Affiliate Marketing on Social Media Step by Step 2025
Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective ways to make money online. In 2025, social media platforms have emerged as the most effective way to affiliate marketing. If you’re an influencer, a blogger, entrepreneur, or simply just getting started, you can easily find success with affiliate marketing using social media with a clear, strategic process that outlines each step.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to do affiliate marketing on social media – the right way – in 2025.
Step 1: Get a Grasp on What Affiliate Marketing Is
Simply put, affiliate marketing is a method of performance-based business; you promote a product or service and receive a commission when someone completes a sale, lead or other action via your unique referral link.
When it comes to social media – it means:
Promoting affiliate products via your stories, posts, and videos, or referring your followers through the link in your bio.
Driving traffic either to a landing page, or direct to the offer.
Earning income if your followers decide to buy anything.Some of the popular affiliate platforms available in 2025:
Amazon Associates
Impact
ShareASale
ClickBank
Digistore24
PartnerStack
TikTok Creator Marketplace (for brand deals)
Instagram's Built-in Affiliate ToolsStep 2: Choose Your Niche
Before you join any affiliate programs you need to choose a niche. A niche identifies who your target audience is and the types of products/services you’ll promote.
Some examples of niches include:
Fitness and health
Fashion and beauty
Technology and gadgets
E-learning and courses
Personal finance and investing
Travel and lifestyle
AI and productivity toolsYou should choose a niche that:
You are excited about or know a lot about.
Has affiliate offers that are high paying.
Matches what your audience is into. Step 3: Choose the Right Social Media Platforms
There are different strengths on each social media platform with affiliate marketing:
Instagram: Best for lifestyle, fashion, beauty and food. Use stories, reels, and link-in-bio tools like Linktree or Beacons.
TikTok: Great for short-form viral content. Use storytelling, product reviews, and comment sections to send traffic to the links in your bio.
YouTube: Best for product reviews, tutorials, and unboxings. You can place affiliate links in your video description.
Facebook: Good for niche groups and personal profiles. You can post the link directly.
Pinterest: The strongest visual search engine. Use pins that link back to blogs or your affiliate links.Use the one (or two) social media platforms your ideal audience uses.
Step 4: Join Affiliate Programs and Get Links
Once you have determined your niche and platform, you are ready to sign up for relevant affiliate programs.
How to go about joining:
- Go to an affiliate network / marketplace like ShareASale, Amazon Associates or Impact.
- Apply to go through specific programs.
- Once accepted, you will be able to create unique tracking links for the products/services you want to promote.
- Keep track of your links with a spreadsheet or use a link management tool.
Tip: Use link shorteners (like Bit.ly, Pretty Links if using WordPress) to help make your links look clean and trackable.
Step 5: Create Valuable Content That Converts
Your content is what converts clicks to sales! The goal is not just to promote, but to offer valuable content for your audience that will educate, entertain or help solve a problem.
Examples of high converting content: - Product reviews or unboxing videos.
- How-to videos using an affiliate product.
- Comparison videos or posts (Product A vs Product B).
- “My Top 5 Tools I Use Everyday” type of content.
- Story-based posts, sharing how you are utilizing a product in real-world use (we recommend that you include pictures of yourself using the product in your promo assets!).
You should utilize clear & concise calls to action (CTAs) in your content. Example CTAs include: - “Check out the link in my bio”
- “Tap here to try it out for yourself”
- “Get a discount using my special link, directly below”
Keep away from spammy tactics or black-hat means to promote your affiliate partners. Be as transparent as possible and, when applying for affiliates, always disclose your affiliate relationships.
Step 6: Use Link Placement Strategies
The placement of the affiliate links and how you link could affect your potential earnings when promoting affiliate products.
Best Practices 2025:
Instagram: link in bio, link in carousel posts, link in stories (using the link sticker).
TikTok: you want to include a link in your profile or direct to a link page (like Beacons, Koji, etc.).
YouTube: add links to video descriptions and in the top pinned comment.
Facebook: You can share your link in relevant groups as long as your post has contextual value first.
Pinterest: you can pin affiliate links or create a blog post that includes embedded links.
Pro Tips: Use a tool like Later, Beacons.ai, or Linktree to host multiple affiliate links on a single page in your bio.
Step 7: Track Results and Optimize
To optimize your affiliate income, you need to know what is working well and what links are getting the highest conversions in order to maximize your income.
You can utilize:
The built in affiliate dashboard (if the affiliate program has one)
Google Analytics (if you work on a blog or link pages)
UTM tracking codes
Social media insights (where the posts etc. are reaching engagement etc)Ask yourself the following:
What was the most clicked platform?
What was the most engaged content?
What products converted?Be sure to test and refine your strategy!!
When you are looking to increase your online presence or your affiliate income just remember: more followers = more clicks = more commissions but don’t get bogged down in the numbers! Instead, focus on creating an audience of targeted followers that trust you.
To grow your audience consider the following tips:
- Post consistently (2-5 times per week)
- Use trending sounds and hashtags (TikTok and Instagram)
- Collaborate with other creators (around the same niche)
- Run giveaways (with affiliate products)
- Engage your audience through DMs, in comments, and through live videos
How to Stay Compliant and Build Trust
Every social media platform has strict guidelines regarding the use of affiliate links and promotions therefore, here is a list of the main compliance tips:
1. You must always disclose that they are affiliate links (Example "This post includes affiliate links").
2. You must not include false claims or unrealistic promises.
3. You must adhere to the proper FTC guidelines in endorsements.
4. You must not promote any scammy or low quality products; your reputation matters most.The more your audience trusts you the more likely they will be to buy from your links.
Scale and Diversify
Once you begin earning income on a regular consistent basis is when you want to think about scaling your efforts:
- Invest in higher quality content/take your content to the next level and make tools (camera, lighting, editing).
- Outsource all.
Final Reflections
Affiliate marketing on social media in 2025 is not just for influencers with thousands or even millions of followers. If you pick the right niche, develop the right content for that niche, and have the right ethical strategy, you can earn a part-time or even full-time income doing affiliate marketing on social media.
Take it one piece at a time, keep consistent in your posting, and continue learning and growing your audience. Social platforms are evolving very quickly right now — however, trust, value and community will always provide results.
