Key Metrics To Track For Affiliate Links

If you haven’t dipped your toe into the pool of affiliate links, we’re about to talk about why you should include this method of generating passive income into your social media strategy.

Don’t overthink adding affiliate marketing into your content. Once upon a time, social media audiences weren’t “primed” to buy, but now it’s commonplace to see in the comment section things like “drop the link”, “where’d you get those jeans”, “link me please”. 

This is proof that your audience is likely looking to you for product recommendations, from books to sunscreen, and the best part is there are affiliate links for just about everything.

Diving into affiliate marketing will require you to set yourself up on platforms that will allow you to generate affiliate links, Shopstyle Collective, Amazon, and Like to Know It are just a few. We recommend researching and applying to affiliate providers that make sense based on the type of content you create.

Once you’ve got your affiliate providers it’s up to you to share and create the content that drives the clicks that gets you paid!

Key Metrics To Track For Affiliate Links

As with most anything social media-related, looking at your analytics will optimize your effort and hopefully increase your earnings. Obviously, in this case you will want to pay attention to clicks, taking a deep dive into the products that are not only generating the clicks but are also converting to sales.

To optimize eyes on your affiliate links, it is smart to share the links in multiple places. Share them in a blog post, your newsletter, a link in your Instagram stories, and your Facebook page, ALWAYS making sure you disclose that the link is an affiliate link.

After you start sharing to multiple places, check to see where most of your conversions are coming from, you may be surprised that your Facebook followers buy more than your Instagram people even though you spend more time there!

You will also want to pay attention to the type of products, price points, and retailers that generate results. If you find sundresses have done well, do a full post with your top 15 sundress picks. If Amazon and Target generate most of the purchases, always make sure those retailers are included multiple times in your content and shared often. 

There is never a need to reinvent the wheel when you have the ability to dive into actual data that tells you everything you need to know about your audience’s buying behaviors. Strategically taking this information and using it to your advantage will hopefully grow your affiliate sales and get your audience used to clicking your links if they aren’t yet. 

We think it’s important to say that you should share affiliate links based on your comfort level. Sure, you know that one account that only posts affiliates, but you don’t want to be that account. We support you in not being that account. If only sharing what you got from Target, or stationery that you loved, or just a random thing you bought is how you want to work your affiliate links, do that.

The most important thing is staying true to who you are and finding a way to weave passive income into the awesome work that you do. We all deserve to be paid for our labor and the free content that we give to the world, this is just one small way of receiving income from content that you are already creating!