Why TikTok and Instagram are The Best Platforms for Affiliate Marketing

By Bradian Muliadi | Aug 31, 2020 02:57 (edited)

Affiliate marketing may not be as highly associated with social media as influencer marketing, but it is an attractive commercial opportunity that should be tapped into. Just like any blog or website, social media is a great platform to push content towards a targeted audience through organic reach, which when transformed into a community with a loyal following, can be monetized by affiliate marketing well-tailored products and services. Here are a few reasons why you should focus on social media for affiliate marketing:

1. Instagram and TikTok Can Give You a Large Audience

One reason affiliate marketing works well with social media because it is made for everyone. As of today, there are 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram and 800 million on TikTok. Therefore, good content on Instagram or TikTok can show you an endless amount of people.

The benefit doesn’t end there. Instagram and TikTok are also a great place to convince people to purchase a product because users and creators have been a trusted source of information and recommendation on social media. Research by Market Force has shown that 81% of U.S. online consumers’ purchase decisions are influenced by their friends’ social media posts while the users who are influenced by the posts of the brands they follow on social media are less by 3%.

2. Instagram and TikTok Users Love User-Generated Content

The users of social media have seen a lot of branded content throughout their lives that seeing products being presented by other users, including influencers, has become a more appreciated practice. Aside from trusting users to recommend a product, it is shown that content made by users generates more overall engagement. A good example of this is TikTok, a social media platform that is best known for its younger audience, where its top users and posts consistently come from influencers and even regular users.

3. Strategic Link Placements

Whereas traditionally affiliate links are placed in the middle or end of a blog post, Instagram and TikTok allow linking and adding referral codes in places that are easier to be found, commonly on the picture or video itself, through swipe-up of Instagram story, or a hashtag on TikTok that directly leads clickers to a designated brand page. Especially now as social commerce is developing on TikTok and Instagram, the journey from a post to check out is much shorter, making it easier to convert as an affiliate.

4. Algorithms Help to Promote Your Content

Source: @lovelana.xo

TikTok and Instagram have a built-in algorithm that allows good content to be discovered by users, even those who are not following you. For example, content from Feed, Stories, Reels, and Instagram stores with lots of engagement such as likes and comments can be found on the Instagram Explore page by interested onlookers. TikTok’s For You Page is also known to be able to accurately show likable content that matches your previously liked posts.

5. Social Media Can be Easily Planned and Strategized

Due to the increasing use of social media as a marketing platform, many analytical tools have been created to help you strategize your content. TikTok and Instagram analytics of many kinds have existed to show the best posts, hashtags, time, and analyze your audience and competitors. This can help you not only with one affiliate program but with your overall performance. More lucrative opportunities can be easily achieved by optimizing your TikTok and Instagram.