LTK (formerly Like to Know It, or LIKEtoKNOW.it) is a shopping platform that connects social media influencers with their followers through affiliate links. When you see an outfit, home decor item, or beauty product on Instagram or TikTok and want to buy exactly what that person is wearing, LTK is often the tool making that possible. Creators post shoppable content with direct links to products, earn a commission when you purchase, and you get a streamlined way to shop the looks you see online.
How Shoppers Use LTK
The LTK app is free to download and works as a visual shopping feed. Once you open it, you’ll see curated posts from creators featuring clothing, furniture, skincare, tech accessories, and just about anything else sold online. Each post includes tagged product links. Tap on an item, and you’re taken directly to the retailer’s website to complete your purchase. You pay the same price you’d pay if you navigated to the retailer on your own.
You can follow specific creators whose style you like, browse by category, or search for a particular product. The app also lets you save items to wishlists and get notifications when creators you follow post new content. Think of it as a social media feed built entirely around shopping recommendations, with every post designed to let you buy what you see in one or two taps.
LTK partners with thousands of brands and retailers. Major names like Nordstrom, Sephora, Revolve, and Amazon are all part of the network, alongside smaller and independent labels. The platform powers roughly $5 billion in annual retail sales, so the selection is broad enough to cover most mainstream shopping categories.
How Creators Make Money
The business model is affiliate marketing. When a creator posts a photo of an outfit and links to each item through LTK, those links contain unique tracking codes. If you click through and buy, the creator earns a commission on that sale. The average commission rate falls between 10% and 25%, though some products pay up to 30%. Retailers set their own rates, so a creator might earn a different percentage from a fashion brand than from an electronics retailer.
Beyond commissions on individual sales, creators can also earn through paid brand collaborations. LTK facilitates over 55,000 creator-brand collaborations each year, where a brand pays a creator directly to feature specific products. These deals are separate from the per-sale commissions and typically pay a flat fee or a negotiated rate for a set number of posts.
Creators are paid on a rolling basis once their commissions accumulate, with a built-in delay that accounts for each retailer’s return window. If a shopper buys a jacket through a creator’s link but returns it two weeks later, that commission gets reversed. So payouts lag behind actual purchases by several weeks, depending on the brand.
How Creators Join the Platform
LTK is not open to everyone. It operates as an invite-and-application network with specific requirements. To be accepted, you need an engaged social media following with at least 5,000 followers on one platform, a track record of posting high-quality, shoppable content on a daily basis, and enough flexibility in your schedule to maintain consistent posting.
The emphasis is on engagement, not just follower count. A creator with 8,000 highly engaged followers who regularly comment, save, and share posts will likely have a stronger application than someone with 50,000 passive followers. LTK reviews your content quality, how well your posts translate to shopping (do you style products in ways that make people want to buy them?), and whether your audience actually interacts with what you share.
Once accepted, creators get access to LTK’s link-generation tools, analytics dashboard, and the brand collaboration marketplace. The platform currently supports over 200,000 creators globally.
What Happens When You Click a Link
When you tap a product link in the LTK app or through a creator’s “link in bio,” you’re redirected to the retailer’s website with an affiliate cookie attached to your session. That cookie tells the retailer this sale came through a specific creator. You complete checkout directly with the retailer, not through LTK. Your order, shipping, returns, and customer service all go through the store itself.
The cookie typically has a limited window, often somewhere between 24 hours and 30 days depending on the retailer’s affiliate terms. If you click a link, leave the site, and come back later to buy, the creator may still receive credit as long as you return within that window. If you clear your cookies or use a different device, the tracking breaks and the creator won’t earn a commission on that purchase.
Where LTK Content Shows Up
Creators share LTK links across multiple platforms. The most common places you’ll encounter them are Instagram Stories (swipe-up or link sticker), TikTok bios, YouTube description boxes, Pinterest pins, and blog posts. Many creators also direct followers to their LTK profile page, which acts as a storefront displaying all of their recent shoppable posts in one place.
The LTK app itself is another discovery channel. Even if you don’t follow a creator on Instagram, you might find their content by browsing the app’s explore page or searching for a specific product category. For creators, this means the app functions as an additional audience source beyond their existing social media following.
What Shoppers Pay
Nothing extra. Prices are identical to what you’d find by going to the retailer directly. The commission comes out of the retailer’s marketing budget, not your wallet. Retailers participate because influencer-driven sales are a cost-effective advertising channel: they only pay when a sale actually happens, rather than spending upfront on ads that may or may not convert. Sales, coupon codes, and loyalty points from the retailer all still apply when you shop through an LTK link.