Instagram affiliate marketing has become a very popular and lucrative opportunity for influencers to make use of their online presence. It is a great way to monetize both the audiences they have and also their overall influence on the platform. With the exponential growth of Instagram as a major social media platform, it has now easily become one of the best ways for influencers of all industries and niches to make money.
Let us dive in deeper and look at exactly what is happening that makes Instagram such a lucrative avenue for affiliate marketing. This will act as a sort of guide to Instagram affiliate marketing.
Instagram: Why it matters!
Instagram has an engagement rate far greater than other social media platforms such as Twitter, Snapchat, or Tumblr. In fact, most indicators point to Instagram being the most engaged social media platform out there. Once you hop on the train of Instagram affiliate marketing, you will quickly find that it provides a really great range of opportunities to you. It offers an avenue for both brands to promote their products and also to affiliates looking for more opportunities. In short, the point we are trying to make is that if everyone is benefiting from Instagram marketing, we think you should too!
How Does Instagram Affiliate Marketing Work
Instagram affiliate marketing works by connecting a user, the affiliate marketer, and a company or brand looking to market their products by using the affiliate’s network of followers and fans. Brands will normally use some kind of placement that will introduce their product or service to potential customers or they can also directly promote by advertising on the affiliate’s website.
The affiliate will promote the products and services in their online postings. They will be able to earn a commission on each of the sales that happen through their posts. It can be a kind of URL link that has unique affiliate codes embedded in it. So, when this type of promotion happens on this particular platform, it is generally referred to as Instagram affiliate marketing. It is important to point out that even though this is the biggest platform for affiliate marketing, it is not the only one.
All parties involved in this process will be benefitted. Brands will be able to get the visibility that they need and the influencers are able to use this platform to make a substantial income.
Since all parties are equally benefitted, you can easily see why this form of marketing has become so popular.
So how does it work actually?
If you have followed thus far, you will no doubt be wondering how exactly does the whole process work since Instagram is a platform that does not let you post links alongside your images. So, how are affiliate marketers able to market the products of their associated brands on this platform? Well, there are actually quite a few ways in which you can do this. Let us take a look at some of those methods
Your Bio
This is the most obvious method of affiliate marketing on Instagram, you just put in the links that need to be promoted in your bio. This method will work well when you are working for the same product, brand, or even a link. You just need to make sure that you make your followers aware of the existence of the link and its location on your profile.
Semi-permanent affiliate link within your bio
When you need to promote different products every time you post, you will still be able to make use of your bio but you will need to make sure that you update the affiliate link every time you publish something new. This is, however, not the most effective way to promote your affiliate links on Instagram. This is because it can cause confusion among your followers when you are updating links regularly.
Instagram Gallery App
A lot of the bigger brands have started using Link2Buy made by Curalate. This gives them a way to set up a sort of virtual shop that has clickable content. As time has gone on, many other similar tools have also emerged. One of the more popular of these tools is an app known as Later.
When you use this method, you will need to set your particular link within your bio and then have it be a sort of personalized gallery app. Whenever someone selects that particular link, they will be brought to a particular type of clickable post and these posts will lead them straight to the affiliate link.
Instagram Stories (Business accounts that have 10,000 or more followers only)
If your business has more than 10,000 followers on Instagram, you will be able to access the option to add swipe-up links to every story you post. This will make it incredibly easy to make sure that your followers are aware of what you are promoting. This, by itself, is one of the most important reasons to get a business account.
Photo, Description, or Story
This method is easily the least effective one we have listed in this article. However, if you get access to a type of URL shortener such as BI.ink, you will be able to make branded URLs. These are pretty easy to remember and also not too big. This will make it easier for your followers to engage with your content.