How To Start an Influencer Affiliate Program (2024)

Gone are the days when a celebrity spokesperson with a milk mustache was all it took to get shoppers to the dairy aisle. Today, companies across various industries lean on influencers to support their marketing efforts—creating a $21.1 billion influencer industry that continues to grow.

Influencer affiliate programs leverage creators to promote a brand’s products and services using social media platforms. Even the dairy industry has turned to influencers to boost sales, partnering with social media stars like Charli D’Amelio to make TikTok videos extolling milk’s virtues.

This article explores how a savvy affiliate marketing strategy can help increase brand awareness, grow your audience, and maximize earnings.

What is influencer affiliate marketing?

Influencer affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy where influencers team up with brands to feature their products. The influencers, or affiliates, have a unique link, known as an affiliate link, that they embed in their posts on blogs, articles, and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

The affiliates then earn money every time someone clicks on the link and goes on to make a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, or performs a desired action. Brands can track these affiliate link clicks using specific URL formats, unique referral links, coupon codes, or personalized pages.

Influencer affiliate marketing differs from a traditional influencer program, wherein influencers create a specified amount of branded content for a set fee or perks such as brand-sponsored trips or free products.

Why is influencer affiliate marketing important?

An influencer affiliate marketing program is a win-win for all sides. Your products get higher exposure and sales, the content creatorsget paid, and your affiliate network—which connects you to experienced influencers—gets a cut of the profit.

Social media influencers work in a wide range of mediums and formats, allowing your brand to test which method resonates with your target audience. Lauren Kleinman, founder of marketing agencies Dreamday and The Quality Edit, emphasizes the brand exposure influencer affiliate marketing can bring.

“If you have a product that can be talked about in publications and you’re not on an affiliate platform, you are completely losing out,” Lauren says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.

“Instagram and TikTok have broadened the additional surfaces that PR can live on, and definitely on the affiliate space, there’s also a lot of overlap [between public relations and social media] in that you can have Instagram influencers sharing their affiliate links.”

How to find the right influencer affiliates

Brands have no shortage of influencers at their disposal when creating affiliate networks. Choosing the right people to create content for your brand is essential for effective influencer marketing campaigns. Here’s how to find influencers that fit your brand:

Identify your target audience’s preferences

As you try to find influencers and affiliate marketers, learn which social media platforms your core demographic uses most. Conduct market research and analyze your customer data to create an ideal customer profile. Then use social listening tools to understand your audience’s interests, preferred platforms, and favorite influencers.

For example, if your skin care brand wants to reach Gen Z consumers, makeup influencers on TikTok could be a better match than content creators on Facebook. Matching your audience with the right influencer builds an authentic connection with your brand.

Find influencers who represent your brand

An influencer affiliate program serves as an extension of your company, so ensure these ambassadors represent your brand. Vet prospective influencers to understand their tone, messaging, values, content, and overall reputation. Giovanna Alfieri, vice president of marketing at The Honey Pot, says the more an influencer aligns with your brand identity, the more successful your program will be.

“For us, it’s about finding people who can reflect our values back at us whilst producing meaningful, creative content,” says Giovanna on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.

“It’s really hard for agencies to replicate our humor, but what we find is there’s a large number of micro-influencers that actually can take that tone and voice very organically, because they’re just naturally funny or they don’t have to think twice about it.”

Target micro-influencers

Influencers are often grouped by the number of followers they have:

• Nano-influencers: Creators with 1,000 to 9,999 followers.

• Micro-influencers: Creators with 10,000 to 99,999 followers.

• Macro-influencers: Creators with 100,000 to 1 million followers.

• Mega-influencers: Creators with more than 1 million followers.

Micro-influencers tend to have more engaged audiences and lower costs per post than larger accounts. Finding micro-influencers with followers in your brand’s target demographic can build brand awareness and boost sales. These influencers create content across various niches, making targeting specific audiences and interests easier.

Use influencer search engines and creator marketplaces

While you can manually search for influencers across platforms, utilizing tools like influencer search engines to set specific search terms can weed out ill-suited prospects. Creator marketplaces can also help narrow your selection to influencers actively seeking work.

Build your influencer affiliate network strategically—you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. Influencers’ engagement can ebb and flow. Find a robust group of influencers to safeguard against this.

Approach influencers mindfully

Influencers are often in high demand and may be fielding numerous partnership requests. Stand out from other brands by engaging with their work. Like and comment on their posts and build a connection before you reach out.

In your initial messages, be personal, compliment their work, and demonstrate knowledge about their posts. Share your brand’s values, mission, and why you believe their content is a natural fit. Be transparent about the request, pay, creative control, and scope of work.

How to run a successful influencer market affiliate program

1. Develop an offer
2. Provide a brief
3. Collaborate on content development
4. Set a shared calendar for posts
5. Evaluate performance and revise as needed

Even if your brand works with experienced influencers, you need a strong affiliate marketing strategy. Once you’ve identified which influencers you’d like to work with, here’s how to build long-term successful partnerships:

1. Develop an offer

Before reaching out to influencers, solidify the deal’s terms, conditions, and compensation structure. Developing a template can help your brand quickly adjust offers when reaching out to multiple influencers simultaneously. Presenting a structured offer to prospective influencers tells them you’re legitimate, ready to work with them, and able to pay.

2. Provide a brief

Provide a brief that clearly explains the partnership. Include expectations around when, what, and how to post. The brief should provide clear brand guidelines and list all the information you want in the influencer’s posts. This can include:

• Essential talking points, keywords, and guardrails
• Popular hashtags
• Product features, descriptions, and pricing
• Timeline for deliverables and payment
• Creative control and approvals

These guidelines prevent excess revisions, questions, and delays by ensuring you and the influencer are on the same page.

3. Collaborate on content development

While the influencer content should look and feel organic, your brand can still collaborate with creators on post ideas.

Share marketing materials like brand packages and style guides to inform the posts and ensure creative alignment. Include preferred color palettes, typography, imagery, and approved ad copy. If you have specific logos, images, or video clips you want in the content, send those with instructions on how and where to use them.

4. Set a shared calendar for posts 

Increase transparency between your team and the influencer with a shared content calendar. Include posting timelines with specific dates and times for posted content, draft due dates, and brand approval deadlines. Map out current and future projects to give you both a sense of how much is in the content pipeline. Check in at key points during the campaign to make sure you’re on schedule.

5. Evaluate performance and revise as needed

Once the program is up and running, keep tabs on performance by analyzing click rates and conversions. Examining the data will help inform you and the influencer on what is working and what isn’t, ultimately leading to more impactful future posts.

If something isn’t working, there’s a lot of flexibility in influencer affiliate programs to try something new. Creators tend to work faster and adjust their tactics quicker than other marketing channels. For example, if your static image posts aren’t driving sales, you can have influencers try video content and livestreams. A well-crafted affiliate marketing program allows you to pivot quickly and maximize engagement.