What the Brand Referral Bonus Is
The Brand Referral Bonus is Amazon's way of incentivising sellers to drive traffic from external sources to Amazon. When you use Amazon Attribution to tag your external marketing links and those links result in sales, Amazon rebates a percentage of the referral fee back to you. Effectively, your Amazon selling fees decrease on every sale generated by your off-Amazon marketing efforts.
How Much You Earn
The bonus is typically around 10 percent of the sale price, though the exact percentage varies by product category. This is deducted from your referral fee, meaning if your normal referral fee is 15 percent, it effectively drops to around 5 percent on externally driven sales. On high-volume products, this adds up to meaningful savings over time.
The bonus applies not only to the specific product linked in your attribution tag but also to any other products from your brand that the customer buys within 14 days of clicking your link. This halo effect makes the programme even more valuable if you have a range of products.
How to Qualify
You need to be enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry and use Amazon Attribution to tag your external marketing links. Without Attribution tracking, Amazon has no way to verify that a sale came from your external marketing and cannot apply the bonus. Setting up Attribution is free and takes only a few minutes per campaign.
Which External Channels Work
Any external marketing channel can generate bonus-eligible sales as long as the links use Attribution tags. Common channels include social media advertising (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok), Google ads, email marketing, influencer partnerships, blog content, and YouTube videos. The channel does not matter — only the Attribution tracking matters.
Strategic Implications
The Brand Referral Bonus changes the economics of external marketing for Amazon sellers. Before the programme, driving external traffic to Amazon felt like paying to build Amazon's business. Now, the reduced referral fees mean your external marketing spend is partially offset by lower Amazon fees.
For sellers already investing in external marketing, enabling Attribution and claiming the bonus is a no-brainer — it costs nothing extra and reduces your fees. For sellers not yet doing external marketing, the bonus provides additional financial incentive to start experimenting with Facebook ads, email marketing, or social media content that drives Amazon sales.
Tracking and Optimisation
Use Attribution reports to monitor which external channels generate the most sales and the highest bonus earnings. Over time, you can optimise your external marketing spend by focusing on channels that not only drive sales but also generate the most fee savings through the bonus programme. This dual optimisation — marketing effectiveness plus fee reduction — creates a powerful feedback loop that rewards external marketing investment.