Is there an Instagram affiliate programme in Germany, and what are the alternatives?

In a post on its Creators blog dated 24 March 2026, Instagram introduced “Add products”. Before you share a Reel, a new “Add product” option appears in the share sheet. There you paste the URL of a specific item, affiliate links included, or search for the product in a brand’s catalogue. Anyone who taps the product goes to the partner’s app or mobile website and buys there. If you are eligible, Instagram says you can earn an affiliate commission. The post does not say what eligibility involves.

According to the post, the feature is rolling out first in the US, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Thailand, and is coming “soon” to all 22 Instagram commerce markets. It does not say which countries those are. Other points from the post:

• You can only add individual items, no collections, and up to 30 per Reel. Each item has to be in a business’s product catalogue on Meta, so that price and availability are correct.
• An affiliate link works too if it leads straight to such an item. A link to a shop without a catalogue on Meta therefore can’t be added.
• Reels with product tags also appear in the Partnership Ads Hub, where brands can see them.
• In the same post, Instagram announced affiliate partnerships with Amazon and Shopee directly in the app as the next step, with no date given.

Facebook already has affiliate partnerships, including with Amazon and Shopee. You connect your account with an affiliate partner to Facebook, add affiliate links to posts and reels, and Facebook shows a product banner. You are paid by the partners; Meta’s help centre puts it plainly: “Payments to creators will not come from Meta.” Every partner requires you to be at least 18 and to live in one of its countries. Germany is not on any partner’s list.

From the help page on posts with a product banner: only viewers in the same country as you see the banner, and crossposts from Instagram don’t get one. You can add one link per post or reel, to a single product and without a link shortener. Links to storefronts or collections don’t work.

Product tags, which Meta calls shopping tags, belong to Shops on Facebook and Instagram. Meta’s help centre lists only the US for the full Shops experience. Germany and Switzerland are on the list of countries in open beta, where some sellers may not have every feature. Austria is not on the list. On the same page Meta notes that some features related to Shops and checkout are no longer supported.

As a creator, the help centre says you can tag products from brands with a shop on Instagram, up to 20 per post. From age 13 with a qualified public account, you can do this if the account has been active for the past 30 days with no more than two policy violations, or if a brand has approved you as a branded content partner to tag its products. The same page mentions products in Reels only for legacy shop catalogues. It does not mention any commission for creators.

The details come from the providers’ own FAQs, terms and help pages as of 21 October 2026. The follower thresholds each programme sets are on the page about follower minimums. TikTok and YouTube have their own programmes in Germany: TikTok says TikTok Shop affiliate requires 500 followers in Germany and a minimum age of 18, and YouTube’s blog says it has been rolling out its Shopping affiliate programme in Germany since 3 September 2026. Both apply to content on TikTok and YouTube respectively. Which route suits you on Instagram:

• wyrld suits you if you recommend products from many different shops, want one link for everything in your bio and Stories and would rather not sign up with each programme separately. You paste the product link, wyrld looks for the same item across more than 90,000 partner shops and creates the affiliate link for every offer it finds. Your community sees the offers with prices side by side and buys where it likes, at no extra cost. Depending on the shop, you are paid per click, per sale or both. If you have an agency, it can work on your storefront through its own dashboard. And since the creator terms do not require exclusivity, wyrld also suits you if you want to keep LTK, Stylink or Amazon.
• LTK suits you if you mainly want to earn on sales and want your LTK Shop to reach people who, according to LTK, browse there for new creators and styles.
• Stylink suits you if you want to be paid per genuine click. According to Stylink’s help centre, how much a click earns also depends on how well your links sell.
• ShopMy suits you if you want to earn on sales and also link to brands and shops outside its catalogue with “Add by URL”. According to ShopMy, though, such links only earn commission if the shop takes part in an affiliate programme available through ShopMy.
• Amazon Associates suits you if you mainly recommend products sold on Amazon.
• Linktree suits you if you collect lots of other links alongside products and source your affiliate links yourself.
• Your own affiliate links suit you if you work closely with a few brands and handle sign-up and payouts for each programme yourself.

As long as Instagram has not announced a launch in Germany, these are the next steps. This page reflects the situation on 21 October 2026.

1. Check the share sheet next time you post a Reel. If “Add product” lets you paste a product URL there, that suggests the new feature has reached your account.
2. Get affiliate links for the products you show: through an affiliate programme, a platform from the table or a storefront.
3. Put one link in your bio that collects all your products, and link single products in Stories with the link sticker.
4. Label affiliate links, according to the German media authorities’ guide for example with an asterisk and a short explanation right next to the link, and mark posts you get something for with “Werbung” or “Anzeige” (advertising) at the very start. More on this on the page about disclosure.
5. Once “Add products” launches in Germany, use links to single products that are in a business’s catalogue on Meta. According to Instagram, links to collections or whole storefronts are not included.

As long as “Add products” has not reached Germany, and even after a launch for shops without a catalogue on Meta, you put one link in your bio or Stories that leads to your own storefront. It can hold products from more than 90,000 partner shops, Amazon included. If wyrld finds a product at several shops, your community sees the offers with prices side by side and buys directly from the shop, at no extra cost. The cheapest new offer is marked “Best price”. According to Bitkom (2022), 65% of online shoppers in Germany say the lowest price is a decisive factor when choosing a shop.

The work per product is one link: you paste it, wyrld recognises the brand, name and variant, looks for the same item across its partner shops and creates the affiliate link for every offer it finds. You don’t sign up with any network yourself. If you work with an agency, it gets its own dashboard on wyrld, works on your storefront with you and sees the same numbers. Any commission share you agree on, between 0 and 100%, is deducted from your earnings in the monthly statement, and you each receive your own credit note.

Depending on the shop, you are paid per click, per sale or both. You receive a Gutschrift (self-billing credit note) at the start of the following month, and wyrld pays out sale commissions once the shop or affiliate programme has paid wyrld. Through wyrld Boost, brands also pay for campaigns that run across many creators, based on KPIs agreed in advance; taking part is up to you. wyrld is free for creators, and since the creator terms do not require exclusivity, nothing on wyrld’s side stops you from keeping LTK, Stylink or Amazon and also using “Add products” in your Reels if it reaches your account.