Instagram affiliate links: monetization tips by Instafrenchie

Affiliate links on Instagram are one of the best ways to passively make money on the platform: namely through monetization.

This marketing strategy allows anyone with a growing and engaged audience to monetize Instagram.

How do Instagrammers make money with affiliate marketing on Instagram? With the link in their bio!

Although Instagram only allows one link per bio, we’re going to give you the ultimate cheat sheet for using that link to effectively monetize Instagram.

Benefits of creative affiliate marketing

Benefits of Creative Affiliate MarketingAlthough affiliate marketing is a saturated field, there are many benefits to getting into Instagram affiliate marketing.

Here are the most popular reasons why Instagrammers are turning to affiliate marketing:

Earning extra money

As Instagram has become the go-to place for PR and marketing campaigns, it’s not uncommon for small and large brands to have some type of affiliate program.

Instagrammers who want to earn extra money can promote their favorite affiliate products to interested followers.

As your followers interact with you and make purchases, you and the brand you’re promoting will get a cut of the sales.

Making money with affiliate marketing on Instagram may seem like the only benefit of using affiliate links on Instagram, but there are even more reasons to be interested in this marketing technique.

In addition to making money, many influencers and brands choose to use Instagram affiliate marketing programs to increase brand awareness and engagement on Instagram.

When you promote services and products on Instagram, you identify the brand in a post.

This engagement increases inbound traffic for the brand, generating more brand awareness for the product and service.

Likewise, identifying that brand also helps you attract new followers who are already interested in the brands you are promoting.

Building new relationships

Instagram affiliate marketing is all about building relationships.

While the main benefit of creative affiliate marketing may seem like making money, it’s also an important way to build lasting relationships and partnerships.

Affiliate marketing on Instagram 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 deepen your relationship with new subscribers, affiliate marketing opens the door to ongoing business collaborations for future campaigns with trusted brands.

What are affiliate links on Instagram?

What are affiliate links on Instagram?The link you use in your bio is the portal your followers will go through to purchase your favorite products and services.

Successful affiliate marketing campaigns on Instagram encourage other Instagrammers to click on your link and make a purchase.

While this link is a crucial part of Instagram monetization, you need to give your followers a reason to click on it.

Improve your Link-in-Bio

The first step in using affiliate marketing on Instagram is to update your bio and the link in your bio.

Instagrammers who are successful with affiliate marketing usually have creative and concise bios that give visitors a reason to want to click on the link.

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

Affiliate links on Instagram help connect your followers to the product or service you are linking to, allowing you to earn money on purchases.

These affiliate links on Instagram are designed to drive traffic to specific products, eventually converting interested visitors into customers.

Affiliate marketers rely on influencers, on Instagram and other platforms, to place these links in their bios.

How do affiliate links work on Instagram?

The main benefit of affiliate marketing on Instagram is to monitor marketers’ performance via 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 every time someone signs up for the service or buys that product via your link, you get a percentage of the commission.

With these affiliate links on Instagram, marketers are able to track transactions, giving Instagrammers who use a custom link a percentage of the sales they are responsible for.

This unique affiliate ID is added to the affiliate link, allowing sellers to identify who is responsible for the sale.

While each affiliate link is different, all links consist of the vendor’s URL and each individual’s unique ID number.

How to properly use affiliate links on Instagram

While affiliate marketing may seem simple enough, it’s a complex field.

You’ll need to know the best practices for using affiliate links on Instagram to optimize your profile.

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

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

In addition to building your audience, make sure that your posts and Instagram profile are detectable using the associated 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 will be able to convert all the new followers into customers who will make purchases with your affiliate links on Instagram.

Getting started with an affiliate program

Getting Started with an Affiliate ProgramTo get started with affiliate marketing, you’ll need to find an affiliate program that meets your needs.

While there are no guarantees of sales with affiliate links on Instagram, thousands of users are successfully monetizing their Instagram accounts with this type of marketing.

When looking for an affiliate program, you’ll see that affiliate marketing consists of 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 article, we focus on the latter option.

When choosing an affiliate program, it is important to consider the following factors:

What is their product/service?

Honesty and transparency are an important part of how you monetize Instagram by helping you connect with your followers on Instagram.

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

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

This way, you’ll be able to provide an honest review when promoting products, giving your followers the incentive they need to make a purchase from your Instagram account.

Does this product/service fit my brand?

Does this product/service fit my brand? In addition to determining if the product you choose is something you are interested in or actually use, it is important to consider an affiliate program that will help strengthen your personal brand.

For example, promoting certain products and services that go against your brand’s ethics or image is something that negatively affects your marketing efforts and even your relationship with your followers.

Influencers make sure that every brand’s vision aligns with their own when working with an affiliate marketing program.

You can promote your affiliate links on Instagram via captions and content that match your brand.

What is the company's reputation?

What is the reputation of the company?Just as you need to make sure that the affiliate marketing program fits your brand, you need to determine whether or not the company you are considering is reputable.

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

Avoid this by choosing to only work with reputable companies.

How does the commission work?

While affiliate marketing works by giving influencers a commission on the sales they generate, each program can vary.

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

Since affiliate marketing relies on several methods such as discount codes, unique affiliate links on Instagram, and similar techniques, each program will have its own payment method and commission rate that its marketers earn, but the affiliate marketing commission rate typically ranges from 5-30%.

What is the payment method?

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

Since 41% of affiliates experience payment problems with their partners, it is best to work with a program that uses a reliable payment method.

Many affiliate programs use popular payment methods such as PayPal, FirstChoice Pay, Paxum, Payza, ePayments, WebMoney, Skrill, Neteller, Bitcoin, Western Union, wire transfers and similar methods to pay their marketers.

When looking for the best affiliate marketing programs on Instagram, make sure you find one that uses a payment method you are already familiar with.

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

How to use Instagram for affiliate marketing

With over a billion users, Instagram is still the best way to reach as many people as possible, making Instagram the perfect way to promote the business you work for as an affiliate

Grab your followers’ attention with the following strategies to promote your affiliate program on Instagram:

Publish in your feed

Even though affiliate marketing can be saturated with influencers, 60% of users discover new products via Instagram and a third have made purchases via the platform.

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

Start promoting your affiliate products by posting a photo of you using a product or service.

Since your followers trust you, it’s likely they’ll want to try it out as well.

Promote in stories

Take advantage of stories on Instagram to promote your 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 or more followers, you’ll be able to add a swipe-up link to your stories.

Even with less than 10,000 followers, it’s helpful to post information about the products you’re promoting.

Use IGTV

When people understand something better, they are more likely to buy it.

You can use IGTV to present a tutorial or Q&A to help your subscribers better understand the product or service.

Set up an interview with one of the affiliate’s employees and spend time discussing the product or service together.

Giving your subscribers insight into the companies you work with can build trust and a stronger relationship with your audience.

The more your subscribers believe in the products or services you are promoting, the more willing they will be to try them themselves.

Product comparisons

Product comparison posts are another way to use Instagram to show the benefits of the service or product you are promoting.

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

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

Notice

Reviews are another popular way for businesses to use Instagram to sell affiliate products.

Since your audience is looking to you for an honest and trustworthy opinion, you should always share your real thoughts on what you are promoting.

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

Gift guides

If the vacations are coming up, create a gift guide with the products you recommend and make sure to include the product you are affiliated with.

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

Use descriptive captions

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

Depending on the product or service you’re promoting, good Instagram captions are those that are relevant, but also have a call to action to promote your affiliate link.

Setting up affiliate links on Instagram

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

Instagram doesn’t allow you to create a link in every post or put multiple links in your bio, but there are plenty of ways to work around this.

Organic affiliation link: permanent or temporary?

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

If you’re only associated with one program, this is easy and you can keep the same link here all the time.

Be sure to update the link every time you post about a new product.

If you choose to be affiliated with many companies, you will need to change the link in accordance with what you are promoting at that time.

It can be a tedious task to constantly change this link, however we have a solution for you: use a link panel.

Link panels on Instagram

Link panels are apps that allow you to have a single link where you insert multiple affiliate links on Instagram that you can then put in your bio.

Using Instagram for successful affiliate marketing is all about properly promoting your link via Instagram posts, captions and stories, building strong 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 affiliate links on Instagram into a booming business.

Remember to keep this guide in mind when monetizing Instagram with creative affiliate marketing.