How affiliate shopping app LTK is standing out from the competition

1. 5k to play
2. Founded to get out of the house
3. Monetization sans ad campaigns
4. LTK betting on shoppable video

Affiliate shopping app LTK provides social media-goers with a place to save the outfits of their favorite influencers. On the flip side, influencers have an opportunity to monetize their product recommendations—even if there is no official coop with the recommended brands in place. Founded in 2011, LTK is not only one of the oldest affiliate shopping platforms, but with more than 40m MAUs, it’s also the largest. However, it now has to compete with its own affiliate and shopping tools from YouTube, Tiktok and others. Today, we’re taking a closer look at LTK and its standing within the German creator economy.

Today, influencer Carmen Kroll has paired a tennis skirt with a polo shirt, a blue knitted jumper and some New Balance sneakers. Taken in the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside, the image is flush with local cypress trees and dolce vita vibes. Kroll, who’s better known by her social media handle Carmushka, casually holds a badminton racket in her hand. The image is composed to evoke a response and wanting out of recipients—and to redirect users to LTK, where all manner of user questions regarding the outfit are answered directly: Who made it? How much? Can I get it for my next round of badminton?

Kroll wore the outfit at this year's creator event “The House of Carmushka” and then uploaded a photo of it to LTK, where creators have profiles that users can follow. There is also an app that is designed for inspiration and discovery—in theory, at least. In most cases, affiliate marketing still works particularly well via links in Instagram stories, says Niclas Kroll, Carmen Kroll's husband and CEO of the joint creator agency Somefriends. Users then land directly on the specific product or outfit they are interested in via the LTK link—not on the platform itself.

5k to play

To be allowed on LTK, creators need at least 5000 followers and can then apply to become an LTK Creator. The company tends to look for people who post regularly, preferably daily, and frequently tag products and brands. Once registered, creators can produce commissionable links to more than 7,000 retailers and share them on Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok, Pinterest, their own blog and many more. Furthermore, they can also present their most-beloved products in their personal LTK store. The personal shopping page is reminiscent of a typical social media profile, as you’d find on Instagram. With one key difference: while the aim of social media is often to casually advertise products and encourage people to buy them, the focus here is clearly on shopping. If you click a photo post, a list of all the products that can be seen in the picture appears. This area is dubbed “shop this post,” where clicking a product takes you directly to the retailer's website. If a purchase is made, both LTK and the creator earn a cut.

While LTK continues to adapt its style to the social media platforms, apart from competitors such as MagicLinks, ShopMy or Stylink with Youtube and Tiktok-Shop, competition from the platforms themselves is growing, as they are gradually launching affiliate or shopping tools of their own to keep users within their respective ecosystems. LTK's main weapon, however, is the breadth of its brands. “The reason LTK has become and will continue to be so successful is that we don’t discriminate,” says Allison Yazdian from LTK. “A creator can showcase their whole life. It's not siloed across different platforms.” Markus Kellermann, affiliate marketing expert and Managing Director of MAI xpose360, also sees this as a decisive disadvantage for the YouTube affiliate program, which is currently only available in the USA and Korea and not in Germany. While it’s an intriguing opportunity for Youtubers to monetize video content, creators can only advertise products from participating YouTube sellers. “Plus, it pretty much excludes smaller creators as there is a 10,000-subscriber minimum,” says Kellermann. “In my opinion, affiliate programs on Amazon or affiliate networks are much more advantageous.”

For Carmushka, LTK is still the most important player in affiliate marketing, says Niclas Kroll. “I would say: 70 percent LTK, 30 percent other affiliate platforms.” Amazon Affiliate is in second place. “Platforms such as Stylink or Zezam have yet to establish themselves as daily musts.” For creators the agency supports, affiliate platforms have the major advantage of providing them with more transparent, real insights into their own performance. “But they can also proactively draw brands' attention to themselves.” With Carmushka, the two started were early adopters of LTK. “That was around 2016 or 2017, when many brands had yet to take to influencer marketing or were out of reach,” he says. LTK has enabled them to build up a broad brand portfolio.

Founded to get out of the house

LTK was founded by American Amber Venz Box together with her then boyfriend and now husband Baxter Box. That was back in 2011—one year after Instagram launched. Venz Box was a creator herself at the time and only 23 years old. Her goal back then was to earn enough money to move out. The company is now valued at USD 2b, after Japanese telecommunications and media group Softbank invested USD 300m in 2021. In 2023, LTK creators generated sales of USD 4.1b with purchases via their store profiles in retail stores in over 150 countries, the company reports. It did not disclose how much turnover LTK itself generates.

We previously reported on LTK in 2016 (link in German), when LTK was still called Liketoknow.it, and before that Rewardstyle. There is another key difference to the LTK that we reported on: selling on Instagram was only a dream for many brands, as there was no option to post direct links beneath image. Tools such as Liketoknow.it offered a workaround, at least for Instagram influencers and brands, to generate affiliate links. Today, products can be specifically linked in stories, but without a cooperation or affiliate link, this is still of little use to content creators..

Monetization sans ad campaigns

The two monetization options of cooperation or affiliate commission are worlds apart, especially for creators with many followers, emphasizes David Völler, CEO of the influencer agency All Impact. “Creators with thriving communities often generate a completely different value through collaborations and campaigns. This cannot usually be compensated for through cuts from affiliate links.” Nevertheless, affiliate platforms such as LTK are a good way to take followers with you in your everyday life, for example to link a coffee machine in the background of a haul. “The advantage is that the influencers are paid for their advertising and it's a service for the users, as they want to know where they can acquire a given product.” Völler believes that this can also contribute to credibility and authenticity, as it means that products are not only advertised where there is an advertising partnership: “The links allow them to share products that they have in their environment and household and enjoy using themselves, and still have the opportunity to earn something from them."

LTK betting on shoppable video

LTK is currently expanding the personal stores of its creators with additional presentation options. The company has just launched a shoppable video feature that looks a lot like YouTube Shorts, Tiktok or Instagram Stories. With one key difference: LTK users can find a kind of shopping carousel below the video with all the products that appear in the video. This is apparently the platform's response to competition from social media platforms.

According to the company, shoppers access video posts on LTK twice as often as other posts. They also say that video content could increase creators' earnings on the platform by up to 46 percent. Niclas Kroll is not yet convinced of the added value of the feature: “It's a ‘nice to have’, but not an absolute ‘must.’ The majority of our community buys on impulse via an Instagram story or broadcast compared to the followers of our LTK storefront.”