The FTC’s rule is short: if a creator has a financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand, say so, and say it where people will see it. The agency’s influencer guide lists what counts. Being paid counts. Free or discounted products count. The guide says to disclose even if the creator thinks their evaluation is unbiased, and that tags, likes and pins can also be endorsements (FTC).
The how matters as much as the whether. The guide wants the disclosure hard to miss and placed with the endorsement, not on an About page, at the end, or behind “more”. In video, it wants the disclosure on screen and in audio, and in live streams repeated. Plain words work: “ad”, “advertisement”, “sponsored”, “paid partnership”. Vague ones do not: “sp”, “collab”, “thanks”. And the guide says not to assume a platform’s disclosure tool is enough on its own (FTC).
Commission is squarely inside the rule. The FTC’s FAQ treats affiliate links as needing a clear disclosure close to the link, and says “paid link” right next to it is adequate while “affiliate link” or “commissionable link” alone is not (FTC).
Example. A creator posts a 25-second review with a 15 % commission code. The first frame carries “Paid partnership with [brand]” as on-screen text, the creator says “they pay me when you use my code” in the first five seconds, the caption starts with “#ad”, and the platform’s branded content toggle is on. Four layers, one of which would be missed by some viewers. Example.
When brands use it. The pain this answers: “Chasing invoices, files and usage rights eats my team.” Disclosure is the one line that cannot be chased later. Brands are responsible too. The FAQ puts ultimate responsibility on the influencer and the brand, not the platform. Briefs should tell creators how to disclose and brands should check before approving a video.
The creator’s view. Disclosure does not lower performance in any way worth the risk of skipping it. It belongs in every commission post, every gifted post and every ad that runs under the creator’s name.