Want to start an affiliate marketing program for your business on Instagram? If yes, then it is a smart move! With more than 1 billion active users on Instagram, running an Instagram affiliate program and partnering with influencers could help you reach a vast and highly profitable customer. Here, we are explaining everything about Instagram affiliate marketing, including what it is, how to start Instagram affiliate marketing, and how to use affiliate marketing programs for success.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is a system that lets influencers promote a brand’s products and services and earns a commission from clicks or sales that they generate. It generally involves four main people: brand, affiliate network, influencers, and the customer.
You may have seen affiliate marketing appear in the form of special discount codes, where an influencer shares one code, detailed to them, that their followers can use to attain discounts from brands. However, influencers usually use unique, trackable links that are offered by an affiliate network. Thanks to these links, it is easy to track how many sales and clicks are made as a result.
Affiliate marketing links can be added anywhere on Instagram that allows links. IGTV descriptions, Instagram Stories, and Instagram’s link in the bio are all affiliate link hotspots for the influencers.
When one sale is made from an affiliate link, the influencer usually earns a set rate commission amount of total sale value. This rate can vary based on the individual company, but it usually ranges between 10% to 20%.
You can share affiliate links on Facebook, YouTube descriptions, Twitter, TikTok, and on the websites or influencers- basically anywhere on the web where a website link can live.
Benefits of Instagram Affiliate Marketing
Instagram Affiliate Marketing has opened up opportunities for brands and influencers to work artistically together. By using the power of word-of-mouth marketing, customers are likely to purchase through social media. Instagram is the top social media platform used by brands for their influencer campaigns.
According to January 2018, Instagram ruled all other platforms at 78% usage when compared to just 16% for blogs, 4% for YouTube, 2% for Facebook, and nearly 1% for Pinterest. With 29% of Instagram’s popular posts coming from influencers or brand ambassadors, they are ruling the game as far as user-generated content is concerned. As per Statista, in June 2018, Instagram had 1 billion monthly active users. Now it is more than three times the size of Twitter.
Instagram is one of the top influencer marketing platforms. And social media stars are shifting from Twitter and Snapchat to Instagram. This is not something that can be ignored, mainly for brands when they are looking at the Instagram affiliate marketing strategies. So, how can a brand, influencer, or affiliate marketer start?
How to Set Instagram Affiliate Marketing Programs?
If you have not used affiliate marketing earlier and if it is your first time, you will be excited to know that it is quite easy to start.
Here’s a quick guide to start Instagram affiliate marketing:
Ways to Earn Through Instagram Affiliate Marketing
Choose an Affiliate Network- If you are looking for affiliate marketers or influencers to join with them for the first time, the simplest route to follow is to use an Instagram affiliate marketing network. Affiliate networks will provide you services and benefits like reporting tools, tracking technology, payment processing, along with experience to a base of influencers who use affiliate links on their affiliate marketing platforms.
Fix your commission rates- One of the important steps in Instagram affiliate marketing is to set the commission rates. This is the time to fix your commission rates, which usually means how much amount you will pay an influencer for every sale they get. There are several ways you can do this. Here are a few suggestions:
- Evaluate your profit margins- Commission payments finally come out of profit margin, so understanding how much profit you are interested to trade for a high volume of sales is important.
- Do a competitor analysis- Find out how much commission do your competitors pay? What is the basic industry standard?
- Ask your affiliate network- Affiliate networks have lots of experience and are probably to offer you a wealth of information.
- Once the commission rate is fixed, you must set your payment terms. This takes 60 to 90 days to allow for exchanges or returns but will mainly depend on your specific sales cycle.
Make a compelling affiliate program- While building your affiliate marketing program, ensure that it is one that influencers want to join in. One method to incentivize influencers is to create a tiered program, with the choice to unlock extra rewards. This can inspire the influencers to advertise your brands and services and rewards them for the hard work they put in.
Find influencers with whom you can partner on Instagram- There are so many methods you can go about finding influencer affiliates to partner with on Instagram. Based on the Instagram marketing objectives, you may want to purposefully choose influencers to get the most from your affiliate marketing campaigns.
Analyze and adjust accordingly- Once your Instagram affiliate marketing program is up and starts running, it is significant to maintain track of what is working and not working for your company.
If you are using an Instagram affiliate marketing network, they must have detailed reporting available that will reveal how many affiliate links have been created for your brand, how many clicks they have got, and the total sales value.
It is important to maintain a record of how many of your affiliate marketing sales make it through the final closure. If you find an unexpectedly high return rate, this could be an indication that your influencer affiliates are falsifying your items. This could harm the reputation of your brand and can cause unnecessary admin expenses, so it is worth noticing it.
Ways to create the perfect Instagram profile.
Whether you are an influencer, brand, or affiliate marketer, making a good Instagram profile is not as simple as it sounds. However, some of the most popular accounts have taken steps to ensure their Instagram account stands out from the crowd so that they can attract more and more followers.
However, if they are an influencer, it paves the way for huge brands who want to work with them to reach a larger audience.
Select a good username- One of the most important affiliate marketing tips for growth and success is choosing a good username. Make sure you select a good username that is easy to memorize so that when people tag you in their photos on Instagram, they do not face any difficulty in finding you.
If you have a Twitter account, keeping a similar username as your Instagram account can help when people are searching for you. Brands must use an Instagram handle that is as same as the brand’s name.
Choose a relevant profile picture- Next important step in Instagram affiliate marketing is to select a good picture of yours. If you are a business, you should include the logo of your business. On the other hand, if you are a person, a headshot will be enough.
Keep your Instagram account public- Make sure your Instagram account is accessible to all. If you set your Instagram account to “Private”, then you must approve each person who follows you. And they cannot see any of your images till they have been approved.
Write an informative bio Ensure that your bio includes the right information about you and your company. You have 150 characters to show about you, so use them in the right manner. Include your website link and a medium of contacting you too. This is significant for influencers as well as for brands.
Choose brands that fit your forte- If you are an influencer, it is right to work with brands that fit your target audience. Or else, a post will look like it is out of place in your Instagram feed. It could lead to losing your followers and people may write negative comments on your post.
Make use of relevant hashtags and tags- When you are posting a photo ensure that you use appropriate tags. To choose the best tags for your content, you must research your target audience to find which hashtags are they using on their posts. Posting the most popular tags will not help you in the future.
In the comments, include your URL- When people are following you, they will generally find your images on their news feed, instead of directly visiting your page. Therefore, it is vital to include your affiliate marketing links below the image so that the traffic to your page or specific product increases.
Conclusion
As you saw, Instagram gives some genuine opportunities to make money online. Whether you want to become an Instagram influencer, sell physical items, affiliate products, or photographs, or become an Instagram professional, there are immense possibilities for all. Whatever route you choose, ensure that you endure, as the financial rewards can be worth it.