Affiliate marketing can without a doubt be a great way to make money online.
And you might have the idea to use Facebook to do this.
So how to start affiliate marketing on Facebook?
Well, there are several approaches to this and in this article, I am going to share some tips about how to get started the easiest way.
But I will also be sharing what NOT to do as this is as important as you can otherwise quickly end up wasting a lot of time or maybe even get banned from Facebook.
Is it even possible to use Facebook for affiliate marketing?
Let me just start by answering the most important question before starting to do affiliate marketing on Facebook – and that is if it is even possible to earn money like this.
And yes, it definitely is.
There are many very successful affiliate marketers that earn a lot of money like this.
But there are also some traps and some people oversell the idea and make it sound easier than it is and tell you to use methods that will just waste your time and potentially get you banned.
Therefore, it is important to, first of all, know what NOT to do so you can spot ineffective methods and stay away from people or programs that tell you to use these.
Don’ts when using Facebook for affiliate marketing
Even though Facebook can be great for affiliate marketing, it can also end up wasting a lot of time.
Especially if you use certain methods that I see suggested by many people that do not really work with affiliate marketing themselves or just want to promote their product without thinking about the long-term effects for you.
So let’s go over a couple of things you should definitely NOT do.
#1 – Do not post affiliate links directly
The first thing many people do when they want to start affiliate marketing on Facebook is to create a page and start sharing their affiliate links there.
This can seem logical as you obviously want people to click your affiliate links and potentially buy so you can earn a commission.
But this is NOT the best approach – in fact, it can get you into trouble with Facebook.
They do not allow you to share affiliate links directly on your page – and if it slips through, it is with the risk of suddenly getting shut down.
This might not happen right away, but Facebook can suddenly just close your whole page without any warning.
I have tried to have a Facebook page closed myself and they really do not tell you anything about why, so you can suddenly just have your page closed and will not be able to get info about why.
This can be very frustrating – especially if it happens after you have spent some time building up a Facebook page.
Therefore, it is better to stay away from posting affiliate links like this.
This does not mean you cannot post affiliate links anywhere on Facebook as we will get to next.
#2 – Don’t spam your links everywhere.
One of the most common suggestions I see from programs/platforms that want you as an affiliate is to suggest you just start sharing your affiliate link on social media like Facebook.
They very often suggest you to start joining different groups within your niche and start sharing your affiliate link there. Or to comment on other people’s post with your affiliate link.
Often platforms will suggest you to just join FB groups and start sharing your link there – this is not necessarily a good approach.
It is important to understand that even though this could, l in theory, work, it is not a long-term solution to create a sustainable income online.
The programs that tell you to do this often have a lot of affiliates and if they get all of them to do this, they will naturally get some sign-ups that can make it worth it for them.
But for you as an affiliate, this will be a very tedious process as people will often see this as spam and you would have to post A LOT of links like this to earn any commissions.
Also, most serious groups will not let you post affiliate links in their groups so if you do, you will quickly get yourself banned from many of the best groups.
The groups that do allow it mostly just have other people that want to share their affiliate links as members as no one else want to be a member as they do not get any real value but are just promoted to all the time.
So often you will then just be a member of a group of wannabe affiliate marketers promoting to each other which will make it extremely difficult to make a sale.
Therefore, you can quickly end up wasting a lot of time like this.
You might make a sale once in a while, but you will quickly run out of places to post your links and it is not a way to create a long term income.
How to get started properly?
Now we have gone over a couple of things to avoid when using Facebook for affiliate marketing.
So let’s now go over some important things to get the best possible start if you decide to use Facebook for affiliate marketing.
Tip 1 – Focus on quality
This tip is good to think about in general when it comes to affiliate marketing.
It is important to focus on creating something valuable that can actually help people make decisions to buy or not.
This will build a relationship with your followers and mean they will, in many, cases buy through your links several times.
In addition to that, doing honest affiliate marketing like this means you can actually look yourself in the mirror and know you are doing something nice and making money at the same time.
So never compromise with quality to make a quick sale. Long term it is a lot better to focus on quality.
Tip 2 – Share on your personal page
The easiest way to start with affiliate marketing on Facebook is by sharing stuff on your personal page.
You then do not have to first create a page or do much else than you are already doing.
Again, here it should, however, be with the right approach to be effective.
That means to only share if you think people you are connected with are actually interested. It will often be friends and family so you do not want to just post things that can be seen as spam.
In many cases, you might also be in a niche that has no interest for the majority of the people you are connected with. Then it might be better not to share this.
Also, many people like to keep their personal page separate from their business – I prefer this myself. In that case using your personal page, of course, does not make sense.
But it can be an easy way to get started if you feel what you share is relevant for the people you are connected to.
Tip 3 – Create a page
Creating a Facebook page can be a great way to build up an audience and communicate with them.
You can create a Facebook page to help promote your affiliate business.
Again, the focus should be on sharing valuable content – and remember from earlier in this article that you should NOT share your affiliate links directly on this page.
Instead, it can be a great way to connect with people and build your brand.
To make this more effective, it is, however, a good idea to then also either use Ads or have a website which we will get in just a minute.
Tip 4 – Create a Facebook group
Having a Facebook group has become a very popular way to use Facebook for affiliate marketing.
The reason for this is that it is easier to create interaction and build relationships with people.
In addition to this, you can as the owner also share your affiliate links directly in the group. But if you just create a group to do this, it will not be successful in the long run – again the important thing is to focus on quality.
It does take some effort to grow a Facebook group and also to maintain it. You, for example, have to continuously provide value for the members – if not they will just leave.
You also have to keep an eye on who is joining and what people post there.
Because you will definitely have many people trying to join to do self-promotion and share their own links.
But with dedicating some time to this, it can be a very good way to build up an audience and use Facebook to make some money with affiliate marketing.
Tip 5 – Use Facebook ads
Using Facebook ads to run affiliate campaigns can be very effective.
To do this, you need a Facebook page to be able to create the ads and in most cases, you will also need a website you can send people to as you can not just run ads with your affiliate link directly.
It is fairly easy to get started with BUT you can also quickly waste a lot of money by testing if you do not have any experience with paid ads.
Therefore, it can be a good idea to get some training on Facebook ads, before you start.
This does, of, course take some investment both for the training and for running the ads, but if done properly, it can be a fast way to scale your income.
Recommended: Get a FREE Facebook ads blueprint
Tip 6 – Create a website
To make the most out of affiliate marketing on Facebook it is great to also have a website.
Having a website to use together with Facebook can be great.
This can sound strange since you might just want to use Facebook so you do not have to create a website.
You can also use Facebook alone but having a website will give you a lot more opportunities.
It makes it possible for you to send people to your website (and the other way around) where you have your affiliate links instead of sharing them directly on Facebook which in many cases are not allowed.
Also, it makes it possible for you to send people to in-depth content and use this to build a relationship with them.
Luckily it does not have to be difficult to create a website if you use something like WordPress. You can create a WordPress website for free.
However, I would recommend investing in a domain name that matches your business as this will build reputation and trust.
But overall, having a website is definitely great in connection with using Facebook and it can make your affiliate campaigns a lot more effective.
Final thoughts
Facebook can definitely be a great platform to use for affiliate marketing.
The important thing is to focus on quality and be aware that it is not just an automatic way to make fast money. It will take time and effort to start earning like any other method online.
To get the most out of it, I would clearly recommend to also create a website and start publishing quality content there – together with a quality website and Facebook can be an amazing combination.
I hope you now have a good idea about how to get started with affiliate marketing on Facebook and what traps to avoid.
If you want more help to create a website and learning about creating quality content to engage your audience, I would recommend you to check out this amazing affiliate training platform I have used myself to learn to make a full-time income with affiliate marketing.
If you instead want to go directly to focusing solely on Facebook, the best way to scale fast is to use Facebook ads. To get a good start with that, you can get a FREE Facebook ads blueprint here.
If you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.
