Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks nowadays with more than 2 billion users. Originally launched in 2010 for iOS mobile devices, the application gradually gained prestige and popularity, and it acquired an Android version alongside its acquisition by Meta (then still called Facebook) two years later in 2012.
Over time, this social network, used mostly by young people for whom photography is a hobby and inspiration, has become one of the most visited social media in the world. Nowadays, Instagram users are spending countless hours of their lives scrolling through the posts of their friends, celebrities, politicians, non-profit and brand pages, and millions of influencers.
It is quite common for influencers to use Instagram for monetization. Some people who are looking for an easy profit even manage to live entirely by posting advertising content on this very popular mobile application. And most often, they succeed to do it through affiliate marketing.
Without a shadow of a doubt, affiliate marketing on Instagram is a business of billions. Actually, Instagram seems to be among the most auspicious platforms for affiliates due to supporting various media formats, such as images and videos. Thus, they could post not only regular posts but also stories, reels, and live streams, and affiliate marketers could unleash their imaginations and make advertising even more attractive to their audience.
Here are the 6 most often-asked questions concerning affiliate marketing on Instagram. We believe that this information will be extremely useful for any person who is thinking of trying to increase their monthly income by becoming an influencer on Instagram.
Question #1: How do I become an affiliate marketer on Instagram?
Becoming an affiliate marketer on Instagram is quite easy for everyone and you don’t need to be a celebrity to resell products through Instagram without a hitch. Social media influencers, celebrities, experts and specialists in different fields, and even ordinary affiliate initiators could sign up for affiliate programs owned by merchants of products or services. In practice, in the language of commercial relations, by registering for an affiliate program they become affiliate marketers.
Once joining an affiliate program, each affiliate marketer gets an affiliate link. Their task is to present the positive and negative sides of the product, most often by presenting their personal experience in regular and entertaining posts or in pleasant-to-watch videos. But they could also demonstrate how the product or service works, or they could interview experts, specialists, or ordinary customers who used it.
After reading or watching the posts, those Instagrammers who wish could purchase the product or service through the affiliate link that was posted in the advertising message by the affiliate marketer. In order to avoid the buyer purchasing the product directly from the merchant, the offer through the affiliate link is usually more favorable. Sometimes the customer might be required to enter a promotional code announced in the advertising post, and thus two things become clear: the customer will receive the promised discount and the affiliate marketer (or the influencer, as affiliate marketers are most often called in the field of social networks) will receive their commission, which usually ranges from 5 to 25% of the value of the product or service.
Question #2: How could I make a creator account for affiliate marketing on Instagram?
To make an affiliate marketing account on Instagram, there are a few steps you should take in advance to turn your account into a Creator profile. Creator accounts on Instagram provide access to instruments, such as marketing insights like statistics about the growth of your followers and their characteristics, as well as clear separation of your personal and advertising direct messages. These useful tools could help you develop your affiliate marketing program more effectively and monetize your success further on.
To run a Creator account, you should follow these ten quite easy steps:
- Open your Instagram App.
- Sign in.
- Open your profile (on Android, you could do it by tapping on your profile image at the bottom right corner).
- Click on the three horizontal parallel lines (On Android, you can find them at the top right).
- Tap “Settings”.
- Tap “Account”.
- Click on “Switch to a professional account”.
- Among the options, select “Creator”.
- Among the options, select the one that best fits your niche of affiliation.
- Enter contact information.
That’s it! Complete the selections, finalize your creator profile, and now you could jump into the world of Instagram affiliate marketing!
Question #3: How to prepare before starting my affiliate business on Instagram?
Before you start your affiliate business on Instagram, there are two main things to consider: what are you going to sell and what your approach should be. First of all, you must choose your favorite marketing niche and start with the mindset that you must be honest with your audience.
It is very important that the niche you will be advertising on Instagram is interesting to you. Only then you will be doing this work willingly. If you are into IT or software, then a web hosting affiliate program would be great for you! Are you keen on fashion and cosmetics? Then, choose an affiliate program in that field. Is traveling around the world your hobby? Great, you could choose any vacations or plain tickets affiliate program. You don’t need to be a specialist or an expert in the field, but you need to love the niche and put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers, so you could find the right approach to them.
Unlike other types of advertising, where exaggeration of product qualities is almost mandatory, for successful affiliate marketing the leading asset is the trust of the audience. Therefore, the honest ratings that the affiliate marketer gives are the most important value in this type of marketing. Only in this way can this business be established as a long-term and profitable enterprise.
Question 4: How to choose an affiliate program?
Once you have chosen the niche that is the closest to your heart, you should do the best selection in the ocean of affiliate marketing programs. To become a successful affiliate marketer on Instagram, there are a few important steps that would be great for you to follow when choosing an affiliate program for your Instagram affiliate business.
- Make detailed research: Never just go with the first affiliate program you see on Google, even if it fully meets the important requirement that its niche is your favorite. Each affiliate program has its own characteristics, so review at least a few programs of your favorite niche, think carefully about what your goals and real opportunities are, and only then make your choice.
- Check the types of deals that the affiliate programs offer: Most affiliate programs offer several deal types. The type of deal can be selected by you during the process of registration, and each one differs from the others in the way a commission is being charged for each product or service you have managed to successfully sell. Check the 5th question below for more detailed information.
- Choose an affiliate program site and register: When you are already sure that you have found out which will be the most suitable type of deal for you and you have chosen the right affiliate program, all that remains is to register. You will receive your unique affiliate link, which will help you resell things and get your commission for each purchase that was conducted through it, after signing up.
Question #5: What are the affiliate marketing programs’ deal types?
Each affiliate program has its own selection of deal types. But generally speaking, these deals are divided into the following five major types:
- Revenue share: This is the most often used type of deal in affiliate marketing. With it, Instagram affiliate marketers earn preset rates of the turnovers generated through their affiliate links.
- Per client: Instagram affiliates earn a preset amount for each new client who made a purchase or multiple purchases through their affiliate links.
- Per purchase: Affiliates get a set amount for each product or service bought through their affiliate links.
- Hybrid deal: A combination between the “Revenue share” and “Per client”/”Per purchase” options. Instagram affiliate marketers could receive both a revenue commission for each product or service sold and a preset rate for each product or new client who came through their affiliate links.
- Flat deal: With this type of deal, Instagram affiliate marketers could earn a fixed amount only on their advertising posts, videos, stories, and reels. But usually, this option is profitable for affiliate marketers who have a really huge number of niche-related followers. And it is rarely possible for novice influencers.
When choosing the right type of deal, it is very important to be able to correctly assess your real opportunities. That way, you'll make the best deal right from the start. Keep in mind that affiliate programs are usually difficult to persuade to change the type of deal, so it is very substantial for you to make a wise choice from the very beginning.
Question #6: How to create successful posts on Instagram as an affiliate marketer?
Once you have chosen an affiliate program (or maybe several affiliate programs) and you have already registered to any, it is time to start creating your advertising posts. Here are some useful tips that would make your posts marketable.
- Find the most favorable time ranges: We would advise you to publish your Instagram content only when your followers are online. You could find the greatest periods of time to publish your affiliate marketing posts by using your Instagram Creator account’s insights. There is not much point in posting advertising publications when your audience is not active.
- Post regularly: Be consistent in your Instagram affiliate marketing activity. By regularly posting interesting, curious, and entertaining content related to your niche, you will be gradually and constantly increasing your steady mass of followers.
- Post diverse content: It is always good when the content you post on Instagram is related to your niche. But diversity, even within a particular niche, is also important. To be able to attract people of various interests, you would do well to publish your content in such a way that it is easily digestible and interesting even for people who are generally not much into the particular niche.
- Record demonstrations of products and services: Maybe you remember the funny telemarketing demos that occasionally interrupted the TV program when you were a kid? They now find their incarnation into affiliate marketing practices on Instagram. This is a proven and successful approach, and we highly recommend you make demonstrations of exactly how a product works or how a service is being used. You could do this in many different ways, and you could also apply some entertaining interactive practices to the videos. You could do it in regular videos, in live streaming, in video stories, or in reels.
- Rely on quality, not on quantity: The biggest mistake most Instagram influencers make is that the only thing they care about is the number of followers they gain. But it is far more important to attract followers who really engage with your content on a regular basis than collecting a large number of followers. Therefore, it is very substantial to post content that is interesting and targets the right groups of people. By focusing on high-quality content, which is presented in a relaxing and unobtrusive way, you could achieve far more success than just sweepingly increasing the number of your followers.
- Publish mostly non-commercial messages: It is recommended that the predominant posts on your Instagram profile are not advertising. In this way, you will give your followers an opportunity to gain long-term trust in your personality and, accordingly, in the products that you market. If more than 2 out of 10 of your posts are directly related to your affiliate marketing practice, there is a high chance that you will gradually lose their trust and they will unfollow you. Affiliate content should be posted carefully and without being pushy.
- Never forget to apply the affiliate link to the post: An affiliate link is the only way you could generate your profit. That’s why you should attach it to each advertising post. In case the affiliate link is too long, you can embed it into a shorter link by using URL shortener apps, such as Bit.ly or Short.io. if applicable, another thing you should be careful not to miss is the promotional code for discounts.
- Mark your affiliate posts as "Paid Partnership": Not only do Instagram's rules require it in many jurisdictions, but your customers will also be more satisfied when they see that you have marked your post as "paid". Loyal followers will always appreciate your honesty and loyal demeanor.
- Add an in-app storefront: With a creator account, every Instagram affiliate marketer could showcase the products and services directly from their Instagram profile. This is a great option as it can largely replace the necessity of having your own website where to publish the information about all of your affiliate products together with their affiliate links.
- Never be in a hurry when posting: A golden rule in social network affiliate marketing is to never rush to publish the post once you have already prepared it. To avoid mistakes, we would advise you to post only in moments when you are calm, concentrated, and in no rush for anything, and nothing else can distract you. Always go through a post a few times, no matter if a regular or video one, to make sure everything is all right. And hit the publish button only when you are convinced that everything is fine. Any mistake can be corrected thereafter, but it would leave you with a bitter aftertaste.
Final words
Now you know the basics of how to become an Instagram affiliate marketing influencer. We are sure that you will achieve success if you do everything wisely and from the heart, as well as if you follow the above tips.
In case your favorite niche is related to software products and web hosting, why don’t you review the terms and conditions of MissAffiliate's affiliate program? The quality of our services is really very good as you could see on Trustpilot (where we were rated 4.9 out of 5 scores). And we provide a successful business opportunity to many affiliate partners that are spread around the world.
