Amazon Influencer Marketing 2024: What Brands Need to Know

By: Heather Hegewald, Identi.fi Marketing

The merging of shopping and social media is more than a trend; it's a response to a massive shift in consumer behavior. Your brand's ability to adapt to this evolved landscape can propel it to unprecedented success or leave it stagnant. 

Heather Hegewald, director of influencer marketing at Identi.fi Marketing shares what you need to know about influencer marketing to grow your Amazon business in 2024. 

Check out our latest webinar “Maintaining a Brand Standard While Navigating Omni Channel Presence” where Heather unravels the art of seamlessly harmonizing brand integrity across multiple sales channels.

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Influencers are essential to growing your Amazon business. By using influencer marketing, you, as an Amazon seller, can tap into the influencer's already established communities and their voice on online platforms, creating another channel to make money and sell products. But before diving into this strategy, it's important to understand social commerce and how Amazon has joined the party. 

We'll also delve into the steps involved in setting up your Amazon influencer strategy, finding suitable influencers, and maximizing the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know to launch your Amazon influencer campaign successfully.

What is Social Commerce?

Hootsuite states, “Social commerce is the process of selling products and services directly through social media. With social commerce, the entire shopping experience, from product discovery and research to checkout, takes place right on social media. Currently, social apps with built-in native shop features are Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok.”

These are shopping opportunities right on the digital platforms that your audience uses most. Are you taking advantage of them? 

What is Amazon's Approach to Social Commerce?

Amazon launched the Amazon Influencer Program in 2017 as an extension of the Amazon Associates program, designed to help Amazon customers discover products they may be interested in. 

Amazon understands the importance of providing its customers with a seamless and personalized shopping experience. To achieve this, they filter content provided by influencers and carefully select the most relevant content to be displayed on their platform, including the brand's product pages. This ensures that customers can access the most helpful and valuable information when making purchasing decisions, which ultimately enhances their shopping experience.

Influencer content can include reviews, recommendations, blogs, podcasts, product reviews, Amazon live streams or social media posts. In exchange for posting this content, Amazon pays influencers commission rates for every purchase made as a result of their recommendations.

Who is an Amazon Influencer?

According to Amazon, “An influencer is anyone who has a meaningful social media following. Influencers across any category can participate in this program. Currently, you must have a YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, or Facebook account to qualify.” The Amazon Influencer promotes and recommends products on their Amazon influencer storefront. 

This virtual storefront is similar to the entrance of a physical store, displaying various product recommendations for a specific category. As a business owner, you can collaborate with influencers across various niches, from fashion bloggers to gaming enthusiasts, to recommend your products on Amazon. 

Types of Influencers

If you're aiming to launch a new product or boost sales of an existing one, micro-influencers can be a cost-effective way to acquire new customers. Micro-influencers often have a more engaged following than macro-influencers. This means that their posts reach a higher percentage of their followers, and more people who see their content will likely engage with it. Partnering with micro-influencers also enables you to target a specific audience, ensuring that your product gets in front of the people most interested in buying it.

Sprout Social describes a micro-influencer as having a follower count ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Influencers are generally categorized into four main types based on their follower count:

• Nano-influencers: 1K–10K followers
• Micro-influencers: 10K–100K followers
• Macro-influencers: 100K–1M followers
• Mega or celebrity influencers: 1M+ followers

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, expect to pay a micro-influencer $100-$5,000 per Instagram post with an average engagement rate of 5-7%. Meanwhile, If you’re looking to hire mega influencers like Kylie Jenner, this could cost as much as $986,000 per post with a .72% engagement rate.

Benefits of Amazon Influencer Marketing

There are several benefits to leveraging the Amazon influencer marketing program, including:

• Increased brand awareness
• Enhanced credibility
• Potential boost in sales
• Improved organic rankings on Amazon

When an influencer features your products in their store, you receive considerable exposure to their followers. Although your products may already be listed on Amazon's site, they have to compete with millions of other items. Partnering with the right influencers who align with your brand is crucial to stand out to potential customers. This will help you reach a wider audience and attract individuals who are genuinely interested in your product.

How To Launch a Successful Amazon Influencer Marketing Campaign

Before considering influencer marketing, be sure you have a strong landing page and at least 9-12 posts on your social media platforms that maintain your brand's identity and share information about your brand and products. This consistency in branding and content is essential for a cohesive online presence and builds trust with your potential customers who visit your social media pages.

To succeed in Amazon influencer marketing, create a plan tailored to your marketing objectives and target audience. To help you get started, here is a step-by-step guide on launching an effective Amazon influencer marketing campaign:

Step 1: Define Your Goals & Objectives

Setting clear goals provides benchmarks to measure campaign success and pinpoint areas for improvement. By identifying specific goals, you can customize your campaign to achieve your desired outcomes.

Some common goals include:

• Increased sales
• Higher brand awareness
• Boosted organic rankings
• Improved Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Step 2: Know Your Competition

Research 3-5 competitors in your industry to understand their social media presence and influencer partnerships. Follow them on platforms like Instagram and TikTok to observe their influencer collaborations and gather insights for your own strategy. Learning from competitors can provide valuable insights and save time in finding suitable influencers.

Step 3: Know Your Ideal Customer

Identify your target audience to align with suitable influencers. Create a customer profile detailing demographics, interests, and behaviors to guide your influencer selection process. Understanding your target audience is vital for crafting targeted marketing messages that resonate with them.

Step 4: Decide On The Collaboration Type

When planning to collaborate with influencers, decide on the type of collaboration you want to offer. Depending on your budget and campaign goals, you can offer paid partnerships or product gifting (seeding).

For paid partnerships, you should request influencers' analytics and media kits to assess their audience demographics, past collaborations, and rates. This will help you determine if they fit your brand well and if their rates match your budget.

For gifting, it's recommended that you approach micro-influencers and gauge their interest in your product before sending it to them. After they receive the product, follow up with them after two weeks to nurture relationships and encourage organic posts.

It's important to remember that creators today mostly expect to be paid for their time and creativity, so keep this in mind when planning your budget for collaborations.

Step 5: Find The Right Amazon Influencers

Explore various methods to find influencers, including the Amazon Live feature, Amazon Explore page, social media hashtags like #AmazonFinds, #AmazonFashion, #AmazonHaul

and influencer marketplace platforms. Prioritize influencers with authentic engagement and a close connection with their audience. Follow and interact with potential influencers to assess their suitability for your brand.

Step 6: Create a Campaign Brief (for paid partnerships)

Develop a detailed creative brief outlining the campaign overview, objectives, preferred influencer types, brand tone and style, do's and don'ts, timeline, and call-to-action. Share the brief with selected influencers to provide alignment and clarity on campaign expectations.

Step 7: Measure, Track & Optimize

Keep track of the influencers who posted for you for product gifting and repeat the process. Consider leveraging AI-powered platforms for social listening and User-Generated Content (UGC) management to track tags and mentions across Instagram Reels, Stories, and TikTok.

To optimize campaign performance, utilize Amazon's analytics tools to monitor key metrics like engagement, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Use these insights to refine your strategies and help you achieve your goals. 

So, let's wrap up what we've discussed.

Quick Summary

Congratulations on taking a big step towards launching a successful influencer campaign!  I've provided valuable information on using Amazon influencer marketing to drive growth and sales for your Amazon product. 

Now, it's time to take action! Here’s a quick summary of things to do:

1. Set your objectives
2. Know your competition
3. Know your customer
4. Decide on the collaboration type
5. Find the right Amazon influencers
6. Create your brief & reach out to influencers
7. Set up metrics to measure the success of your campaign. 

Influencer marketing can be challenging, but a well-organized approach and building strong relationships with influencers can make the process smoother and more efficient. The most important thing is to provide value to their audience and stay dedicated to reap significant rewards.

If you're looking for expert guidance and support with your Amazon influencer marketing initiatives, our team is here to assist you every step of the way. From strategy development to “done for you” influencer campaign management, we're committed to helping your brand achieve maximum visibility and sales on Amazon.