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Tips on How to Promote Affiliate Links on YouTube

The Intro

Some content creators do not disclose the privacy policy on their affiliate links and programs. It is recommendable to disclose what your affiliate program is about for users to understand before opening the links. The standard practice recommends the disclosure to educate viewers, improve transparency, and reduce conflict of interest. It is smart to add a caution statement to your video, indicating that it is being used for affiliate marketing. Informing viewers of the result of clicking on the video must also be straightforward. Indicating that you get a commission for every click may work well towards supporting your content creation.

YouTube Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Comments

The comment section allows creators and viewers to interact after watching the video. For the best results, consider enabling the comment section for comments, likes, dislikes, and reply to other comments. The creator can reply to comments made by viewers. A pinned comment can be put above all comments by viewers. On the pinned comment, a shortened URL affiliate link can be published. Providing a short description before adding the link will ensure it does not look spammy to viewers.

Keeping the comment section interactive is a very useful way of sharing your affiliate links. When viewers comment or ask questions, you can share the affiliate link in the reply and give more details about the product/service. YouTube manages all links shared in the comment section. Channels with constant sharing of URLs are often held for review. The processes ensure all affiliates shared have a description to avoid spamming users.

Video Description

Adding some description to a video brings clarity to viewers. Information that can be included in the description includes copyright details, creator, video details, and (Search Engine Optimization) SEO description. Having the affiliate links in the description works fine for most videos.

Shortening the affiliate link URL is the best practice on YouTube. Short URLs are authentic and do not look spammy. Consider placing them in the description for easy visibility by viewers. Using Call-To-Action (CTA) on your affiliate link will get people clicking.

Community

The community tab allows creators to interact with users by creating polls, post GIFS, share updates, and engage visitors and subscribers. Creating a community fosters a better understanding of your audience, which promotes the growth of the channel. It is very easy to share an affiliate link in the community, especially if the product/service is easily associated with your audience.

Cards

A creator can create up to five cards and four end screens for every video. Cards and end screens are suggestions of videos, channels, websites, crowdfunding, or merchandise that viewers should check out. The suggestion appears after every video watched.

The challenging part of using Cards is that you can only promote your channel. However, YouTube supports other websites such as Shopify, Microsoft, Etsy, and Ticketmaster. YouTube supports affiliate programs from these sites; hence, you will not be penalized for redirecting users to a different website. Violating the Redirect policies may result in strikes on your account or your videos being deleted from YouTube. Always avoid redirect to unauthorized websites.

Channel Links

YouTube allows creators to provide additional links to their videos, landing page, and social media. On the about tab, a creator can add 10+ links on their channel. Links must relate to the videos, topics to increase clicks and conversions. You can recommend products or services related to your videos through affiliate links.

Extra bonus strategies

Videos

Instead of sharing the link on a live video, savvy marketers encourage viewers to check out the products/service in the URL added in the comments, description, or cards. When viewers see this information, they are likely to click on the link after watching the video.

Channel Trailer

Having a channel trailer with your website description is very professionals. The affiliate links will be added in the description where returning viewers first see the description. If the trailer entrails purchasing a product, visitors may check out the product/service.

Social Media

If you share your latest posts on Social media pages, you can add the short description and affiliate link for the running program.