FTC Disclosure Examples for Social Media and Affiliates

A compliant FTC disclosure for social media and affiliate content uses plain language like “#Ad,” “Sponsored by [Brand],” or “I earn a commission from purchases made through links in this post,” placed where the audience sees it before the endorsement itself. The exact wording, position, and format shift with the platform, but the underlying rule is the same: anyone reading, watching, or listening should understand the financial relationship without having to hunt for it.

When You Actually Have to Disclose

A disclosure is required whenever a connection between you and a brand could affect how your audience judges your recommendation, and that connection isn’t something they would naturally assume.¹ That covers more than cash:

Flat fees, commissions, revenue shares, or any other payment for a post, video, or review.
Free or discounted products, even ones unrelated to what you’re endorsing. A skincare brand sending you free luggage still creates a connection.
Family, personal, or business relationships with the brand’s owners or employees.
Perks like early access, entry into a prize drawing, or the possibility of future paid work.

The narrow exception covers connections nobody would find surprising. A celebrity in a television commercial doesn’t need to add a separate note that they were paid. The same celebrity casually recommending the product on a personal Instagram account does.²

The “Clear and Conspicuous” Standard

The 2023 revised Endorsement Guides define “clear and conspicuous” as difficult to miss and easily understandable by ordinary consumers.³ Visual disclosures must stand out through size, contrast, location, and on-screen duration. Audio disclosures must be delivered at a volume and pace that lets people hear and understand them. If your endorsement appears in both audio and video, the disclosure should appear in both.

The FTC’s Dot Com Disclosures guidance adds three practical requirements for online content: put the disclosure as close as possible to the claim it relates to, don’t bury it below the fold or behind a hyperlink, and make sure it works on mobile, not just desktop. If a particular ad format can’t fit a clear disclosure, the FTC’s position is that the ad shouldn’t run at all.

Money is at stake. The maximum civil penalty for an FTC Act violation is $53,088 per offense in 2026, and each non-compliant post can be treated as a separate violation.⁴ A dozen undisclosed sponsored posts is a dozen possible violations, not one.

Instagram, X, and Threads Captions

Short-form text posts are the format most creators use and the one most commonly cited in enforcement. The FTC names “ad,” “advertisement,” and “sponsored” as words that work, including in hashtag form like #ad or #sponsored.⁵ Wording that satisfies the standard:

“#Ad — I partnered with [Brand] on this post.” Placed as the first line of the caption, visible before anyone taps “more.”
“Sponsored by [Brand].” At the very top of the caption, not buried after a wall of hashtags.
“[Brand] gifted me this product.” Appropriate when you received a free item but no cash payment.

Words that don’t clear the bar: “Collab,” “Partner,” “Ambassador,” or a vague “Thanks to [Brand].” None of them tells the audience that money or free products changed hands. The FTC has said disclosures are likely to be missed if they appear only on a profile page, at the end of a post, or anywhere that requires clicking “more.”⁵ On mobile, the disclosure needs to appear in the first few visible lines of the caption. If the platform truncates the caption and your disclosure sits below the cutoff, it doesn’t count.

Stories, Reels, TikTok, and Snapchat

Ephemeral and short-form video formats disappear quickly, which puts pressure on the first frame. FTC guidance on images and short video endorsements is to superimpose the disclosure over the image and give viewers enough time to read it.⁵

Practical examples:

On Instagram Stories, put “#Ad” or “Sponsored by [Brand]” on the first slide of a series, in text that contrasts with the background. One disclosure at the start covers the sequence.
On TikTok and Reels, say “This is sponsored by [Brand]” in the first few seconds and add on-screen text that matches. Don’t tuck the disclosure into the final second.
On Snapchat, verbal and on-screen disclosure both on the opening snap. Matching the text color to the background defeats the point.

YouTube, Live Streams, and Podcasts

Video content needs a disclosure inside the video itself. Viewers rarely read description boxes, and the FTC has said a note in the description alone is insufficient.⁵ The strongest approach uses both spoken and on-screen text, since disclosures delivered in both audio and video are more likely to register.

For pre-recorded YouTube or long-form TikTok, a spoken “This video is sponsored by [Brand Name]” at the start, paired with a text overlay that stays on screen long enough to be read comfortably. Contrast matters. White text over a bright sky is functionally invisible. If the video runs long and covers several products, repeat the disclosure before each sponsored segment instead of relying on one opening mention.

Live streams have a rotating audience. Someone tuning in 45 minutes into a two-hour stream never heard the opening. Verbal reminders at regular intervals plus a persistent small on-screen graphic in a corner cover viewers who arrive late.

Podcasts are audio-only, so the disclosure has to live in the recording. Most listeners never look at show notes. A spoken statement before the product discussion begins is the baseline. If the sponsored segment falls mid-episode, put the disclosure immediately in front of it. Don’t rely on something the listener heard 20 minutes earlier.

Blog Posts and Affiliate Links

Long-form written content needs disclosure before the reader encounters product recommendations or monetized links. A clear statement at the top of the article, visually separated from the body text, is the standard. Wording that works:

“I earn a commission if you click a link in this post and make a purchase.”
“This post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation for purchases made through these links.”
“[Brand] provided this product for free in exchange for my honest review.”

Placing the disclosure at the bottom of a long article is one of the most common affiliate marketing mistakes and one of the easiest for the FTC to flag. Most readers never scroll that far. The Dot Com Disclosures guidance emphasizes placing the disclosure as close as possible to the relevant claim and making sure it appears before the reader makes a purchasing decision. For inline affiliate links, add a parenthetical like “(affiliate link)” right after the hyperlink so no one clicks a monetized link without knowing it.

Review sites that receive free products get extra scrutiny. The FTC treats the fact that a reviewer got something for free as important information for anyone weighing that reviewer’s opinion.² Genuinely loving the product doesn’t remove the connection. Claiming editorial independence while hiding the freebie is exactly what the FTC targets.

Platform “Paid Partnership” Tags Aren’t Enough on Their Own

Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok all offer built-in labels like “Paid Partnership” or “Includes Paid Promotion.” Using them helps, but the FTC has said flatly that a platform tool does not guarantee compliance. In the agency’s words, “just because a platform offers this feature is no guarantee that it’s an effective way for influencers to disclose their material connection to a brand.”²

The FTC evaluates a platform label the same way it evaluates any other disclosure: placement, readability, and clarity. A small label in the corner of a video may be too easy to overlook. A tag saying “contains paid content” without naming the sponsor may be too vague when the video mentions several brands. The FTC’s bottom line: “the ultimate responsibility for clearly and conspicuously disclosing a material connection rests with the influencer and the brand — not the platform.” Use the platform tool and add your own manual disclosure on top of it.

What Brands and Agencies Have to Do

Disclosure compliance is not entirely the creator’s problem. Under 16 CFR 255.1(d), advertisers that use endorsers have three affirmative duties:⁶

Tell endorsers what disclosures are required and how to make them properly.
Actually check whether endorsed content contains proper disclosures.
Take action to fix non-compliant posts and prevent repeat violations.

Good-faith work in all three areas is not an absolute shield, but the FTC has said it reduces the odds of enforcement. A brand can be held liable for a deceptive endorsement even when the endorser is not.⁶ Agencies, PR firms, review brokers, and reputation management companies also carry risk. The FTC has more than 50 years of case law establishing that intermediaries can be liable for their roles in deceptive campaigns, based on what they actually did rather than their job titles.⁷

Enforcement Patterns Worth Knowing

The FTC’s cases show what happens when disclosures are missing or fake. In 2017, the agency brought its first complaint against individual social media influencers in the CSGO Lotto case. Two gaming influencers posted videos of themselves gambling on a website and presenting themselves as independent users. They actually owned the site and had paid other influencers between $2,500 and $55,000 each to promote it, while prohibiting negative comments.⁸ The settlement required clear disclosure going forward, with civil penalties for future violations.

Fashion Nova paid $4.2 million to settle FTC allegations that it blocked negative customer reviews from appearing on its site.⁹ Skincare company Sunday Riley was banned from posting fake reviews after the FTC found employees had written fabricated reviews at the CEO’s direction without disclosing they worked for the company.¹⁰ In the Roomster case, a defendant who sold tens of thousands of fake reviews to an apartment listing platform was ordered to pay $100,000 and cooperate with the FTC’s broader effort.¹¹

The pattern across these cases: the FTC pursues both the person creating the deceptive content and the company benefiting from it. Individual liability is real. A disclosure that fits the platform, uses plain words, and shows up before the endorsement is the cheapest insurance in your content workflow.

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eCFR. 16 CFR 255.5 – Disclosure of Material Connections
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Federal Trade Commission. FTC Endorsement Guides – What People Are Asking
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eCFR. 16 CFR 255.0 – Purpose and Definitions
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GovInfo. Federal Register – Adjustments to Civil Penalty Amounts 2025
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Federal Trade Commission. Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers
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eCFR. 16 CFR 255.1 – General Considerations
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Federal Trade Commission. Ad Agency Liability – FTC Looks to Conduct, Not the Grey Flannel Suit
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Federal Trade Commission. CSGO Lotto Owners Settle FTC First-Ever Complaint Against Individual Social Media Influencers
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Federal Trade Commission. Fashion Nova, LLC, In the Matter Of
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Federal Trade Commission. Sunday Riley Modern Skincare, LLC, In the Matter Of
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Federal Trade Commission. Roomster Corp