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How to use affiliate links on instagram


7 Ways to Make More Money — Marketing (2022)

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. 

How to start affiliate marketing on Instagram

Before we tackle how to make money on Instagram, follow these three steps to prepare your account for affiliate promotion.

  1. Switch to a Creator account

To run an affiliate marketing program on Instagram, you’ll need to turn your Instagram account into a Creator account. Here are the steps:  

    1. Open your Instagram account.
    2. Select Settings.
    3. Go to Account.
    4. Tap Switch to a professional account and choose Creator.
    5. Choose the category that best describes your affiliate niche.
    6. Enter your contact information.

 

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.

2. Choose the right affiliate partners

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:

  • Affiliate marketing programs. Brands in all niches encourage customers to promote their products in exchange for commission. Popular programs include Shopify, Amazon Associates, and the eBay Partner Network. 
  • Affiliate networks. Platforms like ShareASale, Rakuten, Awin, and CJ Affiliate allow marketers to generate custom links, track commission, and receive payouts from one dashboard. Note that many programs within a network have different commission rates.

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.  

3. Build your influence

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. 

Source

Tips to build your Instagram influence include:

  • Post when your audience is active. 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.
  • Be consistent. Help people know what to expect when they hit the Follow button for the first time. Consistently sharing new content also gives followers more opportunity to engage—a factor considered in Instagram’s algorithm.
  • Share mostly non-promotional content. Keep your content—and recommendations—credible by posting mostly non-promotional content. We like the rule suggested by Marc Bromhall, founder of Beginner Surf Gear: “I adopt the one-in-20 principle, so only 5% of my posts are affiliate posts. Any more than that and you run the risk of eroding trust and credibility with your audience.” 
  • Pick a niche. The goal is to be known as a trustworthy source of information, news, or entertainment in the industry you sell affiliate products within. 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.

Seven tips to making more affiliate sales on Instagram

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.

  1. Label affiliate products as a paid partnership.
  2. Create an Instagram affiliate storefront.
  3. Add affiliate links to your Instagram bio.
  4. Create a discount code Story highlight.
  5. Record product demonstrations. 
  6. Use hashtags to expand your reach.
  7. Track affiliate performance. 

1. Label affiliate products as a paid partnership

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. ”

 2. Create an Instagram affiliate storefront

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. 

3.  Add affiliate links to your Instagram bio

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 Linktree 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:

4. Create a discount code Story highlight

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. 

5. Record product demonstrations

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: 

  • Instagram Stories for vlog-style videos
  • Instagram Reels for short, TikTok-style videos 
  • Instagram Live for live streaming product tutorials in real time 

“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.

💡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. 

6. Use hashtags to expand your reach 

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:

  • SparkToro
  • SISTRIX 
  • Inflact

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

7. Track affiliate performance 

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:

  • Brand awareness. Use Post Insights to discover how people find your content—be that the Explore page, their feed, or directly through your profile.
  • Profile activity. If you’re pointing followers toward a link aggregation tool, check how many people click the link from your bio.
  • Engagement rate. Evaluate this by affiliate product on offer, type of content, and format. If tutorial-based Instagram Stories have a higher engagement rate than standard grid posts, prioritize them going forward. 

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:

  • Most and least purchased products
  • Conversion rate for promoted affiliate items
  • Affiliate conversion spikes around periods of heavy Instagram promotion

The future of Instagram affiliate marketing 

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. 

Instagram affiliate marketing FAQ

How can I do affiliate marketing on Instagram?

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.

How do I start affiliate marketing as a beginner?

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.

How many followers do you need to do affiliate marketing?

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.

How do affiliate marketers make money on Instagram?

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%.

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet To Affiliate Links On Instagram

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Affiliate links on Instagram are one of the best ways to passively make money on the platform. This marketing strategy allows anyone with a growing and engaged following to monetize Instagram. 

How are Instagrammers making money with Instagram affiliate marketing?

With the link in their bio!

Though Instagram allows only one link per bio,  we are going to give you the ultimate cheatsheet to use this link to effectively monetize Instagram.

Quick Links

Benefits of Creative Affiliate Marketing

Though affiliate marketing is a saturated field, there are many benefits of getting into Instagram affiliate marketing.

The following are the most popular reasons Instagrammers turn to affiliate marketing:

Make Extra Money

As Instagram has become the go-to for PR and marketing campaigns, it isn’t uncommon for both small and large brands to have some type of affiliate program. Instagrammers that want to earn extra money can promote their favorite affiliate products to interested followers. As your followers engage with you and make purchases, both you and the brand you’re promoting will get a cut of the sales. 

Making money with Instagram affiliate marketing may seem like the only benefit of using affiliate links on Instagram, but there’s more to love about this marketing technique. In addition to earning more money, many influencers and brands choose to use Instagram affiliate marketing tools to increase brand awareness and engagement on Instagram. 

As you promote services and products on Instagram, you’ll tag the brand to mention them in a post. This engagement increases incoming traffic for the brand, generating more brand awareness for the product and service. Likewise, tagging this brand also helps you to attract new followers that are already interested in the brands you’re promoting. 

Build New Relationships

Instagram affiliate marketing is all about building connections. While the main benefit of creative affiliate marketing may seem to be making money, it’s also an important way to build relationships and lasting partnerships. 

Instagram affiliate marketing fosters these new relationships with interested followers as well as brands. This can lead to more opportunities for future sales and marketing efforts. Just as you’ll deepen your relationship with new Instagram followers, affiliate marketing opens up the door to continued business collaborations for future campaigns with trusted brands.  

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What Are Affiliate Links on Instagram?

The link you use in your bio is the portal that your followers will go through to shop your favorite products and services. Successful Instagram affiliate marketing campaigns entice other Instagrammers to click through your link and make a purchase.

Though this link is a crucial part of monetizing Instagram, you need to give your followers a reason to click through the link.

Upgrade Your Link-in-Bio

The first step in using Instagram affiliate marketing is to update your bio and the link in your bio. Instagrammers with successful affiliate marketing side hustles typically have creative and concise bios that give visitors a reason to want to click the link.

With only 150 characters to do so, it’s important that you share a little about yourself, relevant keywords, and hashtags. 

Affiliate links on Instagram help connect your followers to the product or service that you’re partnering with, allowing you to make money off the purchases. 

These affiliate links on Instagram are designed to drive traffic to particular products, eventually to convert interested visitors to customers.

Affiliate marketers rely on Instagram influencers and the like to place these links in their bios.

How Affiliate Links on Instagram Work

The main benefit of Instagram affiliate marketing is to monitor the performance of marketers through specific links.

While every affiliate program is different, the basic idea is this: you sign up to be an affiliate for a product or service, and whenever someone signs up for the service or purchases that product through your link, then you get a cut of the commission.

Pretty cool right? 

Through these affiliate links on Instagram, marketers are able to track transactions, giving Instagrammers that use a personalized link a cut of the sales they’re responsible for. 

This unique affiliate ID is added to the affiliate link, allowing vendors to identify who is responsible for the sale. Though each affiliate link is different, all links are made up of the vendor’s URL and each individual’s unique identification number.   

How to Use Affiliate Links on Instagram Properly 

Though affiliate marketing seems pretty straightforward, not all affiliate marketing is created equally. You’ll need to know the best practices to use affiliate links on Instagram in order to optimize your profile. 

To guarantee you’ll get sales from your affiliate links on Instagram, it’s essential that you already have a strong relationship with your followers that you know will interact with your affiliate links on Instagram.

If possible, build up a larger following before joining an affiliate marketing program, this way, you’ll already have a captive audience once you join an affiliate program. 

In addition to growing your following, make sure your Instagram posts and profile are discoverable with the help of related hashtags.

The right hashtags will help you monetize Instagram by putting your content in front of your target audience and interested Instagrammers.

With the help of hashtags, you’ll be able to convert any new followers to customers that shop with your affiliate links on Instagram.

Getting Started with an Affiliate Program

To get started with affiliate marketing, you’ll need to find an affiliate program that meets your needs.

Though there is no guarantee of sales with affiliate links on Instagram, thousands of users successfully monetize Instagram through this type of marketing. 

As you look for an affiliate program, you’ll see that affiliate marketing has two different approaches, either your company creates an affiliate program for others to join, or you can sign up for another company’s program. In this blog, we are focusing on the latter option. 

When picking an affiliate program it’s important to consider the following factors:

What is their product/service? 

Honesty and transparency is a major part of how you monetize Instagram by helping you connect with your followers on Instagram.

It’s important to extend this level of authenticity to your affiliate marketing as well.  

Look for affiliate programs that offer products and services that you already use and like.

This way, you’ll be able to provide an honest review when promoting your products, giving your followers the motivation they need to go through with a purchase as you monetize Instagram. 

Does this product/service align with my brand?

In addition to determining whether you actively use or believe in the product you’re choosing, it’s important to consider an affiliate program that will help bolster your personal brand. 

For example, promoting certain products and services that go against their brand’s ethics or image is something that will negatively affect their marketing efforts and even their relationships with their followers. 

Influencers like @DennisthePrescott make sure each brand’s vision aligns with his own when working with an affiliate marketing program, like in this post promoting a hotel he stayed at when shooting his Netflix show, Restaurants on the Edge.

You can promote your affiliate links on Instagram in the same way through captions and content that fits your brand. 

What is the company’s reputation?

Just as you should make sure that the affiliate marketing program fits in with your brand, you must determine whether or not the company you’re considering is reputable.

While they may have a popular product or service, if the brand itself has a shady history, this type of notoriety may eventually spread to you and damage your reputation.

Avoid this by choosing to only work with reputable companies. 

How does the commission work? 

Through affiliate marketing works by giving influencers a commission of the sales they generate, each program may differ slightly.

Be sure to carefully read the fine print of how the affiliate program compensates its affiliate marketers. 

As affiliate marketing relies on multiple methods like discount codes, unique affiliate links on Instagram, and similar techniques, each program will have its own method of payment and rate of commission that its marketers earn, though affiliate marketing commission rates typically range from 5% – 30%.   

For example, we at Kicksta have our own affiliate program where affiliates can make 50% commission on each sign-up, pretty cool right?

Some other benefits of our program include bonuses for extra monthly commissions, timely payouts, and a dedicated affiliate management team- all things that you should be looking for when picking an affiliate program.

What is the method of payment?

Researching this aspect will help you determine which program is right for you.

As 41% of affiliates experience payment issues with partners, it’s better to work with a program that uses a reliable method of payment. 

Many affiliate programs use popular payment methods like PayPal, FirstChoice Pay, Paxum, Payza, ePayments, WebMoney, Skrill, Neteller, Bitcoin, Western Union, wire transfers, and similar methods to pay their marketers. As you search for the best Instagram affiliate marketing programs, be sure to find one that uses a payment method that you’re already familiar with.

Once you have found an affiliate program right for you, you can now focus on how to best promote the product or service.

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Join 100k+ savvy Instagram marketers

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How to Use Instagram for Affiliate Marketing 

With more than 1 billion users, Instagram is still the best way to reach as many people as possible, which makes using Instagram for business the perfect way to promote the company that you work as an affiliate for. Get the attention of your followers with the following strategies to promote your affiliate program on Instagram:

Post to Your Feed

Even though affiliate marketing may be saturated with influencers,  60% of users learn about new products through Instagram, and one-third have purchased through the platform.

There’s always room for one more Instagrammer with a loyal following to start using Instagram for business!

Get started promoting your affiliate products by posting a photo of you using a product or service. Since your followers trust you, they are likely to want to try it as well.

Promote in Instagram Stories 

Take advantage of using Instagram stories to promote your products. @Gossmakeupartist is one Instagrammer that is fond of using this method.

Makeup artist Wayne Goss uses his stories frequently to promote his latest products.

While many affiliate marketers rely on sending their followers to the link in their bio, including a link and photos of the product in your stories will increase your reach. 

If you have 10,000 followers or more, you’ll be able to add the swipe-up link to your stories. 

Even with fewer than 10k followers, it helps to post about your promoted products. 

Use IGTV 

When people understand something better, they are more likely to purchase it. You can use IGTV to demonstrate a how-to tutorial or a Q & A to help your followers understand the product or service better.

Set up an interview with one of the employees of your affiliate company and spend time discussing the product or service together. By giving your followers insight into the companies you’re working with, you’ll be able to boost their trust and build a stronger relationship with your audience. 

@gypsea_lust is fond of using IGTV to promote her travels and the brands she partners with. In this IGTV video, Lauren Bullen gives a tour of her recently rented Marrakech Riad, giving her followers a reason to try it for themselves.

The more your followers believe in the products or services you promote, the more willing they will be to try it themselves. 

Product Comparisons 

Product comparison posts are another way to use Instagram for business to show the benefits of the service or product you’re marketing.

With a comparison post, you’ll be to show your followers how your affiliate products compare to the competition.  

In a successful comparison post, it’s important to list the reasons you use the brand you’re marketing, why your followers should listen to you, easy-to-follow information, key comparison points, and a clear winner that your followers can invest in. 

Reviews 

Reviews are another popular way to use Instagram for business to sell affiliate products. As your audience looks to you for your honest and reliable opinion, you should always strive to share your real thoughts on whatever you’re promoting.

Giving an honest review that lists all the pros and cons of a product or service will help you build trust with your followers. 

Gift Guides

If the holidays are around, create a gift guide with products that you recommend and make sure to include the product that you are an affiliate for.

In addition to holidays like Christmas, you can create a gift guide for birthdays, Mothers/Fathers Day, Valentine’s Day, and even a guide for a gift to a good friend.  

Use Descriptive Captions 

When posting a promotional post on your Instagram, it’s helpful to describe the product or service in your caption and include a CTA at the end to encourage engagement with your followers

Depending on your product or service that you are promoting, good Instagram captions are those that are relatable, yet have a call to action to promote your affiliate link.

 For example, @molllyyeh shares a personal story about her life that ties into her promoting the link in her bio. This is also a great way to promote your affiliate link. 

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Setting Up Affiliate Links on Instagram

Now that you know how to pick a program that’s right for you and promote the program on Instagram, the next step is to set up your affiliate link.

Instagram does not allow you to link in every post or put multiple in your bio, but there are many ways around this problem.

Affiliate link in Bio permanent vs. semi-permanent

The first option is to just use the standard one link that Instagram allows you to place in your bio.

If you are only partnered with one program, then this is easy and you can keep the same link there all the time. Make sure to update the link every time you post about a new product. 

If you choose to be an affiliate for different companies, then you will have to change the link depending on what you are promoting at the time.

This can be a tedious task to constantly change the URL, so luckily we have a solution for you: use a link panel.

Link Panels on Instagram for Multiple Links

Link panels are apps that allow you to have one URL where you store multiple affiliate links on Instagram which you can then use for your bio. 

Confused? Here’s how it works: 

Here at Kicksta, we created our own link panel called url.bio and it’s super easy to use:

1. Go https://url.bio where you will see a short description of the product.

2. Next, click the blue Sign Up button in the top right corner.

3. Creating an account is free and will allow you the access to premium features such as unlimited links, customization options, analytics, and more. 

4. Now your account is ready to go! Now you can add as many affiliate links on Instagram as you would like under the URL and promote as many affiliate programs as your heart desires. url.bio will even let you see the analytics behind each link to see which or your pages is driving the most traffic!

To Wrap It Up

Using Instagram for business for successful affiliate marketing comes down to properly promoting your link through Instagram posts, captions, and stories, building solid relationships with your followers, and finding affiliate programs that work for you.

With higher engagement and best practices for affiliate marketing, you’ll be able to quickly turn the affiliate links on Instagram into a booming business.

Be sure to keep this guide in mind as you monetize Instagram with creative affiliate marketing.

How to Use Instagram Branded Content Tools for Your Business

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.

What are Instagram branded content tools?

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.

  • 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.

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!

Who is eligible to use Instagram's branded content tools

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:

  1. 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.

  2. Content creators/publishers must comply with the Instagram Community Guidelines.

  3. 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.

Brands & Companies: Approving Requests, Viewing Affiliate List

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.

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.

Influencers and Content Creators: Setting up branded content tools and requesting a partnership tag

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:

  1. Click on the menu icon in the top right corner of your profile.

  2. Open Settings.

  3. Select "Account"

  4. Select "Branded Content Tools"

  5. 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.

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.

Once your post has been tagged, the Business Partner will be notified and will be able to see your post's information and statistics.

How to use branded content posts on Instagram for your advertising strategy

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.

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.

And you can easily promote posts tagged with branded content, attracting a new audience.

How to get 15 thousand per month on referral links: a guide to affiliate URLs

Not much is said about the role of referral links in marketing. In vain: affiliate links have a huge potential for anyone who wants to drive traffic to a site or make money on affiliate programs.

Today we'll figure out why affiliate links are needed and how to use them with maximum effect. Learn how affiliate programs work.

What is a referral link

Affiliate is a URL that contains a unique ID. It allows you to track which member of the affiliate program brought a new user (client / buyer). Full participation in affiliate programs without affiliate links is simply impossible.

Today, almost all major stores / platforms / services offer partnerships.

If you have your own social media account, blog or website, the affiliate program will help you not only earn money, but also acquaint readers with useful products/services.

There are also partner networks . Such platforms can bring together dozens and even hundreds of companies offering partnerships. The main advantage of the affiliate network is the assortment. Affiliate networks allow you to choose a product or service that will be of real interest to the target audience of your site / community / other platform.

In addition, affiliate networks contain long-term statistics that make it possible to judge the potential of a particular product in terms of promotion.

Affiliate networks, as a rule, offer one-day products that are not suitable for long-term promotion, so in this material we will focus on affiliate programs of serious market players.

Payment in affiliate programs

Most often, payment is made for the completed target action (purchase or registration). However, there are also affiliate programs that pay just for clicks or even ad unit impressions. There are much fewer of them in general, and Russian companies practically do not use this model of cooperation.

Beget Hosting / Domain Name Registrar Affiliate Program Example

Usually referrals receive from 10% to 40% of the reward, but there are companies that pay up to 70% of the profit from one referred person as a referral fee.

Who can earn

As we have already understood, not only the owner of his own website, but also the author of an Instagram page or the owner of a visited YouTube channel can earn on affiliate programs. In addition, affiliate links are actively posted by members of forums and QA services. Affiliates leave links directly in the comments on any sites.

Fraudsters

If you want to earn long-term, it is better to choose large federal companies with a name (the same stores / marketplaces: Ozon, M.Video and others).

Of course, it is necessary to check the integrity of the company, its history in the market, the stability and frequency of payments to PP participants. To do this, just google reviews:

Is it worth shortening the referral link

A universal law works here: the shorter and more beautiful the link, the more likely it is to be clicked on. That is why you need to shorten the link: a regular affiliate link might look like this:0003

https://theproduct.com/page/9d4c0d34c28ce5fcd7d751636314b24d4355f53

(And this is not the worst option, by the way)

To mask the affiliate, you can use the URL shortening service. I use clck.ru. There is also a good vk.cc, but you will need VKontakte authorization to use it.

The principle of operation for all such services is identical. For example, let's take a stable working clck.ru.

To shorten an affiliate URL, simply paste the appropriate address into the link field. This is what our affiliate URL looked like before the shortening:

And so - after:

Clicking on such a link will be much more pleasant.

How to shorten a link: an overview of 11 services

Top 11 best places to post affiliate URLs

Before posting a link on the selected site, study the conditions of the selected affiliate program. Many BCPs have strict restrictions on the type of traffic, specific sites and ways to attract it.

You can place affiliates anywhere and on any platform. Over the years of working with affiliate programs, I have identified 11 of the most effective places to place links.

Your page on social networks

If you want to get normal referrals, the profile must be visited (from 1,000 views per day). In addition, it is incredibly important to accurately hit the target audience. You can show ads more than 20 thousand times a day, but if the audience is not the target audience, you will not receive a single registration.

Communities in social networks

Social networks host the largest share of affiliate links today. You can meet affiliates on Facebook, VKontakte, Instagram, TikTok and other popular social networks.

The main thing is that the affiliate link must be as as relevant as possible to your community content.

It is important not to focus on traditional means (for example, fasting). Try other tools that the social network gives you. For example, live broadcasts or stories. Often they work much better for affiliates.

In many social networks, the functionality of the marketplace / store appears today (you can post products directly in the community). Use this opportunity and write referral links directly in the product cards. This way you will increase your reach and get much more traffic to the selected affiliate program.

Mindless comment spam doesn't work. If you want to use any social network to promote affiliates, the best option is to have your own community.

Another option for promotion in social networks is the distribution of messages (mass or manual). If you do this regularly, your page will quickly be blocked. Therefore, I cannot recommend this method to inexperienced users. To get started, study the limits on sending messages and only then try to carry out test mailings. Be careful: mass spamming of messages on social networks (except for officially allowed tools, such as mailing to subscribers in the community) is a very risky way to promote. You may be banned.

If you do not have your own community, you can use special services that allow you to purchase sponsored posts. Their price varies depending on the selected community (the number of subscribers, activity, topics, coverage). I recommend buying sponsored posts through RotaPost or the Sociate exchange. Both services have a convenient search across all sites, and you can place an advertising post even with a small budget.

Bloggers

The advantage of advertising with bloggers is that you get advertising + additional credibility (due to the blogger's brand / face). Well-known bloggers are especially good at referral links to the "goods".

When choosing a blogger, be sure to manually analyze his page: there should be a high level of engagement and a minimum of fakes. To analyze the selected profile, you can use specialized services.

Even if the number of likes / reposts / comments approaches the number of subscribers, this still cannot be proof that you have a conscientious blogger. Check everything yourself!

Big search: 6 services for working with bloggers on Instagram and YouTube

Topic forums

Choose highly visited sites with relevant audiences. With moderation on such forums, it is much more difficult, but if the link is useful to readers, no one will touch it.

Please note that on most forums, your account must have at least some reputation in order to post a new post. So it's not worth registering on the forum specifically to post a link. Ideally, you should be an active participant in the selected forum for more than a year.

Naturally, you should not post a link in new topics. It is better to find an existing one and place the URL in it. The topic must be relevant to the link being posted.

In many forums, users have the option to use so-called signatures. This is a small piece of text that is displayed immediately after your message.

Forum owners are trying to monetize their projects, so many thematic sites have the opportunity to open their own topic for a fee. There you can post any links:

Contextual advertising and targeting

If you have ever set up the context, then placing an affiliate link directly in the ad text will not be difficult for you. True, here we are already talking about significant investments. In addition, a significant part of affiliate programs places restrictions on such traffic.

If you decide to promote your affiliate with targeted advertising, pay special attention to the creative. It should be as "useful" and attractive as possible. The ad must also meet similar requirements if you have chosen to promote the Google Ads or Yandex.Direct ref.

Contextual advertising is a complex tool that requires relatively large financial costs. If you have never worked with him on your own, it is better to immediately contact the professionals.

Your own website

Your own website is one of the most effective referrer tools (again, provided it has good traffic). Minus - your site should be monothematic, because for each referral link you need to select strictly relevant pages.

Where exactly should the link be placed? Placement on the main page (header / footer) gives good results if your site is entirely devoted to the theme of the affiliate program.

According to my statistics, affiliates placed directly in the body of a feature article work much better. For example, you became a cosmetic brand referrer, and your site has a page dedicated to choosing a particular cosmetic product. It is in this article that the link will work best.

Groups in messengers and mailings in messengers using contact lists

In 2021, the functionality of messengers continues to be actively developed.

Telegram is a great place to post affiliates. It is best to place refs in your own information channel. As for other messengers, you can distribute links in them using direct mailing. Some manage to place affiliates in statuses, but personally this method has never brought results for me.

YouTube channel. TikTok

Many bloggers promote referral links using their own channel. I’ll note right away: the effectiveness of such advertising, if you are watched, can be very high.

You can embed the link in the description of the video or in the post-production video itself. It is difficult to say what will be more effective in the subject of your affiliate program. Need to test.

Another way to move referral links through YouTube is through comments. You can leave them on almost any channel. Pay attention not only to the topic of the channel and the number of subs, but also to the general activity of the audience.

Comments on websites

Probably this type of advertising will never die. You need to leave links in such a way that they pass moderation without attracting the attention of algorithms that automatically clean the site from spam.

It is incredibly difficult to leave a link on many visited sites. There are several options for solving this problem.

  1. Write to the site admin and arrange manual placement (free or paid). Emphasize that the URL will actually be useful to site visitors.
  2. Write about the importance of the link in the text of the comment itself. You can leave a comment like: “Here is useful text + URL. Please do not remove the link - this is not an advertisement." On sites with manual comment moderation, this method works well.
  3. Mask the link so that it is not identified by the site engine as a URL. This method can be recommended only if absolutely all comments are published on the selected site without pre-moderation.

Banner networks

Banner network - several sites that are connected to each other using an advertising network. The banner network automatically allocates space for placing banners, while each participating site agrees to place partner banners on its site.

Referral links are a great candidate for banner networks. Such services allow you to show an affiliate not on one, but on dozens and even hundreds of sites at once.

Learn more