Best Buy is one of the largest U.S. retailers of consumer electronics, making it a valuable affiliate partner for publishers, bloggers, influencers, and content creators in the technology and lifestyle space.
But the opportunity looks slightly different depending on how you publish content, and Best Buy has created two separate programs – one for Publishers and one for Creators.
Publishers can use affiliate links across websites, apps, email, social media, and other approved properties, while Creators can use their social channels and Best Buy storefronts to curate products and monetize recommendations.
In this guide, we explain how the Best Buy Affiliate Program works, who can join, how commissions work, how to apply, and the key rules you need to know.
We’ll also look at the differences between the Publisher and Creator programs to help you determine which is the better fit for your content and audience.
The Best Buy Affiliate Program is an affiliate marketing program that allows publishers, content creators and influencers to earn commissions by referring customers to BestBuy.com through tracked affiliate links.
The program is managed through Impact, which tracks referrals, sales and commissions. Affiliates earn a percentage of qualifying purchases, with rates varying by product category. Best Buy currently offers both a traditional Publisher Program and a Creator Program with tools such as customizable storefronts.
The program is primarily suited to publishers and creators producing technology, electronics, product-review and buying-guide content. Qualifying purchases must generally be shipped to and billed to U.S. addresses.
The Publisher Program is a traditional affiliate program, aimed at bloggers, deal sites, and content creators using traditional links and banners.
The Creator Program, on the other hand, is a newer, application-based program built around personal storefronts for social-first creators with content on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
The right track depends on how you already publish. If you run a website, blog, or deal-roundup site, the Publisher Program is built for you. If your audience lives on social media and you’d rather send them to a shoppable page than write posts, the Creator Program is the better fit.
Let’s take a look at each in more detail:
This is the traditional affiliate setup: text links, image banners, and product feeds you place on your own site. You sign up through Impact, get approved, and start dropping links into existing content like buying guides, deal roundups, or product comparisons.
There’s no storefront to build. You’re linking directly to product pages on BestBuy.com and letting your existing content do the work.
This track suits publishers who already have traffic and want to monetize content they’re producing anyway, rather than building something new around the partnership.
TechRadar is a great example of how Best Buy Publishers can leverage their websites to earn affiliate commissions, with reviews, comparisons, product round-ups, and holiday deals.
Launched in 2025, the Creator Program gives you a personalized, on-brand storefront page hosted by Best Buy, where you curate collections of products, add a bio, and link out to your social channels.
It functions much like the Amazon influencers’ storefronts that have been around a little longer and proven to work very well for both Amazon sellers and influencers.
Check out technology influencer Linus Tech Tips’ Best Buy Storefront for an example of how influencers can connect their social media channels and arrange the products they’re promoting.
Instead of embedding links in articles, you’re sending followers to a page that looks and feels like part of BestBuy.com. There’s no follower minimum to apply, and you need at least one connected social account.
This track suits creators, like Tech YouTubers, whose primary output is video or social content rather than written articles, since a storefront link works better in a bio or caption than a string of individual product links would.
For both Publishers and Creators, Best Buy keeps a running list of eligible products, and each one is assigned to a product category, with different commission rates for different categories.
You will find the current list of eligible products in your Impact dashboard, which reflects the current products and rates.
Best Buy can change which products are eligible or adjust a category’s rate at any time, so your Impact dashboard is the only reliable place to check current numbers.
Commissions are calculated monthly. At the end of each calendar month, Best Buy totals up what customers actually paid for eligible products bought through your links, then subtracts deductions like taxes, shipping charges, and anything tied to fraud, cancellations, or returns. What’s left gets multiplied by that category’s commission rate.
Cancelled orders and returns are excluded from calculation, and there is no guaranteed minimum or maximum payout.
Your link stays “active” for a set number of days after someone clicks it, called your “Return Days,” and that’s effectively your cookie duration, and you get credited with that sale if a customer buys before that window closes. Best Buy can adjust the number of Return Days at any time, which you will see in your Impact dashboard.
Commissions are calculated on monthly sales, but payouts are only made approximately 60 days after the end of each calendar month. That means commissions for sales made in January will only be paid out to you around the beginning of April.
Impact handles the actual disbursement, and payments are typically issued via PayPal or direct deposit through Impact, depending on how you’ve set up your payout preferences in the dashboard.
There are three key differences that apply to how Publishers can earn and get paid:
Best Buy also has an exclusion list, which shifts over time, so check your dashboard’s product list before building content around a specific product or category.
Gift cards, warranties, and purchases made through third-party marketplace sellers generally don’t earn commission. Beyond that, categories like laptops, tablets, desktops, gaming hardware, and Apple products have also historically carried reduced or zero commissions.
Both Creator and Publisher programs require an application, review and approval process. Here is what you need to know before you apply:
You need to be at least 18 years old to apply to either program. Best Buy also excludes its own employees and their immediate family members from participating, regardless of which one you’re applying to.
Beyond that, the Creator Program specifically requires at least one connected social media channel, while the Publisher Program expects an established website or content property you can link from Impact.
You apply to the Publisher Program directly through Impact’s Best Buy US campaign page. You’ll need an Impact account (free to create if you don’t already have one), and you’ll submit your site or property for review. Once approved, you get access to your tracking links, banners, and product feeds through the Impact dashboard.
Creator applications go through a separate portal at creators.bestbuy.com. The process asks for your social handles and connects your account so Best Buy can review your content before granting access to a storefront.
Best Buy reviews applications manually rather than approving everyone automatically. A site or channel with a clear niche, consistent output, and some existing traffic gives reviewers something concrete to evaluate.
A brand-new blog with minimal content or a social account with a short posting history is a harder sell, even though neither program states a hard traffic or follower minimum.
Approval timelines aren’t published, so build in some buffer if you’re planning content around a launch date.
Best Buy gives its affiliates some great tools to work with, along with firm guardrails around how you can use its brand and offers:
Once approved, you get access to a mix of promotional materials through Impact: text links, image banners, and deep links that point directly to specific product pages rather than just the Best Buy homepage.
Publishers also get access to product feeds and APIs, which pull in Best Buy’s catalogue data, pricing, and store locations for anyone building comparison tools or automated product listings.
Creators, on the other hand, work primarily through their storefront page rather than individual banners, since the storefront itself is the main promotional asset on that track.
Deep linking to specific products tends to convert better than generic homepage links, so it’s worth using that tool if your content already names specific items.
Both Creators and Publishers have to clearly disclose their relationship with Best Buy on every single page or post where a link appears.
The disclosure has to sit as close as possible to the link itself, and it needs to be placed above the fold so a reader doesn’t have to scroll to find it. A blanket disclosure buried on a standalone disclaimer page on your site doesn’t count.
Posts on social platforms need an appropriate hashtag too (Creators are given specific options to choose from, including #BestBuyAffiliate, #PaidLink, or #AffiliateLink).
You also can’t leave expired deals or time-sensitive promotions live past their end date, and Best Buy can withhold commission on any sale tied to a listing that breaks these terms.
In terms of FTC compliance, Best Buy’s terms and conditions specify compliance with:
For Publishers, specifically:
Publishers must display a permanent badge, a graphic provided by Impact, showing their relationship to Best Buy. That is a standing requirement and not a one-time disclosure.
Additionally, Publishers can’t promote Best Buy offers on social media at all without a separate written approval or insertion order. This is an unusual restriction to be aware of if you’re used to sharing links freely across platforms.
Creators don’t face this restriction, since the Creator Program is built around social storefronts by design.
The honest answer depends heavily on what you’re already publishing, and how patient you are with modest per-sale returns and a 60+ day lag on payouts.
Let’s look at the pros and cons in more detail:
Both the Publisher program, run through Impact, and the Creator program run through Best Buy, offer robust tools for affiliates, useful promotional materials and detailed guidance for affiliates.
However, Best Buy’s biggest asset is trust. Consumers who hesitate to buy electronics from an unfamiliar retailer often won’t hesitate to buy from a name they already know and trust. This is especially important in big-ticket categories like appliances and home theatre setups where installation and returns are real concerns.
The math also works better than it looks at first glance when order values are high: a 0.5% commission on a $1,500 TV and soundbar bundle still nets you real money, and that adds up if you’re publishing comparison content people actually convert on.
Seasonal spikes around events like Black Friday and back-to-school season can meaningfully boost earnings too, since traffic volume temporarily offsets the low base rate.
This program tends to work best for deal-roundup sites, comparison content (“best 4K TVs under $800”), and gaming or smart-home setup guides, where readers are already close to a purchase decision.
Several of Best Buy’s highest-demand categories, including laptops, tablets, and Apple products, carry reduced or zero commission, which cuts out a lot of what tech content naturally covers.
The 60-day payout delay is slower than many competing programs. And if you’re building in-depth, research-heavy content rather than deal-driven content, the tracking window (whichever one applies to your track) may simply not last long enough to capture readers who take some time to decide.
If your audience reads a full buying guide before purchasing anything, rather than clicking and buying same-day, this program may well underperform relative to competitors with longer windows.
Set against other electronics affiliate programs, Best Buy sits toward the lower end on raw commission rate, with Amazon Associates offering a similarly short cookie window but generally better rates across most electronics subcategories.
Programs like B&H Photo and Adorama offer meaningfully higher commissions and longer cookie windows, particularly for camera and audio gear, but they don’t carry Best Buy’s broad appliance and smart-home catalogue.
If you’re weighing Best Buy against these alternatives, the deciding factor usually comes down to whether your content is deal-driven (where Best Buy can work) or research-driven (where a longer window matters more than brand recognition).
Best Buy’s affiliate program isn’t the highest-paying option in consumer electronics, but it’s not meant to be your only one either. What matters most is understanding which of the two tracks you’re actually joining, since that determines your tools, your cookie window, and how you’ll get paid.
The Publisher Program suits established sites running deal content and comparisons, while the Creator Program suits social-first creators who’d rather point followers to a curated storefront than embed links in articles.
Before you commit content strategy to either track, confirm the current commission rates and cookie window in your Impact dashboard rather than relying on any published figure, since Best Buy has changed both more than once in the past year.
From there, the best next step is simple: apply to whichever track matches how you already publish, and use Best Buy as one piece of a broader affiliate mix rather than your primary source of income.
Yes. There's no cost to apply to either the Publisher or Creator track. You do need an Impact account, which is also free to create.
The Publisher Program, via Impact, is built for websites and blogs using traditional links and banners. The Creator Program is built for social-first creators, offers a personal storefront page instead of individual links, and is applied for through a separate portal at creators.bestbuy.com.
Best Buy doesn't publish a fixed timeline for either track, and applications are reviewed manually rather than approved automatically. Build in some buffer if you're planning content around a specific launch date.
Yes, there's nothing in Best Buy's terms preventing you from running both. Many affiliates place both links side by side and let the reader choose their preferred retailer, which can help capture the sale either way.
Historically, no. Apple-branded products have consistently been on Best Buy's excluded-category list, along with several other high-demand electronics categories. Check your Impact dashboard's current eligible products list, since exclusions can shift over time.
Best Buy: Affiliate Program for Creators & Publishers
Post Affiliate Pro: Best Buy Affiliate Program
Best Buy: Creator Terms and Conditions and Publisher Terms and Conditions
Best Buy: Creator Program FAQs
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