10 Instagram Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to make money on Instagram, but it can be hard to run a successful campaign. The problem usually comes down to making costly mistakes. Let’s go over the most common Instagram affiliate marketing mistakes and how to avoid them. Once you stop making these simple mistakes, your campaign should get back on track and start bringing in money.
 

1. Not Choosing a Specific Niche

You will have a hard time earning a decent income from affiliate marketing if you don’t market to a specific niche. If you choose a broad market, you’ll attract followers from a variety of niches instead of a single niche. That means your posts will only appeal to a small number of your followers. It’s hard to get many conversions when most of your followers aren’t interested in your posts. 

If you are currently marketing to a broad audience, narrow it down. You might lose some followers at first, but eventually, you’ll end up attracting niche-specific followers who are ready to engage with your posts and buy your products.
 

2. Not Using Instagram’s Affiliate Marketing Platform

Instagram recently started rolling out its own affiliate marketing platform. This platform makes affiliate marketing on the social network easier than ever before. You can use the app to browse products from different brands and see the commission structure for each brand. Then, you can choose products and tag them in your posts. If someone makes a purchase after clicking on the tagged product, you’ll earn a commission. 

If you’re eligible, you can sign up by going to “Pro Home” and clicking on “Set up Affiliate.” However, if you aren’t eligible yet, keep checking back. This is going to make affiliate marketing so much easier and more profitable. 
 

3. Not Focusing on Engagement

When you promote affiliate products, you need to prioritize engagement. Reaching high engagement levels will signal that your post is hot. Then, Instagram will display it to more users. This is necessary if you’re going to make serious money with affiliate marketing.

You can jumpstart your engagement by purchasing real Instagram likes. Then, your posts will reach more people so you can attract more likes, shares, and followers. You’ll also discover that your high engagement levels will impact your conversion rates.
 

4. Failing to Be Transparent

Authenticity is vital on Instagram. If you aren’t authentic, you’ll have a hard time getting your marketing campaign off the ground. Part of being authentic has to do with transparency. You should be completely transparent when marketing affiliate products. If you use Instagram’s affiliate marketing platform, it will handle that for you. However, if you use another platform, you’ll need to disclose the relationship when making posts.
 

5. Only Using Stock Images

Brands provide affiliates with various images to use in marketing campaigns. While these images are fantastic for supplementing the campaign, they shouldn’t be the sole focus. Otherwise, you’ll lose authenticity points. Instead of only using stock images, take pictures of yourself with the products.

For example, let’s say that you’re an affiliate for a jewelry company. You can purchase one of the necklaces and then photograph yourself wearing it. That will help you make more sales than posting a stock image.
 

6. Failing to Add Links to Stories

Instagram doesn’t give you many options for adding clickable links, which poses a challenge for affiliate marketers. Fortunately, you can add a link to your Stories. People just need to swipe up to access the link, and then you send them to the product page. If you aren’t using the swipe-up link feature on Stories, you’re missing a great opportunity to sell products. Thus, incorporate this strategy right away.
 

7. Not Adding Links to Your Profile

You can also add a clickable link to your Instagram bio, and you can update it at any time. Thus, add a clickable link that sends people to a current promotion and market it. You can tell people that the link is in your bio in your posts. Then, when you move on to another campaign, you can change the link in your bio.
 

8. Always Selling

You have to promote the products to make money. However, it’s possible to promote them too much, which can negatively impact your sales. Thus, create and follow a diverse content strategy. Mix up your posts, so you’re only promoting some of the time. As a general rule, post at least two or three non-promotional photos or videos for every promotional post. Also, if you post multiple times a day, stick to a single promotional post so you don’t overwhelm your audience. Otherwise, you could end up with some unfollows. 
 

9. Only Listing Features

When promoting someone else’s products, you need to sell people on the benefits. You’ll have a hard time beating any sales records if you simply list the features. Instead, you need to explain how those features will benefit people. In the marketing world, this is referred to as selling the sizzle, not the steak. Think of the ways the products can benefit others, and then use that as the foundation of your marketing plan. Then, come up with ways you can highlight the benefits using videos, images, and captions. You can even go live and discuss the benefits.
 

10. Focusing on Clicks Instead of Purchases

There’s a belief that you should focus on clicks with affiliate marketing. The thought is that the more clicks you get, the more purchases people will make. However, that’s simply not true if the clicks are of a low quality. Thus, qualify your leads by letting people know what they’ll find when they click on the link. By delivering transparent, high-quality content, you can increase your sales.
 

Adapt Your Marketing Strategy

Now that you know the common mistakes people make, you can adjust your strategy. Then, you can avoid these mistakes and start increasing your sales. With the right strategy, you can even earn a full-time living with affiliate marketing on the social network.