Discount codes for influencers: how to get one and make it sell

How does a creator code work?

The brand creates a coupon that exists only for you, usually built from your handle. When someone applies it in the cart, the store records two things: the discount for the buyer and the source of the sale. That second part is what pays you. Unlike a link, a code needs no cookie and no click: it attributes by the text the buyer typed, even if they reached the store through Google days after watching your video.

The commission is not paid on the order but on the confirmed sale. If the buyer returns the product or cancels, the commission goes with it. That is why most platforms separate “recorded sales” from “confirmed sales” and pay the second kind, weeks later, once the return window has closed.

How do you get your own discount code?

There are two routes. The first is an affiliate platform for creators that runs campaigns with a code per creator: you sign up, pick a campaign available in your audience’s countries, and the system generates your code and your link on the spot. Nobody to negotiate with, and you can hold several codes from several brands in one account.

The second is a direct deal with a brand. It usually comes once you already have a relationship or your media kit gets noticed; the code is agreed by email and the brand reports the sales to you. It sometimes pays better, but it requires trusting the numbers they send. Many creators use both routes.

Code or link? Why you should use both

A code survives where a link dies: in a screenshot, a voice message, a word-of-mouth recommendation, a physical store. Someone can hear it on a podcast and use it three days later. A link, on the other hand, measures better: it records the click, the source and the time, and it works for offers that carry no discount.

So the advice is not to choose but to combine. Put the code on screen and the link wherever it can be tapped. Within the affiliate links and codes of one campaign, each catches what the other misses. The only rule: both must point to the same offer, with the same conditions.

The link measures; the code travels. You need both because your audience does not buy where you post, it buys where it is convenient.

What should you call it and where should it go?

Short, pronounceable and yours: your handle or a four-to-eight-letter variant, with no zeros that look like the letter O and no hyphens nobody remembers. If the brand offers you “SAVE15XYZ”, ask to change it. A good code can be said out loud once and typed later without checking.

Then repeat it wherever someone might look for it. In the video, on screen and spoken, close to the moment you show the product. In the caption, on the first line, not under the hashtags. In a pinned comment. In your bio, next to the link. In stories, with the link sticker and the code written large. And at an event or on a stream, as a QR code to your short link. A creator toolkit like convli’s builds those pieces with the code and the ad disclosure already included.

Disclosure is never optional: “ad”, “paid partnership” or #ad depending on the platform and the country, visible from the start. The FTC’s disclosure guide for social media influencers is the clearest standard.

What happens when your code shows up on a coupon site?

Sooner or later it happens: someone pastes it in a forum or a coupon extension, and suddenly your code is used by people who have never seen you. The brand objects because it is paying commission on sales that would have happened anyway; for you it helps for a while and hurts later, when the brand cuts the rate or kills the code. Serious platforms spot it by the pattern: usage spiking with no clicks, orders from countries where you have no audience.

What you can do is limited but useful. Ask for codes with an expiry date or a usage cap and rotate them. Remember that many codes are valid only in certain countries: one that works only in Mexico spreading in Spain produces failed attempts and frustrated followers. And if you notice usage that does not match your reach, flag it before the brand finds it on its own.

How do you measure whether the code really sells?

A code and a link are measured differently. From the link you get clicks and conversions per click; from the code you get only uses and confirmed sales, with no idea how many people saw it. So look at both together, per post: if the link gets no clicks but the code is used, the audience is buying on its own after watching you, and that is yours too.

A calendar saves you the grind. Note which code goes in which post and until when, review each month which ones are still active, and ask for a new one when the brand refreshes the offer. An expired code is the fastest way to lose someone who actually wanted to buy. And getting the piece to convert in the first place is covered in how to make content that sells.