The influencer marketing industry continues to grow rapidly, with more brands incorporating influencers into their marketing strategies and individuals becoming content creators. Whether you’re planning an influencer campaign or participating as a creator, there are several important factors to consider when creating sponsored content. One key aspect that can be easily overlooked is ensuring that content is legally compliant and follows proper disclosure requirements. 

It is the shared responsibility of the influencer, the brand, and anyone representing either of them (including agencies) to ensure that all legal requirements and disclosures are met in every sponsored post. However, the brand is often held liable when content is not compliant. That is why it’s crucial that all parties are aware of and comply with the necessary disclosures in any influencer agreement, sponsorship agreement, agency agreement, or brand ambassador agreement.  

These requirements are periodically updated, so staying current on the latest rules is vital.

Since these are legal requirements, failure to comply correctly can result in penalties, making it advisable to always air on the side of caution.

Transparency in advertising is always the best approach and is highly valued by consumers.

Two main regulatory bodies overseeing influencer marketing regulations are the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the U.S. and the Competition Bureau under the Competition Act in Canada. Both have specific guidelines for ensuring transparency and consumer protection in advertising, including influencer content. 

Let’s take a look at the current influencer disclosure requirements for each:

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a U.S. government agency that protects consumers and promotes fair competition. The FTC oversees advertising and marketing practices, including influencer marketing, to ensure that consumers receive truthful information and are not misled by endorsements or advertisements.

The FTC’s guidelines help create transparency in influencer marketing so that consumers can make informed decisions, such as knowing when an endorsement is genuine or influenced by a brand relationship.

Under the FTC’s requirements, which were updated in the fall of 2024, influencers must adhere to these guidelines:

Endorsements Must be Honest

The FTC recently made it clear that influencers must provide honest opinions about the products or services that they promote and must have personally used them. As a result, influencers cannot falsely praise a product if they don’t like it. While brands can provide suggested phrases or scripts, the influencer can only post those statements if they align with their own opinions and experiences.

Influencers must also be cautious about making misleading claims about a product that would require proof the advertiser doesn’t have, such as scientific proof that a product can treat a health condition. Brands should provide clear statements about any claims that can or cannot be made about their products so influencers are fully informed about what they are able to share in their content. While this can be more important or relevant in certain industries than in others, brands should generally not leave it up to the influencer to determine. 

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When Should Influencers Disclose a Partnership?

Influencers should disclose a partnership when there is a material connection, such as any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand. 

Financial relationships aren’t limited to cash payments; they can also include gifts such as free products or trips. An influencer must disclose the relationship if they received anything of value as an incentive to post about the product, including free products, discounts, or any other perks. This applies even if the influencer was not explicitly asked to share about the product or brand when receiving the incentive, such as with seeding campaigns and surprise PR boxes, for example. Material connections can also include relationships, such as promoting a brand owned by a friend or family member or sharing about a brand you work for. 

Never assume followers know about a brand relationship, especially in long-term partnerships or if you know a brand. Disclosures should be made, even if the influencer’s opinion may be objective or impartial—if there is any connection with the brand, there must be a disclosure. 

The FTC also indicates that tags, likes, pins, and similar ways of showing you like or support a brand or product are considered official endorsements. If there is any material connection or relationship, these supportive or favourable interactions will also require a disclosure, according to the FTC.

On the other hand, if there is no relationship between the influencer and the brand, and the influencer is talking about the product simply because they love it, there is no need to disclose that there is no brand relationship.

How Influencers Should Disclose a Partnership

When disclosing a partnership, ensure that the disclosure is included where people will see it and in a way they will understand. 

A disclosure should be ‘clear and conspicuous,’ meaning it needs to be placed where it’s not hard to miss and with the endorsement message itself. For example, it should not be placed in a group of hashtags, at the end of a post, on another page, such as an “About Me” page or profile page, or anywhere where consumers would be required to click “more” to find it. 

The style of the post, or the platform it is posted on, also plays a part in how best to disclosure the partnership: 

• Photo Content (Snapchat, IG Stories, etc.):
  • The disclosure should be superimposed on the image itself
  • Also included in the caption, where that is an option

• Video Content:
  • The disclosure should be both verbal and visual in the video 
  • Also included in the caption, where that is an option

• Live Stream Content:
  • Should be included periodically throughout the stream to ensure viewers who join at different times are informed. 

For platforms or content that disappears, disclosures should be imposed on the post and included for long enough that viewers have the opportunity to mentally process the disclosure. 

Video content should include both a verbal and visual disclosure, as not everyone watches videos with sound on and not all consumers are visually engaged in the content. It is also important to consider individuals who use accessibility tools, such as screen readers, to engage with content. Providing multiple ways to present the disclosure can help ensure information is accessible to everyone. 

Disclosures Do’s:

• Use clear, straightforward language like “Thanks to [Brand] for the free product” is often enough if placed in a way that is hard to miss.
• Terms like “advertisement,” “ad,” and “sponsored” are acceptable 
• “[Brand]Partner” or “[Brand]Ambassador” is also acceptable, especially where text is limited
• “#” is acceptable to include as part of the disclosure but is not necessary 
• Disclosures should be made in the same language as the endorsement

Disclosures Don’ts:

• Use vague or shortened terms like “spon,” “collab,” “thanks,” and “ambassador” that don’t clearly indicate a connection
• Only rely on a social platform’s disclosure tool; use it in addition to an influencer’s personal disclosure (social media platforms often require that paid partnerships be tagged using their tool as part of their terms and conditions)

FTC Influencer Disclosure Key Takeaways

Opinions must be honest

• Influencers must share genuine opinions; branded scripts/phrases can only be used if they align with the influencer’s experience.
• All claims must be accurate, and scientific claims must be supported by evidence

Disclose any material connections

• This includes any financial or gifted compensation or if there is employment, family, or personal connections.

Disclosures must be clear and conspicuous

• Should be unavoidable and accessible
• Should be clear and easy to understand

Content-Specific Guidelines

• Place disclosures upfront, not hidden in hashtags or at the end of posts.
• Ensure disclosures suit the platform’s content format (e.g., superimposed on photos, verbally and visually in videos, and always in captions).
• Use clear terms like “ad,” “sponsored,” or “[Brand]Partner.” Avoid vague abbreviations like “spon” or “collab.”

Personal disclosures must be used

• Do not rely solely on social platform disclosure tools; include personal disclosures as well, even though platform disclosures are typically required in a platform’s terms and conditions. 

Where to find more information:

• Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers
• FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking 
• How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising

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The Canadian Competition Bureau – Competition Act

The Canadian Competition Bureau is a federal law enforcement agency that oversees the Competition Act, a statute designed to ensure fair competition and to protect consumers. The Competition Act oversees various areas of commerce, including advertising and marketing practices. For influencers, the Competition Act ensures that all promotions, endorsements, and marketing practices are truthful, non-deceptive, and transparent to consumers.

Reviews and Testimonials Should be Honest

Like the FTC’s regulations in the U.S., Canada’s Competition Act requires all influencer content be honest, reflect only genuine and current opinions, and be based on actual experience with the product. Influencers must only review products if they have tried them and must share their honest opinion.

Reviews must also be based on adequate information, meaning statements and claims must be supported by sufficient and reliable information, research, or facts. Broad claims about a product’s performance should be avoided without testing or proof to support such statements. Instead, reviews should focus on an influencer’s personal experience with the product.

When Should Influencers Disclose a Partnership?

Disclosures are designed to maintain transparency and honesty for those viewing sponsored content. A disclosure should be provided whenever there is a material connection to a business, product, or service.

A connection is considered “material” if it could impact how consumers view an influencer’s independence from a brand. A material connection may also exist if the influencer receives payment in the form of money or commissions, free products or services, discounts, free trips, tickets, or events, or if the influencer has a personal or family relationship with the brand. 

Disclosure should be made when there is a material connection between the reviewer and the brand, such as an employer-employee relationship or family relationship. This also applies to affiliate marketing and refer-a-friend programs, which would require disclosure as the individual is receiving compensation, or other benefits, for making a brand referral. 

How Should Influencers Disclose a Partnership?

A disclosure must be clear, conspicuous, and broadly understood. While social media platforms and viewers’ habits can change at any time, the principles of a clear, conspicuous, and broadly understood disclosure should always apply. 

Disclosures should also be independent of a social media network or channel-specific setting. Social networks may require the use of their disclosure features as part of their terms and conditions. However, they should be used in conjunction with the additional disclosure best practices. 

According to the Competition Act, all disclosures should be:

Prominent and as visible as possible

Disclosures should be prominent, easily noticeable, and visible within a post. Disclosure should be made before a main message or at the beginning of a message and video, as not all viewers can or will read, watch, or listen to an entire post; multiple disclosures within a video are most effective. Disclosures should be visible on all devices without requiring the viewer to click or tap a button to expand content, and viewers shouldn’t be required to search for the disclosure. Disclosures should accompany the content wherever it’s shared across all social media platforms and remain inseparable from the content so they travel together if shared. 

Influencers and brands should consider how the audience views and experiences the sponsored content on social media and remember that content may require audio and visual disclosures.

Clear and contextually appropriate

Disclosures should be clear and straightforward, using plain language that everyone can understand and delivered in the same language as the endorsement. Ambiguous terms, abbreviations, and industry jargon should be avoided and replaced with widely accepted hashtags. Influencers and brands should not assume that viewers are familiar with industry-specific terms, so all disclosures should be clear, accessible, and universally understandable.

Disclosures should not rely on blanket statements, as not all viewers may see or understand the connection. Each piece of content and disclosure should clearly state the nature of the material connection, such as free products, monetary compensation, or an event invitation, and should name the brand and product being promoted.

Context matters, so viewers should be able to see or hear the disclosure alongside a brand mention within the content. If a brand creates its own disclosure hashtag, it must clearly communicate the material connection. Simply using “Thank you, [Brand]” is not an effective disclosure, as it does not clarify that something was received in exchange for an endorsement.

Photo content may require that the disclosure be superimposed on the photo and be included in the caption. 

Video content should be both verbal and visual within the video itself (multiple times is best) and included in the caption. 

Disclosures Do’s:

• Disclosures should be included prominently at the beginning of a caption, message, and video.
• Disclosures should use hashtags that are recognized as clear and widely accepted, such as #ad, #sponsored, #XYZ_Ambassador, #XYZ_Partner (where “XYZ” is the brand name)
• For gifted events, disclosures like “thanks to X brand for inviting me” or “I’m at X event with X brand” would be enough.
• Statements like “Brand X gave me this product to try . . .,” “XYZ paid for my trip,” or “Thanks to XYZ for the free trip” are seen to be just as accurate as “sponsored by XYZ Resort”. 

Disclosures Don’ts:

• Disclosures should not be at the end of a message or buried in a caption or hashtag list.
• Disclosures made using a text overlay should be clear and not too small or faint.
• Simply tagging the brand is not enough. 
• Avoid vague terms and abbreviations such as “Thank You, Company X,” “Ambassador,” “Partner,” “Company X,” “SP,” “Spon,” etc. 

Canadian Influencer Disclosure Key Takeaways

Endorsements must be honest and based on actual experience

• Content must reflect genuine, current opinions based on actual experience with the product. 
• Claims should be backed by adequate information, research, or facts.

Disclose any material connections

• This includes any financial or gifted compensation, including free events or trips
• This also includes any employment, family, or personal connections.

Disclosure must be clear, conspicuous, and broadly understood

• Should be prominent and as visible as possible. 
• Should be clear and contextually appropriate.  

Content-specific guidelines:

• Disclosures should be placed at the beginning of content and messages and not buried.  
• Disclosures should be clear, state the nature of the material connection, and name the brand and product being promoted. Should be specific to the platform and content format (e.g., superimposed on photos, both verbally and visually in videos, and always in captions).
• Use widely accepted hashtags like #ad, #sponsored, or #XYZ_Partner. Avoid vague terms like “collab” or “spon.”

Avoid blanket statements and relying only on social platform disclosure tools. 

Where to find more information:

• Influencer Marketing and the Competition Act 
• Ad Standards Influencer Marketing Steering Committee Disclosure Guidelines

Advertising Influencer Marketing social media social media advertising

WRITTEN BY

Amanda Perry

Amanda is the Influencer Marketing Specialist at Reshift Media, where she strategizes and manages influencer marketing campaigns for various brands. She has worked in the influencer industry for the last 5 years, planning and executing influencer campaigns across many industries and brands.