Instagram, even before the affiliate marketing and retail social media shopping push that we’ve seen over the past two or three years, was always the influencer hub. This was the platform where people posted aspirational lifestyle pictures. It makes sense that as lockdown was enforced and many of us were actively seeking to purchase direct from the platform, the higher-ups offered Instagram’s affiliate marketing program as a response. It was locked and loaded and ready to send more influencers into the world with more products to showcase.
So, how do you become part of that industry? How do you begin the journey of making a living from affiliate marketing on Instagram? Follow our guide below to discover how you can take advantage of Instagram’s affiliate features.
Switch over to a creator account
The first step in using Instagram’s affiliate marketing program is to make it official: you are now on Instagram professionally. You are an affiliate marketer. The affiliate marketing program is only available to professional creators, so you’ll want to go into your account settings and switch from a standard account to a professional one. Under professional, choose Creator. This makes your profile public to everyone and available to find on the affiliate program.
In simple terms, click: Settings, Account, Professional Account, and then Creator.
Choose your affiliate partners
Now it’s time to sign up for some programs to start gaining commission. There are two ways you can go about this: with affiliate programs or affiliate networks. Programs allow influencers of all backgrounds to market products in exchange for a commission, however, affiliate networks are a bit more hands-on with their management, creating custom links, and commission based on more extensive tracking and payouts from one dashboard.
For straightforward affiliate programs on Instagram, you can look at brands like Amazon, Shopify, etc. but affiliate networks feature names like CJ, Rakuten, and Awin.
Build your audience
It’s now a matter of doing what you do best, but with intention. You need followers and you need views. However, the good thing about Instagram’s affiliate marketing program is that even micro-influencers can make money. According to Statista, even influencers with less than 10K followers can gain around $193 per sponsored post.
Remember that the key to thriving on Instagram is consistency. Post when your audience is most active and pick a niche so that people will come to you for what they need.
Create your store
One of the features Instagram added to make things easier for affiliate marketers was the ability to create your own storefront. This is an in-app addition that will take users straight from your content to the store where they can buy items you gain commission on. Add your commissioned items to the storefront and they will be there waiting for users to browse.
WANT TO LAUNCH AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM?
If you’re looking to launch an affiliate program for your business, get in touch with our AGENCY team to book a FREE 15 minute strategy call about how we can support you to do this.
