UK influencer advertising: what brands must require
Require clear advertising labels, visible before customers engage with promotional content, and check published posts yourself. Put disclosure, approval and correction arrangements in the brief, including for gifted products. Factory product information can be gathered by Cambridge China Bridge.
Make disclosure part of the influencer brief
The CMA guidance says commercial content must be correctly labelled and clearly identifiable as advertising. For your campaign, require a clear advertising label on promotional content arising from payment, gifted samples or commission arrangements. State this policy before sending products, including when you are sending a sample without requesting a post.
Record the product, the incentive, the planned content and who approves publication. Give the same brief to any marketing agency handling the relationship. Keep product selection and fulfilment planning separate; our e-commerce sourcing guide covers those decisions.
Specify a label customers can recognise
Use a straightforward label such as “Ad” as your campaign instruction. Require the creator to identify the promoted brand too. Do not approve a draft that leaves customers to infer the commercial relationship from a brand tag, discount code or a thank-you message.
Include an example of an acceptable caption and an unacceptable caption in the brief. If the creator uses a platform's partnership tool, check its actual appearance and require an additional visible label wherever your preview leaves the advertising unclear.
Check disclosure before customers engage
ASA guidance says consumers should be aware that a post is advertising before engaging with it. Put your required label at the beginning of the caption, visible without expanding the text. For video, check the cover or title before playback and put a visible disclosure at the start as part of your approval policy.
Preview the content on a phone in its normal feed view. Check that text is readable against the background and clear of interface buttons. For temporary posts, carousels and reposts, require a visible label on each promotional item that someone could encounter separately.
Keep the product claims tied to your stock
Give the influencer an approved product facts sheet, the correct model and the intended use. Ask them to distinguish their personal experience from information supplied by your business. Check that demonstrations use the product customers will receive, rather than a factory prototype with different features.
Before approving claims about performance, materials or environmental benefits, match the wording to your supporting records. Our guide to proving product claims before listing explains how to prepare that evidence. For accompanying qualifications, see our guide to placing product advertising limitations.
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Check published posts and arrange corrections
The CMA guidance tells brands to check content referring to their business themselves to ensure it is properly identified as advertising. Give someone in your business ownership of that check. An approved draft is useful, but also inspect the published caption, video and disclosure.
Keep screenshots, the published location and the approval record. Agree a correction contact and a process for editing or removing content that fails your brief. Recheck the live result after a correction, and pause further campaign work if the creator repeatedly disregards your disclosure instructions.
Frequently asked questions
What should my influencer contract say about ads?
Specify the advertising label, where it appears, which content needs approval and how corrections are handled. Include gifted samples and commission arrangements in your campaign policy.
Where should an influencer put the ad label?
Customers should recognise advertising before engaging. Require a label at the start of captions and check video covers, titles and opening frames in the normal viewing format.
Should I require disclosure for gifted products?
Yes. Make disclosure of promotional posts resulting from gifted products an explicit campaign condition, including when you send samples without requesting a post.
Can I leave disclosure checks to my agency?
CMA guidance tells brands to check content themselves. Share the brief with your agency, appoint a brand reviewer and inspect the published content as well as the draft.