Instagram Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

Instagram affiliate marketing is a pretty simple prospect for content creators: you’re the “affiliate,” and you recommend and showcase products and services from brands on your Instagram. You then get paid a commission (most often a percentage of the sale) by those brands when your audience clicks one of their affiliate links on your Instagram and purchases a product. 

We’ve put together a step by step guide plus some affiliate marketing tips, so you can get started in the affiliate marketing business!

Get Started in Instagram Affiliate Marketing

The first thing you’ll do is switch your personal Instagram account to a creator or business account. Go to “Settings and Privacy” on the Instagram app, then “Account Types and Tools.” Choose “Switch to Professional (or Creator) Account,” then choose the category that best describes what you do - then select “Business.” You’re all set!

Once you have your pro Insta account, you can update your Instagram bio, sell directly on Instagram, get analytical insights, share contact info, use interactive stickers, and engage with your community as an Instagram business professional. Rad!

Instagram is the Perfect Platform for Affiliate Marketing

Instagram has a long list of features that make it an ideal choice for affiliate content and affiliate marketing!

There are several ways to create posts on Instagram. Photo posts are a single photo on your Insta feed. Video posts (also called “Reels”) are just like photo posts, but feature a single video. An Instagram carousel post lets you select up to 10 photos and/or videos for that post, for your viewers to swipe through. 

And Instagram Stories let you post special mini-features of up to 60 seconds, but those Stories are only available for 24 hours and then they disappear (well, unless you save them as a highlight) - so they’re best for hyping something immediate or time-sensitive.

So as you can see, there are plenty of opportunities for affiliate marketing on Instagram! Think of each of those posting methods as a canvas - it’s up to you to fill them with affiliate content that will draw positive attention to the products or services you’re promoting, in a way that also reps your personality and brand.

How Do I Get Started with Affiliate Programs?

Now that you’re done setting up your Instagram business account, it’s time to start promoting products and services through your Instagram. 

The first, and most obvious choice, is Instagram’s own Creator Marketplace. Businesses and brands can request to join the Creator Marketplace to find creators they may want to work with (like you!), and you can partner with those brands to create posts about products you like. So how do you join the affiliate program on Instagram? 

Once you onboard with Creator Marketplace, you can select interests and brands that are relevant to you, and then brands will be able to send you proposals (“Projects”) with details, requirements, and rates, so you can decide which you’d like to work with and start earning money. From there, you just create your posts as usual (incorporating the brand/product), switching on the “Add Paid Partnership Label” button to tag your brand partners in the post.

The terms of each Instagram Creator Marketplace branded content deal will be different, but you can give yourself better bargaining power for higher IG affiliate marketing rates by having a small deck prepared that shares stats like your follower count, average likes/comments, and past brands/campaigns you’ve worked with.

But Wait, There’s More

Outside of Insta’s Creator Marketplace, there’s a wide range of affiliate marketing networks to choose from externally, including sites like Rakuten Advertising and ShareASale. You may be even more familiar with affiliate marketing programs like those from Amazon (Amazon Associates) and Shopify (Shopify Affiliates.) In most cases, you’ll simply go to the affiliate program page, fill out some pertinent info (name, email address, socials, website), and if it all lines up, you’ll get accepted to the program.

Let’s use Rakuten for our example.

With Rakuten, once you’re in you simply to go your Rakuten affiliate dashboard, where you can browse through products and affiliate offers from brands. When you find a product you’d like to work with, you generate a unique affiliate link (by clicking a button), and then place that link on your Instagram posts that are relevant to that product.

The affiliate links then track the sales that are made through your Instagram account, and boom, that’s how you get paid!

There are hundreds of available products on affiliate network and program sites. According to BigCommerce, over 80% of brands use affiliate marketing programs, so you should have a lot to choose from.

But you can also take another approach if you really want to work with a specific brand or product. Contact them! Many companies now have contact info available for inquiries from influencers and content creators - you’ll never know if you don’t ask, and it’s actually good for the brand if creators already use and are enthused about their products.  

Ask the Big Questions

Speaking of asking, here are a few questions you should ask when choosing your affiliate program(s):

• What types of brands/products do I want to work with, and are there enough of them to choose from in this program or network?

• What kind of reputation do these affiliate programs have? (You are, of course, looking for ones with a good reputation.)

• Does this program have a good commission rate? Rates can vary, but you want to earn enough to make your Instagram posts worth your time and effort.

• Is it easy to communicate with, or get help from, this affiliate network?

Insta Tips for Effective Instagram Marketing!

Affiliate marketing on Instagram can be very rewarding for Instagram influencers and content creators, especially if you take some extra steps to help maximize your commissions and maintain your own brand, which solidifies your credibility. Here are some best practices:

Make Your Insta Posts Interesting and Engaging

Succeeding with Instagram affiliate marketing is more than just holding up the product to camera. Innovative, interesting posts where you show off or use the product or service in unique, can’t-miss-it ways will have a much better chance of a high conversion rate and more revenue for you.

Think outside the box, and vary your content between Instagram Posts, Reels, and Stories to reach your target audience! 

Add in Extra Tools for More Sales

Adding in an automated comment-to-DM tool like Manychat or LTK DM is another way to help boost your Instagram engagement and snag more sales! You can set these tools to return a friendly, personalized DM in response to a query from one of your followers. For instance, you can create a CTA in your post telling viewers to comment "WANT" if they're interested in a sweater that's showcased in your Instagram post; then the comment-to-DM tool will DM them a link to that exact product, to make it easy to view and buy!

These tools work 24/7, so you never miss an opportunity for a sale. You can also use the tool to automatically like and respond to comments, to further open the door for sending over product links and other info on your brand.

Build Trust with Your Followers

While it’s tempting to chase after loads of affiliate marketing products, there are two things to keep in mind here: staying (mostly) in your lane so as not to veer too far from your own brand; and pacing yourself. 

Most people these days understand that content creation is a job, and that jobs should result in getting paid - but even so, no one likes to be barraged with constant ads. So choose your products wisely, and space out your sponsored affiliate posts with “regular” posts, so your followers still get to enjoy what they followed your Insta for in the first place.  

Follow the Rules

Make sure to keep in mind that, while affiliate marketing programs can be fun and rewarding, they’re also a business venture. The FTC requires that those promoting products disclose that they’re doing so - so stay out of hot water by making sure you note on your post that it’s an ad, and that your links are affiliate marketing links. You’ll also need to comply with Instagram’s own branded content policies, correctly tagging brands and business partners so they show as “paid partnerships” on your posts.

Keep Track of Your Success!

Each affiliate program generally has a dashboard, and you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the different features offered there. These features can include charts for tracking clicks and conversions (to sales); your conversion rates; your commission percentage; how much you’re earning, and when you’ve cashed out. 

Digging into your analytics for each post can help you learn what styles of affiliate marketing posts are doing the best in audience engagement and follow-through on purchases - then you can go make more of those types of posts!

Affiliate Marketing on Instagram Could Be Your Future

Okay, okay - so you might not be rolling around in five figures from the start. But there is definitely a lot of potential in Instagram affiliate marketing! Business Insider shows a wide range of revenue coming in from affiliate marketing; some earn a few hundred dollars, others do indeed go into the tens of thousands. 

A lot of affiliate marketing success, though, comes from what you put into it. So select your products carefully, create your affiliate marketing Instagram content creatively, and study those analytics so you can keep improving! 

There’s a very low barrier to entry for Instagram affiliate marketing, as some programs don’t even require a minimum follower count, which makes affiliate marketing particularly popular for micro influencers (or noobs!) to jump right in - so what are you waiting for?