How Do Those Shopping Links Work Exactly?

A Q&A on affiliate links.

Hello there! I’ve been receiving lots of DMs from people who are curious about the ad breaks I share on Instagram, so I’ve collected the questions, and thought it might be interesting to share the Q&A about how all this works.

What is an Affiliate Link?
This is where a creator shares a product link with a special code embedded in the link (called an affiliate code), and if someone clicks on the link and purchases the product, the store give a small percentage of the sale price to the creator — 3% to 7% is common. So a creator shares a favorite lamp, someone clicks on the creator’s link and buys the lamp for $100, and about 90 days later, the lamp store sends $7 to the creator.

Important Note: Affiliate links do not change the price of the product for the consumer.

How does a creator get the affiliate code link?
Creators sometimes work directly with a brand to get an affiliate link, but more often creators join an affiliate network. Affiliate networks partner with lots of different brands, and creators can go the affiliate network app or platform to create links for any company the network has a relationship with. The network collects the payments from the brands and then pays the creator — so a creator’s payment might include earnings from many brands at once.

This is supposed to make things more streamlined for the creator. Instead of managing affiliate accounts with 15 different brands, and trying to track payments from 15 different brands, the creator can just work with the network and have one contact point, and one place to keep track of everything.

There are lots of affiliate networks and new ones are launched every year.

Can a creator use more than one Affiliate Network?
Yes. I belong to something like 7 different affiliate networks, though some I’ve never actually used, or only used once. Each network works a little differently, and tries to recruit creators with things like exclusive access to certain brands, or higher payout percentages, or easier software for creating links.

Does someone have to make the purchase on the day the creator shares the link? If they put something in their cart, but buy it later, does it still work?
Generally yes. But it does depend. Each brand has their own rules and guidelines and they decide the time frame for how long a link gets credit. Sometimes it’s 30 days, sometimes it’s a week, sometimes it’s 24 hours. I’ve even seen less than 24 hours.

Creators that are real pros (I feel like I’m still a novice) on affiliate links definitely take this into account as they decide what it’s worth their time to promote.

If someone opens the affiliate link in a new window in Chrome instead of just staying in the Instagram app, will the creator get credit for clicks/purchases?
From what I understand, the answer is yes. The link itself has the creator’s individual code built into it.

What if someone adds the thing to their wish list and adds it to cart at some other point in time?
I’m not sure on this one. My guess is that it depends on how much time has passed between the first click and the purchase.

Does the creator have to self-report how much interaction the link gets? Does Instagram give the creator a nice report? Or can the brands see into the creator’s Instagram data?
Actually, the creator doesn’t report at all, and neither does Instagram. All the data collection is from that unique affiliate link, and wherever the link was created (the brand site or an affiliate network) does all the tracking.

That brings up an important point: there’s a lot of trust required. Creators have to trust that the data being reported is accurate. I’m not aware of a good way to check on that data.

I should also note that Instagram is notoriously bad at giving creators data about their content. For example, after a few days, I can no longer see how many views a Story received. [Correction: I’m wrong on this point — I’m told you can now access your story views data in your archive.] It’s a bit strange — Instagram relies on content creators to keep people coming back to their app, but can also act antagonistically toward content creators, favoring certain types of content over others.

If someone purchases something after clicking a creator’s link, but it’s not the product the creator linked to, does the creator still get credit?
Yes! This is a cool thing about affiliate links. If you click on an affiliate link for a dress at Target, and then end up buying 5 items, none of which are the dress, the creator still earns on your purchase.

The idea is that the brand wants the creator to send people to the brand website, and then the brand hopes the consumer will see lots of things they are interested in.

3-7% is the typical earning percentage on affiliate links?
Yes, but there’s really a huge range. I’ve seen 1% listed. Once in a while I’ve seen 15% listed. Really rarely I’ve seen 40% listed. And once I saw 60% listed.

It all depends on the brand and product. Clothes and housewares are usually in the 7% or less range, but an insurance product might be in the 40% range.

And affiliate networks can work with brands for special higher rates during a specific sale. Target usually offers lower rates, but this summer, Howl arranged for a promotion where Target was offering 15% on their in-house brands for a couple of weeks.

That reminds me, brands can also offer different rates on different products within their own store. Best Buy offers 3% on most items, but then has promotions where one specific line they carry offers 20% for a month. That sort of thing. So if someone clicks a creator link for Best Buy and ends up buying 5 different things, those 5 things could each earn a different percentage.

Which means part of the job of a creator who uses affiliate links is doing regular research into where they can find the best rates on the items they like to promote. Recently, I spoke with a Youtube creator who has a channel where he reviews laptops and he earns his income through affiliate links on the laptops. He uses links from a variety of affiliate networks — he’s just looking for the best rate on the product featured in the video. And if he finds a better rate later, he goes back and updates the link. That kind of research and updating can be a time-consuming behind-the-scenes part of the job.

Can the creator tell who buys products or do they just receive a tally at the end of the promotion?
I receive zero data on who has made purchases. I can see the purchases that have been made, but have no information about who made the purchases.

How do “click campaigns” work?
A click campaign is where a creator is paid for the number of clicks their affiliate link generates, in addition to any sales. But even if there are no sales at all, the creator still gets paid for each click. I think the industry term for a click campaign is CPC and I believe it stands for cost-per-click.

I rarely see click campaigns. I think I’ve seen 4 total in the last six months (compared to hundreds of regular affiliate campaigns). But as a creator, I think they are awesome!

From what I understand, the brands that use click campaigns know that if they drive enough people to their site, statistically a certain number will make a purchase. I assume only brands who have a lot of reliable data use click campaigns.

On a click campaign, if we click more than once, do you get credit for the multiple clicks? If I click every day, does it count as separate clicks? Or is it one click per device? Is it *unique* clicks, or just a general 15000 clicks?
All great questions and I don’t know the answers yet. But I have sent these questions to a contact at Howl and I will update this if I get a response. Or, if you are reading this and you know the answer, please leave a comment or email me and I can update this answer.

Does length of time on the page play any meaningful role in a click campaign in a way that benefits the creator?
I don’t think so. I’ve never heard that it does. I believe just clicking through to the website gives credit for the click, even if you’re only there for a second. You do not need to click on anything else or stay on the website for a certain amount of time.

When I click the link, it takes me to a page asking if I want to use the app or go to the website. I always click through to the website just in case, but if I just click on the link only and don’t follow the second step, do you still get credit?
From what I understand, you do need to go to the website — so thank you for making that extra step.

Why did you start doing ad breaks on Instagram?
I had been sharing updates about our French renovations for about four years on Instagram, and had not figured out a way to earn money from that work. The renovation updates require a ton of time, and I knew I couldn’t keep sharing them unless I figured out a way to get paid for the work.

This past summer, I was working on that problem. I had considered affiliate links, but hadn’t seen much success in the past and didn’t think it would be worth the effort. I’ve used affiliate links very irregularly and inconsistently since about 2008, they were never a focus for me.

That changed for me when I was introduced to an affiliate network called Howl. I really liked Howl from the get go — their platform makes more sense to my brain. They have a very transparent data model, so I can see really clearly and easily what is being clicked on, what is being purchased, and how much I’m earning. They also have great bonus programs, and sometimes they offer a combined flat fee + affiliate fee, which is ideal.

So I started experimenting with Howl and I found it was a good fit. (If you are a creator and want an invitation to try Howl, you can use my link.)

Why didn’t you use affiliate links very often before?
There are some significant risks and downsides to affiliate programs. Here are a few:

Earnings payments are very delayed. If you make a sale on July 1st, you probably won’t receive the payment for that sale until early November. That makes it really hard to invest a lot of time on affiliate links if you have an immediate need for income — say for rent and food — in the current month. If you’ve seen creators promoting Black Friday sales (like me), they won’t see those earnings until March.

Some brands deduct for returns. Let’s say someone clicks the creator link and buys a TV, and the creator gets credit for the sale. But then, let’s say the shopper returns the TV 30 days later (or however long the store’s return policy is). Because of the return, the creator’s earnings are now cancelled and deducted.

That can be a big problem for creators because some stores have a really generous return timeframe, so creators can’t depend on their earnings. They think they earned a certain amount, and plan that amount in their budget, but find out months later the number is lower, sometimes significantly lower. And from a creator standpoint, deducting for returns doesn’t make sense. The brand wanted the creator to send someone to the brand’s site to make a purchase. The creator did that successfully. If the brand’s product didn’t live up to the shopper’s expectations, that’s not the creator’s problem, that’s the brand’s problem. It seems odd to penalize the creator when the creator successfully did their job. (That’s another thing I like about Howl — some of the brands they work with don’t deduct for returns.)

Some affiliate networks take fees off the top, so your payouts are less than your earnings.

Creators don’t work directly with the brands. Lately, I’ve promoted Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom Rack, Samsung, and lots of other famous brands (see here for examples), but I don’t actually have any contact with those brands. It’s all done through the affiliate network. So if a creator has an idea that want to run by a particular brand, that’s not really an option.

It’s a risk — no matter how much time you spend, you may not earn anything at all. A creator could spend time and energy making an amazing Tiktok about a product, something really brilliant, but that doesn’t mean anyone will see it. Creators often don’t have control of the platforms they use. I have 182,000 followers on Instagram, but Instagram typically shows my Stories to less than 10% of my followers. (There is more control on a newsletter — about 70% of my Substack subscribers open my newsletters.)

The risk is also inconsistent and unreliable income. One promotion may earn a lot and the next one very little. But the work for both is the same.

How are affiliate link ads different from regular ads?
Consider the advertising on television we all grew up with. There is no accurate way for brands to track the particular sales brands make from TV advertising. If a brand doesn’t see an uptick in sales after the TV campaign, they don’t get a refund on the ad dollars they spent, they just try again with a different ad or message. If the brand does see an uptick in sales after a TV campaign, but then many consumers return the product, the brand doesn’t get to deduct those returns from the ad dollars they spent. TV advertising has always been quite risky for brands, but brands still found it (and still find it) valuable because they know they are getting brand awareness even if they’re not getting sales.

But with affiliate links it’s completely different. There’s zero risk to the brand. The brand doesn’t pay anything up front, they only pay if there’s a sale. And brands can track exactly how many clicks and sales a specific affiliate link generates. Again zero risk. But interestingly, with affiliate links, brands typically don’t want to acknowledge that they are benefitting, even if there are no sales.

By the way, I like the TV comparison, because that’s how I mentally approach my ad breaks on Instagram. I share a series of Instagram stories (usually 30-50) about a specific project, and it’s very much like an episode of a TV series. And then, I put an ad break in the middle of those stories — and the ads are usually unrelated to the project I’m featuring (yesterday, the project I shared was about restoring a cast iron door bell, and the ad break was for a French skincare company). Just like a TV episode with unrelated ad breaks in the middle.

In my opinion, the ideal affiliate programs are flat fee + affiliate fee. Because if a creator promotes a product, even if no one buys the product, the brand still benefits from that advertising. The brand still earns brand awareness that will help future sales.

Are affiliate links the main way creators earn an income?
It’s one of several ways. For some creators it’s the main way, for others it might be a minor supplement. In January 2022, I wrote an explainer of the different ways creators come up with revenue. It’s a good overview if this is a topic you’re curious about.

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I’ve been publishing online since 2006 and if you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’m constantly experimenting and evolving how I earn money from this work, so that I can continue to write and renovate and create and share. I don’t know how long it will last, but the last five months of affiliate work has been an interesting and worthwhile experience so far.

I hope you found this Q&A helpful and interesting. Please feel free to comment on anything I mentioned above, or whatever’s on your mind. I wish you a lovely week.

kisses,
Gabrielle

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