Disclosure Do’s
- Disclosures are required for all paid collaborations (ie. an endorsement or sponsored posts), gifted experiences or private events (with or without monetary compensation), and gifted product (with or without monetary compensation).
- For static in-feed social posts, include the words or hashtags “sponsored,” “ad,” or “paid” in addition to tagging the sponsoring brand, in the first three lines (125 characters) of the description, above the “see more” button.
- For Instagram Stories, #ad, #sponsored or #paid followed by the brand needs to be superimposed on the first photo in the series. Sequential Stories only require disclosure at the beginning of a series.
- For videos in feed, Stories, or IGTV, disclosures must be superimposed and verbally disclosed within the first 30 seconds. Superimposed disclosures must stay on-screen for a minimum of ten seconds.
- When using the built-in Branded Collabs Manager (which is recommended for influencers who have access to this tool), manual disclosures are still required.
Disclosure Don'ts
- Use ambiguous language like #sp, #collab, #partner, any branded hashtags, simply “thank” the company for the product / service / compensation, or simply tag the sponsoring brand.
- Hide the written disclosure at the bottom of the description with other non-related hashtags.
- Hide disclosures in Stories in the same color as the background.
- Fail to include written and / or verbal disclosure in the video itself.
- Rely on built-in, Branded Content tools only.
Check out our Guide to Influencer Marketing and FTC Disclosures to learn more!