Estimated reading time: 5 mins
Instagram is a leading platform for influencers and partnership marketing. One serious problem with the site for many influencers, however, is that those with fewer than 10,000 followers were not able to access tools for creating affiliate links.
While there was a swipe-up feature in Instagram Stories that allowed users with more than 10,000 followers to link to external content, this feature was not universal. When users with fewer followers wanted to link to a brand’s website or use an affiliate link, they needed to ask their followers to “see the link in bio,” which added another step to the process, decreasing the response rate.
Instagram link stickers
As of October 30, all Instagram users are now able to use link stickers. These stickers are small clickable links that enable everyone on Instagram to link to outside websites, products, brands, and blogs in their Stories. This quick link eases the way for followers to make the jump to a purchase.
“We made this decision based on feedback we heard from the community about how impactful it would be for creators and businesses of all sizes to benefit from link sharing to grow in the same way larger accounts do,” Instagram said in a statement.
Link stickers and Instagram influencers — unlock the power of affiliate links
The link stickers means that all Instagram influencers can exercise greater creative freedom with putting affiliate links in Stories and are not limited to swipe-ups or placing affiliate links in their bios with the extra clicks that entails. This expanded feature also means that nano-influencers, who are big players in the world of social media engagement, will now have the power to link to their partners in Stories.
Why does this matter? Because 85 percent of all influencers have between 1,000 and 20,000 followers. Put another way, for every mega influencer, there are three nano-influencers and for every macro influencer, there are nine nano-influencers. Link stickers unlock the power of the affiliate link to a huge number of influencers.
Everyone benefits from the Instagram link sticker change
The entire affiliate, influencer, and partnership marketing industry benefits from this change as nano-influencers now have more power to promote their partners on Instagram with affiliate links. Instagram began testing the link sticker feature back in June 2021 with a limited group of verified accounts and accounts with high follower counts. The feature didn’t become universally available to all users until October 2021. With link sticer access open to all users, influencers of all sizes can encourage followers to tap through and land on the brand’s site, enabling partnership management platforms like impact.com and Activate to track the referral.
Already instagram users are seeing links pop up everywhere on nano-influencers' Stories, celebrating the new capability with a flurry of linked content. It’s novel, so users are clicking away on those links as you can see below.
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Instagram link stickers — what to do right now
Influencers can make the most of link stickers
Influencers should consider the following:
Use Instagram stickers right now while they are hot. Get your followers into the link sticker groove and increase your engagement.
Stickers take up space so when you create Stories, you need to take that digital real estate into consideration.
Since you can match the sticker to the Story and have aesthetic options, start thinking about the sticker as part of what you design from now on.
Stickers are small, so you may need to create a vanity link for it — a long ugly link will likely distract from your creative content.
You can save Stories as a highlight and the link will last beyond the 24-hour expiration date on Stories.
You can even take IGTV content and save it as a story, thus making the link feature available there too.
Brands can work with affiliate links and link stickers
Brands should consider the following:
Links mean you can now work with all sizes of influencers and give them affiliate links for their Instagram Stories.
These stickers are a hot item right now, so jump on the link sticker excitement with all your partners.
There are some technical differences between stickers used in organic Stories versus Story ads. In Story ads, the swipe up function is still the call to action.
The possibility of brands promoting Stories with the paid partnership tag plus a link sticker will be disabled so avoid using the link sticker on content that you plan to promote using ads.
The branded content tool has moved to the top left of the Stories editing screen — you need to be aware that your influencers still need to use it.
You are now able to work with nano-influencers in the same way you work with larger influencers. It is time to take a look at adding more of them to your partnerships because their capabilities are now the same as larger influencers and their engagement rate is better.
What Instagram link stickers will do for affiliate marketing
A few things brands and influencers might do with the new stickers:
Start using them as soon as possible to increase engagement.
Drive traffic to external websites easily.
Send followers to blogs and dedicated landing pages.
Create promo deals through instagram.
Increase engagement by asking followers to comment on Stories, something that was not previously possible.
Link stickers are going to change the way customers make their way to websites and increase conversions. If you are a brand, login or sign up for Activate by impact.com marketplace to find those nano-influencers who will bring you more engaged and interested customers.
If you are a content creator or talent management agency, start using the stickers while they are hot off the press. Approach those brands you have always wanted to work with because your pitch just got a whole lot more valuable.