The Ultimate Instagram Affiliate Marketing Guide: How To Make Money On Instagram

Using Instagram for affiliate marketing will have you reviewing products, recommending courses, posting educational carousels and talking to influencers - or maybe even becoming one!

There’s a lot you can do with Instagram if you want to promote affiliate links...

The platform feels like the glamorous holy grail of marketing. Top influencers offer up their favorite products to huge audiences and help businesses make big profits. However, becoming a top earner or a full-blown influencer doesn’t happen overnight.

So, how can you start making money on Instagram right now and achieve influencer status?

The answer: Instagram Affiliate Marketing!

In this article, we reveal exactly how to ace affiliate marketing on Instagram, plus give you top actionable tips on how to make money on Instagram.

How Affiliate Marketing Works On Instagram

So we’re guessing you probably already know what affiliate marketing is, but for those of you new to the world of affiliate links, the idea is simple. Businesses offer commissions to marketers who promote their products. You find a product to market and you receive a tracking link. For every sale that happens because of your link, you make a profit. 

Instagram is just one platform you can use for this. You can place your tracking links on your profile or posts and for every sale you help generate, you will receive commissions.

Why Instagram Affiliate Marketing?

Why are we writing about affiliate marketing on Instagram and not how to run an e-commerce shop or become an influencer?

Because affiliate marketing on Instagram is the easiest way to make money online, with minimal setup costs and zero product creation. Simply find a product on an affiliate network you would like to market, get your unique tracking link, and start including your tracking links in your Instagram posts.

It’s that easy!

Of course, we’re going to explain how you can optimize this process to make the most money, but you can start just using your own social media, in this case your Instagram page. 

Why Instagram and not any other social media platforms?

Every social media platform has its merit for affiliate marketing. The beauty of Instagram is that it has over 1 billion users and one-third of those users are between 25 and 34 - which is a key demographic for a LOT of businesses. With the added bonus of influencers using the platform and promoting products for a fee, it means Instagram is the perfect place to start affiliate marketing.

3 Tips On How to Make Money On Instagram

1. Find Your Niche And Build A Following 

Like with any business, it’s important to find your niche in affiliate marketing, as well. Posting general content may appeal to a wider audience but you are less likely to get followers if you post about too many different topics. The aim is to build an association of your brand and personality with one particular area. For example, if you post a lot about going to the gym and fitness, people will start to trust that you are an expert on health & fitness.

You don’t have to get stuck in a niche, though...

Your niche can be a starting point and you can then branch out to related topics. From the fitness example we just mentioned, you can transition into promoting dieting or wellbeing offers. They’re not the exact same topic but they are closely related.

This way you build authority on the subject and will gain followers who are interested in the topics you regularly cover, and trust your views and content. 

Once you know what to post about, it’s time to get posting!

The key here is to post as consistently as possible. Set yourself a plan of how many posts and what type of posts to do each week. You don’t have to do this each day; instead, you can create all your posts at once and then use a scheduling platform like Hootsuite to schedule for later.

Below are a few ideas to help you out to get more followers on Instagram.

The thing to remember is nothing happens overnight. Building up a solid follower base and a reputation in your niche takes time. Our advice is to keep at it, post regularly, and get involved with your followers, and you will get there!

2. Promote Your Affiliate Links In Key Locations

Instagram can be tricky with exactly where you can put links. This is because Instagram obviously wants to keep users on their platform as long as possible. Below is a list of how exactly to promote products using Instagram.

Here’s how to promote your affiliate links on Instagram:

Advanced tip: Once you have over ten thousand followers on a business account, you can add your links to your stories using the “swipe-up” feature.

 3. Quality And Variety Are The Keys To Success

So, now you have an idea of how to build a following and where to put your affiliate links, but what should you actually post? We will give you a brief overview of each type of post and how to use them. The key here is to stick to your regular posting schedule and to keep producing useful content consistently. 

Images

Your images need to stand out as much as possible. There are a few ways to do this. Travel photos are easy to make look stunning but for any other niche, it can be tricky. So use the best quality camera you can and spend time setting up photos. Think about the color palette, and what colors are appropriate for your style and niche? Next, try and showcase the products you are marketing being used. You want to make any promotions eye-catching and also tempting to the user. 

Carousels

Carousels are a great way of explaining something in a little more detail. Use these for two purposes: talking about your product or offering help to your followers. For talking about your product, try and find a problem that it solves, then set up a carousel to explain the problem and then offer your product as a solution. Or you can simply reveal exactly why this product is great. The second method, offering help, is to build your following and show that you can give regular value. Explain how to do something you know well. Whether that’s a workout at the gym, a meditation technique or a wellbeing idea, explain something you do regularly that could help other people.

Videos

The best way to use videos as an affiliate marketer is for reviews. Show how using the product has improved your life, or a setup guide to the product. Even an unboxing video. All of these ways of reviewing the product helps to offer more visibility. Then, you can include links in the video or in the caption below. (Remember: these can’t be clicked on so use a link shortener where possible). 

All of the posts mentioned above can be great ways to get sales. One extra thing you can do is try to funnel people into your mailing list. That way you have regular and direct access to your followers and you can offer your discounts and affiliate links to them every time you send a newsletter.

Final Takeaway

We’ve shown you the methods and explained the technique. Now it’s up to you! We hope you’ve found this article useful and you’re ready to get started as an Instagram affiliate marketer. 

Don’t have a product to market yet? Why not browse through the Digistore24 Marketplace? We’re sure you’ll find a product you can’t wait to promote that fits with your Instagram following!