Despite the domination of short-form content across TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube remains a powerhouse for video-based affiliate marketing. It gives you flexibility, allowing you to share both high-quality long-form content and then repurpose it into shorter clips for Shorts, Reels, or TikToks.
Full-length YouTube content thrives in Google search results, bringing you traffic for months or years. You can combine ad revenue, sponsorships, and affiliate commissions, leveraging multiple income streams simultaneously.
So, let’s examine how you can leverage affiliate marketing on YouTube to your advantage.
What Is YouTube Affiliate Marketing?
Like any other form of affiliate marketing, YouTube affiliate marketing is a business model where publishers promote products for a commission, which can either be a percentage of the sale or (rarely) a flat fee per lead.
Typically, bloggers add referral links in video descriptions and the bio while appealing to an emotional connection with viewers. Likewise, content creators use promo codes that provide a discount to their viewers and a commission to them.
| Pros | Cons |
| High engagement and trust | Video production takes time and skills |
| Strong visual storytelling | Algorithm-dependent visibility |
| Evergreen content with lasting views | Disclosure requirements for compliance |
| Free organic traffic via search | Harder to update than blog/email content |
How to Start YouTube Affiliate Marketing
YouTube affiliate marketing doesn’t require a website or a massive email list, so you can kick things off quickly as long as you know your audience and have some great ideas in mind.
1. Choose a YouTube-Friendly Niche
First of all, choose a popular affiliate marketing niche.
Here are a few tools to use to validate YouTube content demand:
- YouTube search suggestions: Type phrases such as “solar panel review” or “life insurance explained” to examine autofills. That’s what people are searching for.
- TubeBuddy or VidIQ: These are Chrome extensions that show search volume, competition, related tags, and how other channels perform in your niche.
- Third-party tools from your affiliate networks: Many platforms provide tools that you can use in your search engine optimization (SEO), benefiting even your YouTube affiliate marketing.
Insurance and solar are broad niches with significant competition, so you need both helpful and searchable content. And if you’re a smaller affiliate, it might be worth focusing on long-term keywords and niche topics you can realistically rank for.
2. Find the Right Affiliate Program(s)
Not all affiliate programs accept YouTube traffic, so be sure to check before applying. Look for allowed traffic sources like “video content,” “YouTube,” or “social media,” and ask the manager directly if the policy is unclear.
Other factors to consider are:
- Payout size
- Payout structure
- Tiered payouts
- Cookie duration
- Creative assets
Keep in mind that industries like insurance and solar aren’t impulse-driven, so your leads will need time to consider their options.
3. Create Videos That Naturally Sell
Once you’ve joined your first YouTube affiliate marketing program, start crafting content. Your task is to build trust, solve problems, and guide viewers toward action.
Focus on users’ intent and provide problem-solving videos. People come to YouTube with questions like “What’s the best solar setup for my home?” or “Is life insurance worth it at 30?”. Create engaging titles for your videos and answer common questions from your audience honestly, while including affiliate links.
Here are the most popular video formats:
- Product reviews: Focused breakdowns of a single product, sharing pros, cons, and your experience. It could be: “I tried Tesla Shingles for a year. What you should expect.”
- Best-of lists: Roundups of several affiliate offers under a theme or price point. For instance: “Top 3 life insurance companies for millennials in 2025.”
- Tutorials & how-tos: Teach users how to effectively use or incorporate the product with videos such as “How to calculate your solar ROI (with real numbers).”
- First impressions: You can create a video such as “Unboxing my new solar battery backup system.”
- Comparisons: Help viewers choose between two or more options. Videos with titles “Term vs. Whole Life Insurance: Which Should You Get?” catch attention immediately.
- Experiments and challenges: Personal storylines with built-in curiosity. For instance, you can make a video “I’ve switched my whole-life insurance after 10 years. Was it worth it?”
Affiliate marketing on YouTube works when people trust you. If your video looks like a commercial, you’ll have little chance in high-ticket niches like solar or insurance.
On a similar note, make sure to disclose the fact that you’re using affiliate links. A short, honest disclosure (like “Links below are affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you”) builds credibility and ensures compliance.
4. Learn Basic Video Production
You don’t need to be a filmmaker to succeed with an affiliate marketing YouTube channel, but you still need a high-quality camera and microphone to look and sound good enough.
These are the core skills every YouTuber should learn:
- Framing and composition: Keep yourself centered with enough headroom. Use the rule of thirds to create visually pleasing shots.
- Lighting control: Natural light works fine, but you should know the basics of scenic lighting to emphasize your thesis even better.
- Clean audio: Viewers tolerate average video quality, but they won’t stay if your audio is echoey, noisy, or unclear.
- Basic scripting and outlining: You don’t need word-for-word scripts, but planning your key points keeps the video focused.
- Simple editing: Learn to cut out pauses, add text overlays, and insert B-roll (extra footage) to keep viewers engaged.
You don’t need to buy everything at once. It’s fine to start filming with the back camera of your phone or digital camera. Just plug in an external mic and use a ring light, softbox, or “selfie clips” if you are filming on the go.
You can edit videos in free DaVinci Resolve or use paid alternatives such as Adobe’s Premiere Pro or Final Cut. Create catchy thumbnails in Canva, Photoshop, or Photopea.
5. Optimize for Clicks and Conversions
Creating great content is only half the battle. After you film a video, you need to optimize it so that it appears among the first in the search results.
| What to do | How to do it |
| SEO titles | Use keywords that match what people are searching for by using YouTube’s Autocomplete, TubeBuddy, Google Trends, or third-party tools |
| Catchy thumbnails | Thumbnails should be clear, persuasive, and emotion-focused |
| Descriptions and tags | The first 2–3 lines of your description should summarize the video, include a call to action, and include affiliate links. You can also add resources, timestamps, and disclaimers |
Put affiliate links at the top of your description (above the fold), as a pinned comment (with a short CTA), in your channel bio (especially for recurring tools/products), in end screen pop-ups (with links to videos that also include your affiliate URLs. If allowed, use link shorteners to brand your URLs.
6. Track Performance and Improve
Once your affiliate content is live, the real work begins. Affiliate marketing on YouTube is not “set it and forget it.” To build compounding income, you need to analyze what works and reinvest smartly as you grow.
Start by measuring video performance via YouTube Studio and the efficiency of your affiliate campaign via your affiliate dashboard.
Track click-through rates, average view duration, traffic sources, impressions, engagement, and audience retention metrics. Take a closer look at clicks per video, conversions, earnings per click (EPC), commission per sale, and total affiliate revenue.
Real-Life Examples of YouTube Affiliate Marketing
Shelby Church
Shelby is a popular California-based tech and lifestyle influencer with almost 2 million followers. In her videos, she shows specifics of life in Los Angeles, including choosing the best places to live and tech to use.
Shelby speaks about the perks and drawbacks of her decision and states that she is using affiliate links. It makes her affiliate marketing on YouTube compliant with the latest advertising regulations.
The Solar Lab
These are solar reviewers who test different solar systems to find their benefits and weaknesses and share this info with viewers. They collaborate with many manufacturers and installer teams.
Some collaborations between The Solar Lab and businesses are more traditional ads, while most of them are affiliate partnerships where the publisher gets commission on sales.
Steph and Den
They are Toronto-based finance influencers who explain the nuances of Canadian and U.S. finance systems, including insurance. One of the most popular videos on their channel is one where they explain the peculiarities of insurance.
FreeAdvice
These are affiliates that promote businesses in various insurance niches, such as car, life, health, rental insurance, and more. Once users click on a link in the description, they are redirected to the FreeAdvice website and encouraged to get a quote.
Is Affiliate Marketing on YouTube Worth It?
YouTube content is a powerful and reusable asset that you can use to create long-term passive income through evergreen content and capitalize on trends and viral videos to drive impulse sales.
Likewise, a well-maintained YouTube channel can improve your affiliate marketing SEO and build trust, and you can also repurpose the same footage for Shorts, TikTok, and Reels, hitting 3 platforms with one shot.
Affiliate commissions depend on the products promoted and brand arrangements, usually ranging from 5% to 20%. One successful video can easily make you a few thousand dollars. For instance, if a video generates 10,000 views and 150 leads, with a price per lead of $30, you’ll earn $4,500 solely from this video.
Some influencers, like Kelsey Rodrigues, clearly state how much she is earning through affiliate partnerships. However, most publishers, including bloggers in solar and insurance niches, tend to keep information about their earnings private.
Maximize Your Lead Sales with Profitise
Profitise is an affiliate network that offers one of the highest prices for insurance and solar web leads and phone calls. As an affiliate, you can sell your traffic quickly and generate more of it with customizable lead generation forms.
Here’s why Profitise is a go-to choice for insurance and solar affiliates:
- The biggest pool of insurance and solar advertisers to sell your leads
- The highest price per insurance and solar leads
- Around-the-clock support from an affiliate manager
- Free lead generation forms that can be embedded on a website in a few clicks
Join Profitise as an affiliate to grow your bottom line.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is affiliate marketing on YouTube?
YouTube affiliate marketing boils down to promoting products on YouTube and earning a commission on sales or for every lead (a consumer’s contact data, such as their email or phone number) sold to an advertiser.
How to do affiliate marketing on YouTube
To make money with YouTube affiliate marketing, you should first choose a niche and join one or a few affiliate programs that accept your type of traffic (YouTube traffic). Then you can start creating videos with affiliate links or promo codes that can attribute the referral and earn you a commission.
How much can I make with YouTube affiliate marketing?
There’s absolutely no limit to the amount of money you can make as an affiliate marketer on YouTube. It all depends on the size of your audience and the rules of your affiliate program. For example, if you receive a commission of $50 per sale, and you’ve generated 15 sales with your video, you’ll earn $750 in commissions.
