FTC Endorsement Guides

The FTC Endorsement Guides apply to every creator with a US audience, regardless of where the creator lives. They require any material connection between the creator and the brand being endorsed (paid post, free product, affiliate commission) to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, before the endorsement. Affiliate relationships explicitly count as a material connection.

What "material connection" means. Anything that could reasonably affect the credibility of the endorsement. Paid posts. Affiliate commissions. Free products (yes, even the free unit you received to review). Discounted products. Family or business relationships with the brand. Equity stakes. The FTC's position is that a reasonable viewer would want to know about any of these before deciding how much weight to give your recommendation.

The 2023 update tightened previously-acceptable practices. Hashtag-only disclosures like #sp, #partner, or #collab are no longer considered adequate on their own. The FTC now explicitly recommends #ad, #advertisement, or #affiliate. Disclosures must be in clear English (or the native language of the audience), not buried in a stream of other hashtags, not below a "read more" cut, not hidden behind tapping a different tab.

Placement rules. Disclosure must be visible before the audience sees the recommendation. On YouTube that means in the spoken intro or on-screen text, not just the description below the fold. On Instagram it means in the caption near the top, not after a …more truncation. On TikTok it means in the first few seconds, not the comments. On blogs it means above the affiliate link, not in a footer disclaimer. The principle is conspicuous and unmissable.

Platform-specific guidance. Each platform has nuance. Instagram's "Paid partnership" tag combined with #ad in caption is the strongest format. TikTok's branded-content toggle plus spoken #ad in the first three seconds works. YouTube's built-in "Includes paid promotion" tick (set in the upload flow) is FTC-acceptable on its own for sponsored content, but for affiliate content you still need a written or spoken disclosure. Newsletters need disclosure at the top, not in the footer. Podcasts need a spoken disclosure before the affiliate mention.

Platform tools do not fully substitute. Instagram's paid-partnership tag is helpful but not always sufficient on its own; the FTC has stated that proprietary platform disclosure features are not a substitute for clear language. The safe pattern is to combine the platform feature with explicit text.

Penalties and enforcement. Warning letters are the most common response; the FTC sends thousands of these per year to creators and brands. Civil fines can reach $51,744 per violation (the statutory maximum, adjusted for inflation). Consent decrees binding the creator's future content are rare but exist; brands are usually the target. Enforcement priorities have shifted toward influencer marketing since 2017, with a major push in 2023.

International equivalents. The UK CMA enforces similar rules under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The EU has the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Digital Services Act, which obligate platforms to facilitate disclosure. Canada has the Competition Bureau guidelines. Australia the ACCC. The core principle (disclose material connections clearly and conspicuously) is now near-universal across major creator markets.