What is the Amazon Influencer programme?

The Amazon Influencer programme utilises content creators to provide recommendations via social media channels. It encourages influencers to monetise content by recommending Amazon products and earning commissions on qualifying purchases.

Influencers can do this by employing easy-to-use tools that allow them to set up a storefront with products they want to promote and share. They can use a variety of mediums to share the links such as live streams, shoppable photos and videos, and take you directly to the products. 

For example, if an influencer has a YouTube channel where they review electronic products, they can create an Amazon Marketplace and link the product from their video to the storefront where their audience can purchase the item. 

The Amazon algorithm can also show influencer content to shoppers, giving more reach to influencers and the potential to earn more commission. The programme accepts applications from all types of Influencers with a Facebook, Instagram or YouTube account and a meaningful following. 

Which categories is the Amazon Influencer programme best suited to?

While brands in most industries can use the influencer programme, some of the categories that may perform better are:

• Beauty 
• Health and Fitness
• Electronics
• Toys / Games 
• Home / Garden
• Pet
• DIY / Tools

If you think about YouTubers, for example, these categories on YT tend to have audiences that are used to products being reviewed and linked for them to buy, so brands in those spaces could see a positive return. 

How can brands leverage the influencer programme?

As well as the direct sales uplift that brands can generate by using influencer marketing, brands should also consider additional opportunities they have to deliver indirect growth and build increased return on investment.

As a start, the Amazon Influencer Programme encourages influencers to share your products by earning a commission. However, as influencers produce photos and videos using your products, you can then leverage these in your own marketing on Amazon, for example within A+ content.

Once influencers produce photos and videos using your products, you can then leverage these in your own marketing for  A+ content within Amazon.

A+ Content is a digital, visual brochure that promotes the benefits and key features of your product in an appealing way. It can be the ideal backdrop for professional Influencer videos. All videos can be featured in Posts or on the Brand Store too.

The aim of A+ Content is to:
 

• Improve consumer trust
• Build brand awareness
• Improve Ads performance
• Increase conversion rates & boost sales

Amazon states that product listings that have A+ can increase your product sales by an average of 5.6-10%.

How can you find influencers relevant to your niche? 

You’re probably not going to love this answer but at the moment, it’s a little tricky! There is no Amazon influencer marketplace and therefore are no fast-track tools other than manually searching for an influencer in your space. 

So, it’s time for some good old-fashioned manual research into influencers in your industries and making lists. You can make this process a little easier by utilising hashtags that may be relevant to your niche. There may be blogs written about the best gamer influencers for example or the top ten beauty vloggers to watch out for. 

If you find an influencer but know they will be out of your price range, you can look in the comments to see if other smaller influencers in your niche have commented too. 

Top tip: Look at the engagement rates of influencers, especially on Instagram, to make sure they haven’t bought their followers. Having a big following is fine, but if no one engages with their content then it will mean they will be less likely to actually click on links they are promoting. 

Not ready to enter into an influencer programme just yet? Don’t worry, Social media Coupons could be a good first step.

So, what are Social Media Coupons?

Essentially, you can create coupons for influencers to share on their social channels. The coupons provide you with the ability to set your own promotions and influencers who are registered on Amazon can log on and copy the hyperlink to share with their followers. The audience can click on the link and the promotion is instantly applied. 

It’s an easier first step because it eliminates the time spent finding an influencer to partner with more substantially. 

To create and share a social promo code, follow these steps:

1. In Seller Central, go to Advertising > Promotions > Create a promotion > Social Media Promo Code.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions.
3. Once the promotion has started, preview the marketing page URL.
4. You can now share this URL with customers on social media or your marketing channel of choice. As a best practice, add a disclosure such as “limited time only” or “while supplies last” to notify customers of the limitations associated with the deal.

However, use them with caution. You can’t really control which influencer shares your link as any influencer signed up to the Amazon programme and has been approved can see the promotions, so it might not be someone that is aligned with your brand values, doesn’t fit within your tone of voice or share it in mediums that you do not want the products to appear.

Right now this is only available in the US, but will hopefully be rolled out in the UK and Europe soon.

Our perspective 

Widening your influencer strategy to include Amazon should be part of the influencer marketing conversation for brands. Conversion rates tend to be higher on Amazon than on Direct to Consumer websites, so it’s a smart decision to support and enable your brand influencers with Amazon social coupons and the Amazon Influencer Programme.

Want to get a head start on your Influencer Marketing strategy? Send us a message and we can guide you in the right direction.