If you want to grow on the Instagram platform, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to do so. This post will look at affiliate marketing, why it is useful, and how to perfect it. 

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when someone earns a commission whenever a third party’s products are sold. One way to do affiliate marketing is to find products that use affiliate links, find a product that matches up with your brand, and then post a link on your social media. If your fans click the link and buy a product, you earn money!

That being said, there are different affiliate partners to choose from. One is the affiliate marketing program. These programs let creators promote their products in exchange for a commission, such as Amazon associates.

There are also affiliate networks, which give marketers custom links. It’s easy to grab a link and then post it.

Affiliate Marketing on Instagram

Instagram has its own affiliate marketing program. If you’re a creator, you can earn commissions over a 30-to 90-day period. Through the Insights tab, you can track your performance and see how many sales you make. Visit your professional dashboard, and as long as you meet the qualifications, you can set up your affiliate program and get started.

Is it for You? Pros and Cons

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money, but like any passive income method, it has its cons. Let’s weigh the pros and cons.

Pros

Affiliate marketing has a low entry barrier. Affiliate marketing is usually free with so many monetization options on Instagram being gatekept by minimum follower counts. And it’s easy as well. You don’t need to do the heavy lifting with the products. Therefore, there’s little risk but a lot to gain.

Cons

Affiliate marketing is highly competitive, and many links don’t pay very much. You also can’t control the customer experience your fans may receive if they order the products you advertise. If you post an affiliate link from a shady company and the product is a sham, it may hurt your reputation. In addition, bad actors can steal your links, which is known as “clickjacking.”

Personally, we believe that the pros outweigh the cons, as there isn’t much risk. As long as you research the company and even try the products on your own, you can reduce the risk of your reputation being hurt by affiliate marketing.

How to Do Well With Affiliate Marketing

With that said, let’s look at some tips to help you grow your affiliate marketing presence. For example, one way you can grow your audience to get the most returns is to get more likes for Reels to improve your account’s algorithmic standing.

Choose Products That Fit Well With Your Niche

If you’re a fashion brand, you should probably use affiliate links related to clothing, makeup, or something else a fashionista would love. On the other hand, if you post links to irrelevant products, your audience may not bite the links.

Vet the Brands

Don’t choose the first brand that comes your way; post the links uncritically. You should look into the brand, read some reviews, and then order a product from them and try it first-hand. Not only that, but trying out the product may also convince your audience. If the companies you look at seem suspicious, you may want to go with someone else. You don’t want to hurt your reputation.

Do Not Be Too Salesy With Posts

Once you have found an affiliate link, you may be eager to post it. However, you shouldn’t sound too spammy. Most of your fans follow you for your personality, and if you feel like a billboard, people may unfollow or mute you.

The exact number of times you should make affiliate posts is debatable, but a good rule of thumb is to make them 5% of your posts. That said, you can adjust this ratio and experiment a little.

Put the Links in Your Bio

Instagram makes it difficult to post links in your captions. Therefore, you’ll need to put them in your bio. Instagram lets you choose up to five links. Ideally, you should have at least a link or two to your brand and then use others for affiliate links.

Take Advantage of Stories

Instagram Stories are 24-hour posts that allow you to insert links into them. Stories are highly viewed, and the fact they do disappear can create a sense of urgency. Plus, it’s a way to post affiliate links without being too spammy and cluttering up your main feed.

With your Stories, use a striking image or interesting text to attract your audience. Give a strong call to action by clicking on the affiliate link. Doing this will net you more sales!

Use all the Right Hashtags

When you make affiliate marketing posts, be sure to use the right hashtags and keywords to get your posts noticed. The magic formula is around five hashtags per post, and you should use both broad tags and more niche ones.

Track Your Performance

As mentioned, Instagram Insights will give you information on sales. If you’re using an affiliate program other than Instagram’s, they may also have a way to track sales.

How are your sales doing? Are they doing well? Or are they not up to your performance? You may not be promoting the links enough or doing them too much. The products may not resonate with your audience or may be out of their budget. It’s okay to change up your strategy, as no one gets it right the first time.

Final Thoughts

Instagram affiliate marketing can be a valuable way to earn extra money on the platform. If you’re an Instagram influencer, it should not be the only avenue you can take, but it can be one of many ways to earn a little extra income. That said, we hope this article was helpful to you.