Influencer marketing is more than a buzzword. It has become an integral part of marketing strategies for brands. Amazon was an early adopter with its Amazon Associates program. However, the Amazon Associates program was a challenge for brands due to a lack of transparency and reporting. I frequently referred to Amazon Associates as the “black hole” because I never knew which creators were performing or other common influencer stats. This changed when Amazon opened their API to companies like Levanta and launched a beta of its own influencer platform called Amazon Creator Connections I was fortunate enough to be able to experience Amazon Creator Connections early in its development as well as Levanta, an Amazon-focused affiliate network. However, this post will focus solely on Amazon Creator Connections. I promise a follow-up post on Levanta 🙂
Amazon Creator Connections offers the ability to work with Amazon affiliates directly and in a scalable way. With Amazon Creator Connections, the door is open to partnering with micro and mega influencers for inclusion in Amazon Storefronts and Amazon Live, as well as traditional influencer marketing methods such as social media and blogs. In this post, we delve into the details of Amazon Creator Connections, exploring its features, advantages, and recommended strategies for success.
What is Amazon Creator Connections?
Amazon Creator Connections is a platform designed specifically for influencer marketing on Amazon. It serves as a bridge between brands and content creators, allowing them to collaborate seamlessly. Unlike traditional influencer platforms, Amazon Creator Connections has a unique affiliate requirement: a mandatory affiliate link. This ensures that influencers drive traffic AND sales, creating a win-win situation for both parties involved.
What Companies Would Benefit From Amazon Creator Connections?
Companies that have a presence on Amazon and are looking to expand their reach to new customers and improve their product page content with user-generated content.
Amazon Creator Connections Key Features and Benefits:
Access to Amazon-Only Affiliates: With Amazon Creator Connections, brands gain access to a vast network of Amazon Associates, who are typically difficult to recruit. This opens up new opportunities for brand promotion and sales generation.
Affordable: There is no platform fee to participate in the platform. You only pay for commission through your existing Amazon invoice. There are no ongoing network fees.
Easy Set Up: Amazon walks you through the requirements to set up a campaign. It takes me less than 15 minutes to set up the campaign on Amazon. This being said, you want to have a clear objective and strategy prior to launch asking yourself questions such as campaign goals, target audience, targeted creators, Creator deliverables required for success.
Ability To Reach Content Creators In A Scalable Way: Brands create campaigns. Content creators apply to participate. There is no need for time-consuming outreach. Instead, Creators receive notification of your campaign and can apply. With my first campaign, it reached full capacity within 24 hours! This passive outreach approach allows brands to leverage the creativity and influence of content creators, generating user-generated content (UGC) and boosting brand awareness on Amazon.
Tracking Amazon Live traffic: Amazon Creator Connections is the only way I know of to track traffic generated through Amazon Live. This valuable insight helps brands understand the impact of Amazon Live video content to make informed decisions for future campaigns. Before this functionality, I had to make assumptions based on increased sales but had no idea which creator was driving the traffic.
Note that there are new tracking tools for Amazon affiliates and Creator Connections, such as Levanta. However, to date and to the best of my knowledge, these networks have not integrated with Amazon Live.
Key Recommendations for Success With Your Amazon Creator Connections Campaign:
Dual strategy: Focus on both revenue and brand awareness on Amazon. While driving sales is crucial, building brand recognition and loyalty among consumers should also be a primary objective. There were several micro-influencers who joined the program that generated great content and even included videos on the brand’s product pages. While these influencers did not drive sales, they drove great value for the brand with only the cost of the product!
Product focus and assets: Choose a single product to promote throughout the campaign. Provide influencers with key talking points and high-quality images to ensure consistent messaging and brand representation. I created a campaign asset page on the brand’s affiliate resource center for easy and comprehensive access. I was able to share the url through the Amazon Creator Connections messaging system.
Ability to Gift Products: For Creators to deliver quality content, they will need products on hand. If you are not open to gifting products this is not the right platform for you..
Specific deliverables and follow-up: Clearly outline the deliverables expected from the influencers, such as the number of posts and social media platforms to be used. Follow up regularly to ensure that the posts are published within the campaign timeframe.
Challenges:
As with any program in beta, Creator Connections does have challenges. Below are a few challenges that you should be aware of prior to launching your campaign.
Lack of Creator Management. There is no way to reject or approve creators. Once a creator accepts the request, the creator is approved. I allow all creators to participate. However, I have minimum requirements for product samples that are established prior to launching the campaign.
Messaging System: The messaging system is difficult to manage. It is similar to Facebook Messenger. There isn’t a way to organize the messages. My workaround for this challenge is to track communication on a separate sheet for the creators I want to follow up with.
Conclusion:
Amazon Creator Connections opened the door for influencer and affiliate managers to grow their brands’ presence and sales on Amazon. This program is a great addition to your affiliate marketing strategy, especially when combined with a more traditional network like Levanta. The reporting and transparency are exciting! With its unique features and benefits, this platform provides a new level of access, tracking capabilities, and brand exposure, I plan to include this platform in my clients’ influencer and affiliate strategy.