There are 2 ways to add links on a WordPress site — by adding a link to text (a word or phrase) or by adding a link to an image. Which is exactly how you can add custom PayPal buttons to link directly to your PayPal payment pages.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter if you’re linking to a one-time purchase or a subscription payment setup. That’s because you can always add custom PayPal buttons by changing the appearance of the link itself.
Custom PayPal buttons using images
Using a custom graphic or image for your PayPal button requires a little bit of prep work because you need to design/create the image to upload. But after that, it’s easy peasy, lemon squeezy. As long as you follow these steps, you’ll be collecting payments in no time.
Image or Graphic PayPal Button:
- Create your button graphic in software like Photoshop or Canva
- Save your graphic as a .png (or .jpg)
- Upload the graphic to your WordPress Media Library
(Media > Add New) - Log into your PayPal account
- Head to Profile > My Selling Tools
- Go to PayPal Buttons > Update
(if you don’t see PayPal Buttons listed, click this direct link) - Select “Create new button” or edit an existing one
- Set as many custom PayPal buttons up however you’d like
(the only requirements are a title + a price) - In “Step 1,” click “Customize text or appearance”
- Click the option to “Use your own button image”
- Paste in the URL from your WordPress Media Library where you uploaded the graphic
- Finish setting up your buttons + click “Create Button” or “Save Changes”
- Copy the website code
- On your site, head to the page or post for your custom PayPal buttons
- Click on the text editor tab + place your cursor where the button is going
- Paste the website code you copied
- Preview + save your changes to see your custom button in place!
Step 9 in the button creation process:
Custom text links
Creating custom PayPal buttons using a text link is a little bit easier because it doesn’t require creating a graphic for the link. But the steps are pretty similar.
Text Link to PayPal:
- Log into your PayPal account
- Head to Profile > My Selling Tools
- Go to PayPal Buttons > Update
- Select “Create new button” or edit an existing one
- Set the custom PayPal buttons up however you’d like — the only requirements are a title + a price
- Finish setting up your buttons + click “Create Button” or “Save Changes”
- Click the email tab to grab a link for your button
- Copy the email link
- Head to the page or post editor on your site where you want the custom button
- Whether using text or an image, highlight what you want to be the link
- Add the email link you copied from PayPal using the link icon in WordPress
- Preview + save your changes to see your custom link in place!
By now, you may have realized that you can set up custom PayPal buttons graphic right in WordPress. (It works when you use the text link instead of the image link.) But there’s a reason that I like assigning the image within PayPal. And that’s because I may decide to use the embed code outside of my WordPress site too. If I do, the styling is consistent.
Ready to make your custom PayPal buttons but not sure what makes a graphic great? Learn everything you need to know about images + graphics on WordPress with this post.