How to do affiliate marketing on Instagram

Instagram affiliate marketing is a means of advertising affiliate links that is sometimes ignored. When done correctly, though, it may be quite successful.

Instagram may be utilized as a supplement to your entire affiliate marketing plan or as a stand-alone approach.

Are you unsure whether or not Instagram affiliate marketing is good for you? We’ll take a deeper look at affiliate marketing on the popular social media site in this article.

We’ll go through Instagram metrics, alternative ways for advertising items, successful Instagram affiliates, and more… Let’s get started!

Is it possible to use Instagram for Affiliate Marketing?

Instagram allows people to connect with products on a more intimate level than traditional forms of advertising, such as television ads. Users may easily like, share, and comment on product videos, as well as purchase the items.

Instagram affiliate marketing entails an Instagram affiliate or influencer promoting a brand’s products in exchange for a commission on the clicks or purchases produced.

Influencer networks like ShareASale and CJ Affiliate link companies with influencers who wish to promote their products.

When you think about Instagram, influencers like Kylie Jenner are among the first names that spring to mind. She is one of the few influencers that earns more than a million dollars every post. Every celebrity chooses a specialized product to market to their followers.

You may earn money by marketing things on Instagram in a variety of ways. On the platform, affiliate marketers often advertise items and provide discount coupons to their followers.

On their posts, profiles, stories, and IGTV descriptions, many influencers include trackable product links. Affiliate links are unique trackable links that allow the affiliate network to track sales back to the influencer.

The influencer then receives a percentage of the product’s sale price as a commission. Influencer commissions vary per brand, but they commonly range from ten percent to twenty percent of the product sold.

It’s vital to remember that Instagram affiliates get paid after the return/exchange time for a product has expired. This might take anything from 60 to 90 days. In other words, if you assist in the sale of a product now, you will get reimbursed 60–90 days later.

As a result, it’s critical to maintain your money in order. Having a secondary source of revenue to supplement your affiliate marketing efforts is essential for long-term success.

Why Choose Instagram Affiliate Marketing in 2022?

Affiliate marketing on Instagram provides a strong return on investment — 43% of marketers expect Instagram word-of-mouth marketing to boost direct sales. Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular as a means of increasing income for businesses.

While the enormous need for trustworthy influencers has raised competition, it has also enhanced the profitability of affiliate marketing on Instagram. As a result, the worldwide market value of influencer marketing has more than quadrupled since 2019 to $13.8 billion.

At the start of 2020, 80% of evaluated Instagram influencers saw an increase in user engagement. Instagram also implemented tools such as shoppable posts, live shopping, shopping stickers, and Instagram checkout in early 2021 to make buying things easier for consumers.

There has never been a better moment to become an Instagram influencer.

How to Begin Affiliate Marketing on Instagram

Before you can start advertising things on Instagram, you need to make sure your account is ready to attract businesses for affiliate marketing (digital marketing).

1. Find the Right Niche

Finding the correct niche will allow you to connect with an audience that will enjoy your work. When you ultimately start selling specialty items from the account, you’ll have a larger audience of prospects to convert into consumers.

A good way to start looking for a niche is to use a search engine to explore things that interest you. After you’ve identified a few topics that interest you, go to Quora and hunt for a niche by looking at relevant hot areas and answers.

Let’s imagine you enjoy gardening and are looking for a related niche.

“Indoor gardening” appears to be a market for which you might generate content and attract businesses. Consider starting an Instagram account dedicated to indoor gardening. Of course, the more you look, the more niche ideas you’ll uncover. Using Reddit to find niches in this manner is also a fantastic idea.

Trying to appeal to everyone never succeeds, which emphasizes the need of identifying a niche. Make sure you choose a niche that you are passionate about, since this will make writing material much simpler.

2. Build A Genuine Audience

Your follower count will grow as you continuously upload material, resulting in a genuine audience interested in your page’s content.

You must upload stuff at the proper time. Over-posting and crowding your followers’ timelines will irritate them. However, if you do not update regularly enough, you will not receive enough views and likes, and your fans may forget about you.

Maintaining an active presence on the page will enhance engagement by replying to DMs and comments.

3. Create Engaging Content

The majority of your time spent working on your Instagram account will be spent creating content. It’s one of the most difficult aspects of learning how to use Instagram for affiliate marketing.

You’ll need to research the other Instagram affiliates in your field and generate higher-quality, attention-getting material. It will take some trial and error, but you must trust your instincts and keep trying until you discover something that works.

After you’ve figured out what kind of material your audience would enjoy, you’ll need to go to sites like Pixabay and Shutterstock to source stock images and put together an image to post. You should also come up with a catchy caption for the post.

You can make content creation a little less taxing by researching content templates on tools like Canva.

4. Use Stories, IGTV, Reels to Publish Your Content

Instagram Stories was first released in 2016. Stories are picture and video montages that last for 24 hours and then vanish. Almost every everyday user in 2022 will check the tales of the accounts they follow. A tale, on the other hand, can only be 15 seconds long.

The platform allows you to publish videos that are longer than IGTV posts by more than a minute. If you want to create short-form content for your niche but don’t want it to evaporate as it does on stories, you can create Instagram reels, which are also 15 seconds long.

Influencers frequently utilize live video to engage with their followers, provide updates, and push items.

5. Run Instagram Sponsored Ads

Paying for visibility at the proper moment might help you get more views and followers. You may promote photographs, videos, stories, reels, and IGTV material on Instagram. You may also utilize shopping, collection, or carousel advertising on the Explore page.

Instagram not only allows you to pay for your posts to show in the feeds of individuals who are interested in your specialty, but it also allows you to track and analyze your advertisements.

You can track which of your adverts performs well and then promote material that people prefer.

6. Buy Shoutouts from Popular Meme Pages

Buying shoutouts from big Instagram accounts is another option to pay for exposure. Meme pages have a large audience, thus getting a shoutout from one might help you reach a larger audience.

You don’t have to rely on meme sites for inspiration. You may also buy shoutouts from more well-known accounts in your industry.

Shoutouts range in price from $30 to $300, depending on the popularity of the account. You may either contact an influencer and inquire about shoutout costs, or you can buy shoutouts from sites like buysellshoutouts.com.

7. Do Not Buy Likes, Followers, and Comments

Buying likes, followers, and comments on Instagram may make affiliate marketing appear simple. However, because the engagement is generated by bots, purchasing engagement in this manner will not benefit you in the long run.

Brands look to see whether your account’s interaction is organic before paying you to advertise their items. As a result, it is not worth the money or effort to purchase followers and likes.

How to Do Affiliate Marketing on Instagram

After you’ve established a following in your chosen area using your account, you can start looking for the ideal offer and product to advertise.

This is a far simpler process than developing content and attracting an audience. It’s not difficult to find items to advertise. All you have to do is sign up for an affiliate network and browse through the various brands’ offerings.

1. Join an Affiliate Network

Affiliate networks such as ShareASale, Rakuten, and AWIN have Instagram affiliate networks. You might also use Instagram to promote Amazon affiliate marketing.

Because Amazon is a well-known and trustworthy marketplace where most consumers have already purchased things, becoming an Amazon affiliate on Instagram can help you generate more sales.

Affiliate networks provide you with essential monitoring, reporting, and payment processing tools in addition to assisting you in finding the correct product to sell.

Different affiliate networks provide programmes with varying compensation rates and a diverse assortment of programmes and products. Creating an account on an affiliate network, on the other hand, is free, so you can quickly identify the ideal product to advertise.

2. Select Good Products in Your Niche

Remember that choosing the perfect product in your niche is crucial to boosting sales while looking for items to advertise on the network. Your fans may become disinterested in your page and unfollow the account if you push items from different niches.

Instagram affiliates should strive to form a long-term relationship with the brands they promote. You can be confident that you and the brand will flourish if the brand offers high-quality items and has an image that fits your account.

You must remember that promoting high-ticket items is the best way to make money with Instagram affiliate marketing. This is because regardless of how dedicated your followers are, not every follower will purchase products you promote, and you want to make every lead conversion count.

If you can’t find a high-ticket item to sell, promote a quality product that offers you a decent commission.

Where to Add Affiliate Links on Instagram?

Because Instagram doesn’t want users to leave the app, it makes it tough for influencers to add connections to websites. Despite this, the platform offers a variety of options for displaying affiliate links and earning rewards on clicks and transactions.

Here are the ideal areas to put affiliate links on Instagram:

1. Instagram Stories Link Sticker

For verified accounts and accounts with more than 10,000 followers, Instagram launched the swipe-up functionality in early 2021.

You could use the functionality to include an affiliate link in your storey, which visitors may access by sliding up or hitting the bottom button.

In September 2021, however, the business decided to replace swipe-up links with link stickers. Going to the stickers page, picking the link option, and entering the affiliate link in the form is all it takes to add the link sticker to your narrative.

Because it allows viewers to interact with the story and access affiliate links, this feature is a game-changer. But there’s a catch: it’s only for accounts with more than 10,000 followers.

2. Direct Links on Instagram Stories

You may build a story that links to a brand’s Instagram account if you’re working with one. 86.6 % read news headlines on a daily basis, making it a great approach to market a product or service.

To use this function, go to the Business area of the app’s settings and add the brand as a “Business Partner.” When the brand accepts the post, you’ll be able to tag the brand in the post, and a “Paid collaboration with” tag will display on top of the story. The user will be able to easily navigate to the brand’s page.

3. Add Links in Instagram Bio

If you use Instagram, you’ve probably come across links in an influencer’s profile bio.

However, there are certain drawbacks to this affiliate linking strategy. To begin with, when individuals come upon your posts, they are unlikely to visit your profile. When you go on to marketing another product, you’ll also need to constantly updating the link in your bio.

Nonetheless, an affiliate link should be included in the bio to avoid missing out on prospective rewards.

4. Add Coupon Codes in the Description

Giving leads a coupon code for a discount motivates them to make a purchase. These codes are less complicated than affiliate links since they are brief and easy to remember.

However, you’ll need to work with your publisher to generate a personalized discount code that, when used during checkout, rewards you for the sale.

5. Add Links on IGTV

IGTV videos may range in length from a minute to an hour, and you can include affiliate links in your postings. The links in the caption of the IGTV post can be clicked and opened by users.

FAQ

Does Instagram allow affiliate links?

While affiliate links are permitted on Instagram, the post or story in which you include the affiliate link must adhere to Instagram’s Content Monetization Policy. Your post/story may be removed if you violate the conditions.

How much money do influencers make on Instagram?

Micro-influencers earn an average of $250 each sponsored post, as previously stated. On the other hand, there are no restrictions on how much money you can make with affiliate marketing on Instagram.

How many followers do I need for affiliate marketing on Instagram?

This differs from one network to the next and from one brand to the next. Many programs, on the other hand, enable pages with more than 1,000 followers to market items.