One of the questions I get constantly, because I run a big free community and talk to people at every stage of this, is some version of “how easy is it actually to get into the Amazon Influencer Program?” The honest answer is that it depends entirely on what you walk in with. For me it was easy. For a lot of people applying right now, it is not. Here is why, and what Amazon is actually looking at when they decide.

In This Article

The Form Is Easy. The Approval Is Not.

Let me separate two things people lump together. Applying is easy. The application takes about three minutes: you link a social account, answer a few questions, and submit. Anyone can do that. Getting approved is a different question, because approval has nothing to do with how well you filled out the form. It has to do with whether you already have the thing Amazon wants when they look at your account.

When people ask “is it easy,” they are really asking about the second part. And the answer to the second part is: it is easy if you show up with the credentials, and it is a hill to climb if you don’t.

Why I Got In Two Days After Applying

When I applied, I filled out the form, sent it in, and about two days later I was fully approved, on-site commissions and all. On paper that looks effortless. But the reason it was effortless is that I had unknowingly spent years building exactly what Amazon screens for. I had a YouTube channel with a solid subscriber count, really strong engagement, and I already knew how to make videos.

So my barrier of entry was tiny, not because the program is easy, but because I had already paid the cost before I ever heard of the program. The three-minute form was the last step of a process that actually took years. Most people only see the three minutes.

The Pitch vs. the Reality

The Amazon Influencer Program is being pitched right now, mostly by people selling courses, as the program where you don’t need a following. Just make product videos, get them on listings, collect commissions. That is what attracts the current wave of applicants, and it is partly true: once you are in, you don’t need an audience to earn on-site.

The problem is that “you don’t need a following to earn” is not the same as “you don’t need a following to get approved.” Many of the people coming in on that pitch don’t have the credentials Amazon is checking for, so their barrier of entry is bigger and thicker than mine was. It isn’t that the program is harder for them. It is that they have to build the qualifying asset first, where I already had it.

What Amazon Actually Looks At

Based on years of watching who gets approved and who gets denied in my community, approval comes down to two things:

  1. The social channel you link, and specifically the engagement on it
  2. Your video quality once you submit your initial videos for on-site approval

Both get evaluated. A good social channel gets you into the program. Your videos get you on-site. Falling short on either one is where people get stuck.

Followers Matter Less Than Engagement

You do not need a huge follower count. You need some followers, and more importantly you need engagement. That is the thing Amazon weighs most heavily on the social side. An account with 2,000 followers that gets real comments, shares, and views on every post looks far better than an account with 20,000 followers and dead posts.

If you are applying with a brand-new account, a dormant account, or an account where you bought followers and nobody interacts, you are walking in without the thing they want, and you should expect a denial. If you have a real, active account in a niche, even a small one, you are in much better shape than you think.

Your On-Camera Presence Gets Judged Too

You don’t have to be great, but you can’t be awful

Even with a strong social channel, Amazon still looks at your videos. You don’t have to be polished. You don’t even have to be that good. But if you are awful on camera, mumbling, reading off a script, filming in the dark, pointing the camera at a box for forty seconds, there is a real chance they deny you on that basis alone. The on-site approval stage exists specifically to filter for a minimum level of watchability, because those videos are going on product pages that Amazon’s customers see.

Watch a handful of videos from approved influencers in your category before you shoot your first three. Match the baseline. Clear audio, decent lighting, product in hand, talk like a person. That is the whole bar.

Amazon Doesn’t Publish the Criteria

Here is what makes this frustrating: Amazon has no documented requirements for acceptance. There is no public follower minimum, no engagement rate threshold, no checklist. Everything I just described is reverse-engineered from thousands of acceptances and denials across the Oink community over the years. We have generally figured out the pattern, but you are still trying to satisfy a rubric Amazon won’t show you.

That is why the answer to “is it easy” varies so much from person to person. Two people can apply the same day with what looks like the same profile and get different results. The pattern holds in aggregate, not for every individual.

How to Shrink Your Barrier of Entry

If you don’t have the credentials yet, the move is to build them before you apply, not after a denial. Pick the social platform where you can post consistently and start putting out content in the niche you want to make product videos for. Reply to every comment. Post on a schedule. Give it a couple of months so the engagement is real and recent when Amazon looks. At the same time, practice the product video format so your first on-site submissions aren’t your first time on camera.

And once you are in, that off-site channel keeps paying. Off-site traffic is where Oink’s Facebook and YouTube cross-posting tools come in, and the storefront you build with Storefront Cross Check and the 5 Pillars system is what turns approval into actual income. Getting approved is the start line, not the finish.

So, Is It Easy?

It is not as easy as the people selling you on it make it sound, and it is not as hard as the people who got denied make it sound. A lot of it depends on who you are and how prepared you are when you walk in. Show up with an engaged social channel and the ability to talk to a camera, and the program is a three-minute form. Show up without those, and you have some work to do first. Not hard, exactly. But not easy either.

If you are already in and want to make the most of it, or you are building toward applying and want to be around people who have done it, come hang out with us. The community is free, and the tools at oinkforinfluencers.com are built to handle the research and storefront work that eats most influencers’ time, so you can spend yours making videos.

I'm an Amazon Influencer since 2023 and blogger since 2021. My goal is to help you succeed in the Amazon Influencer Program.

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