Amazon Influencer vs Associate? Which One Should You Go For?

My perspective on Amazon affiliate marketing completely changed the day I discovered the Amazon Influencers Program. I used to think it was all about blogs, websites, and driving tons of additional traffic to sell products. But wow. I was so wrong.

Like me, you probably use Amazon Associates to monetize your content. Now you’re hearing more about the Amazon Influencer Program. Maybe you’ve seen it on YouTube, TikTok, or even some blogs.

You’re wondering:

• Amazon influencer vs. associate? Which should I go for?
• Is it different from the Amazon Associates program I’m already using?
• Can I join both?
• Which one pays better or offers more features?
• Do influencers get special treatment?

These are the same questions that popped into my head. And I dug really deep.

In this article, I’ll talk about the major differences between the Amazon Influencer Program and the Amazon Associate Program. By the end of this article, you’ll be able to decide which one is perfect for you.

If you are a beginner trying to figure out which program to choose, you are most welcome. I will clear up any confusion you have.

So, stay with me. You’ll learn everything you came searching for.

TL;DR: Amazon influencer vs associate

Amazon Influencer is Ideal for social media creators with 1K–5K+ followers. This program offers a personalized storefront; same commission rates; but limited global monetization.

Amazon Associate is best for website/blog owners. This program requires a site, blog, or app. You can earn commissions (up to 20%) via affiliate links. And it supports global traffic with OneLink.

Key Difference:
Associates focus on individual product links, while Influencers use social media storefronts.

My Recommendation:
Join both if you have a website and strong social media presence to maximize earnings.

Key differences: Amazon influencer vs associate

Here is a snippet of the key differences between Amazon influencer and associate:

Now you know what the difference is between the Amazon influencer and affiliate. We will talk more about their differences in the later sections.

Amazon influencer vs associate: who is who?

In my time researching the Amazon Associate vs. Amazon Influencer, I found out that there’s not a lot of difference between the programs. But their purpose is clearly defined.

One is for web/blog-based affiliate marketers. One is for social media influencers. Amazon says this on their official associate website:

What is the Amazon Associate Program?

The Amazon Associate Program is an affiliate marketing platform by Amazon. In simple terms, it lets you earn a commission by promoting Amazon products. You share a unique affiliate link with your audience. When someone clicks that direct link and makes a purchase, you earn a cut.

Sounds easy? That’s because it is.

Whether you’re a blogger, YouTuber, or own a website, joining the Amazon Associate Program gives you a chance to monetize your content. All you need to do is sign up for free, pick a product, and start sharing links with your audience.

The Amazon Associate Program gives you access to millions of products. You can pick anything from kitchen gadgets to tech gear. This makes the program highly flexible.

And don’t worry about the backend. Amazon takes care of the inventory, shipping, and customer service. You just bring in the traffic.

What is the Amazon Influencer Program?

The Amazon Influencer Program is like the Associate Program, but with an upgrade.

This program is made mainly for content creators who have a strong presence on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. If you have a good following and engagement, you can create an Amazon storefront. It’s like your own personalized Amazon page.

Inside this storefront, you can recommend individual products you love. Whether it’s your skincare routine or the tech gear you use to shoot videos, you can list them all. And when someone shops from your Amazon storefront, you earn a commission.

Setting it up is super simple. You sign in with your social media account, Amazon checks your profile, and if approved, you’re in.

The best part? You can guide your followers directly to your curated Amazon page instead of sending them to individual product links. This helps you build trust, grow your personal brand, and keep your content organized in one place.

In short, the Amazon Influencer Program is like having a mini online store powered by Amazon. And it works 24/7, even when you sleep.

Requirements and application: Amazon influencer vs associate

The Amazon associate / affiliate program

This program is ideal for people who own a website, blog, or app and want to add affiliate links into their content.

Application requirements

• You must own a website, blog, or app to apply for this program. You can even apply if you have an active YouTube channel where you post original content regularly.
• You should post on these platforms regularly. Before applying for the associate program, post at least 10-15 pieces of content on these platforms. It shows consistency.

• About account approval, you need to make 3 sales within the first 180 days of joining. Your personal purchases are not counted. After you make these 3 sales, your account will get approved. And then there are no such restrictions till now.
• If you can’t make those 3 purchases in the 180-day duration, your account will get rejected. But you can apply for approval again. And the 180-day clock starts again. So, no worries.

Application process

• Go to the Amazon Associate homepage and click “Sign up”.
• Enter your personal and account information.
• Enter your website and app details for registration.
• Explain how you want to drive traffic to your platform and how you intend to sell products through affiliate links.
• Set up your Amazon Associates payment methods and tax information.

The Amazon influencer program

You should sign up for the Amazon Influencer program if you are a social media influencer with substantial followers in any one of these channels. It can be Facebook, a YouTube channel, Instagram, or TikTok.

• You must have active social channels.
• You should have a decent number of followers on one of your social media platforms. Amazon doesn’t tell you how many followers are substantial followers. A golden rule of thumb is having at least 1k to 5k followers.
• For Instagram and Facebook, I recommend that you have a business account.

• You must publish content on a regular basis. Also, Amazon doesn’t disclose the frequency. But it’s better if you keep up with other social media influencers. And check their posting frequencies.
• You should not post low-quality content. Keep your profile high-quality with original content. Amazon checks the types of content you publish.
• Also, make sure you don’t violate Amazon’s content publishing rules.

Application process

• Visit the Amazon Influencer homepage and click “Sign up”.
• You’ll get the option to use an existing customer account or create a new account. If you’ve already signed up for the associate program, choose the first option. Otherwise, create a new account.
• Link one of your social media accounts. If you choose YouTube or Facebook, you’ll receive an instant decision. Instagram or TikTok applications may take up to 5 days.

• Fill in your profile details. Include other social media links. And insert a unique storefront name.

Once you are approved by Amazon, you’ll be able to create your storefront with your product recommendations.

Promoting products: Amazon influencer vs associate

Before joining the associate program, I thought about the workaround a lot. Once I joined, it was really easy.

The Amazon associate / affiliate program

• After you join the associate program, you get a built-in Amazon tool called SiteStripe. With this toolbar, you can create direct affiliate links for almost every single product on Amazon.
• The SiteStripe will generate affiliate links for you. And you can embed these direct links to you blog, text, webpage, affiliate images, and basically anywhere on your website.
• With the affiliate program, you can send your audience directly to the product you want to sell. (You can’t do that as an Amazon influencer. You can only link to your storefront with different products.)
• You can not share these affiliate links through any offline medium. Offline medium means email, personal conversation, PDFs, and e-books. (You can do that with the influencer program)
• You can use third-party affiliate marketing tools like AzonPress to organize your affiliate products and showcase them on your website.
• When your account is approved, you can create affiliate links to Amazon’s special offers and get bounties. General affiliate links can make you one or multiple sales at limited commissions. But bounties offer high percentage commissions.

The Amazon influencer program

• When you get approved as an Amazon influencer, you’ll be able to create your storefront. Storefront is your personal Amazon affiliate store where you handpick the products you want to promote and showcase. You can categorize your products by season, deals, themes, and other options.
• You can create your own Amazon store link that you’ll share to get sales as well as commissions.
• You can’t create a single product link from the storefront. You can just categorize and sort products there.
• It comes in real handy. Because you don’t need a website or blog page to put links in. Just build your store within Amazon and share the links online or offline. (The associate program doesn’t allow you to send links via offline medium. But it’s available in the influencer storefront.)
• Your storefront is your only way to sell affiliate products. And it’s specifically made for mediums where there’s no opportunity to insert separate product links, like social media.

Affiliate commission structure: Amazon influencer vs associate

The affiliate commission structure is exactly the same for both the Amazon Associate and Amazon Influencer programs.

But keep changing every day. So I’ll recommend you keep an eye on the associate program commission page.

Let’s have a quick breakdown of the Amazon affiliate commission structure.

Right now, Amazon categorizes the commission structure into three categories.

1. Fixed standard commission income rates
2. Special commission income rates
3. Trade-in programs

The fixed standard commission income rate is fixed for different categories. There’s a long chart describing the fixed commission rates for specific product categories.

And the special commission rates include two events. One is bounty events. The other one is bonus events. These special commission events provide a better commission rate than standard fixed commission rates. Would suggest that you explore all the special commission rates from the official site mentioned before.

Trade-in programs are a US-only commission program. You’ll get information from the official affiliate commission page.

Global traffic monetization: Amazon influencer vs associate

The Amazon Associates and Influencer programs give you different ways to earn from the international audience.

The Amazon associate / affiliate program

If you are an Amazon associate, you can reach a wider audience in terms of global selling. Amazon provides you with an amazing tool called OneLink.

OneLink automatically connects your international accounts. And it uses geo-location to redirect users to their local store. When your audience clicks on one of your affiliate links, the OneLink automatically redirects the user to their native Amazon website.

That means you can earn commissions from your international audiences if you set up the OneLink with your affiliate account. It’s crucial if you have a global audience.

The Amazon Influencer Program doesn’t offer you this functionality.

The Amazon influencer program

As of today, you can’t monetize your global audiences through the Amazon influencer program.

But there’s a workaround to this problem. You can create multiple storefront pages from multiple locations. And you can list all of these links somewhere. For example, your social bio.

When a user wants to explore your storefront, they can choose their local Amazon store link you provide.

Account termination: Amazon influencer vs associate

Now that you already know a lot of the differences between Amazon Associates and Amazon Influencer, you should consider the scary part. The account termination. Almost all Amazon affiliate marketers have faced this issue at some point in their lives. And so have I.

Speaking from my personal experience, it’s very frustrating.

The Amazon associate / affiliate program

• With your associate account, if you fail to make 3 sales in the first 180 days of application, your account will not be approved. And Amazon can terminate your associate account. As I have told you before, it’s not a suspension. You can reapply anytime.
• Once your account gets approved, there’s no limit on how much traffic you should bring it. Or how many sales you should make. Your account is secured.
• But your account can get suspended if you break any rules. There’s a long list of Amazon associate program policies. And I’d suggest you read them thoroughly.
• Don’t cloak your affiliate links. Amazon doesn’t support this. If you do that, your account might get terminated.
• Don’t use affiliate images without using the SiteStripe. Amazon product photos are copyrighted. Use appropriate affiliate links when using any product photo on your website. Otherwise, your account might get terminated.

The Amazon influencer program

• Amazon can stall your influencer account if you don’t promote and send strict traffic to your storefront for a certain amount of time. It’s called account dormancy. That means your account is not generating enough affiliate traffic. And you need better engagement to keep the account alive.
• Account dormancy ultimately leads to account termination. So, keep a good engagement and promote your storefront actively. Don’t become one of the inactive influencers.
• Violating Amazon’s copyright policies can lead to account termination. Read the Amazon Influencer policy before joining the affiliate program.
• Any type of rewards or offers to your audience for buying through your link can lead to account termination.

Unique offering for the Amazon Influencer Program

The Amazon influencer program is social media-friendly. And if you have good engagement on your social media platforms, it’s a gold mine. Unique offering of the Amazon influencer program in comparison to the Amazon associate program:

• The Amazon influencer program lets you create an Amazon storefront without the help of any third-party tool. Share the store link. Make sales. It’s so simple.
• Make the storefront for you. You just have to pick the products and organize them.
• Gives you the opportunity to share your storefront link offline.
• Gives you the flexibility to make sales without maintaining an active website or blog post.
• Pays as much as the associate program.

Can you join both programs?

Absolutely, yes. I’d suggest you join both programs.

Making affiliate revenues via both affiliate programs is a big opportunity. If you have a website with decent traffic and a social media channel with a good number of followers, then why not? The commissions will add up. And you’ll make more affiliate sales.

Also Amazon Affiliate program lets you use the OneLink to make global sales. You’ll make better sales with this program.

On the other hand, the Amazon Influencer program lets you send offline storefront links via messages, e-books, and posters. But the associate program doesn’t. Which is a huge deal for lots of affiliate marketers.

I’d say you use both opportunities for a specific purpose.

But make one of your programs your primary program. I made the mistake. I wanted to keep both the programs, but wasn’t putting extra effort into one of them. And I took a hit. That’s the story for another day.

The golden rule of thumb is, if you are an Amazon associate with a good social presence, opt in for the Amazon Influencer program. And if you are an Amazon Influencer, having a website or blog, opt in for the Amazon Associate program. Start promoting affiliate links from both channels. It’s a good income source.

An amazing WordPress affiliate marketing plugin: AzonPress

AzonPress is the best WordPress affiliate marketing plugin out there. You can create product comparison tables with AzonPress with or without the API. Its user-friendly interface and easy navigation make it one of the simplest WordPress affiliate marketing plugins.

With AzonPress, you can create affiliate product tables for any website. For example, you can easily search for Amazon products using keywords or ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) and pull detailed product information directly into your site.

Key features:

• Comparison tables – Create engaging, customizable product comparison tables.
• Zero API integration – Promote products without requiring API keys.
• Customizable layouts – Display products in multiple attractive formats.
• Link management – Automate link tracking, cloaking, and updates.
• User-friendly interface – Simple dashboard for easy campaign management.
• Gutenberg integration – Add affiliate elements directly within the editor.
• Geotargeting – Redirect one country’s traffic to another shop based on location.
• Advanced reporting – Get all the nitty-gritty details of your affiliate campaign.

Conclusion

So, Amazon influencer vs. associate? Which one would you choose?

I asked this question to an affiliate marketing expert, Sadiq Ahmed, marketing lead of WPManageNinja. He said:

“Amazon is still an excellent choice for affiliate marketing. However, which program to choose depends on your portfolio. Amazon Associate is a better option if you’re a blogger and have websites for affiliate promotion. For content creators with a large follower base on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, the Amazon Influencer Program is a perfect fit.”

My take, you opt in for both. And explore the different opportunities of both programs.

Thank you for your patience!

FAQs

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about Amazon influencer vs associate:

Q. Are Amazon associates the same as Amazon influencers?

No. Amazon Associates is the standard affiliate program for anyone with a website or blog content. The Amazon Influencer Program is an extension for social media influencers, offering additional tools like storefronts and influencer video placements.

Q. Is Amazon Associates worth it?

Yes, especially for those with high-traffic websites or blogs. While commission rates are modest, Amazon’s huge product selection and reputation can lead to consistent earnings.

Q. Is Amazon influencer worth it?

Yes, for active content creators. It offers opportunities for passive income through product promotions. The success depends on follower count and engagement, but approval is selective.

Q. How much does a level 7 Amazon affiliate marketer make?

Amazon doesn’t assign “levels” to affiliate marketers in the Associates program. Earnings can vary widely. It typically ranges from $100 to $20,000 monthly, based on traffic, conversions, and niche. There’s no fixed salary or level-based structure.

Q. Do you have to be an Amazon associate to be an influencer?

Yes, the Amazon Influencer Program is an extension of the Associates program. You must qualify as an Associate and meet additional social media influence criteria to be approved as an Influencer.

Q. How many followers do you need to be an Amazon influencer?

There’s no fixed number. Some applicants with fewer than 200 followers have been accepted. On the other hand, people with larger followings have been denied. Good to have at least 1000 followers.

Q. Is Amazon Storefront the same as Amazon Associates?

No, an Amazon Storefront is a feature for Influencers, not Associates. Influencers get a customizable page to showcase products, while Associates use affiliate links without a storefront.

Q. Does everyone get approved to be an Amazon influencer?

No, not everyone is approved. Amazon evaluates applicants based on social media following, engagement, and content quality. Many are rejected if they don’t meet these undisclosed criteria.

Q. Do Amazon influencers get paid per click?

No, Amazon Influencers earn commissions based on qualifying purchases made through their links. Not per click. Commission rates vary (1-20%) depending on the product categories.

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