Amazon Influencer Program vs Associates: Which Is Better for YouTubers?

You do not have to choose. Amazon describes the Amazon Influencer Program as an extension of the Amazon Associates program for qualifying social media influencers. Associates gives you affiliate links to products. The Influencer Program adds your own page on Amazon, with an easy address you can say out loud in your videos, plus a few extra ways to earn.

For most YouTubers the best setup is both: product links in your descriptions, made with Amazon Associates tools, and an Influencer storefront you can mention in the video itself. You can join the Influencer Program with your existing Associates account. Amazon only adds a separate Store ID to track onsite earnings, which are explained below.

The rest of this guide explains what each program gives you, who can join, how the storefront and onsite earnings work, and what to do first if you are just starting.

• 01Affiliate links to products: Associates yes, Influencer Program yes (it uses the same Associates tools).
• 02Links in your YouTube descriptions: yes in both.
• 03Your own storefront page on Amazon (amazon.com/shop/yourname): Influencer Program only.
• 04Onsite earnings when Amazon shows your content: Influencer Program only, and only if Amazon selects your content.
• 05Who can join: Associates is open to many kinds of sites and channels; the Influencer Program looks at your followers and engagement.
• 06Countries: Associates runs in many Amazon stores; the Influencer Program is currently listed for the US, UK, India and Canada.

Amazon Associates is Amazon’s main affiliate program. You make special links to Amazon products, put them where your audience will see them, and earn a commission when people buy through them. For a YouTuber that usually means links in the video description, made with SiteStripe on a computer or with Copy Associates Link in the Amazon app.

What you earn depends on the product category, as shown in our guide to Amazon affiliate commission rates. New accounts are reviewed after their first three qualifying sales, which must happen within 180 days, as explained in the 3 sales in 180 days rule. If you have not set up your links yet, start with how to add Amazon affiliate links to YouTube.

According to Amazon’s help pages, the Influencer Program gives you similar benefits to Associates, including reporting and account management, plus your own page on Amazon. That page has a short address in this format:

amazon.com/shop/yourname

Amazon says this is especially useful when you promote it verbally or where you cannot add a clickable link. For a YouTuber, that is the big advantage: you can say "everything I use is at amazon.com/shop/yourname" in a video, and viewers can find it even if they never open the description.

On your storefront page you can add:

• 01Idea Lists: groups of products, for example "My desk setup" or "Camera gear I use".
• 02Shoppable photos and videos about the products you recommend.
• 03Livestreams, where available.

When people shop from your page, Amazon says you are paid in a similar way to the Associates program. Amazon also says you can still link to single product pages with SiteStripe and other Associates tools, and it encourages you to. So joining the Influencer Program does not change the links in your descriptions.

The Influencer Program has one way to earn that Associates does not. Amazon calls it onsite earnings. According to Amazon’s onsite earnings help page, content you publish on your storefront may be selected to appear to shoppers while they search and browse Amazon. If a shopper clicks your content there and makes a qualifying purchase, you earn an onsite rate.

• 01Onsite earnings are tracked with a separate Store ID that Amazon creates for you. It may begin with "onamz".
• 02You need to add payment and tax information to that Store ID before you can be paid for onsite earnings.
• 03Amazon says onsite rates are shown in Associates Central, and they are separate from your normal rates for traffic you send to Amazon.
• 04Amazon says your videos can also appear on product pages once you have 10 videos approved by moderation and have completed sign up for onsite commissions.

Amazon decides whether to use your content, and it can remove it at any time. So onsite earnings are a possible bonus, not something to count on. But for a YouTuber who already films product videos, uploading some of them to the storefront costs little extra work.

Amazon Associates is open to many kinds of sites and channels, including YouTube. The Influencer Program is more selective. According to Amazon’s Influencer Program page:

• 01You need a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok account. Instagram and Facebook applications must use a business account.
• 02Amazon looks at the number of followers you have, in addition to other engagement metrics.
• 03It is for content creators. Amazon says media companies and brands should apply to the Associates program instead.

Amazon does not publish an exact number of subscribers you need. Its policies only say you must meet its qualitative and quantitative thresholds. If your application is declined, you can keep using Associates links while you build your audience and engagement, and try again later.

The Influencer Program is also only available in some countries. Amazon currently lists four, each with its own sign up page: the US, the UK, India and Canada. That list is only for the Influencer Program. Amazon Associates itself runs in more countries, and US links can also earn from viewers in other countries, as explained in our guide to Amazon Global Earning.

Yes. Amazon says you can be part of Associates and the Influencer Program at the same time. If you already have an Associates account, you do not need to sign up again. When you join the Influencer Program, you can choose to use your existing Store ID.

Your rules also stay the same. The Influencer Program is part of the Associates program, so the same agreement and policies apply, including the disclosure rules. Our Amazon affiliate disclosure guide explains what to say in your videos and descriptions.

Here is a simple way to decide:

• 01You are just starting: begin with Amazon Associates. Put tagged links in your descriptions and focus on your first three sales.
• 02You have a growing channel and talk about products often: apply to the Influencer Program too, and set up a storefront with an Idea List for each kind of video you make.
• 03You make Shorts or videos where viewers rarely open the description: the storefront address you can say out loud matters even more.
• 04You film product videos anyway: upload some to your storefront for a chance at onsite earnings.

In every case, keep the product links in your descriptions. A viewer who wants one specific product will click the link right under the video before they go looking through a storefront.

Whichever program you use, your earnings depend on links that still work. Products get removed, go out of stock or are replaced by newer models, and the old link in a two-year-old video keeps getting clicks that cannot turn into sales. Storefront products can go the same way.

AffiliScan checks the Amazon links in your YouTube descriptions and tells you which ones are broken or point to products that are no longer available, so you can fix the links that matter most. You can read more about why affiliate links quietly stop earning, or learn how to tell if a link is an Amazon affiliate link in the first place.

Amazon Associates and the Amazon Influencer Program are not rivals. Associates gives you the links, and the Influencer Program gives you a storefront and a few extra ways to earn on top of them. For a YouTuber, the strongest setup is tagged links in every description plus a storefront address you can mention in the video.

Start with the links, apply to the Influencer Program when your channel is ready, and check now and then that the links you already have still lead to products people can buy.