Influencer Discount Code: Why Codes Bleeding Into Search Hurt AOV

Bren Daniel draws on nine years of influencer marketing experience, including building Caraway's influencer and ambassador program from scratch, to break down one of the most overlooked decisions in affiliate campaigns: where you ask creators to post.

Reels get favored by Instagram's algorithm but cannot carry a clickable link, which means leaning on an influencer discount code instead, and Bren warns that promo codes can bleed into search results and erode your average order value. Stories, once a reliable conversion driver, have lost both reach and click-through rate.

For affiliate placements specifically, Bren argues you cannot leave channel decisions entirely to the creator. Even when a platform auto-sends dashboard access and code details, she still sends a personal email specifying the link and the code, because a creator who misses a tracked sale stops posting. The core principle: if the creator is making money, they keep creating. If not, they fall off.

Watch to see how Bren maps placement strategy to campaign stage and what the right content-channel mix actually looks like in practice.