual in eBay Partner Network (When logged in, go to the help tab, click on user manual, look for Tools->Link Generator->What if I want to create my own links without using Link Generator).
Thank you for your continued partnership.
The eBay Partner Network Team
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