To become an LTK influencer, you apply through LTK's creator application, name the social account that holds your largest audience (connecting Instagram through a Facebook Business Page), and wait for LTK's applications team to review you. LTK's own pages ask for a public profile, an engaged following and regular shoppable posts, and approved creators earn commission, set by each retailer, on purchases made through their links.
What LTK says it looks for, page by page
LTK, the company behind the former rewardStyle and LIKEtoKNOW.it brands, does not publish a single entry standard. Its help centre, its application page and its regional marketing pages each describe the ideal applicant slightly differently, and two of them attach a number. Laid side by side, they tell you more than any one of them does alone.
| LTK page | What it asks applicants for | Detail worth noticing |
|---|---|---|
| Help centre: How Do I Become an LTK Creator? | Public profiles, a high number of engaged followers, original content featuring products you love and use, and regular posting | Describes its ideal applicant as someone who posts daily, but gives no follower figure |
| The creator application page | A public profile, an engaged following and consistent content about your lifestyle and the things you love | The shortest list, and the page the application itself starts from |
| Application expectations page | An engaged following of over 5,000 on at least one platform, high-quality shoppable content posted daily, and a schedule with room for it | Also expects newly approved creators to post shoppable content at least 10 times in their first 30 days |
| UK how-it-works FAQ | An engaged, growing audience of at least 5K on a public profile, with quality posts at least twice a week that tag favourite brands | A lighter posting expectation than the expectations page sets |
| Re-application advice, December 2023 | Consistent public activity, a significant engaged following on one channel, at least 4 months of original shoppable content and a clean editorial look | Says most people approved on a second try spent at least 60 days building their presence first |
The pages disagree on two things: whether there is a follower floor at all, and how often you need to post. The cautious reading is to treat the 5,000 figure on the application expectations page as the working bar, since the UK page sets a similar one, and to apply once your recent posts already show the rhythm your region's page describes.
One criterion appears in some form on every page: the content has to be yours. The re-application article says shoppable content should be original to you, whether you took the photos and videos yourself or own the rights to them, so a grid built from reposted brand campaign images works against an application rather than for it.
How the LTK application works, step by step
LTK's help article on applying and authenticating your Instagram profile, updated in June 2026, describes the current flow:
- Open the application in a desktop browser and answer the questions about your primary audience and your largest social audience.
- If you pick Instagram, connect your Facebook Business Page or type in its handle, then work through Facebook's own connection prompts.
- If you have no Business Page, create one first. The article says you never have to publish anything on it, but it is required for the authentication step.
- Wait for the on-screen confirmation that your profile is connected, which completes the submission.
- Watch your inbox: the LTK Applications Team emails you with next steps once your application has been reviewed.
LTK's post-application article from March 2024 says the team will get back to applicants within 48 hours. Treat that as a target from an older page rather than a promise, and resist resubmitting if the email takes longer.
If you are turned down, the same article and the re-application advice point the same way: keep publishing original, shoppable content, grow the account you named, and come back once your grid looks like the pages describe. None of the LTK pages checked for this guide sets a minimum wait between applications, so the timing is yours to judge.
Application readiness checklist
Work through this before you submit. Each item comes from something LTK's pages ask for or something its application flow needs.
- The account you will name as your largest audience is public and is genuinely the one where people engage most.
- If that account is Instagram, it is linked to a Facebook Business Page you control, so authentication does not stall halfway.
- You have compared your following with the figure on the page for your region, not only with the short list on the application page.
- Your last few months of posts show a steady rhythm, rather than a burst of activity in the week before you apply.
- Most recent posts are shoppable: outfits, rooms, routines or kits where a viewer could identify and buy each item.
- Every photo and video is yours or licensed to you, with no reposted campaign imagery from brands.
- Posts tag the exact products and the brands behind them, a habit LTK's expectations page links to its top-performing posts.
- Your niche sits in a category LTK serves, such as fashion, beauty, home, family, fitness, wellness or travel.
- You already label gifted and paid posts clearly, a habit that carries straight over to commission links.
- You have decided where your LTK shop link will live, whether that is a profile link slot, Stories, a blog or a newsletter.
- You have read LTK's Community Guidelines, including the product categories that carry extra legal requirements.
If you are still building towards those criteria, the influencer launch plan worksheet covers choosing a niche, picking a main platform and setting a posting cadence you can keep.
How LTK commission works, according to LTK
The clearest public explanation is LTK's Australian help article How commission is earned through your LTK links. When a shopper clicks one of your links, a tracking cookie is placed in their browser. If they order within that retailer's cookie window, you earn on the total cart price of the purchase, per the retailer's terms, and anything they return is deducted in your earnings tab. Some brands exclude products from commission or pay different rates on particular categories.
The same LTK page says cookie windows depend on each brand's policy, with most LTK brand partners falling between 7 and 30 days and generally 7 to 14 days on average. The cookie lives in one browser on one device: a shopper who clicks in Safari and later buys in Chrome, or clicks on a phone and buys on a laptop, will not earn you commission. Instagram is the sharpest exception. The article says Instagram has no cookie window, so the shopper must buy inside the Instagram browser without leaving it. LTK runs app-to-app tracking for some brands whose shopping apps open from your link.
Each brand sets its own rate when it partners with LTK, and the link bookmarklet shows the rate on offer at that moment. In the creator app, brands carry a High, Medium or Low label, which the same help article defines as a net commission rate of 11% or more, between 7% and 11%, and 7% or less. Since September 2024 the app's Product Commission Comparison has also shown the rates different retailers offer on the same product before you tag it.
Here LTK's pages pull in different directions. The UK FAQ says the average commission rate is between 10% and 25% and can reach 30%, without saying whether that is the retailer's gross rate or what reaches you, while the app bands describe net rates. When the two seem to conflict, go by the rate the app or bookmarklet shows for the specific product on the day you link it.
Credit can also go elsewhere. LTK lists three common ways to lose a sale: the shopper clicks another creator's or affiliate's link before buying, enters a one-time promo code such as a newsletter sign-up discount at checkout, or clicks a Google Shopping or other search tracking link. A product URL that already carries someone else's tracking code can break attribution too, which is why LTK asks creators to delete the tracking portion after the question mark before generating their own link.
Commission terms at a glance
This table condenses LTK's public statements. The right-hand column is what to confirm in your own account, because the binding version sits in terms you only see after approval.
| Term | What LTK's public pages say | Confirm before relying on it |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the rate | Each brand chooses its own rate on joining LTK, as the commission help article explains | Whether the brand pays a different rate on the category you post most |
| How you see the rate | The bookmarklet and creator app show the current rate, and the comparison feature lists it across retailers | The rate on the day you tag, since a brand can change it |
| What commission is paid on | The total cart of a purchase made inside the cookie window, under the retailer's terms | Which products that brand excludes from commission |
| Cookie window | Set by each brand, with most between 7 and 30 days according to the LTK help article | The window for the specific retailers you link most often |
| Switching browser or device | The cookie does not carry from one browser to another or between phone and desktop | Whether your audience tends to research on one device and buy on another |
| Instagram purchases | No cookie window: the shopper has to buy without leaving the Instagram browser | How much of your traffic arrives from Instagram compared with other channels |
| Returns | Returned items appear as deductions in your earnings | How long returns can keep reducing a month you thought had closed |
| Payout timing | The UK FAQ says creators are paid regularly once commissions build up, allowing for each brand's return period | The schedule, minimum balance and payment method in your creator terms, since LTK's payment explainer sits behind the creator login |
| Brand collaborations | Brands bring a brief to LTK, which proposes creators already linking to their products organically | Whether a collaboration contract adds usage rights or exclusivity on top of your commission terms |
Disclosing LTK links in the US, UK and Australia
LTK's own FTC compliance article, dated March 2026, says posts created in the LTK app have disclosures built in but that your responsibility does not end there. It recommends #ad on campaign posts and gifted products, #paidlink on direct-to-retailer LTK links, disclosure placed before the rest of the copy rather than buried among hashtags, and text superimposed on Stories. It also warns that creators who ignore the recommendations may be suspended from the platform.
That advice tracks the FTC's Endorsement Guides FAQ, which says “paid link” right next to an affiliate link should be an adequate disclosure, that shoppers may not understand “affiliate link” on its own, and that “commissionable link” is probably not a clear disclosure. LTK's help pages use “commissionable link” as a product term; don't borrow it as your label.
UK audiences need a different lead label. The ASA's influencers' guide treats content with a link or code that pays you as affiliate marketing, names LTK among the networks it means, and expects a clear “Ad” label before the relevant content. The CMA's social media endorsements guidance lists #affiliate and #sponsored among the terms to avoid, so a UK-facing post should lead with Ad and can still add “paid link” beside each link.
In Australia, Ad Standards says the AANA Code of Ethics requires influencers to disclose any arrangement with a brand, gifts included, and suggests labels such as #Ad and #PaidPromotion. The ACCC's influencer sweep report listed discount codes and referral links posted without an explicit disclosure among the practices that can mislead followers. A side-by-side view of labels for links and codes is in the guide to affiliate links vs discount codes.
The creator terms you only see after approval
LTK's public terms of service are written for shoppers. Its SMS terms say they are subject to a separate Creator Terms of Service, and the Community Guidelines refer to a Creator Agreement, but the terms link on the creator site sends a logged-out visitor to the sign-in screen. Read the version you are shown before you accept it, looking for:
- The payout schedule, any minimum balance and the method used to pay you.
- What happens to open commissions if you leave LTK or your account is suspended.
- Which promotion methods are banned; the guidelines mention bulk distribution of promotions that the Creator Agreement prohibits.
- What rights LTK takes in the photos and videos you publish to your LTK shop.
- Your disclosure duties, and whether LTK treats its built-in labels as enough on their own.
- Rules for products with extra legal requirements, which the guidelines say include alcohol, supplements, financial products and beauty items making health claims.
- Limits on AI-generated content, which the guidelines ban where it deceives people about identity, experience or engagement.
- How disputes are handled, and under which country's or state's law.
Limitations of this guide
Everything here comes from LTK's public pages, which date from 2022 to 2026 and cover different regions, so some details may already have changed. Approval is LTK's decision: ticking every item on the checklist will not make acceptance certain, and nothing here predicts what you will earn. LTK's UK page also quotes earnings figures; treat any platform's average as marketing rather than a forecast.
The disclosure summaries are general information about US, UK and Australian rules, not legal advice, and commission is income, so keep records and ask a registered tax agent or accountant how it is taxed where you live. LTK is one of several affiliate routes. If your audience lives on TikTok or YouTube, compare it with the TikTok Shop affiliate requirements and the YouTube Shopping affiliate program before deciding where to put your effort.