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Are you wondering how influencers get paid for content that promotes products? Or how successful online sellers started their business without inventory and other upfront costs? Amazon has a program that allows you to do both: the Influencer Program.
The Amazon Influencer Program is an extension of Amazon's Associate program available in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and India. It enables content creators to earn affiliate commissions from their followers’ qualifying purchases. As an Amazon Influencer, you can become an online seller without shelling out startup costs.
If you want to know more, we’ll tell you everything you need about the Amazon Influencer Program in 2024.
The Amazon Influencer and Associate Programs help content creators earn from qualifying purchases. However, the Influencer Program is designed for social media content creators. On the other hand, publishers, bloggers, and content creators may sign up for Amazon Associates.
To understand the differences between the two more clearly, check out the comparison below.
Social media content creators can join both programs, but they may find the benefits of the Amazon Influencer Program more tailored to them. Amazon Associates may also apply to the Influencer Program as long as they are individuals and not media companies or brands.
Amazon defines influencers as people with a substantial following on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. This means you can apply for the program if you run an active public account on any of those social networks.
Influencers across any category are welcome to apply. Amazon doesn’t specify the minimum number of followers you need to qualify for the program, but no need to worry if you only have less than 100,000. While a whopping number of followers may boost your likelihood of qualifying, it isn’t a requirement.
What’s more important is the engagement you’re getting. Amazon will evaluate your social activity, such as your posts, the consistency at which you post, your follower engagement metrics, and others more thoroughly than your follower count.
There are two ways to sign up for the Amazon Influencer Program: using your customer account or creating a new account. If you’re part of the Amazon Associates Program, you may use your Associate account to sign up.
Using your existing Amazon account to apply to Influencer Program will cause your shopping history, product reviews, lists, and other Amazon content to be linked to your influencer account. Follow these steps to apply to the Influencer Program using your existing account.
Note that if you’re linking your Instagram or Facebook to your Influencer account, a business account on either of those social channels will be required.
Amazon will review your application after this step. If you are unsuccessful, it could mean that you need to grow your following further or increase your engagement. You’ll be able to apply again and boost your odds of success once you’ve accomplished those.
If you sign up for a new account, your existing purchase history, content, reviews, and lists will not be associated with your influencer account. If this sounds like the right approach for you, follow these steps.
If your application is approved, you may start creating your Amazon Storefront. The Amazon Storefront acts as your followers’ one-stop shop for browsing your content and product recommendations. You earn a commission when a follower or any other buyer purchases your recommended products.
Follow the steps below to set up your Amazon Storefront.
Pro tip: Make your Storefront more memorable and easier to access with a vanity URL. Go to your Storefront, click Edit Storefront, select Getting Started, and then Help and Support. Choose Request new influencer handle from the drop-down list, complete the form, and submit.
Now that your storefront is ready, marketing and promotion efforts are in order. Most of these will concentrate on content creation, so post consistently to drive traffic to your Storefront and sell your recommendations.
Focus on the type of content your audience interacts with the most, whether these are short-form videos, static images, Instagram Stories, or comprehensive product try-out videos. However, be careful not to make your posts sound too promotional. While the primary purpose of your content is to promote, you can market your recommendations more effectively by focusing on informing instead of promoting. In other words, your posts should deliver genuine value to your audience so that they’re encouraged to buy the product you posted about.
Drive traffic to your content by sharing it on various platforms, even if only one social network is linked to your Influencer account. No rule says you can’t share your Storefront content on unsupported social channels like Twitter or LinkedIn, so don’t forget about those platforms.
These are other ways to promote your storefront and make your recommendations drive sales:
Adding an element of storytelling to your content can make your posts more relatable, which offers the most significant ROI, according to HubSpot and Brandwatch’s 2023 Global Social Media Trends Report. Telling a story highlights your experience with a product, helping market its benefits instead of its features. This tactic is especially effective with the Gen Z audience, as according to HubSpot’s 2023 Consumer Trends report, 33% of Gen Z-ers have purchased a product following an influencer’s recommendation.
You can include a link to your Amazon Storefront in your social profiles' About Me or Bio section. This makes your page easier to access. If you’ve already added a link to your profile and are restricted from adding another—a typical case on Instagram—consider using link-in-bio tools. Linktree has partnered with Amazon, so it’s a handy tool for promoting your Storefront URL. What’s great about their partnership is that if you add a new product to your Storefront, you no longer have to update your bio link to reflect your latest addition.
Tracking sales allows you to identify trends and patterns in customer behavior. You can tailor your promotions and recommendations according to your audience’s latest buying habits. E-commerce management tools like Threecolts enable you to track sales on Amazon easily. It offers a single dashboard for all sales metrics, helping you pinpoint your most profitable products and those that may require more robust marketing.
Monitor Engagement Metrics
Every time you share your recommendations on social media, monitor the engagement metrics to know which posts work and which don’t. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have built-in analytics you can use; these quantify metrics like impressions, click-through rate, engagement rate, and more. Don’t forget to monitor the number of likes, shares, and comments. Keeping track of analytics data allows you to focus on the type of content or posting strategy that generates the best results.
Promote Your Store and Products via Email
Add your Storefront’s URL to your newsletters and other email content if you have an email subscription program. Promoting your recommendations via email is a good idea to drive as much traffic as possible and boost conversion.
Your earnings will mainly come from commissions, and the amount depends on the product you’ve sold. For example, selling an item from Amazon’s private-label fashion brand entitles you to a 10% commission. On the other hand, if you sell video games or video consoles, your commission will only be 1%.
Before getting paid, you need to provide your payment and tax details to Amazon. Afterward, Amazon will give you various options for receiving your payment: direct deposit, gift card, or check. You’ll get your funds 60 days after the end of the month when the product was purchased. However, you need to earn at least $10 before accessing your funds.
You can also earn bounties, which Amazon awards to influencers who’ve encouraged customers to sign up for Amazon’s special programs or services. For example, if one of your followers creates an Amazon Business Account because of your content, you can earn a $15 bounty.
Aside from opening an online store without inventory and other upfront costs, you can enjoy other benefits as an Amazon Influencer:
With 92% of marketers believing that influencer marketing is effective, brands have started turning to content creators to promote their products or services. In particular, brands may offer to sponsor your content in exchange for posting about their product. Although this isn’t guaranteed, as Amazon already covers the marketing costs of promoting branded products on your Storefront, you can still capture a brand’s attention outside the online marketplace. In fact, you can also reach out to a brand yourself and suggest a partnership even if their product isn’t listed on Amazon yet. Your platform can allow brands to target a larger market for a relatively low price.
Content creation is a business, so it needs marketing to drive profit. Being an Amazon Influencer lets you exercise your marketing skills to grow your audience and sell your recommendations effectively. You’ll learn different content creation strategies by analyzing customer behavior and understanding marketing, sales, and engagement metrics. What’s even better is that you’ll learn all of that without upfront costs.
You don’t need millions of followers to qualify for the Amazon Influencer Program. Even with just 50,000 followers or less, your application can be approved if your content drives significant engagement. Being part of the Amazon Influencer Program opens bigger opportunities for you to create more engaging content, eventually resulting in a larger following.
Becoming an Amazon Influencer shouldn’t stop you from posting content outside of your online selling business. You can keep creating the types of content that allowed you to grow your following in the first place. That way, you can monetize traffic from your regular and Amazon content.
Many influencers have posted on YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, and Quora about their denied applications. However, Amazon doesn’t have an official statement about unsuccessful applications, nor have they specified the qualities of an approved application. That means the advice we can provide in this area is limited.
But don’t lose hope if you don’t get in. You can apply again after some time, but ensure that you’ve made these improvements before trying again:
A target audience is a critical part of a successful marketing strategy. Without a clearly defined target audience, businesses may not feel confident enough to use your influence, even if you have many followers. Instead of focusing on the numbers, focus on posting content that’s meaningful to you. That way, you can attract like-minded people and create a community that businesses are looking for. A defined target audience will make you a more qualified Storefront owner.
No two social networks are the same. Instagram, for example, has different trends, metrics, and cultures from TikTok. If you want to grow your audience on a particular social network, your content must be tailored to that social network's users.
It may also be wiser to choose the platform you’re most comfortable with than what’s trendy. It will be easier to create content and build your following if you’re using a channel that aligns with your passion the most.
Another trick that elevates your engagement is knowing the best time to post on your preferred social channel. According to social media management solutions provider Buffer, the best time to post on Facebook in 2023 is between 1 PM and 3 PM. On Instagram, Sprout Social found that the optimal time for posting is between 9 AM and 1 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They also discovered that TikTok posts pull the most engagement every Tuesday and Wednesday, between 2 PM and 5-6 PM.
On YouTube, HubSpot reported that new videos get the most engagement when published between 6 PM and 9 PM or 3 PM and 6 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
As the digital landscape evolves and online marketplaces increase in popularity, content creation becomes a more sustainable career. It’s more than just growing an audience and chasing fame. Instead, it’s about building a community, forming relationships with brands you genuinely support, and using your platform to spread knowledge. Amazon recognizes the growing significance of influencers in the market, so it created a program that enables them to continue creating content while running a profitable business.
If you think you have what it takes to be an Amazon Influencer, take note of everything you’ve learned from this article and submit your application. You can also learn more from the Amazon Influencer Program Education Hub.
