6 Easy Steps to Become an Amazon Influencer in 2024

Introduction

It seems that, in today’s advanced digital world, influencers are everywhere. Knowing this, it should be no surprise that Amazon, too, has expanded its current Amazon Associates program to now encompass the Amazon Influencer program. This gives influencers from all over the web the chance to grow their audience by showcasing Amazon products. Keep in mind that there’s a lot that goes into this program such as what it incentivizes and how it positively impacts various social media platforms (not to mention the influencers themselves).

Below, we’ll check out what Amazon influencers are, how to become one, how to grow your audience on social media, and much more.

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What’s an Amazon Influencer?

Simply put, an Amazon influencer is someone who utilizes their social media audience or online presence to promote products that are sold on Amazon. They also have the ability to significantly influence what products their audience does and does not buy thanks to their expertise, authenticity, and engaging, quality content.

How Does the Amazon Influencer Program Work?

Created by Amazon, the Amazon Influencer Program allows its influencers to create their very own customized storefronts that prominently feature products. These influencers commonly test out, review, and then recommend the products to their audience.

Via this program, the influencers are given a unique URL that leads to their storefront. The URL is important because it allows the influencer’s audience to click on that link—which is usually posted to the influencer’s social media accounts—to shop for specific products the influencer has endorsed.

Amazon influencers also have the ability to personalize and customize their storefront with branding unique to them, creating a true, seamless extension of their social media presence. When the influencer’s audience travels to this storefront and makes purchases on Amazon through that storefront, the influencer will then earn a commission for each sale. This is a great way to make money on Amazon and gives these influencers plenty of financial incentive to persuade as many members of their audience as possible to buy the products they recommend on Amazon.

The benefits of the Amazon Influencer Program don’t just benefit the influencer. Rather, the shoppers can take advantage of this program by quickly locating products their favorite influencer has recommended, ensuring the item’s quality. This works because of the significant level of trust that the influencer has built over months or even years.

In short, this program is a win-win situation for both the influencer and their audience and helps said influencer broaden their existing revenue stream and create an even stronger connection to their audience.

What’s the Difference Between an Amazon Influencer and Amazon Affiliate?

Running an Amazon Storefront is the primary difference between Amazon Influencers and Amazon Affiliates. When you’re an Amazon Influencer, you are given a unique page directly on Amazon’s website specifically created for influencers both big and small who currently have a following on social media. However, these pages don’t allow any hyperlinks.

While these programs can be confused with one another since they both use the same commission rates, account management features, and various reporting functions, influencers are known to have a very minor advantage over affiliates in terms of both traffic and engagement.

How Much Do Amazon Influencers Make?

While the exact amounts vary, there are some Amazon Influencers who have reported earning up to $5,000 per month. Further, how much an influencer makes can depend on a variety of key factors such as the types of products they’re promoting, the size of their audience, engagement rates, and the Amazon influencer commission rates they receive. These last can also vary depending on the product they’re promoting.

You should also keep in mind that quality is much preferred to quantity when creating content specifically for your social media audience. That being said, effective influencers also leverage the Amazon Influencer Program paired with the quality of their content to effectively drive lots of sales on their page.

Additionally, it’s a fact that influencers who already have a huge following will earn more than the ones who have a small audience. However, it is still very possible to succeed with this program for smaller influencers. In order to earn a huge amount of commissions, they’ll need to focus on products that align closely with their existing brand while ensuring that their marketing strategies are top-notch.

How Many Followers Do You Need to Be an Amazon Influencer?

To become an Amazon Influencer, you typically need to have a substantial and active following on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter (aka X), or FaceBook. The number of followers required can vary, but having a minimum follower count of 1,000 people can increase your chances of approval. Of course, having a larger following and other engagement metrics in your favor can accelerate the approval time. Make sure your content aligns with Amazon’s guidelines and policies, and your social media posts should demonstrate your ability to create authentic, engaging, and informative content that resonates with your audience.

Also, be aware that simply meeting the recommended amount of followers doesn’t automatically mean that you can be an Amazon Influencer. Rather, you’ll need to show Amazon that you can create quality content that impacts sales. Even though there is a barrier to entry to become an Amazon Influencer, those who get in will find that the increased value to both their audience and themselves will be well worth the initial struggle.

Amazon Influencer Program Requirements: How to Get Approved

In order to get approved for the Amazon Influencer Program, you’ll need to consider the following factors:

Eligibility

• Any social media influencer can apply for the program, no matter their niche or area of expertise
• When applying, you’ll need to have a solid presence on YouTube, Instagram, FaceBook, or TikTok
  • FaceBook and Instagram influencers will need to have an account that is designated as a business profile. This allows Amazon to access the data they need to determine your eligibility

Selection Criteria

Amazon takes a look at the below criteria when selecting influencers for the program:

• A good number of current followers (there is no set minimum number, but the more you have, the better)
• The average number of likes, comments, shares, and saves on all your social media posts
• A healthy number of click-through and conversion rates whenever an influencer promotes a product or service
• Demographic data gathered from your audience
• High-quality content and consistency of said content
• Your brand’s alignment and how well it resonates with Amazon’s

Additional Considerations

• Those applying for the Amazon Influencer Program should highlight the strengths and expertise that set them apart from other influencers in the same niche
• Collaborations with brands or similar campaigns in the past are recommended as they demonstrate your experience as a marketing influencer

After providing as many pieces of the above information and criteria as possible, you will be in the best possible spot to be selected for the Amazon Influencer Program.

How to Become an Amazon Influencer in 5 Easy Steps

1. Develop a Branding Strategy

An influencer’s most powerful asset is their brand since it can attract lucrative sponsorships, build trust with an ever-growing audience, and influence that audience into purchasing the products they promote.

Speaking of promoting products, selecting the right products for your brand is crucial, as it helps build your brand’s identity, leading to more authority in your chosen niche.

Check out some of the below reasons why careful product selection matters to influencers:

Maintaining Brand Coherence

If you have a brand that is all about promoting healthy living and products related to it, but then suddenly pivots into clothing or fashion, the audience you’ve built up that has come to expect a certain kind of content will become confused. This ultimately damages both your brand and reputation, so avoid this at all costs.

When you choose products to promote that fit in with your existing brand, your brand’s core messaging will be reinforced, strengthening it (and your audience).

Building Trust and Authenticity

No matter what kind of influencer you are, your audience no doubt values authenticity. The individuals that make up your following want to connect and trust someone they view as a genuine, honest person. When an honest influencer promotes a top-selling Amazon product they truly think is great and without any deception, their audience will pick up on that, boosting their bond and helping that influencer generate more sales.

Connecting with Your Audience

However, it is sometimes not enough to promote products that you believe in. You may also have to connect and know your audience on a more personal level (such as their specific interests or values) in order to succeed as an Amazon influencer. Selecting products that don’t clash with your brand, yet resonate personally with the vast majority of your audience, will show that you care about their interests as much as your own.

Selecting a Non-Saturated Niche

With the increasing level of competition on Amazon, it’s more important than ever to find an unexplored niche that is not overly saturated with influencers. We recommend researching tools that can help you find a profitable niche that is small enough for you to succeed in. Some types of tools you should look into include:

• Social listening tools
• Hashtag research tools
• Competitor analysis tools

2. Build Up Your Social Media Accounts

It’s highly important to focus on building up your social media presence on at least one platform. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution that you can use on any social media platform. Rather, each platform has its own methodology that’ll help you achieve success. Take a look at three of the recommended Amazon influencer social media sites below to figure out the best way forward:

YouTube

• Find Your Niche: Discover the specific topic that works for you and stick with it. Consistency will get you further than topic hopping.
• Research Existing Channels: Take the time to study other successful channels in your same niche. You should also be aware of their content themes, video styles, and their audience engagement strategies.
• Content Quality: Prioritize investing in superior lighting, sound, and editing software in order to help make your videos look as professional as possible. Additionally, create content that is informative, engaging, and entertaining all at the same time.
• SEO Optimization: Make use of relevant SEO keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags to help ensure more viewers see and watch your videos.
  • Titles: Focus on making your title short (around 50-60 characters long), incredibly interesting, and a perfect segue into the video content.
  • Thumbnails: Capture the attention of your viewers and don’t let them go until the very last second by creating a thumbnail that sets the scene for the video.
• Engagement: You should always encourage engagement and interaction in your comments section. This also includes participating in the discussions and running the occasional contest or poll.
• Collaboration: When possible, partner up with other YouTubers in your same niche. This will help expose your content to a new audience that may otherwise have never heard of you.
• Promote Your Channel: Don’t be afraid to promote your content across other social media platforms where relevant. If done right, this could massively increase your audience and online exposure.

Instagram

• Develop a Cohesive Aesthetic: Ensure that your profile picture, feed posts, and stories are all visually appealing and share a common theme.
• High-Quality Content: Take as many quality photos and videos as possible that align with your chosen niche. Also, consider touching up the photos using Instagram’s editing tools to enhance your content further.
• Hashtags: Make absolutely sure that you are properly using relevant and popular hashtags as these will help boost your discoverability.
• Captions: Design engaging captions that focus on telling stories, asking questions, and encouraging conversations.
• Storytelling: Take advantage of Instagram Stories to give your audience an exclusive glimpse of behind-the-scenes photos and videos, host quizzes relevant to your brand, and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
• Collaborations: Never be afraid to pair up with other brands in your niche, as this can lead to sponsored posts or a huge audience expansion
• Engagement: Always ensure that you are liking and replying to a good number of your comments while participating in popular conversations. This will help keep your audience engaged, ensuring they come back in the future.
• Promote Your Profile: Consider sharing your Instagram handle where relevant across the web, such as on other social media sites or online message boards.

TikTok

• Trend Awareness: Keep an ear to the ground and be on the lookout for the next trending sound, challenge, or dance to capitalize on popular content as soon as it appears.
• Short & Engaging Videos: Keep all your videos short, engaging, and to the point. While longer videos exist, TikTok still favors shorter videos. Also, be sure to imbue your videos with quick edits and eye-catching images.
  • Eliminate Dull Moments: Get rid of any slow moments in your video, no matter how great you think it already is. We recommend getting an unbiased focus group together to provide accurate and helpful feedback.
• Challenges & Duets: Always be sure to participate in popular and trending challenges with other creators in your niche, as this will help boost your visibility and engagement.
• Hashtags: Like Instagram, utilizing popular hashtags whenever you can is a recipe for success, so be sure to do it.
• Captions: Include concise and eye-catching captions that encourage viewers to continue watching the video.
• Live Videos: If you’re comfortable talking to others, be sure to use the live streaming feature on TikTok to directly talk to your audience and answer any questions they have for you.
• Collaborations: Take part in any TikTok collaborations with other creators on the platform whenever the opportunity arises as these can build your audience from a few hundred to a few thousand.
• Promote Your Profile: Like YouTube, Instagram, and any other social media platform you’re on, always take the opportunity to share your TikTok profile.

3. Apply for the Amazon Influencer Program

When aiming to register for the Amazon Influencer Program, you’ll need to fill out and provide the following information:

• Access to the social media account you use that has the highest audience number. You’ll be required to also give your username or URL.
• The profile picture you wish to be associated with your Amazon Influencer account.
• While optional, it’s recommended that you provide a header image for your new account.
• Your name
• A 350-word character bio that tells those visiting your Amazon page who you are.
• The address you want your Amazon reports to be sent to

Once the above steps are complete, you’ll have to choose from three different social media platforms: YouTube, Instagram, or FaceBook.

Additionally, if you select YouTube or FaceBook, you’ll need to link your account directly to Amazon. While Instagram accounts do not require this, you’ll still have to tell Amazon how many followers you currently have, the number of posts you have on the platform, and your Instagram handle.

Again, when applying for the Amazon Influencer Program, we recommend that you select the social media site you use that has the highest number of followers. This is because the higher your follower count, the higher the chance you have of being accepted into the program.

Finally, if you get into the Amazon Influencer Program, you should receive an email with your acceptance, a custom storefront link, as well as a custom Amazon storefront space to create influencer content.

4. Design Your Amazon Influencer Storefront

The next thing you will have to do when learning how to become an Amazon Influencer is to build and create an Amazon Storefront page. This process involves uploading a profile photo you want to be featured on your storefront, designing a page title and tagline, and telling Amazon where you first found out about the influencer program.

Furthermore, you can quickly finish this step by adding information to the “Account Information” page. Here, you’ll be asked to enter your business name, address, phone number, website URLs, and the product categories you’re focused on.

After this is completed, your Amazon Storefront page will be complete! Now, you’ll be able to change your business name, profile and cover photo, and tagline at your leisure. While you can take your time adjusting your information, we recommend completing any changes sooner rather than later, since a cohesive storefront attracts more followers.

You will also have the opportunity to enroll in Amazon Brand Registry assuming you possess a registered trademark for your unique brand.

If you’re ever struggling to draw in new followers on Amazon via your storefront, you can also check out Amazon’s Creator University, which is a free resource you can use to potentially boost your storefront’s success rate.

5. Continue Building Your Social Media Reach

The online social media landscape is always growing, making it difficult to manage every site that comes along. That’s why it’s important to pick 1-3 social media sites and focus on mastering them rather than being a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none at every single one

There are currently many big-name sites to choose from such as Instagram, FaceBook, YouTube, TikTok, X, and more. This can easily make it overwhelming and hard to pick the right three. However, all you’ll have to remember is that quality content beats quantity content every time, regardless of social media platform.

When you’ve done your research and picked up to 3 social media platforms to focus on, you’ll start to accumulate a host of benefits including:

• A deeper audience connection: When you focus on creating consistent, high-quality content for three platforms, you’ll naturally start to form strong and lasting relationships with members of your audience while establishing yourself as a significant voice in your chosen niche.
• Improved content quality: Again, by simply choosing to focus on three social media platforms, you’ll have far more time to create quality content geared towards those sites instead of a one-size-fits-all piece of content that does not gain traction and goes unnoticed.
  • Conduct extensive research: A key part of creating quality content is to know what’s popular in your chosen niche. You can achieve this by thoroughly understanding your audience’s wants and desires while taking steps to analyze your competitors’ strategies.
  • Invest in powerful tools: Sometimes, creating quality content can be much easier, but only if you invest in the tools that can help you optimize the process. Editing software, graphic design tools, and—in rare cases—professional equipment can help you create high-quality content much quicker.

At the end of the day, the main piece of advice to remember is to select 1-3 social media platforms that align with your business goals and possess your target audience. By making an effort to succeed on your chosen platforms, you’ll find that your online presence—as well as your core audience—will start to grow, ultimately leading to more influence and more sales.

6. Utilize Amazon Live

A live streaming platform specifically designed for Amazon Live Influencers, Amazon Live is great for promoting both your brand and the items you’re recommending.

For those interested in Amazon Live but unsure how it all works, take a look at a general walkthrough below:

Amazon Live works by:

• Notifying your audience concerning upcoming or ongoing live streams hosted by you. These live streams can be via Instagram, FaceBook, or any other social media site.
• Your viewers then go to Amazon Live to watch you discuss the newest Amazon product you’ve found.
• The viewers who watch this live stream immediately learn about great products on Amazon that they know are great because of the trust they have in their chosen influencer.
• These same viewers can then click on links for the products found under the live stream.
• Your viewers will also be able to talk to one another about the live stream thanks to the conveniently placed chat box on the side of the live stream.

This is incredibly useful to Amazon Influencers since it gives them an opportunity to market specific Amazon products to their audience members who—because they are at the live stream—currently have a buying mindset, increasing the chances of them clicking the link and ordering the product you’re talking about.

The Payment Process for Amazon Influencers

Unfortunately, one negative about being an Amazon Influencer is the prolonged period of time it takes for payments to be processed and paid to you. According to the payment schedule, you can expect your commissions to be paid to you 60 days after the month the products you were promoting were bought. So, for example, if you were selling a t-shirt in March, then you would be paid—at the earliest—at the end of May or the beginning of June.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if one of your customers cancels their order, or if the order hasn’t been shipped yet, you will not receive your payment.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve explored the ins and outs of the Amazon Influencer Program, it’s time for you to start seriously thinking about taking the first step! As you start applying, always remember to be both patient and persistent regarding the process; your massive audience won’t be around at the start, but keep at it and it’ll surely come.

No matter if you’re an old hand at being an Amazon Influencer or completely new to the entire process, the high potential with this program is real and could be a life-altering decision you’ll remember fondly. So seize the opportunity in front of you, adapt and shift your strategies when the need arises, and pave the way for a future bright with possibilities as an Amazon Influencer!

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Followers Do You Need to Qualify for Amazon Influencer?

Amazon does not state the minimum number of followers you need to become an influencer. However, the more followers you have, the better the chance of successfully joining the Amazon Influencer Program.

Is It Free to Join the Amazon Influencer Program?

Yes, it’s free to join. This program was created to help influencers and content creators earn commissions by promoting Amazon products, so you do not need to pay to join up.

How Can I Find an Amazon Influencer's Storefront?

Click on the main navigation icon found on the top left corner of the Amazon homepage, then scroll down and click “See All.”

How Do You Contact Amazon Influencers?

You can contact Amazon Influencers by email, DM, or contact form. The best method to reach them depends on the influencer.

Do Amazon Influencers Get Free Products?

Yes, they receive completely free products from the brands and sellers they collaborate with. These brands usually send free products to the influencers, who then review them, show them to their audience, and give their opinion on the product.