Affiliate marketing on Pinterest

Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate an extra income stream, share products or services you love, and build trust with your following. But Pinterest is a fickle platform with affiliate links. And contrary to popular trends on various social media platforms you can’t just slap a link on a pin and call it a day. There are clear guidelines you need to follow or you’ll be banned.

More in-depth guide inside The Pinterest Blueprint

Pinterest's guidelines on affiliate marketing are as follows:

• disclose your affiliate relationship. You must clearly and concisely disclose your affiliate relationship to users in your pin descriptions. You can do this by using the hashtag #ad or by including a statement like "This pin contains an affiliate link."

• Only use affiliate links to promote products or services that you genuinely believe in and have used yourself. Pinterest wants its users to trust the content they see on the platform, so it's important to be honest and transparent about your affiliate relationships.

• Don't spam other users with affiliate links. Sending unsolicited messages to other users with affiliate links is against Pinterest's community guidelines and can result in your account being banned.

• Don't create multiple accounts to promote affiliate links. Pinterest only allows users to have one account, and this rule applies to affiliate marketers as well.

• In addition to these general guidelines, Pinterest also has specific rules about how you can use affiliate links in your pins:

• Don't cloak your affiliate links. Pinterest users should be able to see that a link is an affiliate link easily. Cloaking your links can make it difficult for users to tell whether or not they're clicking on an affiliate link, which can be misleading and violate Pinterest's community guidelines.

• Don't use URL shorteners. Pinterest prefers that you use the full affiliate link in your pins. Using URL shorteners can make it difficult for Pinterest to track clicks and conversions, which can impact your affiliate earnings.

• If you're caught violating any of Pinterest's affiliate marketing guidelines, your account could be suspended or banned. So, it's important to be familiar with and follow the guidelines carefully.

if you have a claimed site and link to that your content will get pushed further because you create link authority showing it’s yours. So I always recommend people I work with also add their affiliate links in their blog posts. The pins you then make will not only lead to your claimed website. But you build trust with your audience because they get to see who recommends the product or service, and you get a chance to tell why you like it and recommend it. Chances of sales are bigger when they know who you are.

It’s all a part of your sales funnel. Getting them into your space from Pinterest, nurturing them, building a relationship, and selling.

Learn more about the sales funnel process and set up inside The Pinterest Blueprint

So to have an affiliate process that both follows the guidelines and gives you the exposure you want you need a healthy mix of links and pin styles. Play around with the pin styles, mark them properly, and link both directly to the thing you're promoting AND to your website.