Is Amazon Affiliate Links Allowed on Youtube?

In YouTube?s Terms of Service, section 4.D., it says, ?You agree not to use the Service for any of the following commercial uses unless you obtain YouTube?s prior written approval: ? the sale of advertising, sponsorships, or promotions placed on or within the Service or Content??

The first part of that is spelled out in more detail on the Paid Product Placements help page. It means that you cannot create your own pre-roll or mid-roll ads and permanently make it a part of the video file when a comparable YouTube ad unit already exists. To me, this seems to be an example of what section 4.D. of YouTube?s Terms of Service is referring to.

The second part of the Partner Program Policy explicitly states that paid product promotion in your videos is totally fine as long as you give them notice first. When you upload a video to YouTube, it gives you a box to check to let them know that the video contains paid product placement. According to their Help section, this is how you notify them of paid product placement.


What is considered product placement?


?Paid product placements are defined as pieces of content that are created specifically for a sponsor and where that sponsor?s brand, message, or product is integrated directly into the content. A typical example of a paid product placement is one in which a marketer pays a partner to specifically mention their product or brand in what would normally be the editorial part of the content.?


It makes sense to me that affiliate links would be considered paid product placement, so check that box and you should be set.


Remember, I?m not an authoritative voice on this matter. This is just what I think based on the research I?ve done. If you use affiliate links, you do so at your own risk.

Click to expand...