Pinterest is a powerful source of traffic and new audiences. With a growing number of users, this platform increased its advertising capabilities and sellers are now able to use affiliate links on Pinterest to diversify their income.
If you’re an Amazon seller, in this article we will show you how to use Amazon Affiliate Links on Pinterest, and which best practices to implement to expand your business.
What Is Pinterest?
Before we dive into the nitty gritty, let’s briefly explore what Pinterest is all about.
Pinterest is a platform that allows its users to create and manage their own themed personal boards for inspiration. These boards can include images about events, outfits, handicrafts, recipes, furniture, home decor, hobbies and much more.
Users can follow other related boards with the same tastes and “pin” them to increase their own collections.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work on Pinterest?
The way affiliate marketing works on Pinterest is through product recommendation. As a seller, you can provide the link to your followers so they can find your product easier; this potentially will encourage them to purchase it. By doing so, you will get a commission if customers end up buying the product.
Think of it as a win-win situation; your followers get to buy something that caught their eye thanks to you, and you get paid.
Pinning your Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest is very easy. Just remember to comply with their guidelines and you’ll be all set to start making money!
The main goal is to create a profile where you curate content that portrays your taste, style and business goals in relevant boards, which we will explain below. Not everything in your Pinterest profile needs to have an Affiliate Link, but users can come across them when they save your content to their boards, via home feed, category feed or related Pins.
How to Create Affiliate Links on Pinterest
There are two ways of doing the same thing. One is from your Amazon Associates account and the other, from your Pinterest account:
Amazon Associates
First, of all, you’ll need to have an Amazon Associates account set up to be able to pin Amazon affiliate links.
Once you have it, just follow these steps:
- Create a post that you think would be well-received.
- Without adding any pin attribute, upload a photo on your website that relates or shows the product.
- Now, all you have to do is pin that image to Pinterest and add the affiliate link in the link box.
- To do this, go to the Pin, click Edit, and insert your Affiliate Link in the Website field.
1. Find the plus sign under the search bar and create a normal pin from your profile page.
2. Fill in the product’s description and add the title.
3. Add your affiliate link to the picture.
After, if anybody clicks on the link to purchase the product, you’ll get a commission.
Note: For both cases, use the Amazon Associates SiteStripe to create a text link that includes your Associate ID or Tracking ID. Copy this link, including all the parameters, into the Website field.
How to Get Images for Your Posts
You can get access to different product images at no cost in the Associates Central homepage.
You can browse for products in the Quick Links or Browse for Product sections. Go to the Product Links page to enter product numbers or keywords into the search box. then, use the search functions or get banner buttons. This will allow you to generate HTML-based images.
Once you have your image codes on the product pages, grab them from there by clicking “Image” in theSiteStripetoolbar.
Also, you can use Canva to create your own images. They even have a whole section of templates called “Pinterest Pin”.
Best Practices for Amazon Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest
1. Promote relevant products to a specific niche
Although you’re reaching customers in a completely new platform, think about your niche market and try to help your audience rather than overwhelm them with all sorts of products of all kinds.
This is a marketing campaign and like any campaign, you’ll need a strategy. Also, if customers start to see too many Amazon Affiliate links, then they may feel like you’re spamming them and will just stop following you altogether.
2. Don’t forget to test your links
How effective your links are will depend on your niche market. If you’ve never used Pinterest before, try to focus on how it is you get the most sales. If you have a website, besides an Amazon online store, then it would be a good idea to add linking to reviews or buying guides that you’ve posted there, besides linking to the affiliate product itself.
The only thing is that you’ll need to have separate links for your Pinterest post and for your buying guides.
You can track how these links work for your brand by using and managing Tracking IDs. Go to your Amazon Associates dashboard, click on your email address and the button to Manage Your Tracking IDs will appear.
Compare your Tracking IDs for the next month. Try sending your pins to the affiliate product and other pins to your buyer guides (if you have them) and see which way works best you’re your products.
3. It’s mandatory to disclose affiliate relations, avoid link cloaking
It comes down to avoiding link cloaking. It is a common requirement to disclose affiliate links relations in most affiliate networks. Mostly, because it is an FTC requirement for all affiliate networks.
Amazon sellers have very clear instructions on how to do it, even recommending a line to use in your Pin: “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”
Avoid using Geni.us, Bitly or Pretty Links. Your potential buyers need to be aware of which website or store your link will take them, so be as specific as possible.
4. Make your links Pinterest-friendly
In this platform, we create mood-boards depending on the niche you like. Whether it is cooking or fashion trends, try to stay within the boundaries of your niche. Viewers use Pins as ideas, so try to make your content as helpful as possible.
Try to include detailed descriptions and make your content as visually pleasant as possible. Amateur content will not cut it.
5. Grow your number of followers
Amazon Affiliate Links will work best if you’re authentic in your Pinterest Profile. Remember the goal here is to help possible buyers by recommending a product, not spamming them with a ton of links of things you want to sell.
Spend some time on your Pinterest profile to make your Amazon product recommendations more organic.
Here are a few tips:
Tip #1 – Create Boards & Start Pinning
If your profile is new, then you should start by creating different boards. They should be distinctive, but they shouldn’t drift away from your niche. This profile is just an extension of your brand. For example, if you sell sports items, you can create fitness boards about specific topics like, workouts, nutrition, motivation for weight loss.
People looking at your profile will relate to your content in an authentic way.
Tip #2 – Get Followers
The more followers you get, the more chance you’ll have that they’ll purchase a product using your Amazon Affiliate Links. There are two main ways to do it: following other people or repinning popular content. The good thing is you can do both.
Once your boards are set, publish some pins first and then start to follow other profiles. Find users with profiles that can be associated to your niche market or your brand. It’s not about following profiles exactly like yours, it’s about profiles that share the same interests.
You can also pin content that is already doing well. This may be the best way to gain the most followers and it’s really easy since any of the top pins is already extremely popular. Just choose whatever image you like.
Once you’ve done this, you can start pinning affiliate content or pins that redirect users to your Amazon posts or to your website.
Tip #3 – Scale your Pinterest Outreach
Ok, so your profile is filled out, you got yourself some followers and your boards are full of interesting pins. So now, it’s time to start joining group boards.
When you join a group board, your followers can see pins from other people. So, yes, your followers will see other boards, but thousands of people that don’t follow you will look at your pins as well.
Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Campaign
Using Amazon Affiliate Links can be just a part of a whole marketing campaign on your Pinterest profile. It does have a learning curve, time and testing to see what works best for your specific products. The good news is that it has a higher ROI than any other social network out there. Yes, we mean Facebook and Twitter.
Watch this video to learn more about Pinterest and affiliate links.
Pinterest’s campaign structure allows you to have a single campaign where you can run all types of ads. This way, you can focus more on performance, instead of working out budgets across campaigns and advertisers. You can do this by accessing Pinterest Ad Manager.
Last Words of Advice
Pinterest is a whole new platform to explore when it comes to sales.
Since last year, Pinterest has seen a boom in user-base, which continues to grow every day. It is a great choice for brands and Amazon sellers to diversify their social media mix.
Amazon Affiliate links can help your brand and business have a better online presence and it can help you engage with possible buyers in a more organic way. You won’t just be showcasing the range of products that you offer, you’ll also show the creative side of your brand, which is more about helping users than selling.
And of course, still being able to make money.
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