What Are the FTC Rules for Influencer Ads on Meta?

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says the influencer and the brand are responsible for clearly and conspicuously disclosing any “material connection” to the brand. That includes a brand paying the creator or giving free or discounted products. Meta separately requires its paid partnership label on branded content. The FTC says not to assume a platform’s disclosure tool is good enough. This is what the rule pages say as checked on 2 Oct 2026, not legal advice, so read them and ask a qualified adviser.

What counts as a connection you must disclose?

The FTC’s influencer guide defines a material connection as a personal, family or employment relationship, or a financial relationship, such as the brand paying the creator or giving them free or discounted products or services. It says not to assume followers already know about your brand relationships, and to make disclosures even if you think your evaluations are unbiased. It says you do not need to declare a lack of brand relationship when you are just telling people about a product you bought and happen to like, and that tags, likes, pins and similar ways of showing you like a brand or product can be endorsements.

How should a disclosure look?

The FTC guide says a disclosure should be hard to miss and placed with the endorsement itself. It says disclosures are likely to be missed if they appear only on a profile page, at the end of posts or videos, or anywhere a person has to click “more”, and not to mix the disclosure into a group of hashtags or links. For video it says to put the disclosure in the video, not only the description, and to repeat it periodically in a live stream. It also says to superimpose it on pictures and Stories.

On wording, the guide lists plain terms such as “advertisement”, “ad”, “sponsored” or “Thanks to Acme brand for the free product”. It says a hashtag such as #ad is fine but not necessary, and warns against vague terms like “sp”, “spon” or “collab”.

Does Meta’s paid partnership label cover it?

Meta’s help pages say branded content, meaning content for which the creator was compensated with money or something else of value, which may include products gifted for free, must be disclosed with the paid partnership label. Meta says the label shows “paid partnership with” and a partner’s name, that a boosted post carries an ad label too, and that affiliate-link content should carry the label without needing a partner tagged. Meta’s Instagram help page says adding the paid partnership label is only available on the Instagram app and that you must do it every time you post branded content.

The FTC answers the next question directly: its guide says not to assume a platform’s disclosure tool is good enough but to consider using it in addition to your own, and its FAQ says the ultimate responsibility for clearly and conspicuously disclosing a material connection rests with the influencer and the brand, not the platform.

Who is responsible, the creator or the advertiser?

Both. The FTC guide tells influencers it is their responsibility to disclose and not to rely on others. The FAQ says advertisers need reasonable programs to train and monitor members of their network, that delegating part of a promotional program to an outside company does not relieve you of responsibility under the FTC Act, and that reviewing posts before they are posted is much easier than searching for them afterwards.

What you can do: put disclosure terms in the creator brief and check posts before they run as partnership ads.

What differs by place, and what does not?

The FTC pages are about US law. Answering a video blogger in London who makes sponsored YouTube videos for products also sold in the US, the FAQ says that if it is reasonably foreseeable the videos will be seen by and impact US consumers, US law would apply and a disclosure is needed. It adds that the UK and many other countries have similar laws and policies relating to endorsements, so check those too. The Meta pages cited here do not tie the label to one country. This page does not describe other countries’ rules.

FAQ

Do the FTC’s Endorsement Guides have the force of law?

The FTC’s FAQ says the Guides do not have the force of law, but practices inconsistent with them may result in law enforcement actions alleging Section 5 violations. It recommends reading the latest version of the Guides, which it says were revised in 2023. Ask a qualified adviser how they apply to you.

Is #ad enough on its own?

The FTC guide says a hashtag like #ad is fine but not necessary, and that the wording must be hard to miss and not mixed into a group of hashtags. It also says to use the same language as the endorsement, so check where the tag sits in each post.

Do free products count as a connection?

The FTC guide says yes, a financial relationship includes a brand giving free or discounted products or services. Meta’s help page likewise says branded content may include products or services gifted for free. Disclose even when no money changed hands, and check the linked pages.