Where can you add clickable links on Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat?

This is based on the platforms’ help pages, read on 22 October 2026, and for Instagram Stories on Instagram’s announcement of 27 October 2021 and its 2026 guide to Stories. Anything those pages do not mention, such as links in Instagram captions, is left out of the table. Features change, so check in the app before a campaign that your link can be tapped.

• Instagram: according to Instagram’s help, you can set the order of the websites on your profile yourself. Put the link that matters most to you at the top.
• YouTube: clickable external links in descriptions are one of YouTube’s advanced features. To see if they are on for your channel, open YouTube Studio and go to Settings, Channel, Feature eligibility.
• YouTube Shorts: according to YouTube, URLs in Shorts descriptions and comments are not clickable, to reduce spam and scam attempts. To point viewers from a Short to products, add a related video, for example a long-form video with the links in its description, or point to the links on your channel profile. YouTube lists the related video among the advanced features too.
• Pinterest: according to Pinterest’s help, link directly to the source where you can, because certain redirects and URL shorteners are not allowed. The Community Guidelines encourage a “no surprises” principle, so people can reasonably anticipate where a link will take them, and links with excessive or deceptive redirection may be blocked. The version that applies from 12 November 2026 spells this out for profile links as well.
• Pinterest: if a Pin leads to a blank page, Pinterest may replace the link with a different one. You can only edit links on Pins you created yourself, not on Pins you saved.
• Snapchat: you attach the link on the preview screen with the paper clip icon, and people who see the Snap swipe up to the website. Snapchat Support lists a website on the Public Profile for Creator Accounts and Business Profiles; for a standard Public Profile it is not ticked.

Instagram described the first four steps in its announcement of 27 October 2021, which opened links in Stories to all accounts. Before that, they were limited to verified accounts or accounts with a certain number of followers. Instagram’s 2026 guide to Stories describes the same route and points to that announcement for the steps. The fifth step puts the media authorities’ recommendation into practice. The menus in the app may look different today.

1. Take a photo or video for your Story or upload one.
2. Tap the sticker icon in the top bar and choose the Link sticker.
3. Paste the address and tap “Done”.
4. Place the sticker on your Story. Tap it to switch colours. According to the 2026 guide, you can customise the text on the sticker.
5. Add “Affiliate link*” in clearly readable text on the same slide, with a short line explaining the asterisk. If you recommend a product on the slide, add “Werbung” or “Anzeige” (advertisement) as well, and on a video keep it visible for the whole slide. If links sit on several slides, each of them needs these notes.

For affiliate links, the guide by Germany’s state media authorities (Die Medienanstalten, May 2025) recommends an asterisk (*) and an explanation right next to the link. It does not distinguish between platforms or placements and covers social media and other online media in general. We read it as applying wherever your link sits: the asterisk and explanation go with the Link sticker, in the video description, on the Pin and on the Snap.

The guide has no separate case for a profile link to your own storefront. It does say that a link to a commercial offer or an online shop placed out of commercial interest must be labelled as advertising, and for such promotional links it recommends “Werbung” or “Anzeige” (advertisement) clearly readable right next to the link. Our conclusion: if your profile link leads to affiliate links you earn from, put “Anzeige” right next to it and say that it leads to affiliate links.

If the post itself is advertising, you label the post as well. According to the guide, it is advertising if you get something in return for it, such as money; products sent to you can count too. Even without a partnership, an intent to advertise can be assumed if you promote a product in a way that looks like you want to boost sales. The guide lists signs such as a call to buy, prices and where to buy, and combining the post with affiliate links. For images and text, “Werbung” or “Anzeige” then goes at the start, clearly readable. For video, the guide recommends showing “Werbung” throughout the video or the advertising sequence, depending on where the product plays the main role, and a note at the start such as “Unterstützt durch Produktplatzierung” (supported by product placement) when it plays a minor role. For products you got for free, the guide only asks for that note if their value is over €100. If the video shows where to get the product, the video or that sequence counts as advertising, not product placement.

In Stories, every promotional slide counts. According to the guide, what has to be labelled is the promotional post itself, explicitly including each Story slide in a promotional context. A note on the first slide alone is not enough if the Link sticker is on the third. A blanket note on your profile saying your account contains ads is not enough either.

According to the guide, the label must be recognisable without scrolling or expanding and must not be covered by controls or progress bars. In a Story, that means not right at the top under the progress bar and not underneath another sticker.

With wyrld, one link covers all your picks in these places: the address of your wyrld storefront, which you have as soon as you sign up. It is an ordinary web link and works as the website on your Instagram, YouTube or Pinterest profile, on Snapchat with a Creator Account, in the Link sticker of a Story and on a Snap. In a Short, point viewers to the storefront link on your channel profile, since URLs in Shorts are not clickable. If wyrld finds a product in several partner shops, your community sees the offers with prices side by side on your page and buys where they like, directly from the shop and at no extra cost. According to Bitkom Research (2022), the lowest price is a decisive factor for 65% of online shoppers in Germany when they choose a shop.

For each product, you just paste its link or pick it from the catalogue. wyrld recognises the brand, name and variant, looks for the same item across more than 90,000 partner shops and creates the affiliate link for every offer it finds. You do not sign up with any network yourself, and the address on your profile stays the same when you add new products. If you work with an agency, it gets its own dashboard on wyrld, looks after your storefront with you and sees your numbers. Any commission share you agree on, between 0 and 100%, is deducted from your earnings, and you each receive your own credit note.

Depending on the shop, you earn per click, per sale or both, and you receive a Gutschrift (self-billing credit note) at the start of the following month. wyrld is free for creators, and the creator terms do not require exclusivity: on wyrld’s side, links to programmes you already belong to can stay next to your storefront link. If you recommend products with affiliate links, you label your posts as advertising and add a note right next to the link on your profile. As a creator, you are responsible for that yourself.