Are you a social media influencer or an Amazon seller with a substantial following looking to broaden your horizons on Amazon in 2024? Becoming an Amazon influencer could be the next big step. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about the Amazon Influencer Program, from understanding the basics of setting up an influencer storefront and promoting your storefront to earn commissions.
What is the Amazon Influencer Program?
The Amazon Influencer Program is essentially an affiliate marketing program designed specifically for social media influencers. Influencers can leverage their audience to promote Amazon products and earn commissions on qualifying purchases. As an Amazon influencer, amazon provides you with a storefront that you can customize to your liking with your brand colors and design. You can then use it to inspire customers to shop for products on Amazon by publishing content like livestreams, shoppable photos, and videos.
How Much Can You Make as an Amazon Influencer?
Like any other business, how much you make on Amazon influencer depends on your effort and a bit of luck. There is no definite amount that influencers make. Amazon basically pays you a commission when you refer a shopper to an Amazon product. These commissions vary depending on the product category. For example, the Grocery, Health & Personal Care, and Video Game Consoles categories attract a 1% commission. Categories like Luxury Beauty attract higher commissions of 10%.
Although these commissions seem low on the surface, they add up fast when you have a solid following. For example, let’s say you have 100k followers. You promote a product that sells for $100 at 1% commission. If 1% of your followers were to buy the product, you’d make $1,000.
Besides earning commissions when you promote your influencer storefront to your audience, you can also make money from onsite commissions. When you post shoppable content on your Storefront, Amazon may choose to show this content to shoppers when they search for products. If shoppers click on your content and shop, Amazon pays you onsite commissions. The beautiful thing about onsite commissions is that you don’t need to promote your content on social media. Just create shoppable content and choose a product, and Amazon will handle the rest.
Why Should You Join the Amazon Influencer Program?
The Amazon Influencer Program offers an excellent opportunity for social media influencers to create an additional revenue stream while enhancing their brand presence. Here are some compelling reasons to become an Amazon affiliate:
Monetizing Your Influence
As an influencer, you have built a loyal and engaged following. By joining the Amazon Influencer Program, you can monetize this influence effectively by earning commissions on purchases your followers make through your personalized Amazon storefront — effectively creating another revenue stream.
Enhanced Credibility
Associating with a reputable brand like Amazon inherently boosts your credibility as an influencer. Becoming an Amazon associate signals to your audience that you are a trusted source for high-quality product recommendations. Amazon also boasts a huge customer base, providing access to a much wider audience than you might reach on your own social media channels. Your curated product recommendations can be surfaced to relevant Amazon shoppers, increasing your visibility and potential impact.
Diverse Product Range
Amazon’s extensive catalog ensures that Amazon influencers can find products that resonate with their niche. Whether it’s tech gadgets, fashion, beauty, or home decor, you can curate your storefront to match the interests of your audience.
User-Friendly Tools
Amazon provides a suite of promotional tools that help you supercharge the performance of your storefront. As an Amazon ambassador, you can better understand what your audience loves and fine-tune your strategy accordingly.
Minimal Hassle
Unlike other e-commerce business models that require inventory management and customer service, the Amazon Influencer Program allows you to focus purely on promotion. Amazon handles all the logistics, including shipping and customer queries.
No Upfront Costs
Joining the Amazon Influencer Program is free. You can start earning commissions with minimal financial risk, making it an attractive option for influencers at any stage of their career.
Curated Storefront
Showcase your favorite products and collections through a personalized Amazon storefront. This central hub allows you to visually organize your recommendations with shoppable photos and Idea Lists, making it easier for followers to discover and purchase the products you endorse.
Creative Freedom & Flexibility
The Amazon Influencer Program doesn’t dictate your content style. You have the freedom to create content in a way that resonates with your audience, whether it’s product reviews, tutorials, lifestyle posts, or creative storytelling. Just remember to comply with Amazon’s content guidelines.
Exclusive Perks
As an Amazon Influencer, you may gain access to exclusive promotions, early product releases, and special events. These perks can provide additional content opportunities and further enrich your relationship with your followers.
Amazon Influencer Program Requirements
There are Amazon influencer requirements you need to meet to qualify for the program. These are criteria aligned with your social media presence and engagement. Here are the detailed requirements to keep in mind:
Social Media Metrics
One of Amazon Influencer Program requirements touches on social media metrics. You can’t be an influencer if you don’t have a crowd to influence or if your followers don’t engage with your content. Let’s look at the social media metric requirements for Amazon influencers.
Platform
Amazon always asks to review your public social media accounts when you apply to be an Amazon influencer. The options currently include Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. Amazon won’t consider any other social media platform.
Follower Count
While Amazon does not disclose an exact number, a substantial and active follower base on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok is essential. You don’t need a massive audience of hundreds of thousands of followers, but a decent follow count is essential in getting you accepted into the Amazon Influencer Program.
Engagement Rate
High engagement rates — likes, comments, shares, and views are a crucial aspect of being a successful Amazon influencer. In fact, a smaller but engaged audience brings in more value than a massive but disengaged audience. Amazon looks for influencers who can effectively engage their audience.
Content Quality
Regularly posting high-quality content that resonates with your audience is crucial to getting accepted into the Amazon Influencer Program. This demonstrates your commitment and ability to maintain a strong online presence and keep your audience engaged. Your content should align with specific niches that can be effectively marketed on Amazon. This could range from beauty and tech to lifestyle and fitness.
Platform Compliance
Ensure your social media accounts comply with each platform’s terms of service, including no history of violations or suspensions, which could indicate an unreliable or unsafe partnership.
Account Type
Your social media accounts must be public. Private accounts are not eligible because they limit outreach and visibility.
Step-by-Step Process of Applying to the Amazon Influencer Program
If you have a strong and engaged audience on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook, now would be a good time to apply for the Amazon Influencer Program and start earning commissions. Here is a step-by-step process of how to become an Amazon influencer.
Step 1: Go to the Amazon Influencer Program page and click on Sign Up.
Step 2: You’ll be taken to a page where you’ll need to choose an account for your influencer content. You can sign in with an existing customer account and use it for your Amazon influencer content, or you can create a new account so your shopping history and other content won’t be associated with your influencer account.
Step 3: Once you choose the account to use for the Amazon Influencer Program, it’s now time to connect one of your social media accounts for Amazon to determine your eligibility. As I mentioned earlier, you can either link to Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook.
When you apply with YouTube and Facebook, Amazon will let you know immediately if you’re approved as an Amazon affiliate. For TikTok and Instagram, Amazon will take five days to let you know if you’re approved. The trick here is to use the account that has the most followers and best engagement rates.
Step 4: Complete your Amazon influencer profile by entering your other social media account links. On the next page, create your storefront name and tagline. Then, enter your account details, which includes your business name, address, location details, and contact information.
Step 5: Finish your application by hitting Save and Finish, then follow the Amazon Influencer Program page on Instagram with the account you used to sign up. Following the Amazon Influencer Program is mandatory for your application to be approved.
How to Create an Amazon Influencer Storefront
Once Amazon approves your application, you’ll now need to create an Amazon storefront. Your storefront acts as a personalized landing page. This is where you post content and products you recommend, so ensure to brand it in a way that resonates with your target audience. Let’s dive into how to create an Amazon storefront as an influencer.
Step 1: Log into your influencer account and go to Storefronts > Edit storefront on the panel at the top of the page to create your storefront.
Step 2: Personalize your Amazon influencer storefront by giving it a unique name and adding a profile picture, storefront banner, and tagline. Amazon lets you customize your storefront URL so you can change it to something memorable and niche-specific.
Step 3: Select the products you wish to promote on your storefront. You can search for these products on Amazon based on category, brand, or keywords.
Step 4: With your influencer storefront set up, you can now start creating content. Go to the top left corner of your storefront page and hit Create Content. From the drop-down menu, click on Idea Lists.
Step 5: Once you hit Idea Lists, you can now add items to your lists, title these lists, and add products for every category.
Promoting Your Amazon Influencer Storefront
With your Amazon influencer storefront set up, you’ll need to promote it to attract shoppers and generate commissions via sales made on your storefront. Let’s look at the strategies you can use to promote your storefront and earn commissions.
Leverage Social Media Platforms
What better place to promote your Amazon influencer storefront than on your social media platforms? Social media is a powerful tool for Amazon influencers. It’s the foundation upon which influencer marketing is built. So, how do you promote your influencer storefront on social media?
Create Engaging Content
Content is king on social media. You need to post high-quality and engaging content on your socials to keep your followers engaged. You can leverage this content to promote your Amazon influencer storefront on social media and funnel your followers to Amazon.
High-quality visuals will be the foundation of engaging content. Use professional photos and videos to showcase products. Investing in high-quality production will help you create content that stands out and ensure consistent content quality and engagement on your social media pages.
Live streaming is another strategy for promoting your Amazon storefront and generating engagements on social media. Hosting live product demonstrations, Q&A sessions, and unboxing events can help you get your followers interested in the products you promote in your Amazon influencers storefront. Additionally, encouraging followers to share their experiences with your products through User-Generated Content (UGC) can help reach a broader audience. It also acts as social proof for the products you promote and is an excellent sales driver.
Platform-Specific Strategies to Promote Your Amazon Storefront
- Instagram: Stories, Reels, and IGTV can help you provide quick, engaging product insights. Use swipe-up links in Stories to direct followers to your influencer storefront. Additionally, add your storefront link to your bio.
- YouTube: Create detailed product reviews, tutorials, and comparison videos. You can funnel your viewers to video descriptions with links to your Amazon storefront.
- TikTok: TikTok’s short, engaging video format showcases products creatively to your followers. Use trending sounds, hashtags, and challenges to increase visibility and grow your follower count.
- Pinterest: Create visually appealing pins that link back to your influencer storefront. Pinterest’s shopping features make it easier for users to purchase directly from your pins.
Utilize Email Marketing
Email marketing remains a highly effective way to reach and engage your audience. If you don’t have a mailing list, consider building one by offering free resources such as ebooks and guides. For example, if you’re an Amazon influencer in the outdoor niche, you can offer a free camping checklist guide. This would be your lead magnet and users who want it can enter their email so you can send it to them.
Remember, personalization is crucial in email marketing. You want each subscriber to feel like you’re addressing them personally, not as a group. Address each recipient by their name, and send personalized product suggestions based on their past purchases. Use automation tools to target recipients based on their activities. You can also incorporate interactive elements such as polls, quizzes, and countdowns.
Collaborate With Other Influencers
Partnering with other Amazon influencers can expand your reach and help you grow your audience. You can do this by co-creating content with influencers in your niche through joint live streams and guest blogging or vlogging.
Host live events with other influencers where you both discuss and promote products available on your influencer storefronts. Exchanging guest posts, cross-posting, and even holding interviews with other influencers discussing products in your storefronts can help you get more eyeballs on your influencer storefront.
Make Money as an Amazon Influencer
If you have a substantial following on social media, then you should definitely make some money from it. The Amazon Influencer Program lets you make money promoting your favorite products on your Amazon storefront. By following this guide, you’re well on your way to helping your followers discover awesome products on Amazon and earning commissions while you’re doing so.
