Do you have a knack for creating interesting, informative content and have a significant following on social media? If yes, then the Amazon Influencer Program might just be the platform for you to put your social media skills to use.
Created in 2017, the Amazon Influencer Program allows you to earn commission for promoting the products of your favourite brand. This write-up will discuss all the essential details you need to know about the Amazon Influencer Program, including how the program works, how to join it, and the requirements for joining and staying in this program, to help you put your skills to use. Read on!
What is the Amazon Influencer Program?
The Amazon Influencer Program is a program designed for influencers, content creators, and bloggers who recommend Amazon products to their social media followers. This program is an extension of the Amazon Associates Program. Its main objective is to bring product-related content onto Amazon to help customers discover items they might be interested in.
Anyone can join the Amazon Influencer Program provided they have a significant following on social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Essentially, influencers earn commission on the sales they bring to Amazon. Amazon gives them unique affiliate links and storefronts to help them direct customers to goods sold on Amazon.
How the Amazon Influencer Program Works
The Amazon Influencer Program is slightly different from the Amazon Associates Program, which has been in existence for several years. In the Amazon Associates Program, users can only share affiliate links for individual products on their social media accounts or websites. On the other hand, members in the Amazon Influencer Program must create their own custom storefronts on Amazon.
After creating your own storefront on Amazon, your followers will be able to view all your product recommendations together with just one link. You can even categorize different types of products in your store for easy navigation.
As mentioned earlier, influencers receive a vanity URL I.e. amazon.com/shop/yoursocialmediahandle. This is the link they share across their social media accounts.
Requirements for Joining the Amazon Influencer Program
To qualify for Amazon Influencer Program, you’ll need the following:
- A platform: This may be a YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok account. Note that, when applying using Facebook or Instagram, you’ll need to use a business account.
- Significant following: Amazon will look at the number of your followers when reviewing your application.
- Engagement: Lastly, Amazon looks at engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and interactions when reviewing your application. That means you must have legitimate, loyal followers who regularly interact with your content. Moreover, they look at post count and post consistency to assess your online activity.
How to Apply the Amazon Influencer Program
Before applying, check your eligibility because you must have a well engaged audience on social media first. After that, follow the steps below:
1.   Registration
Go to the Amazon Influencer Program page and click on the “Sign Up” tab to log into your Amazon account. If you don’t have an Influencer account you’ll need to create a new one or use your Amazon Associates account or Amazon customer account if you had created one. Provide name, email, password, and address.
2.   Choosing a Suitable Social Media Platform
Choose a social media platform where you have a well-engaged audience. Link your social media account to Amazon to allow them to determine your eligibility. This includes Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or YouTube.
Amazon will ask for your social media handle, post count and follower count to decide if they’ll move forward with the application or not.
After providing the social media account with well-engaged followers, enter other social media account links to complete your profile.
Finally, click “Save and Finish”. Amazon will take you to your Amazon Associates dashboard. While there, you’ll need to follow the Amazon Influencer Program account on Instagram for your application to get approved.
3.   Waiting for Approval
The time it takes to get approved depends on the social media platform you choose. If you use Facebook or YouTube, you’ll know immediately if you’ve been approved or not. TikTok and Instagram take five days to know if you have been approved or not.
4.   Creating Your Storefront
Design a storefront by adding a name, tagline, and profile picture. Ensure your profile picture and header image are unique to set your storefront apart from the rest. Also, customize your store’s URL to make it memorable.
It’s worth noting that, when listing your products, ensure you post the items that you are currently using. It helps boost your trustworthiness.
So, how many times can you apply for the Amazon Influencer Program? Well, if you get rejected, you can reapply for the Amazon Influencer Program. There’s no limit to the number of times you can apply for this program. Simply get enough followers and ensure your engagement rate is high before reapplying.
How to Promote Your Amazon Influencer Store
After creating your storefront and getting approved, the next step is to promote it. Start by promoting the store on social media to let your followers know you have got products lined up for them. Ideally, you must choose a niche then promote the products you are sure they will like.
Below are the tips that will help you promote your store on different social media platforms:
- Instagram: You can add a link to your Influencer page on your bio, referencing product-specific posts so that your followers know where to find your page. Tell your audience that they can shop the products you recommend by following the link in your bio. You can also use Instagram stories, which have a 24-hour lifespan, to show your personality. It’s an authentic way to engage with your target audience and broaden your reach.
- Facebook: Consider adding a link to your influencer page in the “About” section. Also add a “Shop Now” tab on your profile, referencing your Amazon Influencer page. Ensure each product you recommend is accompanied by a link to both your influencer page and the corresponding product detail page. Just like on Instagram Stories, you can use videos with 24-hour lifespan to broaden your reach. These videos are less formal, making them the ideal way of reminding your followers you have products they may be interested in.
- YouTube: In your YouTube’s “About” section add the link to your influencer page. Also, add your link in video descriptions and share links to specific products mentioned or shown in your video content. Finally, tell viewers they can use the URL provided in the description to shop for products in your influencer page.
- X( Formerly Twitter): Add a link to your influencer page in your X bio section. Ideally, most of your posts should be about product recommendations, while adding your influencer link whenever possible. If the character count doesn’t allow it, tell your followers they can follow the link on your bio.
- Website and blog: In this case, create content based on the interests of your audience. Since most of your visitors would like to read about the products and items you recommend, create blog posts that support it.
Regularly post new content to keep them engaged. In your content, ensure you naturally include links to recommended products and have your vanity URL as a “one stop shop” for all the products you recommend your readers to buy.
- Snapchat: Just like on Instagram, you can use Snapchat to give your audience a sneak peak of your shop and recommended Amazon products. Simply take a photo or video of your favourite product and let your followers know about your Amazon Influencer page.
- Podcasts: Podcasts and other audio mediums can be excellent ways to tell your customers about your shop on Amazon. Podcasts help you engage with fans at a more personal level, making them invaluable tools for influencers to engage with fans while promoting Amazon products.
Community Guidelines for Posting Content as an Amazon Influencer
Your video content must comply with Amazon Community Guidelines, which are subject to change from time to time. They include:
- No duplicate content: Your content should be original. Don’t plagiarise content to avoid being kicked out of this program. Also, avoid uploading the same content more than once. Lastly, avoid posting content that’s identical to product detail page media.
- Accurate product tagging: Ensure your products match your content. In that case, only tag items that are featured in your content.
- Rights and infringement: You can only post your own content or content that you’re permitted to use. So, avoid posting content in a way that infringes the intellectual property or proprietary rights of others.
- Medical advice: Amazon influencers are not allowed to provide medical advice or refer negatively to professional medical advice when creating and sharing content.
- False medical claims: In addition to medical advice, you’re not supposed to make medical claims, health claims, or refer to medical conditions unless they are accurate. Also, don’t claim that medical products are as good as or better than over-the-counter products or prescriptions.
- Prices and promotions: When creating and sharing content, avoid including prices, discounts, and promotions.
- Alcohol: Any product from an alcohol manufacturer is prohibited. The only products accepted are alcohol-related products like beer dispensers, wine bottle openers, and glassware. Also, you should avoid behavior that suggests irresponsible drinking or encourage excessive alcohol consumption in your content.
- Defamatory language: Any form of defamatory language when creating content is unacceptable on Amazon. For instance, when comparing two products from different companies, you can’t call one of the products a piece of junk, saying one of them is better than the other.
- Unacceptable products: All the products you promote must be available on Amazon. You’re prohibited from including references to products not sold on Amazon. This also applies to external web links, URLs, and calls to action that ask viewers to take action on other sites.
- Children: Do not target children when promoting Amazon products. If a child must appear on your content, they must be directly related to the product being discussed and must be accompanied by an adult.
- Customer review: You’re not supposed to ask viewers to leave positive reviews of the products you’re promoting.
Benefits of Joining the Amazon Influencer Program
Some of the benefits you can reap from joining this program are:
- Expand your reach: Amazon is a global e-commerce platform with over 310 million visitors. As such, the Amazon Influencer Program exposures your storefront to millions of customers across the world, expanding your reach.
- Brand collaborations: The goal of most influencers is to collaborate with their favorite brands. If you demonstrate the ability to drive sales through content, your favorite brand may approach you for a business collaboration. Influencer marketing has become an integral part of any brand looking to boost their credibility online. This is because influencers serve as social proof that a product is good and works as intended.
- Build trust with your followers: Apart from increasing your followers, joining the Amazon Influencer Program will also help you build trust with your followers because Amazon usually works with reliable, qualified influencers. Amazon is an established brand and becoming one of their influencers you have the chance of helping your audience make smart purchase decisions through your content.
- Receive free products: Brands usually give samples of their products to influencers to test them before they reach the market. However, even if you receive free products from brands, don’t be biased in your reviews. Always remain transparent to maintain your authenticity.
- Revenue diversification: The Amazon Influencer Program is a great way of earning commission without working all the time. You can earn money from brand collaborations and affiliate marketing, while your past content keeps generating sales over time.
Conclusion
Making money at home with affiliate programs has never been easier. Anyone with a significant following on social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, has a chance to make money as an Amazon Influencer.
If you are interested, check your eligibility and visit the Amazon Influencer Program homepage to start earning. Also, here you can find more Amazon affiliate programs.
After becoming an Amazon influencer, ensure you disclose to your audience that they may come across affiliate links when consuming your content. Apart from building trust with your followers, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires influencers to disclose affiliate relationships to maintain transparency.
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Hi, I’m Ana Maria De La Cruz, a Content Marketing Specialist at Outreach Bee. I help businesses gain web exposure and build brand awareness. Our job is to write positively and to spread the word about client’s products/services, post the content in relevant blogs and share it across many social media networks. If you need my help, please contact me.
