Instagram Affiliate Program: Recommend Products & Earn Cash

Who have not heard about Instagram? Instagram with over billion-plus active users, is a favorite platform for creators and influencers.

This platform is mainly used to showcase your content, built a community, and partner with brands.

With the launch of the Instagram Affiliate Program, the influencers can monetize their content more effectively.

Earlier creators in the Instagram were monetizing through other channels. But this new program allows creators to earn commissions directly through Instagram. So creators can turn their passion into a full-time profession.

This article will mainly talk about the Instagram Affiliate Program, sign up process, benefits, and strategies to maximize your earnings.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Instagram Affiliate Program

Instagram has been steadily evolving into a powerhouse platform not just for social interaction but also for commerce. With features like Instagram Shopping, brands have found new ways to showcase and sell their products directly through the app.

The revolutionary step taken by Instagram is offering affiliate program to the influencers and creators for earning commissions on the products they promote.

The Instagram affiliate program lets creators to discover products on their platform, share them and earn commission from the sales.

This is different from the traditional influencer marketing model, where creators are usually paid upfront by brands for promoting products.

Instead, the affiliate model rewards creators based on their performance.

The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Affiliate Program:

Instagram affiliate program, offers creators an exciting opportunity to monetize their content. Please go through this guide that talks about joining, optimizing, and maintaining eligibility for Instagram’s affiliate program.

Understanding the Basics of Instagram Affiliate Program:

Instagram’s affiliate program allows creators to earn a commission by promoting products directly through their content. You can share products you love and earn from any sales driven by your posts. Followers also benefit by being able to purchase products seamlessly within the app.

Key Points to Consider:

Community Guidelines Compliance: To participate in the affiliate program, all your content and interactions on Instagram must adhere to the platform’s Community Guidelines. You are prohibited to use hate speech, calls for violence, and sexualized content. Violating these rules can lead to the loss of eligibility to use Instagram affiliate features.
Content Monetization Policies: Monetized content on Instagram must meet higher standards than regular content. Instagram’s Content Monetization Policies set extra guidelines on what content you can share and how it is presented.
Establishing a Presence: To qualify for monetization, you must have an authentic and established presence on Instagram. This means your account should have genuine followers and regular engagement.
Eligibility by Country: Instagram’s monetization features, including the affiliate program, are only available in certain countries. If you move to an ineligible location, or if Instagram updates its product eligibility criteria, you may lose access to these features.

Tips for Maintaining Eligibility

Once you’re onboarded with the affiliate program, maintaining your eligibility is crucial. Here are some tips:

Create Original Content: Ensure that all the content you share is original and that you have the rights to use it.
Avoid Engagement Manipulation: Do not engage in behavior that artificially boosts your views or engagement, such as buying followers or likes.
Steer Clear of False or Sensational Content: Avoid posting content that is misleading, false, or overly sensational, as this can harm your eligibility.
Maintain Quality: Prioritize quality over virality in your content creation. Content created just to go viral, often at the cost of quality, can compromise your standing in the program.

Confirming Your Eligibility for Monetization

To check if you’re eligible for Instagram’s monetization tools:

Navigate to Account Settings.
Select “Creator” or “Business” (depending on your account type).
Tap on ‘Affiliate’ to learn more and confirm your eligibility.

Restricted Content and How to Manage It

Certain types of sensitive content are subject to restrictions. This includes content related to:

Alcohol: Promoting alcoholic beverages may require age restrictions.
Cosmetic Procedures & Weight Loss: Ads related to these topics must be handled carefully to avoid misleading claims.
Financial Products & Services: Includes loans, insurance, and other financial offerings.
Family Planning & Contraception: Content related to birth control requires careful handling.

Setting Age and Location Restrictions:

Age Restrictions: You can set minimum age limits for who can view your content, either globally or by specific country. Once a post is published, you cannot add or change age restrictions.
Location Restrictions: You can also restrict who sees your content based on geographic location, ensuring compliance with local regulations.

Partner Monetization Policies

To utilize Instagram’s monetization tools, your account must adhere to the following partner policies:

Reside in an Eligible Country: You must live in a country where Instagram monetization features are available.
Follow Community Guidelines: These guidelines cover all interactions on Instagram and include strict rules against hate speech, violence, and sexualized content.
Comply with Content Monetization Policies: Your content must be of higher standard to qualify for the monetization.
Share Accurate Information: Avoid posting misinformation, as flagged content can lead to a loss of monetization eligibility.
Engage Authentically: Only monetize content that attracts natural engagement. Avoid any behavior that artificially boosts likes, followers, or views.
Follow Payment Terms: Comply with Instagram’s payment rules.
Establish an Authentic Presence: Your account should be well-established with a sufficient number of followers.

Instagram also reserves the right to modify, suspend, or terminate monetization features at any time.

Instagram Affiliate Program Sign up Process:

This chapter will guide you through the affiliate onboarding process directly within the Instagram app.

Step 1: Open the Instagram App and Begin Onboarding

From your Profile, tap on ‘View Professional Dashboard’.
Select ‘Set up Affiliate’.
Tap ‘Get Started’.
Agree to the terms by tapping ‘Agree to Terms’.

Note: If this onboarding method does not work, you can also onboard via Account Settings on the previous page.

Step 2: Begin Payment Setup

After agreeing to the terms and tapping ‘Done,’ you’ll be prompted to enter your payment information. This is necessary for receiving payments through Instagram affiliate marketing.
If your business is already set up, select it at this stage.
Choose your preferred payout method* and tap ‘Confirm Bank’.
Tap ‘Done’ to complete the process. If your business is not set up, tap ‘Add New Business Info.’
Select your country and proceed to select your business type.
Choose the applicable business type and tap ‘Done’.

Payment setup may vary depending on the structure of your brand. Please review this guide thoroughly and gather the necessary information before completing this step.

Step 3(1): Entering Payment Information for Individuals

If you’ve selected “Individual” as your business type, complete the form with your personal information.
Enter your Social Security Number.

Step 3(2): Entering Payment Information for Businesses

If you’ve selected a corporate structure for your business, complete the form with your business’s EIN (Employer Identification Number).
Provide the required personal information for the business owner.

Note: Make sure that you are using the latest version of the Instagram app before attempting to onboard.

Step 4: Select Your Preferred Payment Method

Enter your bank information or select ‘Link your PayPal account’.
Tap ‘Link Payout Method’ to finalize the setup!

How to Get Started With Instagram Affiliate Program?

Discover and Save Products:

Tip: Brands may adjust their commission rates over time, so be sure to check back regularly to see what rates your favorite brands are offering.

After completing the affiliate onboarding process, you can start exploring the available shops and their products.

From your profile, go to Pro Home and tap ‘Affiliate’.
Then, tap ‘Affiliate Products’.
Here, you’ll see all the shops available for affiliate tagging, along with their current commission rates.
By tapping on a shop, you can view their collections and products that are available for tagging.
To save a product, tap on it to add it to your Wishlist.

Using Affiliate Tags in Feed

When creating a post, follow these steps to add affiliate tags:

For Feed posts, tap ‘Tag Products’.
Tap on the image where you want the tagged product to appear.
In ‘Product Source’, choose from the following options: 1. ‘Saved affiliate products’ (items from your Wishlist), 2. ‘Purchased affiliate products’ (items you’ve purchased through Instagram Checkout) and 3. ‘Shops’ (browse product catalogs from available shops)
Once you’ve selected your product, review the tag and tap ‘Done’.

Tip: If you have favorite products that you feature regularly, add them to your Wishlist for easy access when tagging.

Using Affiliate Product Tags in Stories

When creating a Story, follow these steps to add affiliate tags:

Tap the sticker icon.
Tap the ‘Shopping’ sticker.
In ‘Product Source’, choose from: ‘Saved affiliate products’ (items from your Wishlist), ‘Purchased affiliate products’ (items purchased through Instagram Checkout) and ‘Shops’ (browse product catalogs from available shops)
Once you’ve selected your product, you can edit the product name if desired, then tap ‘Done’.

Tip: The ‘Shopping’ sticker also allows you to tag your Shop and Collections.

Using Affiliate Tags in Live Shopping

Before starting a Live session, follow these steps to add affiliate tags:

Note: You cannot add products during a Live Stream, so make sure all products are added beforehand.

Navigate to Live: Tap the camera icon in the top left of Feed or swipe right from anywhere in Feed, then scroll to Live at the bottom of your screen. Tap the shopping bag icon.
In ‘Product Source’, choose from: Saved affiliate products, Purchased affiliate products and Shops.
Select the products you want to include in your Live session and tap ‘Done’.
Go Live: Tap Live to start your stream.
While Live, you can pin products to the bottom of the screen for easier shopping access.

Using Affiliate Tags in Reels

When creating a Reel, follow these steps to add affiliate tags:

For Reels posts, tap ‘Tag Products’.
In ‘Product Source’, choose from: ‘Saved affiliate products’, ‘Purchased affiliate products’ and ‘Shops’.
Once you’ve selected your product, review the tag and tap ‘Done’.

Opening a Shop

Create a one-stop shop that directs your followers to explore your recommended products straight from your profile. The three ways to set up your shop are as follows:

From your Profile
From the Professional Dashboard
When publishing a Feed post or Story with tagged affiliate products

When setting up your shop, you can browse all available affiliate brands and their products. You can add products to your Shop based on your recent affiliate activity or browse brand shops to choose from their product selections.

When you’re ready to go live with your Shop, tap ‘Publish Shop’.
Visitors to your profile can tap ‘View Shop’ to browse and purchase products.

Tip: If you need to temporarily close your Shop, go to the ‘Edit’ menu, tap on ‘Settings’, and toggle ‘Shop Visibility’ off. You can turn it back on anytime. It may take a few minutes for the Shop to be visible to buyers.

Updating Your Shop

Once your shop is live, make sure to update it regularly to reflect your interests, the seasons, and what your audience is most interested in.

From your Shop, tap the ‘Manage Shop’ icon and select ‘Products’ to make changes.
Here, you can:
1. Add more products to your Shop
2. Remove products from your Shop

Creating a Collection

Use product collections to organize and showcase your product recommendations around themes and trends.

In Shop settings, tap ‘Collections’ and then ‘Create Collection’.
Select affiliate-eligible products from your saved or purchased products, or from affiliate brands.
Please make sure to add title, cover photo, and description for your selected products.
Once published, your collection will be visible and accessible at the top of your Shop.

Tip: One should be creative with their cover photo. Choose from a product image, an existing Feed post image, or a photo from your camera roll. This is the first thing visitors to your Shop will see, so use it to draw them in!

Tagging Affiliate Shop & Collections in Stories

When creating a post, you can tag your Shop or specific collections within your Shop:

For Story posts, tap the sticker icon.
Tap the ‘Shopping’ sticker, then ‘Product Collection’.
Select the collection you want to tag.
Once selected, tap ‘Done’.

Tip: You will earn commission on sales you drive when sharing your own Shop or Collections. You will not earn on sharing Shops or Collections from other creators or brands.

Sharing Affiliate Shop & Collections in Stories

You can also share your collections or Shop directly to Stories:

From your collection, tap the share icon.
Tap ‘Add collection to your story’. You can tap on the image to select alternate tiles.
From your Shop, tap the menu icon at the top and select ‘Share this shop’.

Tip: Sharing your Shop and Collections in Stories is a great way to increase engagement.

Sharing Links to Your Affiliate Shop & Collections

You can share links to your Shop or Collections outside of Instagram:

From your collection, tap the ‘Copy link to collection’ icon.
From your Shop, tap the ‘Copy link to shop’ icon.

Tip: Create links to your Shop or evergreen collections and share them on your blog or other platforms where your audience engages with your content.

How Your Followers Shop?

When you post Feed or Story content with affiliate product tags or open your own Shop, your followers can easily tap on the product tags to learn more and make a purchase.

When a follower taps on the product tag in your post or Shop, they will be taken to the product page for more information.
Thereby, they can add the product to their cart.
When ready to checkout, they can go to their cart, enter their payment and shipping information, and complete their order.

Tip: All Instagram affiliate posts will include a disclosure at the top stating that the post is ‘Eligible for Commission’.

Learning From Insights

If you want to improve your affiliate performance and earnings, then understanding your followers’ shopping behaviour is crucial. Creators with access to Instagram affiliate can access key insights, such as estimated commissions earned and the number of products sold.

From the Professional Dashboard, access your ‘Affiliate’ hub.
Under ‘Insights’, tap on ‘Approximate earnings’ to see your overall performance. 1. Adjust the timeframe using the menu at the top. 2. Instagram will show how your performance in each category is trending, with percentage. 3. increases or decreases highlighted for that period.
Tap ‘Affiliate Content’ to review the performance of all the content you’ve posted. Use the menus at the top of the page to toggle between content types, performance types, and timeframes.

Instagram Affiliate Program Payment Info:

When it comes to receiving payments for your affiliate earnings and other monetization tools like Badges, Bonuses, Gifts, and Subscriptions, here are the essential details:

Closed Commissions & Monetization Tools: You will be paid on commissions that have been closed, typically after the brand’s return period ends (30-90 days). Earnings from various monetization tools will also be included in your payout.

Payment Schedule: Payouts are issued around the 20th-21st of each month, based on the earnings from the previous month. For example, January’s earnings will be paid out around February 21st. Payments will be processed according to the payment method you set up during onboarding.

Minimum Payout Thresholds:

For affiliate earnings, you must have at least $30 in closed commissions to qualify for payment. This resets after each payout.
In the United States, you’ll be paid once a month after reaching a minimum balance of $5.
Outside the United States, the minimum balance varies based on your payout method:
Wire transfer: $100 minimum balance
Other methods: $25 minimum balance
If your balance is below the minimum threshold at the end of a month, it will carry over to the next month until it meets the payout requirement.

Setting Up and Updating Your Payout Account:

You must set up a payout account to receive your earnings. Without a payout account, you can earn up to $500 per tool, with a maximum of $1,500 across three tools. If you don’t add a payout account within six months, you forfeit your earnings.

For bonuses, ensure your payout account is set up before the bonus period ends.
If you update your payout account information, your account will be placed on a five-day hold to protect your data. Update your information at least seven days before the payment date to avoid delays.

Delayed or Rejected Payouts:

Payouts can take 1-7 working days to process, or up to 10 days for international transfers. If your payment is delayed, check with your bank, verify your payout account details, and confirm you’ve met the minimum payout amount. Generally, delays may occur if suspicious activity is detected.

Earnings & Payout History:

You can view and manage your earnings and payout history in the Payouts section of your professional dashboard on Instagram or Meta Business Suite. Each month, you’ll receive invoices and remittance statements via email, and you can also download these documents from your Payout settings on Instagram.

What are the Strategies For the Instagram Affiliates?

1. Educate Your Audience: Regularly inform your followers about how to shop your affiliate content. Incorporate brief educational notes every 3-5 posts using captions or story stickers to guide them on tapping product tags.

2. Increase Tag Visibility: The more often your followers see product tags in your content, the more likely they are to make a purchase. Consistent tagging boosts engagement.

3. Utilize Insights Effectively: Analyze your affiliate insights to understand your followers’ shopping habits. The affiliates can use this data to optimize their tagging strategy and cater to their interests.

4. Curate a Featured Shop: For frequently asked-about items, create a dedicated shop to showcase curated collections of your top products, making it easier for followers to explore and buy.

5. Be Transparent with Earnings: While commission disclosures are standard, sharing more about your earnings process can motivate followers to support your content by shopping through your affiliate links.

6. Stay True to Your Brand: Maintain authenticity in your content. Keep your focus on what your followers love about you, ensuring that your monetization efforts are as per your personal brand.

What are the Pros of Instagram Affiliate Program?

Instagram affiliate program offers several advantages to creators and influencers. Here are some of the key pros:

Monetization Opportunity: The program provides a straightforward way to monetize your content by earning commissions on products you promote. You can earn money, especially if your followers are really engaged with your content.
Seamless Integration: Instagram’s affiliate tools are integrated directly into the platform, making it easy to tag products in posts, Stories, Reels, and more. The way Instagram integrates affiliate tools makes it easy and enjoyable for your followers to shop directly from your posts.
Reach More People: With Instagram’s huge and varied audience, you can connect with millions of users worldwide, giving you more opportunities to grow your influence and earn commissions.
Credibility and Trust: You can use affiliate tags and share product recommendations to increase your reputation among your followers. When your audience knows that you might earn a commission, it can actually make them trust your recommendations even more.
Creative Freedom: You can use affiliate tags across various content formats—feed posts, Stories, carousels, Reels, and Live sessions—allowing you to creatively showcase products in a way that resonates with your audience.
Insights and Analytics: The affiliates can check how their content is performing, including clicks and conversions. You can develop strategies based on these insights.
Curated Shopping Experience: The ability to create shops and collections allows you to curate a personalized shopping experience for your followers, showcasing your favorite products in an organized manner.
Support from Instagram: Instagram provides a range of tools, features, and learning resources to help you succeed in the affiliate program. The automatic disclosure of affiliate links also ensures you stay within the guidelines.
Potential for Growth: As your following grows, so does your earning potential. The more engaged your audience, the more likely they are to buy through your affiliate links.
Multiple Revenue Streams: You can diversify your income and boost your overall earnings by combining affiliate tags with branded content or selling products.

What are the Cons of Instagram Affiliate Program?

Instagram affiliate program offers many opportunities, but it also has its drawbacks. Here are some potential cons:

Commission Dependency: The commission you earn is dependent on whether the purchase is made directly through Instagram. If a follower clicks your link but purchases offsite, you won’t earn a commission.
Limited Product Selection: Your ability to promote products is confined to those available within Instagram’s affiliate network. If a brand isn’t onboarded, you can’t earn commissions from its products.
Platform Control: Instagram controls the affiliate environment, including commission rates and product availability, which may change without notice. You have limited say in how your affiliate partnerships are managed.
Content Restrictions: Instagram’s policies and guidelines can restrict what you post. If your content don’t comply with these rules, then it can be flagged, reported, or removed, affecting your ability to earn.
Competition: The popularity of Instagram as a platform means there’s a lot of competition among creators. It can be tough to stand out and turn those views into actual sales.
Payout Delays: Payments are processed monthly, and there might be delays due to account verification or issues with the payout method, which could affect your cash flow.
Limited Analytics: While Instagram provides insights, the data might not be as comprehensive as what you could get from other affiliate networks, making it harder to optimize your strategy.
No Offline Conversions: You only earn commissions for purchases made directly on Instagram, meaning if a follower decides to buy the product later or through a different channel, you won’t benefit.
Evolving Features: As Instagram continually updates its features, there might be a learning curve or interruptions in how you use affiliate tools, affecting your workflow and earnings.

Instagram Affiliate Program vs. Traditional Influencer Marketing

The Instagram Affiliate Program differs from traditional influencer marketing in several ways:

Performance-Based Earnings: In traditional influencer marketing, creators are often paid upfront for promoting a product, regardless of the results. The Instagram Affiliate Program, however, is performance-based, meaning creators earn only when their followers make a purchase through their affiliate links.

No Need for Negotiations: With affiliate marketing, there’s no need for lengthy negotiations with brands. Creators can simply choose the products they want to promote and start earning commissions.

Flexibility: The affiliate program offers more flexibility for creators. They have the absolute freedom to promote a variety of products from different brands without being locked into long-term contracts.

Reviews and Legitimacy

As with any new program, it’s important to assess the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Instagram Affiliate Program. So far, the feedback from creators has been largely positive. Many influencers love the extra income and the flexibility to pick and choose the products they want to endorse.

On the flip side, some creators worry about the performance-based payment structure, which can make it harder to earn a steady income compared to traditional sponsored posts. The success of the affiliate program purely depends on how well a creator can connect with their audience and inspire them to make purchases.

Frequently Added Questions About Instagram Affiliate Program:

1. Where Can I Use Instagram Affiliate Tags?

Ans: Creators can utilize affiliate product tags in their feed posts, Stories, Live sessions, and Reels. You can also add these tags to carousels and videos in your feed.

2. How Many Products Can I Tag in a Single Post?

In one feed post, you can tag multiple brands with up to 5 affiliate tags. For a 4-photo carousel, you can include up to 20 tags in total (covering affiliate tags, brand tags, and people tags). In Stories, you can add up to 5 affiliate tags.

3. Can I Use Multiple Affiliate Networks Simultaneously?

Yes, you can use multiple affiliate networks at once. However, keep in mind that commission is paid out based on the affiliate link that receives the last click. If a purchase is made through Instagram, you’ll earn the commission from that sale. If it’s through another link, the commission will come from that affiliate partner.

4. What Happens if a Purchase is Made Outside of Instagram?

You will only earn a commission on purchases made directly through Instagram.

5. Can any Brand Remove My Affiliate Tag?

Brands cannot remove content or tags posted by Creators. However, they can report posts that violate Instagram’s Partner Monetization Policies or Commerce Policies for review.

6. How Do I Find Products to Tag from Different Shops?

Through the affiliate menu, tap on ‘Shops You Can Tag’ to view a complete list of available brands. Each brand is listed with the number of products available for tagging and their commission rate. By selecting a shop, you can view the brand’s collections and all taggable products.

7. What is a Shop on Instagram?

A shop is a feature that allows affiliate creators to create a shoppable destination showcasing their product recommendations. Followers can access the shop via a “View Shop” button on the creator’s profile.

8. What Are the Creator Collections?

Once a creator has set up their storefront, they can curate their affiliate products into Collections. You can fnd these collections at the top of the storefront, making it easy for your followers.

9. Can I Save a Collection Without Publishing It?

Currently, you cannot save a draft of your collection. May be in future, this feature can be available.

10. What if I Don’t Own Products from Onboarded Brands?

The list of onboarded brands is expanding weekly. Meanwhile, you can “shop your closet” (or beauty cabinet!) and check out the catalogs of multi-brand retailers that are already onboarded, as they likely offer products you know and love.

What are the Alternatives to Instagram Affiliate Program?

What is the Final Conclusion?

Instagram Affiliate Program is ideal for creators to make money on the platform. It’s not just about earning—it’s about maintaining the trust and authenticity that make an influencer’s content stand out.

For brands, Instagram affiliate program offers a affordable way to reach new customers and boost sales.

As more creators and brands dive into affiliate marketing on Instagram, we’re likely to see this trend grow even more.

If you’re a creator looking to diversify your income streams, the Instagram Affiliate Program is definitely worth considering.

By staying authentic and having a clear strategy, you can transform your Instagram into a reliable source of income.

Please note that Instagram affiliate program is not available to everyone. You must check whether this program is operating in your country.

If you have worked with Instagram affiliate program, then please share your work experiences.

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