Amazon launches Creator Connections in India with 50,000 advertisers

MUMBAI: The creator economy is getting closer to the checkout button, and Amazon wants to put itself right in the middle of that journey. The company has launched Creator Connections in India, linking brands with creators through a performance-led model that tracks clicks and qualifying sales generated on Amazon.

India is the first market outside the US to get the programme, which is being rolled out initially to 50,000 advertisers and around 5,000 of Amazon’s most engaged creators. The two-sided marketplace allows brands to bring products and campaign budgets, while creators choose campaigns that fit their audiences and earn additional commissions when their content drives qualifying purchases.

The move brings together two ecosystems Amazon has been building separately: its creator network and its retail and advertising infrastructure. Nidhi Thakkar, Head of Social Commerce – Emerging Countries, Amazon, said the company’s creator ecosystem has grown to 1.65 lakh creators.

Unlike conventional influencer campaigns, where brands often pay for reach, content or a fixed deliverable, Creator Connections puts the emphasis on conversion. Thakkar said Amazon is not paying creators simply for reach, with the programme instead focusing on how effectively their audiences convert.

That could give smaller creators a bigger seat at the table. A creator with a relatively modest but highly engaged regional or niche audience may be more valuable to a brand than a much larger account if that audience is more likely to buy.

The programme is designed so that creator content can appear outside Amazon, but the eventual purchase takes place on Amazon. This gives the company visibility into the journey from creator recommendation to marketplace transaction.

Creators receive an additional commission opportunity for qualifying sales, over and above their standard Amazon Associates or Influencer earnings where applicable.

For brands, campaigns can be configured around products, commission rates, budgets and campaign periods. The current parameters include a minimum commission rate of 10 per cent, a minimum campaign budget of $5,000, campaign durations ranging from 30 to 365 days and up to 1,200 ASINs in a campaign.

Attribution is central to the model. Amazon uses a 24-hour window following a creator’s link click for qualifying purchases, while also factoring in conversion rather than treating every click as valuable on its own.

Thakkar said Amazon has mechanisms to distinguish qualified activity from lower-quality traffic, although she did not disclose the specific procedures used to detect bot traffic. The company’s model therefore ties creator earnings more closely to qualified clicks and conversions than raw traffic volumes.

The timing gives Creator Connections an immediate opportunity to prove itself. The programme has launched ahead of India’s festive shopping season, when brands typically increase both marketing and commerce spending.

Amazon said creator earnings have historically risen fivefold during the festive period compared with business-as-usual levels. However, the company has not disclosed how much incremental revenue it expects Creator Connections itself to generate during the season.

Thakkar said Amazon has internal projections but declined to provide a specific figure.

The company is also encouraging creators to be selective about campaigns, arguing that relevance between a creator and a product is important for sustained conversion. Personalised campaign recommendations are expected to help creators identify opportunities suited to their audiences.

The initial rollout to 50,000 advertisers and approximately 5,000 highly engaged creators is deliberately phased. Amazon will use the first cohort to assess whether creators can generate meaningful earnings while brands achieve the return on advertising spend they expect.

The company continues to work with agencies on functions such as creator recruitment, enablement and account management, but is also building a self-serve ecosystem through initiatives including Creator University and Creator Central.

The larger bet is clear: move creator marketing from a conversation about followers and impressions to one about commerce. With 1.65 lakh creators already in its ecosystem and India becoming its first Creator Connections market outside the US, Amazon is testing whether influence can be measured not just by who sees the content, but by who actually buys.

For creators, that could mean a new way to monetise trust. For brands, it offers a more direct route from content to conversion. And for Amazon, it puts the checkout at the end of the influencer story.