The Amazon Affiliate Program is More Than Just a Sales Channel
Imagine all the balls you juggle in the air when you’re starting to expand globally. From ensuring compliance with different regional regulations, to forecasting inventory and ensuring a solid supply chain, to optimizing and localizing content – it’s a lot. Then, when your products land in your new storefront, you realize they’re not moving. Because you haven’t developed a relationship with your new audience just yet. That’s where Amazon Affiliate Marketing comes in handy.
An affiliate marketer is an Amazon-accredited influencer or blogger. They promote Amazon products through an Amazon affiliate link, and earn a commission for everything they sell. Affiliate income is passive income for most. Now, if you’re in the middle of scaling globally, tapping into the affiliate network can help you in a huge way. Amazon Affiliate Marketing is available in 17 locations around the world – here’s a list from Amazon.
The affiliate program is the hidden lever that most scaling brands overlook; many sellers focus on PPC and SEO on Amazon, and while that’s all necessary work, Amazon Affiliate Marketing can help you build brand equity and drive traffic off-platform. It’s a quick and easy way to promote your Amazon store, boost your marketing efforts, and grab the attention of your target audience in a faster and more effective way. Read on through this article to find out more!
An Amazon Affiliate Marketer is similar to an influencer – we’ll get to that a little later in this blog. But think about using influencer marketing to get a leg up in new countries.
What is the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program?
So, what exactly is the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program? Also known as Amazon Associates, it’s one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the world. Its massive network of affiliates, and a vast selection of products to promote, make it a great choice for individuals and companies that want to monetize their online presence.
What does it take to become an Amazon affiliate? If you own a website or a blog, or you create content, then you can become an Amazon associate. Yes, even you, Amazon seller, can earn money through affiliate sales. To keep it simple, affiliates promote products, and earn a percentage of sales when customers buy items through the affiliate Amazon link that the affiliates share on their platforms.
For bloggers and content creators, being accepted into the Amazon Associates Program is a great idea, because it’s a way to earn passive income.
For sellers – especially those hoping to expand to any one of the 17 countries where Amazon Affiliate Marketing is present – Scale Insights gives 5 benefits:
- Increased Visibility: it’s advertising without the ads. Successful affiliate marketing is a soft-sell way to promote your products to the audience that follows the affiliate.
- Higher Conversion Rates: To be successful as an Amazon affiliate, the person should ideally have a following of people who are already interested in the type of product they’re promoting. So, when a seller works with an affiliate in their space, the probability of conversions is higher, because the affiliate’s already speaking to customers that are interested in your type of product. You wouldn’t go to a recipe blog to find car parts, right? But if that recipe goddess points you towards a garlic press she swears by, you’re likely to take her word for it.
- Lower Advertising Costs: Affiliate Marketing with Amazon isn’t necessarily free of charge; after all, the affiliates earn commissions by promoting Amazon products. But it’s still more cost-effective than traditional advertising methods. You earn money as an Amazon Affiliate only if someone purchases the product – unlike PPC, where you pay for clicks or impressions even if the click does not result in a sale.
- Access to a Larger Audience: There are more than 900,000 affiliates engaged in Amazon Affiliate Marketing. That’s a massive audience of potential customers you may not be able to tap without the help of a successful Amazon affiliate.
- Increased Trust and Credibility: Let’s face it; customers know when they’re being sold to. When you engage in digital marketing efforts, you’re speaking from your voice, as a brand owner. When customers hear about a product from someone they trust and admire – like an affiliate or influencer – they’re likely to believe in your product more.
Now, Amazon provides many different avenues to help sellers get the word out. There’s the Amazon Affiliate, but there’s also the Amazon Influencer, and the Amazon Vine Reviewer.
Here’s a table to help you understand the difference between the three:
| Feature / Program | Amazon Affiliate 🖋️ | Amazon Influencer 📱 | Amazon Vine Reviewer 🌿 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who It’s For | Bloggers, website owners, niche content creators | Social media influencers with an engaged audience | Top-rated Amazon reviewers (invite-only) |
| Main Platform | Blogs, websites, YouTube descriptions | Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Amazon storefront | Amazon.com (product review section) |
| Follower Requirement | ❌ None | ✅ Yes (must apply, follower quality matters) | 🚫 No (but you must be an active and helpful reviewer) |
| Custom Amazon Storefront | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Content Hosted on Amazon | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (videos, livestreams, photos) | ✅ Yes (written + photo/video reviews) |
| Commission Earned | ✅ Yes (via tracked links) | ✅ Yes (via storefront + links) | ❌ No commissions – products only |
| Free Products | ❌ No | ❌ Not automatically, unless gifted by brand | ✅ Yes – in exchange for honest reviews |
| Type of Content Created | Blogs, reviews, guides, tutorials | Videos, reels, posts, livestreams | Product reviews (text, images, videos) |
| Monetization Model | Commission per sale | Commission per sale | Free products in exchange for unbiased feedback |
| Traffic Driven To | External (Amazon via links) | Amazon storefront + product pages | Product listings (helping buyers decide) |
| Visibility on Amazon | ❌ Low | ✅ Medium to High (depending on content quality + views) | ✅ High (reviews often surface near top of listings) |
| Amazon Approval Needed | ✅ Yes (simple sign-up) | ✅ Yes (vetting required) | ✅ Invite-only (you must be selected by Amazon) |
You don’t have to choose among these three. You can participate in the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program by providing your products and providing an affiliate commission for every product sold. You can also leverage Amazon’s influencer program to get even more views. And you really should be sending products to Vine Reviewers anyway.
How Does the Amazon Affiliate Program Work with Global Expansion?
When expanding into new markets, your brand has little to no built-in awareness. Amazon affiliates can bridge that gap by providing trusted third-party validation from local voices. Many affiliates are niche content creators – bloggers, YouTubers, and everyday shoppers- who already speak to regional audiences in their native language. Their content doesn’t need to go viral to be effective; it simply needs to show up in the right searches, answer the right questions, and build trust over time.
By publishing off-Amazon content like product reviews, gift guides, and how-tos, affiliates help educate local shoppers, build awareness, and position your brand as a credible option. Because they often operate in-language and understand local habits, their content connects more authentically than generic global campaigns.
This is where localization really matters: listings that are already market-ready perform better in affiliate-driven traffic. At YLT Translations, we’ve consistently seen that localized content not only boosts on-Amazon conversions – it improves how well your brand resonates off Amazon, too.
The idea is, once Amazon’s affiliate program personalities forward traffic your way, your listings convert – no matter what language they’re in.
The Amazon Associates Program is a Traffic and Conversion Driver
Here’s the thing about analytics on Amazon. You could drive traffic using affiliate links – but if you don’t convert the traffic, Amazon is likely to be unhappy.
That’s why Amazon Affiliate Marketing is a nifty little thing. A qualified micro-influencer or content creator will promote your Amazon Affiliate Links to an audience that’s already interested in your product. You furnish the affiliate with links to products you want to promote, and they talk about those products through YouTube channels, email marketing, their blogs, or affiliate site, and their customers head on over to your storefront, product detail page, or external landing pages (preferably equipped with retargeting pixels for layered campaign strategies).
The off-Amazon traffic drive potential customers. But it also deepens sessions, increases brand exposure, and contributes to key A10 relevance signals like click-through rate, time on page, and conversions.
Amazon’s algorithm rewards sellers who bring in qualified external traffic. In other words, affiliate traffic. It’s an awesome and inexpensive way to improve your organic ranking.
The more you diversify your traffic sources, especially with relevant, engaged audiences, the more you’re letting Amazon know that your listing deserves visibility.
In other words, your affiliate is bringing in qualified leads that are already interested in buying from you. They’re bottom of funnel leads. All you have to do is make sure your Amazon listing is localized properly and optimized with the best keywords for the new region, and you’re good to go.
How to Leverage Amazon Affiliate Marketing for Your Brand: A Step by Step Guide
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get started with affiliate marketing, especially if you’re scaling globally:
Step 1: Set Up Your Own Amazon Associates Account
Even if you’re a seller, registering for an Amazon Associates account gives you access to:
- Affiliate tracking links (for testing and learning)
- Insight into how links perform
- Tools for building your own content-driven campaigns (e.g. SEO blogs, niche sites, gift guides)
Go to Amazon Associates and sign up using your store website, blog, or landing page. This helps you understand the user journey and test conversion strategies firsthand.
Step 2: Build Affiliate-Friendly Listings
Before reaching out to affiliates, ensure your product pages are built to convert:
- Optimize titles, bullets, and images
- Add A+ Content and brand story modules
- Include high-quality visuals and video
- Ensure reviews and ratings are solid
Remember: if affiliates drive traffic to your PDP and it doesn’t convert, they won’t continue promoting it. Make your page sell itself.
Check out our optimization best practices to see what will convert customers all over the globe.
Step 3: Create Pre-Localized Content Packs
Affiliates are more likely to promote your products if you make it easy. Provide:
- Branded graphics
- Ready-to-use product descriptions (localized for each market)
- A brief brand story + product highlights
- Lifestyle images or banners they can reuse
Bonus: include native-language versions for international affiliates
This helps maintain brand consistency and increases the odds of getting high-quality placements on blogs, YouTube, or social posts.
Step 4: Build an Affiliate Resource Hub
Organize everything in a central hub or folder—one per market or campaign. Think of this as a mini brand kit tailored to affiliate needs. Include:
- Localized copy snippets
- Approved headlines and CTAs
- Links to your PDP or storefront
- Country-specific disclaimers
- Retargeting pixel-ready landing page links (if applicable)
Google Drive, Notion, Dropbox, or a password-protected webpage works well here.
Step 5: Offer Commission Incentives (Off-Amazon)
While Amazon controls on-platform commission rates, you can privately reward top affiliates with:
- Bonus commissions
- Free product
- Featured placement in your brand newsletter
- Guest blog or collab opportunities
Use affiliate performance data from their Associate links to spot your strongest partners and incentivize them to keep creating.
Step 6: Start Small, Then Scale
Start by recruiting micro or niche affiliates who already cover your category or audience. Build trust, test content, and iterate.
As you expand:
- Launch per-country affiliate campaigns using localized kits
- Track traffic and conversions by region using your own Associates account
- Analyze what creative performs best across markets
Bonus Revenue Stream: Become an Affiliate and Join the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program Yourself
Remember, just because you’re a private label seller or brand owner, doesn’t mean you can’t join the Amazon Affiliate Program yourself. It’s a great way to earn passive income and build goodwill amongst your fellow sellers. You can monetize your content and test affiliate strategies firsthand. The program is free to join; all you need is an existing Amazon account.
Step 1: Set Up Your Website, Blog, App, or YouTube Channel
To be accepted into the program, you need an online platform where you’ll share affiliate links. This could be:
- A niche blog or review site
- A YouTube channel with tutorials or unboxings
- A mobile app that adds value to Amazon shoppers
- A Shopify site (with the Amazon Affiliate Connector app)
Step 2: Sign Up for the Amazon Associates Program
Head to the Amazon Associates site and:
-
Click Sign up
-
Add your website or content channel
-
Create your affiliate profile and describe your niche
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Explain how you drive traffic
-
Input your tax and payment details (yes, even non-US residents can join!)
Note: You’ll need to generate 3 qualified sales within 180 days to remain in the program.
Step 3: Start Creating Affiliate Links
Once approved, you can generate affiliate links for any product on Amazon—including your own listings (just don’t try to earn a commission on your own purchases—against ToS!).
Use the SiteStripe toolbar at the top of Amazon pages when logged into your affiliate account to grab:
- Text links
- Image links
- Short links for social media
Step 4: Add Links to Your Content
Embed your affiliate links where they make the most sense, such as:
- Blog reviews and tutorials
- Social media posts or Linktree-style bios
- YouTube video descriptions
- Newsletters or email lists (make sure to disclose affiliation)
Be honest. Great affiliate marketers offer real value—whether that’s an in-depth comparison, a helpful review, or curated recommendations.
Step 5: Track Performance & Optimize
Use your Amazon Associates Associates dashboard to monitor:
- Clicks
- Conversions
- Commissions by product or category
Use this data to see which content types or topics convert best—and double down on what’s working.
Bonus Tips
- Don’t keyword-stuff—focus on helpful, SEO-optimized content
- Use gift guides, comparison posts, and problem-solving tutorials—these drive high conversion
- Pair affiliate efforts with Pinterest, Reddit, or Google SEO for more reach
- You can use affiliate links in emails, but not in paid ads—always follow Amazon’s policies
Yes, You Can Promote Your Own Products!
But with a caveat: you can’t use your affiliate links to buy your own products or incentivize others to do so. However, you can create helpful, third-party-style content (like gift guides or comparisons) that includes your own listings and other related products.
Final Thoughts: Expand Smarter, Not Just Bigger
When you’re scaling globally, every advantage counts—and the Amazon Affiliate Marketing program is one of the most underused growth levers in a seller’s toolkit. It’s not just about pushing more product. It’s about meeting your new audience where they already are: reading local blogs, watching product reviews, scanning gift guides, and listening to trusted voices in their own language.
Affiliates offer social proof, regional reach, and built-in credibility—without the upfront cost of traditional ads. But like any good partnership, your listing needs to pull its weight. A poorly localized or confusing listing will waste all that affiliate-driven traffic.
That’s why localization isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the engine that makes this machine run smoothly. At YLT Translations, we’ve seen how listings that speak the shopper’s language convert more, rank better, and build lasting brand equity both on and off Amazon.
So whether you’re looking to expand into new markets or just want to diversify your revenue streams, don’t overlook the power of the affiliate ecosystem. With the right prep, the right partners, and the right language, Amazon Affiliate Marketing could be your next big win.
Hope this blog will help you get started – either as an affiliate yourself or to leverage on the power of the program to tap customers in your new region. It’s easy, it’s low-cost, and it’s efficient – so make sure to take advantage of all the benefits that the Amazon Affiliate program presents!
Since we’re on the topic of content, you might like this blog on TikTok vs. YouTube – which should you prioritize to reach your user base?