Amazon Influencer: How to Join It and Make Money on Amazon?

Over the past decade, social media has become an integral part of everyone’s life and increasingly a primary way for brands to reach new audiences.

More than 80 percent of brand marketers like Amazon find influencer marketing effective in promoting their brands.

Amazon Influencer program review suggests it’s a feature-rich and a broader version of Amazon’s popular affiliate program allowing digital creators to gain commission on goods that are purchased by their followers via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

An Overview of This Article

What is Amazon Influencer Program?
How to Qualify for the Amazon Influencer Program?
How Does Amazon Influencer Work?
What Are the Benefits of the Amazon Influencer Program?
Steps to Join and Get Started
Do Amazon Influencers Actually Make Money?

What is Amazon Influencer Program?

Amazon’s share in the U.S. e-commerce industry is around 49 percent and around 197 million people around the world visiting Amazon stores.

To boost its sales further Amazon actively engages with influencers to promote its products and considering its sheer size the things done are different than any other business on the globe.

Amazon’s influencer program is highly organized, central, and easy to participate in.

Brands collaborate with social media influencers across myriad channels to generate awareness and attract more and more customers.

The influencer market that once was an ancillary marketing tactic grew into the whopping $5-10 billion industry.

With Amazon Influencer Program, you get an exclusive page on Amazon with a vanity URL to showcase all of the products which you recommend to your followers.

This gives a personal flare as the influencer can gather all the products, they recommend onto a page their followers can easily have access. Influencers are Amazon affiliates with large audiences on Social media platforms who refer sales to Amazon and get a commission from Amazon.

Brands that drive customers onto Amazon are awarded more prominent search visibility, lower PPC costs, and other benefits.

Influencers regularly posting shoppable content are encouraged to join the program and curate their list of recommended products to their audience on the given Amazon vanity URL.

How to Qualify for the Amazon Influencer Program?

Though everyone can apply for this program, you will need to meet some of its requirements:

1. Amazon influencer eligibility

To become an Influencer, you need to have a large audience on social media networks and must be rated as an Influencer on those social platforms.

Though how large your audience needs to be is not defined by Amazon, it’s believed that current Influencer program members have followers ranging between the hundreds and thousands.

Influencers belonging to any category can participate in the program having Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook accounts.

As per the qualifying metrics by Amazon, the number of followers is important as well as other engagement metrics of social media presence.

The engagement between an influencer and his/her followers is crucial, for example, a person can have thousands of followers on Facebook, but unless a substantial number of those users are liking, commenting, and interacting with the posts, the influencer might not be deemed fit for the program.

Even after having a large number of followers and strong engagement metrics, Amazon has another key consideration to narrow down the number of people who qualify for the program.

Amazon as per the Influencer Program website looks at the type of content the person posts and the relevancy of it for the Amazon customers.

Not only mainstream influencers are joining the program, but burgeoning creators called micro-influencers with only a few thousand followers have onboarded in recent times.

As of now, the Amazon Influencer Program is only available in limited countries – U.S., UK, Canada, and India.

If you have been accepted into the influencer program, your profile on Amazon will have a ”Amazon verified profile” badge. And your social media accounts will display on the profile page publicly.

2. How to become an influencer?

Influencers have to tackle the most critical part of the sales process where they get in touch with customers who know, like, and trust them and their endorsed brands automatically get the needed attention and in turn robust sales.

Without these influencers doing their job, all the brands’ inventory would be sitting in FBA warehouses costing them a lot of money. Amazon Influencers build brand awareness and drive sales through influencer marketing tactics.

To become an Amazon influencer, you need to drive off-Amazon traffic onto Amazon. Amazon influencer marketing has been done since 1996 in the form of the affiliate program and the associate’s program.

To get started with the Amazon influencer program you need to understand how Amazon influencer marketing works.

1.Amazon influencer can be a person, media outlet, or a publication with an extended audience, signs up for the Amazon Influencer Program, a sub-program of Amazon associates’ program is offered to those having an audience on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

2. Acceptance is subject to approval from Amazon based on several factors such as audience size, content relevance, customer engagement, and some other metrics evaluated internally by Amazon.

3. Curating a storefront – the influencer logs in and showcase a list of handpicked products they want to promote and would likely appeal to his/her audience.

4. Once all the products are selected in the storefront the influencer can generate a unique link from the Amazon associates’ site.

5. This unique link showing all the recommended products can be shared with sales-worthy content on several social platforms or elsewhere to drive traffic. All the traffic is directed to the particular storefront curated by the influencer.

6. Any sales done via the Amazon influencer storefront are commissioned by Amazon. The influencer gets a commission on every sale from Amazon and not the seller or vendor account.

7. The more consistently you post and share your Amazon influencer storefront, the more purchases will be made, and more money will come in.

How Does Amazon Influencer Work?

The Influencer Program is pretty much similar to how Amazon Affiliate Program works, users can custom create links and shopping ads and integrate them onto their social media platforms.

So, when a follower clicks on that link and buys a product, the Influencer, or previously called Affiliate gets a commission on the product.

The amount of commission depends on the type of product as Amazon offers variable and product-based commissions.

In addition to commissions on product sales, influencers can also earn via bounties, or flat payments whenever any of their followers sign up for Amazon services such as Amazon Business, Amazon Audible or Fresh, Amazon Prime, and Amazon’s Wedding Registry. Here is how it works:

Create a customized store

Once you’re accepted into the influencer program the next step is to create your virtual Amazon store. This store can be used to promote several items or lists of products recommended by you.

This storefront needs to be identifiably yours to lure in your followers. Giving it a tinge of your look and feel, influencers usually create a style and visual look followed on social media platforms.

Organize store with lists of featured products with the type of products your followers will adore.

Check the following video to see How to Add Products to your Influencer Page

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFBPB9lJPm4

Promote Your Recommended Products

Carefully compile the lists on your Amazon store with all the products that might appeal to your followers.

Be strategic in curating your store lists like creating lists around sale periods and holidays will boost your sales exponentially.

Influencers also typically focus on one specific niche and attract followers in that, so all the products should also be in the same niche.

For example, if you’re a YouTuber you can create unboxing videos showcasing the products on your list.

While if using Instagram, you can share short videos or pictures of yourself using these products, making sure your followers get precisely what they might be looking for.

Also put your Amazon Storefront link on multiple platforms such as your website, in relevant content, on Facebook About page as well as posts, Instagram bio, Twitter bio, and YouTube About page and in video descriptions.

Earn from Bounties

Amazon offers various services and programs for influencers to promote and earn within their virtual store. Influencers can earn differing amounts for every customer joining or purchasing these services and programs.

One example of a reward is that if an influencer gets his/her followers to sign up for Amazon Business account, the influencer will be awarded $15 as a bonus.

Track Sales

Amazon has made it very easy for you to access and track your sales. In your Amazon store, you can access the reporting tab via the Amazon sales dashboard with all the information on sales commissions and bounties that you’ve collected till now.

Also allowing you to download comprehensive reports of your sales, bounties, fees, and payments.

Get Paid

The commission varies for different product types for example for on the sale of Amazon private label fashion line you’ll get a 10 percent commission. While the sale of video games and consoles will earn only 1 percent commission.

There are several options available for you to get paid by Amazon such as direct deposit, check, Amazon gift card or the easiest is getting paid via Payoneer.

Earning of $10 is needed before you can access your funds and also need to provide payment and tax details.

Here are more details of the program, check them out here: Amazon Influencer Program FAQs.

What Are the Benefits of the Amazon Influencer Program?

There are numerous benefits Amazon offers to its Influencer Program participants.

Influencers get to work with a single page and a custom URL where all their selected products are neatly organized.

Easy and efficient way to direct traffic to Amazon.

Access to online account management with features like reporting and tracking sales. Enhancing the power of influencers to make the right decision at the right time to drive sales.

Influencers not only get commissions for sold products from their storefront but can also earn money from bounties.

There’s virtually no limit from Amazon to the number of products that can be listed on the influencer curated page.

Amazon Influencer Program participants retain total autonomy when it comes to product selection while in Amazon Affiliate Program affiliates have to work with Amazon.

Decrease ACoS (Average Cost of Sale) and increase visibility in Amazon Product Search Results as well as on Google.

Influencers can get free items to test. Once you are famous with your social media account, there will be more and more sellers who come to you and offer their items for free for promotion.

Steps to Join and Get Started

There’s no limitation on who can join the Amazon Influencer Program. People with substantial active follower base can apply using their social media account.

Select any of the four platforms with the most clout i.e. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll directly be qualified as most of the requirements delineated by Amazon are not exact and the e-commerce giant encourages everyone to benefit from its platform.

To join the Amazon Influencer Program head over to the program website.

1. Under the Get Started section you’ll find all the four social media platform logos and clickable buttons to get started.

2. Choose any one of the social media accounts with the largest and influential account to see if you qualify for the program.

3.Whichever social account you click it will take you to a sign-up page. This process will link Amazon account with the social media account.

4. When you click on the Authorize app, it will take you to the Amazon Affiliate program sign-up page. Link an existing Amazon account or create a new account for your Influencer account access.

5. Right after you apply it will be evaluated automatically by the Amazon bots to determine if your social standing qualifies for acceptance. Twitter and YouTube have instant acceptance while others could take up to five days to be approved.

6. Once accepted and approved by Amazon, you’ll be notified and prompted to create your storefront with all the favorite Amazon products that you endorse. You can create a list of curated products and will receive a custom URL from Amazon to share and encourage your followers to shop from.

7. Advertise your Amazon storefront to your followers and review or showcase the products that you recommend in a persuasive manner. More purchases from your store mean more commissions.

8. The compensation Amazon Influencer’s get can be pretty nice if enough recommended products are purchased. Though the percentage of commission varies depending on product type ranging from 1 percent to 10 percent on Amazon’s private label products.

Do Amazon Influencers Actually Make Money?

Amazon Influencer Program offers a variety of opportunities for Influencers, brands, and the general public.

The program has since its inception proved to be quite successful for both Amazon and influencers. Just as Amazon offers assistance to its affiliate program participants it also helps Influencers to set up and drive their sales further.

With commissions going up to 10 percent on certain products. This win-win situation for Amazon and influencers make it suitable for both.

To make it more alluring the company offers social sharing tips on all platforms and examples of real-life influencer campaigns.

Influencers working in the Amazon Influencer Program say that the revenue can vary from a few dollars to $2,000 a month.

For example, influencers called The Whole Foods Vegan said they get only a few dollars while creative named Roberto Blake typically makes around $1,500 to $2,000 every month.

People can now buy products directly from their loved and admired influencer’s Amazon page.

This, in fact, works for example if a customer sees your ad that your product solves problem X easily and quickly, they will still be skeptical of your product.

Though, if they search for the same problem and come across a YouTube video or a blog post from someone that has some authority, expertise, and trustworthiness in the field, and they say that your product solves the problem X swiftly and easily, then they will certainly buy.

This instinctual trust pattern of humans showcasing that someone is part of their tribe and makes all the difference in advertising.

Conclusion

Amazon Influencer Program (AIP) is a lucrative initiative for Influencers, businesses, and of course Amazon itself.

It aims to use a more personalized approach to lure customers by collaborating with the influencers who appeal to an exclusively relevant customer base.

An amazing way to make money online by sharing products you love and want others to try. Influencers would need to invest some time and effort but they can be certain of quality service and a decent passive income.