FTC Rules for Affiliate Links and Sponsored Posts

If you earn a commission, get paid, or receive free products for recommending something, the FTC expects you to tell your audience, in plain words, next to the recommendation. That applies to a blog post with affiliate links, a sponsored video, or an Instagram story. The agency's influencer guide puts the responsibility on you: it is your job to make the disclosure, and you should not rely on others to do it for you.

1. What the rule says

The FTC's Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255) say that when a connection between the endorser and the seller might materially affect how much weight or credibility the endorsement carries, and the audience would not reasonably expect that connection, it must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously.

Under the regulation, a material connection can be a business, family, or personal relationship, monetary payment, or free or discounted products, even products unrelated to the one you endorse, whether or not the advertiser requires an endorsement in return. It can also include early access to a product, the chance of being paid, or the chance of winning a prize.

The Guides themselves do not have the force of law, the FTC says, but practices inconsistent with them can lead to enforcement actions under the FTC Act.

2. When you need to disclose

According to the FTC's Disclosures 101 guide:

• Disclose any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand.
• A financial relationship is not just money. Disclose it if you got anything of value to mention a product.
• If a brand gives you free or discounted products or other perks and you then mention one of its products, disclose even if you were not asked to mention that product.
• Disclose even if you believe your opinion is unbiased, and do not assume followers already know.
• Tags, likes, pins, and similar ways of showing you like a brand or product can be endorsements.
• If you have no brand relationship and are just talking about something you bought and like, you do not need to say that you have no relationship.

If a link goes to a retailer as a convenience to readers and you are not paid for it, the FTC says there is no connection to disclose.

3. Affiliate links: what the FTC answers

The FTC's Q&A document speaks directly to affiliate marketers. You should disclose your relationship to the retailer clearly and conspicuously on your site, and it suggests wording like "I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post."

Placement matters. If a clear disclosure sits inside the review and the reader can see both the disclosure and the link at the same time, one disclosure can be enough. If the review with the disclosure and the link are separated, readers may not make the connection. The guiding principle: the closer the disclosure is to the recommendation, the better.

On specific labels, the Q&A says:

The same guidance applies to reviews on someone else's website and to tweets or posts, whenever you endorse a product and get paid through affiliate links.

4. How to disclose well

The influencer guide gives these placement and wording points:

• Put the disclosure with the endorsement itself, where it is hard to miss.
• Disclosures are likely to be missed if they appear only on an About Me or profile page, at the end of a post or video, or anywhere that requires clicking "more."
• Do not bury it in a group of hashtags or links.
• For pictures on Stories-style platforms, superimpose the disclosure on the image and leave enough time to read it.
• For video, put the disclosure in the video itself, not just the description. Audio plus on-screen text is better, since some viewers watch without sound.
• For live streams, repeat the disclosure periodically for people who join late.
• Use simple wording, such as "Thanks to Acme brand for the free product," or the words "advertisement," "ad," or "sponsored." A hashtag like #ad is fine but not required.
• Avoid vague terms like "sp," "spon," or "collab," and stand-alone words like "thanks" or "ambassador."
• Use the same language as the endorsement.
• Do not assume a platform's built-in disclosure tool is enough; consider using it in addition to your own.

The Q&A adds that "#comped" and "#hosted" are not sufficiently clear.

5. Beyond disclosure

The influencer guide lists three more limits:

1. You cannot talk about your experience with a product you have not tried.
2. If you are paid to promote a product and think it is terrible, you cannot say it is terrific.
3. You cannot make claims that would need proof the advertiser does not have, such as scientific proof that a product treats a health condition.

6. Who can be held responsible

The FTC says that if concerns come to its attention it evaluates them case by case, and that its focus usually is on advertisers or their agencies. Action against an individual endorser might be appropriate in some circumstances, for example when an endorser has not made required disclosures despite warnings. The Q&A adds that an endorser who is not an expert may be liable for misleading or unsubstantiated statements about a product's performance or effectiveness in certain circumstances, for example when what they say or write is not consistent with their personal experience.

If you post from abroad, U.S. law applies when it is reasonably foreseeable that the post will affect U.S. consumers.

7. Key takeaways

• Disclose any material connection, including commissions and free products, clearly and near the recommendation.
• "Affiliate link" alone and "buy now" buttons are not enough, per the FTC's Q&A.
• Profile-page disclosures and buried hashtags are likely to be missed.
• You do not need to disclose unpaid links or products you simply bought.
• The responsibility is yours as the endorser; do not rely on a brand or platform to handle it.