Affiliate link
What does an affiliate link mean?
An affiliate link means a store or program has agreed to pay you when someone buys after tapping that address. It looks like any other link, but it carries your tracking code, which is how the program knows the sale came from you. Instagram treats a post with one as branded content: its Help Center lists affiliate product links among the cases that need the paid partnership label.
How do affiliate links work?
When someone taps the link, the program saves a tracking cookie in their browser, then credits you if they buy inside its window. Windows differ. Target's FAQ says 7 days, with the last click winning. ShopMy says each brand sets its own, from a single browsing session up to 30 days for many brands. LTK's help article of October 2022 says most of its partners fall between 7 and 30 days, and adds that returned items are deducted and that a later click on another affiliate's link can take the credit.
Two limits matter on Instagram. LTK says Instagram has no cookie window, so a sale from a direct product link shared there counts only if the shopper buys straight after tapping. And Amazon pays nothing on a purchase it cannot track because a link is not properly formatted, so build links with the program's own tools. These points come from each program's own pages, read on 15 October 2026.
Why it matters for creators
An affiliate link is how a recommendation turns into income, so where it goes and how it is labelled decide whether it pays and whether it is allowed. On Instagram your profile links hold up to five addresses, and a Story can carry a link sticker. A comment-to-DM reply can deliver one to everyone who asks, but programs set their own link rules: Amazon allows links in direct messages only when the person asked, and pays nothing on a purchase through a redirecting link. Amazon affiliate links on Instagram has the detail.
Label every post. The US Federal Trade Commission's guidance says "paid link" right next to an affiliate link should be an adequate disclosure, and that "commissionable link" is probably not clear. How Instagram affiliate marketing works covers the steps, and affiliate programs for Instagram compared covers the programs.