With Instagram being one of the most popular social media platforms in the world and having a very active audience, it is often used by influencers who are looking to monetize their efforts and content creation. One of the ways these social media figures from different industries are trying to monetize their posts is through Instagram affiliate marketing.
Influencers who do use Instagram as an affiliate marketing platform aim to drive traffic to their marketing partners’ websites through the links that they embed within their posts in order to promote a certain product.
But how does Instagram affiliate marketing really work?
Basically, Instagram’s official affiliate network was established to enable partnerships between users and brands. The affiliate marketer (user) displays the product or service in their posts and gets to earn a commission on each sale that is made through a customized URL link that includes a unique affiliate code at the end of it. Both sides win in this equation for obvious reasons; the user earns money and drives engagement to their profile while the brand gets to market their product.
Instagram even shared a few steps to help users set up their post with an affiliate link:
Step 1: To onboard, head to “Professional dashboard” and tap “Set Up Affiliate”.
Step 2: Once onboarded, navigate to the shop of your choice, select the products you plan to promote and save them to your wishlist.
Step 3: When creating your affiliate content, you can tag the products you’ve saved.
Step 4: Your final post will include a disclosure, with “Eligible for commission” appearing at the top.
Now the real question is, how can you promote the links that you include in your posts, especially that you can’t do it on every picture you post? Here are 5 ways to get started with Instagram affiliate marketing.
1. Add the affiliate link in your bio
If you choose to adopt this method, you can either select the permanent or semi-permanent aspect of it. If you are a brand ambassador and always promoting the same brand or product, it would make sense to add one affiliate link in your bio; however, if you plan on promoting a different brand or product in each post, then you will definitely need to update the link to take your followers to the correct landing page.
2. Include the affiliate link as a sticker in Instagram stories
As you may already know, all Instagram users can add a clickable sticker link on their Stories, which makes it a lot easier for your followers to visit the website and eventually make a purchase, eventually earning influencers a few extra bucks.
3. Use an affiliate promo code
When it comes to Instagram affiliate marketing, it is known that some affiliate programs offer influencers a promo code that is linked to their affiliate account, and since everyone loves a good discount, this is a win-win situation seeing that followers get a better price and promoters earn a commission. Just make sure to build up excitement around the affiliate promo code to ensure that a large number of people end up using it.
4. Run a sponsored post
You read that right! It is possible to advertise an affiliate offer on Instagram; it is true that his method can cost money, but it is worth the try when you’re working with an affiliate offer that has the potential to generate a large commission per sale; if this is the case then why not make the most out of it?
Found this article about Instagram affiliate marketing useful? Share it and let us know your thoughts by tweeting us @itpliveme!