It’s much like how a retail salesperson earns a commission after closing a sale, but in the digital world! If you’ve ever wondered how affiliate marketing for influencers works, it’s similar to how commissions are paid to retailers.
You could earn serious income by adding affiliate links to your content if you’re a trusted source for shoppable inspiration on Instagram.
As we explain in this post, affiliate marketing for influencers is a great way to earn money and build your brand.
Why should influencers use affiliate marketing?
Influencers who deliver clicks or sales on behalf of brands can earn commission through affiliate marketing.
A commission of this sort is payable when users click or make a purchase using affiliate links (known as tracking links).
Affiliate links provide the most reliable way of tracking and promoting affiliate referrals, like the bespoke promo codes that influencers often share on social media, but you can earn more benefits from affiliate marketing by using bespoke promo codes.
You can monitor exactly how many clicks and sales your affiliate links are generating – and how much you stand to make once the sales are closed and your payout is due – with most affiliate programs that are set up with some form of dashboard.
Affiliate Commissions: What are they?
You can make a lot of money from affiliate programs. Although they can be useful in making quick money, you shouldn’t count on them. For real success, you must have some patience.
The return or exchange window ends as soon as a sale is fully closed, which means any commissions will be released only after the sale is fully closed. According to brand partners, the process usually takes between 60 and 90 days.
There is likely to be a minimum threshold for receiving your earnings from affiliate networks, usually $100, once you generate your affiliate links and track them (more on this later).
Paid Clicks vs. CPA Affiliate Models?
Paid clicks and cost-per-acquisition are usually the two types of affiliate models.
Cost-per-acquisition models pay you only when people actually make a purchase, as opposed to receiving a small amount each time we click on the link on our website.
Usually, acquisition payments are based on a percentage of the final sale. This percentage can vary depending on the brand partner.
On Instagram, the cost per acquisition model seems to be used in general by influencers and content creators.
Commissions are usually paid between 10% and 25% of the sale price in a cost per acquisition model because trustworthy recommendations have a higher chance of resulting in sales.
By generating a few conversions rather than thousands of clicks, you can spend more time on valuable, detailed recommendations.
Become a successful affiliate marketer on Instagram as an influencer
You may be inspiring someone to buy a product or services from your profile if you mention them at any point.
You could make money on Instagram by using affiliate marketing if this is the case.
Affiliate links on Instagram are contributing to the income of some influencers and content creators.
Furthermore, you receive commissions on sales you generate when you use affiliate links.
You have the freedom to style your content however you like, as sharing affiliate links is not legally obligated.
There are a lot of options on Instagram for adding affiliate links.
When coupled with a strong call-to-action, such as “Click my bio to explore my collection,” bios, IGTV descriptions, and Instagram Stories provide great click-through opportunities to drive visitors to your site.
A free tool, Linkin.bio by Later, lets you add affiliate links to your Instagram marketing strategy.
Your audience will be able to shop anytime with affiliate links you post on Instagram!
As an influencer, here’s what you need to know about affiliate marketing
There is no need to worry if you are new to affiliate marketing on Instagram.
To maximise your affiliate marketing efforts, you must find the right affiliate network.
The affiliate program enables you to link directly to the products and services of your partners.
The requirements to join each affiliate network, the tools and features they offer, the brands that they work with, and the commission structure they follow are different.
ShopStyle, for instance, is a major affiliate network for fashion influencers, while Rewards Style is an affiliate network for influencers in the same sector.
Affiliate marketing on Instagram: 5 useful tips
It’s worth investing time and effort into your affiliate marketing strategy, if you’re serious about turning Instagram into a legitimate revenue stream.
Through affiliate marketing, influencers have earned seven-figure salaries. By implementing the right strategy, you will also ensure your content is quality and remains genuine.
The following tips will help you drive more sales on Instagram using influencer affiliate links:
1. Use Instagram as a hotspot to increase your traffic
Your followers are able to click on many of the links you include on Instagram, but what are the links they click most often?
Testing different tactics and analysing your Instagram analytics can help you identify what works best for you so you can identify where your traffic comes from.
If you have over ten thousand subscribers, you can also add affiliate links to your bio link, IGTV descriptions, and Instagram stories.
Learn which content types generate the most clicks and which calls to action have the highest level of activity.
Using your unique traffic hot spots to guide your content strategy can help you understand what motivates your audience to click on your affiliate links!
2. Recommend Genuinely
Making genuine, honest recommendations to your customers is vital for the success of your affiliate marketing strategy.
By recommending goods that are in demand, you will earn more money since more people will buy the items you highlight.
You will also get a much better response from your audience if they know they can trust your suggestions.
3. The Salesperson’s Mindset
You should be honest and genuine with your audience when you’re driving sales. However, you can also be strategic when you’re driving sales through your affiliate links.
Your audience might be motivated to purchase from you if they know the reason why.
A call to action should also be strategically worded. Your affiliate links need to be easy to read and clear to motivate people to click them, rather than the retailer’s homepage.
4. Ensure that you track your sales
You can earn commission payments for sales inspired by affiliate links by using sophisticated tracking technology (which often uses cookies).
The technology does, however, have its limitations. In order to complete the checkout process within the Instagram web browser, the user must click one of your affiliate links.
Without it, your commission payment will not be tracked and the chain of command will be broken.
If you want to optimise affiliate traffic, reach out to retailers that offer mobile checkout, or maybe even products with lower prices that are designed for on-the-go purchasing.
5. Make your strategy more informed by analytics
Some affiliate networks will provide assistance in tracking affiliate links, such as a dashboard that shows you how many clicks and sales each link receives.
You can see if your audience is being influenced by your affiliate links by checking them weekly and monthly.
Your ability to build strong relationships with your audience depends on your deep understanding of what they like. During our segment, we will discuss what retailers your followers like, what price points work best, if discounts motivate consumers, and more.
Depending on the season, month, week, day, and even the hour, you can even begin to know when your audience likes to shop.
Your affiliate marketing strategy will be more effective if you pay attention to these insights.
Following these tips, you should be motivated enough to take action.
About the Author
Saleh Mehmood is a senior content specialist at TechNerds with proven digital marketing experience under his belt. He harbours a passion for writing on a diverse range of topics related to futuristic technologies, innovation, and digital marketing to educate and inspire his readers.