Affiliate marketing and Instagram marketing are multi-billion dollar industries. Combining the two can have the potential for a lucrative side hustle. Affiliate marketers on Instagram earn money every time their followers purchase a product they recommend. . Instagram is an ideal platform for affiliate marketing not only because nearly half of its users shop on the platform, but also because it offers a variety of content formats, such as images, videos, and live streams, to provide shoppers with detailed product information. This guide Here are 7 tips on how to use Instagram for affiliate marketing and how to maximize your commissions.

What is Instagram Affiliate Marketing?

Instagram affiliate marketing is a type of marketing where affiliates recommend a brand’s products and services through Instagram. Affiliates earn a commission every time their audience clicks and makes a purchase through their unique affiliate link.

There are many ways to leverage Instagram and take advantage of affiliate marketing. Creators can include affiliate links in their stories, share personal discount codes, or direct people to their brand website from their bio.

How to start affiliate marketing on Instagram

1. Switch to a creator or business account
2. Choosing the Right Affiliate Partner
3. Building influence

Before we dive into how to make money with affiliate marketing on Instagram, follow these three steps to prepare for affiliate promotion through the Creator Marketplace.

1. Switch to a creator or business account

To run affiliate marketing on Instagram, you need to convert your Instagram account to a creator or business professional account. To create a creator account, follow these steps:

1. Open your Instagram account and tap the hamburger menu.
2. Select Settings and Privacy.
3. Tap Account Type and Tools.
4. If you're switching from a personal account, select Switch to a professional account and tap Creator. If you're switching from a business profile, select Switch to a creator account.
5. Choose the category that best describes your affiliate niche.

Instagram creator profiles are designed for bloggers, influencers, and content creators.

This profile gives creators who want to monetize their audience on the platform access to tools like Advanced Insights, which allows you to track follower growth and audience demographics, and manage and sort multiple inboxes by message and engagement type.

2. Choosing the Right Affiliate Partner

To make money with affiliate marketing on Instagram, you need to find brands that pay commissions for the types of products you can authentically promote and sell.

Here are two places to start:

• Affiliate Marketing Programs : Brands in various niches offer creators the opportunity to promote their products and receive commissions. Popular affiliate programs include Shopify Affiliates and Amazon Associates.
• Affiliate Networks : Platforms like ShareASale , Rakuten Advertising , Awin , and CJ Affiliate integrate affiliate opportunities, allowing marketers to create custom links, track commissions, and get paid from one dashboard.

According to reports, 80% of brands have an affiliate program. Many are free or inexpensive to join, but some of the higher-paying affiliate programs are invitation-only.

3. Building influence

As a creator, the size and engagement of your audience will impact the types of affiliate opportunities you have access to. Instagram influencers with less than 10,000 followers may have difficulty negotiating custom commission agreements with affiliate program owners.

Here are some tips to grow your Instagram influence:

Post when audience is active

Take a look at your Instagram analytics to determine the best time to post on Instagram.

Maintain consistency

Help them know what to expect when they first hit the follow button. Consistently sharing new content gives your followers more opportunities to engage, which is an important factor within the Instagram algorithm.

Sharing non-promotional content

Keep your content mostly non-promotional and trustworthy. Marc Bromhall, founder of Beginner Surf Gear , says, “I use the 1 out of 20 rule, so only 5% of my posts are affiliate posts.”

Niche selection

The goal is to be known as a trusted source of information, news, or entertainment in the industry where you sell affiliate products. Passion for your niche helps build authenticity in the eyes of your audience. Use Instagram hashtags related to your niche to help new followers find your content.

6 Tips to Increase Affiliate Sales on Instagram

1. Mark affiliate products as paid partnerships
2. Use bio link
3. Create a Discount Code Story Highlight
4. Record a product demo
5. Expand your reach using hashtags
6. Track and adjust performance

After you set up your Instagram affiliate account, you can implement a few strategies to boost your sales numbers.

1. Mark affiliate products as paid partnerships

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has strict guidelines for how marketers disclose their relationships for social media recommendations. This also applies to affiliate marketing.

If you use affiliate links, you must clearly state the affiliate-retailer relationship so readers can evaluate your review or recommendation. For example, you could say, “I receive a commission when you purchase through a link in this post.”

To help affiliate marketers meet these FTC recommendation requirements, Instagram has launched a paid partnership label feature that provides tagging opportunities to share content from brands, like this one from Chantel Mila :

Example of an Instagram post with a paid partnership tag. In this Instagram post by @joycekittykat, Joyce used a paid partnership tag indicating that she was working with luxury accessories brand Eric Javits .

“Don’t hide the fact that it’s affiliate marketing, or it will come across as spam,” says marketer Lattice Hudson . “Be honest and fair in your relationship with [your audience]. If it’s just commercial, they won’t come back.”

2. Use bio link

Since you can’t add links to organic posts, make the most of your bio link space. Instagram allows you to include up to 5 links in your bio.

If more links are needed, affiliate marketers can use a link aggregator like Linkpop to create a landing page with affiliate links. This creates a single link hub that can be used in the Instagram bio and elsewhere.

3. Create a Discount Code Story Highlight

Did you know that 40% of American consumers look for coupon codes before shopping online? Incorporate this into your affiliate marketing strategy by sharing discount codes with your followers via Instagram Stories.

The story format is one of the most popular formats on Instagram. In stories, you can use the link sticker to add affiliate links and drive people to your products. Here is an example from @lilypebbles :

Stories only last for 24 hours, but you can create story highlights to keep them for longer. Highlights appear under your profile’s bio.

4. Record a product demo

Affiliate marketing works when your Instagram followers know, like, and trust the products you recommend enough to buy them. Show your potential customers how to use your products so they don’t have to leave their Instagram feed to find answers.

For this, you can use the following methods:

• Instagram Stories : Post vlog-style videos.
• Instagram Reels : Use Instagram Reels for short, TikTok-style videos.
• Instagram Live : Stream your product tutorials using Instagram Live.

“The best affiliate content on Instagram usually comes in the form of recommendations and actual product use, not a sales pitch,” says Hector Ruiz, founder of affiliate site BBQ Grill Academy .

For example, this Instagram video from @samiorenelda shows the creator working with Adobe to create a demo video of their product:

5. Expand your reach using hashtags

To build an affiliate marketing business that generates passive income, you need to create a sustainable flow of new Instagram followers. The more people see your content, the less follower fatigue you’ll experience from seeing the same content over and over again.

Hashtags can help you connect with your audience and expand your reach. Instagram users can follow hashtags within the app, so content can appear in their feeds even if they don’t follow the account.

To find Instagram hashtags, start by researching your competitors. Brands, bloggers, and publishers often use hashtags to expand their reach. Look at the captions and first comments on Instagram posts they share to get ideas.

Before adding a hashtag, double-check that it is not prohibited by Instagram’s policies and guidelines . Some hashtags, such as #adulting, #beautyblogger, and #pushups, are often misused and associated with spam content . Using these hashtags in your affiliate content may result in your content being deprioritized.

6. Track and adjust performance

Tracking your affiliate performance is an important way to evaluate which marketing strategies are effective for your audience.

Both affiliates and brands can collect and analyze this data through an affiliate marketing dashboard, which can include key metrics such as conversion rates for promoted affiliate items, number of affiliate link clicks, and average order value (AOV).

Additional key performance indicators (KPIs) include:

• Profile Activity : If you drive followers to a set of links, check how many people clicked on the links in your bio.
• Engagement Rate : Evaluate by affiliate product offer, content type, and format. If your tutorial-based Instagram Stories get more engagement than your regular grid posts, prioritize those going forward.
• Follower Count : Knowing whether your Instagram followers are decreasing or increasing, and whether the increase (or decrease) is related to a specific campaign, can help you determine which strategies are most effective.

Gathering these insights will help you adjust the best approach to driving sales using Instagram.

Start your Instagram affiliate marketing journey

Instagram continues to evolve its platform to be more creator-friendly, which is good news for affiliate marketers who use the social media network as a tool to generate additional income.

To start your Instagram affiliate marketing journey, you need to switch to a creator account, acquire affiliate partners, and grow your influence. Only then can you promote affiliate products in a way that will lead your followers to make a purchase.

Instagram Affiliate Marketing FAQs