Affiliate marketing and Instagram marketing are each multibillion-dollar industries—merge them together and you’ve got the potential for a lucrative side hustle. Affiliate marketers on Instagram get paid when their followers purchase a product they’ve recommended.
Instagram makes an ideal platform for affiliates, not just because half of all Instagram users shop on the platform every week, but also because the platform’s content formats—images, videos, and livestreams—showcase the 360-degree view most people need prior to purchasing.
This guide walks through how to set up an affiliate marketing account on Instagram, with seven tips on maximizing your commission.
Before we tackle how to make money on Instagram, follow these three steps to prepare your account for affiliate promotion.
To run an affiliate marketing program on Instagram, you’ll need to turn your Instagram account into a Creator account. Here are the steps:
Instagram Creator profiles are designed for bloggers, influencers, and content creators. It gives you access to tools that will help you grow your affiliate business on the platform—including advanced insights and simplified messaging.
You can see your follower growth, audience demographics, and manage questions from people interested in your affiliated products by dividing your Instagram DMs.
To make money on Instagram with affiliate marketing, you need to discover brands that pay commission on sales you make.
There are two places to start:
While these two routes to monetization have the lowest barrier to entry, you can expand your affiliate marketing business by pitching to work with the brands you already know and love.
Roughly 80% of brands work with affiliates, though many high ticket affiliate programs are invite-only (or at least require some digging). Proving you’re already a loyal customer to the brand will help you secure affiliate links to share on Instagram.
When it comes to Instagram affiliate marketing, quality is more important than quantity.
Instagram influencers with fewer than 10,000 followers can demand roughly $193 per sponsored post, according to a survey by Statista, proving you don’t need tens of thousands of followers to build a new revenue stream through the app as an affiliate marketer. You just need a few people who know, like, and trust what you say.
To make money with Instagram affiliate marketing, the goal is to become an influencer in your audience’s eyes. Only then will you stand a chance at diverting them toward your affiliate links.
Instagram doesn’t pay creators directly; creators monetize by finding sponsors for their content or via affiliate links.
This means the most successful IG creators induce a desire among viewers to buy something--i.e. making them feel that what they already have is insufficient.
— Li Jin (@ljin18) October 1, 2020
Tips to build your Instagram influence include:
There’s not much point in posting new Instagram content if your followers aren’t around to see it. Find your optimal posting times in Instagram Insights.
Take Jake Thomas, founder of Golden Hearts, for example. He promotes pet products for golden retrievers, so it makes sense that his Instagram page shares photos of cute dogs.Once you’ve got your Instagram affiliate account set up, the hard work doesn’t stop there. Use these seven affiliate marketing tips to maximize your income potential through Instagram.
Given the surge in the number of Instagram users incentivized to share products with their followers, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) laid out strict guidelines on how marketers must disclose their relationship with an affiliated brand: “When the review has a clear and conspicuous disclosure of your relationship and the reader can see both the review containing that disclosure and the link at the same time, readers have the information they need.
You could say something like, ‘I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.’ But if the product review containing the disclosure and the link are separated, readers may not make the connection.”
Instagram recently launched a feature designed to help affiliate marketers meet these FTC endorsement requirements. The paid partnerships label, shown in this Instagram post from Chantel Mila, clearly indicates that the affiliate marketer is incentivized to share the brand’s content.
But it’s not just the FTC’s good books you’ll land yourself in by being honest with affiliate recommendations. Lattice Hudson, founder of Lattice & Co, says, “I don’t suggest you obscure the fact that it's affiliate marketing, since then you come off as spam, deceptive affiliate advertising, and promotions.
“Be truthful and fair with your [audience], establishing true relationships through authentic content. They won’t return if all they perceive is a commercial motive—that you don’t have their best interests in mind.
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Back in June 2021, Instagram released news of its new affiliate features—one of which is an in-app storefront, similar to the ecommerce brand’s Instagram Shops, specifically for content creators using the platform.
Creators can showcase the products they’re affiliated with from their profile. The View Shop tab shows recommended products, with affiliates able to tag these products from their Instagram content to encourage sales.
The Instagram affiliate shops feature is still in beta testing, though it’s expected to roll out to US creators soon. In the meantime, work on testing the popularity of different affiliate products. When the feature launches for all creators, you’ll know which items should take pride of place in your affiliate storefront.
Instagram users regularly complain about the fact that they’re only allowed to include one link from their bio.
While the platform listened and took this into consideration for Stories (more on that later), affiliate marketers have had to find workarounds to divert Instagram traffic toward their affiliate links.
One popular workaround is a landing page link aggregator. Tools like Linkpop or Tap Bio allow affiliate marketers to build landing pages that contain multiple other affiliate links, like this example from Lily Pebbles:
Lily uses the same link across most of her social media platforms, and encourages followers to hop between them all through this landing page.
What’s interesting, though, is that Lily’s “Shop my favorites edit” link directs Instagram followers toward a site on her blog that displays the fashion products she loves. Each is monetized through a RewardStyle affiliate link:
Did you know that 88% of US consumers use coupon codes when shopping online? Work that into your affiliate marketing strategy by sharing discount codes with Instagram followers.
Instagram Stories work perfectly here. Not only is the Story format one of Instagram’s most popular, with over 500 million daily users, but affiliates can use the link sticker to divert people toward products—no diversion through your bio link required. (This replaces the swipe up feature Instagram previously reserved for accounts with more than 10,000 followers.)
Take advantage of this direct linking opportunity by sharing discount codes through Instagram Stories. Add affiliate links using the link sticker, like this example from Sprocker Lovers:
Take this money-making strategy a step further by saving your discount codes to a Story highlight. That way, coupon codes don’t disappear after 24 hours. You’ll also monetize first-time visitors to your profile by showcasing the discount codes they can redeem on affiliated products.
Affiliate marketing works when Instagram followers know, like, and trust you enough to purchase the products you recommend.
Help potential customers do that—without making them exit their Instagram feed in search of answers—by demonstrating how to use the product.
This includes:
“The best Instagram affiliate content is typically in the form of recommendations and real life product applications, not sales pitches,” says Hector Ruiz, founder of BBQ Grill Academy.
“This is because an original recommendation tells viewers that you like this product or service that you might be marketing and how you use it in real life. Then, if they like what they see, they will click on the link to learn more about the product.”
For an example of this affiliate marketing tip in practice, see this Instagram video created by The Anna Edit.
The post has a paid partnership tag to indicate that Anna is working with Armani Beauty, though each product used in the tutorial is linked from the caption—all of which are monetized with RewardStyle links.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Anna (@theannaedit)
💡Pro Tip: Product tutorials lend themselves well to Instagram carousels. Break down each step into an individual photo or short video and post them to your feed. Not only will repurposing the content give it more mileage, but carousels serve as a more permanent place to educate your audience about the products you’ll earn commission on.
To build an affiliate marketing business that generates passive income, you need to build a sustainable stream of new Instagram followers.
More eyeballs on your content decreases the risk of audience fatigue—when people grow bored of seeing the same content repetitively.
Hashtags help you expand your audience without much extra effort. Instagram users can follow hashtags inside the app, meaning your content could appear in their feed, even if they don’t follow your account.
To find Instagram hashtags, start with competitor research. Brands, bloggers, and publishers often use hashtags to expand their own reach. Look at the captions and first comment of Instagram posts shared by them for ideas.
Platforms also exist to show popular hashtags in any given industry, such as:
Before adding a hashtag to your shortlist, double check that it’s not prohibited. Seemingly innocent terms like #adulting and #beautyblogger, and #pushup are all banned by Instagram. Using them in your affiliate content could result in a shadowban.
Instagram Marketing 101: Using Hashtags, Stories, and More to Grow Your Business
Earlier, we mentioned how an Instagram creator account gives you access to Instagram’s analytics feature, Insights. Use this data to analyze how successful your affiliate marketing campaigns are on the platform.
Key metrics to look out for include:
Consult the data inside your affiliate marketing dashboard to corroborate Instagram data.
While it’s hard to find a platform with granular tracking (like individual followers that purchased), keep an eye out for:
Instagram is constantly evolving its platform to be more creator-friendly. That’s great news for affiliate marketers using the social media network as a tool to generate extra income.
Start on the right foot by immediately switching to a creator account, securing affiliate partners, and building your influence. Only then can you begin promoting affiliate products in a way that encourages followers to buy.
Get started with Instagram affiliate marketing by switching to a creator account.
Build your influence by attracting new followers, then promote products you’ll earn commission on via Stories, Reels, and grid posts.
Affiliate networks have the lowest barrier to entry for beginner marketers. Join an affiliate network like ShareASale and start promoting your partner’s products through the Instagram app.
When sharing affiliate products on Instagram, the quality of followers is more important than the quantity. Begin earning passive income through Instagram with less than 1,000 followers.
Instagrammers monetize their profile by sharing affiliate content. When someone purchases the product through their link, they’ll earn commission. This ranges between 5% and 50%.
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Affiliate marketing on Instagram works the same as other platforms, where a business pays someone (i.e., an influencer) a commission for attracting people to purchase its product or service. The amount of commission paid is tracked through a unique code or URL.
Instagram used to have a native program for creators, but it ended in August of 2022. Not to worry, though, because you can still make money from affiliate marketing on Instagram. This post will discuss how and give examples of creators that successfully use the strategy.
An important step, although not required, is to have a creator or business account on Instagram.
When you have this designation on your account, it establishes your legitimacy with your followers and the businesses you choose to work with.
You’ll be seen as a trusted source that is not trying to run a scam or make a quick profit.
To start affiliate marketing on Instagram, you need to find an affiliate program you want to work with. Amazon Associates is an excellent example of an affiliate program, where you can earn a commission between 1 and 10% based on the product category.
Another option is to reach out to businesses directly that you’d like to work with and explain how you relate to what they offer and the potential your audience has to bring them.
Businesses might also reach out to you directly to start an affiliate partnership, which brings back the importance of having a business profile or creator account to establish your legitimacy.
When finalizing your partnerships, ensure you choose products or services that relate to your niche, audience, and the content you already create.
For example, if you’re a technology creator, partnering with a beauty brand does not align with the influence and content you create.
It’s also essential to have trust in the products, businesses, or services you recommend. If your audience follows through with a purchase because of your recommendation and experience with the product and it doesn’t work as advertised, you can lose the trust with your audience that you worked hard to build.
It’s a best practice to try products or services yourself beforehand to ensure the partnership is worthwhile for all involved.
The way you make money as an affiliate is when your audiences make a purchase through your unique code or link. So, make sure you share your codes in your Feed posts, Stories, Reels, your profile Bio — wherever they’ll be visible to your audience. If you have 10k or more followers, you can include a swipe up link in your Stories.
When you share these links, it’s also a best practice to make it clear that it is part of a paid partnership to be transparent with your audience.
Let’s go over some examples of people on Instagram who have used affiliate marketing in different ways.
Sean Garrette uses affiliate marketing through a Linktree in his Instagram bio that leads audiences to his different affiliate partnerships.
Source
Cash Jordan, a New York City real estate agent, shares affiliate codes from his partnerships in his post captions. He recently partnered with Roadway Movers, and he created an Instagram video to explain the service and let his followers know that they’ll receive 10% off with his unique code.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Cash Jordan (@iamcashjordan)
Source
Adriana Lopez is a travel and lifestyle blogger who is often an affiliate partner of different lifestyle and travel companies.
In a recent post, she shared an affiliate code that gives audiences a discount when they book their next vacation with her code.
Source
New York based influencer, shares affiliate links in her Instagram Stories with an easy-to-use clickable link sticker to immediately begin shopping, or you also have the option to enter her unique code during checkout.
Source
In the image below, fitness influencer Jesse James West shares a unique story about this experience with a brand and vouching for their products along with an affiliate code for his followers to use.
Source
Affiliate marketing helps you drive revenue, develop relationships with your favorite brands or businesses, and bring value to your audiences, so it’s a worthwhile strategy to consider when it comes to driving loyalty and engagement on the platform.
Topics: Instagram Marketing
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Instagram Branded Content Tools may seem like a feature only big brands use, but trust me, it can be a real asset to your strategy, no matter what your capabilities!
You can have full control over which posts influencers have tagged you as a paying affiliate and get real-time insight into how tagged posts are performing - making your partnerships with influencers and bloggers more efficient, transparent and traceable. nine0003
Let's clarify what "branded content" is:
According to Instagram's rules, branded content is author or publisher content that mentions a business partner on a commercial basis (for example, when the partner paid the author or publisher).
Any content created by a blogger, influencer or ambassador as part of your brand development strategy. nine0003
Any message that was commissioned, sponsored or paid for by a brand.
Instagram has created tagging and analytics features for businesses and creators, branded content tools that help make paid brand partnerships more understandable to people scrolling through the feed.
They are designed to help businesses and bloggers work together in a more transparent way. Which will be very helpful as businesses and brands increasingly need to be crystal clear in their disclosure of paid partnerships. nine0003
For content creators, being able to mark a post as an official paid partnership adds an extra layer of authenticity to their content - presenting them as a recognized brand partner.
This can be a huge advantage for authors looking to build their reputation and get more partnerships. Especially if they are micro-influencers trying to expand their business portfolio.
So whether you're a brand or an Instagram content creator, using branded content features is a win-win situation! nine0003
To get started with the branded content tools, you'll first need to comply with Instagram's policies.
Here is an overview of who the function is available to:
Content creators/publishers must have a business profile or Creator account. Business partners must have a business account to be marked as a paid partner.
nine0016Content creators/publishers must comply with the Instagram Community Guidelines.
Content creators/publishers cannot be government officials subject to government regulations or ethics.
Once you meet these requirements, setting up and using Instagram's branded content tools is very easy.
How to set up branded content on Instagram
There are different steps for businesses and content creators to start using Instagram's branded content feature.
All you need is a business account to start tagging in branded content posts from your partners, influencers or brand ambassadors.
By default, you will have to manually approve all branded content posts in which you have been tagged. If you want automatic approval, just go to your settings, select "company" and open the "branded content approval" tab. nine0003
Here you can turn on or off the "manually approve labels" switch.
If you want to control all marks, it's better to leave manual approval.
In this tab, you can also view all incoming Tag Requests and see a list of all approved Business Partners that you work with on a regular basis.
Adding a content creator as an approved business partner will speed up the entire process because they never have to wait for you to approve their request before they can click the Publish button. nine0003
As a content creator, you will need to set up the branded content feature in your account before you can start tagging companies in your posts.
To do this, follow these 5 simple steps:
Click on the menu icon in the top right corner of your profile.
Open Settings.
Select "Account"
Select "Branded Content Tools"
Click "Access Tools"
Once you have enabled the feature in your account, you can start tagging business partners in your posts.
To do this, select "Advanced Settings" on the photo or video while recording. nine0003
Select tag business partner and then search for their account.
If you want to tag a story, then when creating it, click on the link icon at the top of the screen, select "Tag business partner".
Note: Business Partners must have a Business Profile to appear in search results.
If the profile appears in the search results but does not allow you to tag it, you will need to contact the business partner and ask for their approval.
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Once your post has been tagged, the Business Partner will be notified and will be able to see your post's information and statistics.
One of the main features of branded content tools is that you can easily promote a brand with a business partner's tag in the feed and stories.
This is a huge benefit for brands looking to get more out of their advertising spend, as tagging a product or service from a well-known blogger or influencer can carry much more weight in the eyes of a potential customer. nine0003
To do this, content creators must enable the "Allow business partner to promote" option in the advanced settings of the Instagram post.
After the content creator does this, affiliates will see the post in their Ads Manager and can start promotion in feed or stories.
Instagram branded content tools are a great way to make your blogging partnerships more effective and trackable, and be super transparent with your audience.
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And you can easily promote posts tagged with branded content, attracting a new audience.
The Collab feature on Instagram* is another way to collaborate with brands and bloggers, or simply make a collab post with a friend or family member.
We tell you how to set up the function, about its advantages and the purposes of introducing it into the social network.
A feature known as "Collab" or "Invite Collaborator" was tested in early 2021 in several countries, including the UK and India, and rolled out globally in October. Collaborative posts are now available for any open account.
Collab allows you to share posts and videos on Instagram* with another person so that no one has to duplicate content. Both authors of the post will be listed, and the post will collect total likes, views, and comments. nine0003
Through shared posts, media personalities can announce collaborations, opinion leaders can interact with brands, and ordinary users can post a video about a vacation with their best friend.
For example, Kourtney Kardashian and her fiancé Travis Barker used this feature on Halloween to show couples' costumes from Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands.
At the top right you can see that the post has two authors - kourtneykardash and travisbarker. Click on the accounts and find that both users have the post, with the same engagement metricsThe function is very easy to use after a little practice.
To make a joint post, click on the plus in the upper right corner or bottom center of the screen. You will be taken to the creation menu. Next, follow the usual steps to create a post or rils. When you go to the menu where you can add a signature, click "Tag people" - a separate screen will open.
Next to the "Add tag" option, you will see the function "Invite collaborator". Click and then find the account of the person you would like to invite to create a shared post. nine0003 You need to know what a collaborator's username looks like in order to search for it.
Multiple users can be selected, up to a maximum of 20. Note that 20 is the total number of participants. It includes both co-authors and people you simply tag in a post. You can tag 10 people and 10 co-authors, or 20 co-authors and no one else.
During the process, you will see a pop-up message "If [co-author's name] accepts the invitation, this person will be credited as the author of your publication and it will be made available to their subscribers." nine0003
This means that you cannot unilaterally designate someone as a co-author of a joint publication. You can only invite a person to cooperate, and he can accept or decline the invitation.
By the way, if you were invited to become a co-author, and in the future you want to remove yourself from this post, just go to the post menu and click "Stop sharing" Have you added all the co-authors you wanted? Click the "Done" button in the upper right corner of the screen to save the settings, then publish as usual.
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To recap:
For Reels co-publishing, the process is the same - record and edit as usual. Check Preview that everything looks correct, then click Next to get to the sharing options. On this page, click on "Tag People" to access the "Invite Collaborator" tag, and follow the outline.
See also: How to check Instagram* for cheating: instructions.
Collab is a great feature for reaching new, relevant audiences, but you need to make sure the content works for all collaborator channels.
For example, you sell high-quality coffee makers, and the co-author sells great coffee. Co-authoring a post is a good idea, as the audience is interested in both.
Several distinct advantages of shared posts on Instagram *:
nine0016 But consider the inconvenience : a joint post will be placed in the profile grids of both authors. This can be awkward when scheduling your posts in the same style. Consider the aesthetics and layout of both accounts before co-writing something.
Instagram Co-Authors* is for general posting, not co-creation.
Duets on TikTok allow you to record your own video along with the original based on another user's video. nine0003 A diction lesson is an example of a TikTok video created specifically for duets. Any user can take it as a template and complete the task by filling in the pauses after the announcer's words
Duets on TikTok and co-authorship on Instagram* introduce the creator of the video to a new audience, which is usually not very good on Instagram*. This is not my opinion, the thought was voiced by the head of the social network Adam Mosseri.
Instagram* is a platform where brands and influencers can stay in touch with audiences they have built elsewhere. It's getting harder and harder to use Instagram* to acquire followers from scratch. nine0003
This is a problem for Mosseri, who wants Instagram* to be as good at getting attention for new creators as TikTok.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram*
“Instagram* is much better at helping content creators who have already made a name for themselves on the platform. TikTok is better at identifying new and young talents, and, first of all, helping them to open up.
And we want to be really good at it. Historically, we have paid less attention to this, but I am pushing my teams in every possible way to ensure that this “boy” (Collab) becomes better. nine0003
Mosseri acknowledges TikTok's ability to create social media stars, which he believes Instagram should also have*. Collaborative posts compensate for one of the main weaknesses of Instagram * and allow you to attract followers without an existing audience.
Theoretically, the function of joint posts will help to identify smaller accounts, but for this, there must be connections - promoted accounts with which they could begin to cooperate.
Content creators who don't have good connections or a large audience won't benefit much from collaborative posts, but it's a step towards Mosseri's goal of doing more with this "boy", Collab. nine0003
It can be concluded that the company plans to develop and improve joint positions.
The delayed posting service SMMplanner works in a similar way: it constantly adds new functionality and improves the existing one. Now this is a whole set of SMM tools with analytics, photo and video editors, a reposter from Instagram * and the site's RSS feed to all popular social networks and various other features.
Register here - to test all the features you will have 14 days of free access to the professional plan instead of the standard week. Then choose any of the PRO plans or the free version, depending on your needs.
