Rules and ethics
Part of Influencer marketing rules and ethics: how to assign duties
Influencer agencies advertising rules: recognition, claims and placement
Check influencer agencies advertising rules before a post goes live: recognition, claims, incentives and placement, with CAP Code and CMA guidance signposts.
Use this checklist before an influencer post goes live: check recognition, claims, incentives and placement. Influencer agencies advertising rules require more than adding a label. An influencer marketing agency runs these checks for a client's campaign, so review the actual product, audience and relationship rather than the label alone. It is not a compliance certificate.
What to take away
- A label alone does not make an influencer post compliant, so review the final asset and its context.
- Record who commissioned, supplied, controlled and published the content, including payments, gifts and services.
- Substantiate every objective claim separately.
- Escalate regulated products and children's content to the correct specialist sources rather than general guidance.
- Pause amplification and correct or withdraw if a label disappears or a claim changes after approval.
1. Classify the communication
Record the advertiser, agency, talent manager, creator and platform separately. Describe who commissioned the content, who supplied the product, who controls wording and who publishes. Include direct payment, commission, loans, discounts, gifts, services and own-brand connections.
The CMA's brand endorsement guidance, Reviews and social media endorsements: guidance for businesses and brands, is dated 16 October 2023 on GOV.UK, with later updates shown on that page. It addresses intermediaries, monitoring and prompt correction, and tells brands to check content referring to them.
The companion title, Social media endorsements: guidance for content creators, covers payment, commission, free and discounted products, and own-brand content. Both are current UK regulator guidance, not a judgment on a particular post.
The ASA's CAP Code, the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing, is in its 12th edition from 1 September 2010, with later amendments. It sets the recognition and misleadingness rules.
Build a relationship register. Give it one row per asset and revision.
Classify the communication
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Asset ID and version | Reference for the asset and each revision |
| Parties | Advertiser, agency, talent manager, creator account, platform |
| Incentive | Payment, commission, affiliate link, loan, discount, gift, service, own-brand connection |
| Source document | Contract, brief or invoice, with its date |
| Creator authority | Who approved the wording and the placement |
| Rights | Content licence scope and expiry |
| Approved disclosure | The exact wording, quoted, and where it sits |
| Claim file reference | Identifier linking each statement to its source and reviewer |
| Review owner | Named person and next review date |
2. Make commercial intent recognisable
Review the first encounter, not an isolated screenshot. Under CAP Code Section 2, rules 2.1 and 2.3 require the commercial nature of a marketing communication to be identifiable and not concealed. Record proposed wording, prominence, timing, duration and behaviour after a user expands, shares or watches the asset without sound.
Give a named advertising reviewer the full post, not just the proposed label. The reviewer should consider what a person sees first, whether the disclosure appears before engagement, and how it behaves in a feed, story, short video, caption, live stream, repost or audio-only encounter.
The platform's own disclosure control — the Instagram Paid partnership label, the YouTube paid-promotion declaration or the TikTok branded-content toggle — does not settle whether the relationship is clear in the UK context. Test the actual mobile and desktop rendering, accessible alternatives and destination.
Record the exact approved wording rather than declaring a universal formula. Test prominence, duration, contrast, speech, captions and text alternatives on the final device and destination. A platform paid-partnership control is additional evidence, not UK legal clearance.
An approved feed-post entry might read: #ad Paid partnership with [brand]. I was paid a fee and the product was sent free of charge. Store that wording, in that order, in the register. A short label such as #ad or Ad can sit in the caption or on screen where it is seen before the content.
Worked placement test. A failed version put the wording at the end of a long caption, past the truncation point, so a person met the claim first. The approved version put it on screen as the video opened and repeated it in the caption's first line. Keep a screenshot of each.
Keep a comparison copy of the final organic post, any paid-amplified version and each cropped placement. The approval owner should record which disclosure remains visible before a person engages, plus what happens when captions collapse or video begins silently. If the platform reflows the approved presentation, withdraw or correct it.
3. Substantiate every objective claim
Keep the claim file separate from the relationship register. Put each factual product statement in a claim register with source, permitted wording, qualification, territory, expiry and subject approver. CAP Code Section 3, including rule 3.1 on misleadingness, treats misleadingness and substantiation separately from recognition. A relationship label does not prove a health, environmental, financial, price or performance assertion.
Record any AI assistance and assess whether it changes accuracy, rights, privacy or audience understanding.
Do not turn a creator's opinion into an unsupported performance, health, environmental or price statement. If the evidence changes, pause all derived versions.
4. Check experience and review language
Where content purports to describe genuine experience, preserve evidence of the product or service actually experienced and do not script a fictional account. The CMA's reviews and endorsements collection distinguishes guidance for creators, brands, publishers and platforms and reflects the current DMCC Act regime.
Escalate ratings, review counts and republished testimonials to the separate fake-review and review-publishing analysis. An incentive disclosure does not make an invented experience genuine.
5. Apply audience and sector gates
If children may be creators or audience members, check placement, presentation, data and safeguarding separately. The CAP Code covers children's advertising in Section 5, while ASA/CAP children guidance is an advertising source, not a full safeguarding protocol.
Send regulated products to the correct specialist. For financial promotions, FCA FG24/1 is finalised guidance and says the rules are technology neutral. It does not approve a creator, agency or asset. Other sectors require their own current sources.
6. Control publication and correction
Before release, match the approved claim, relationship record, label and rights to the final file. Capture the live presentation, URL, time, account and platform setting. Monitor edits, reposts and paid amplification under a named owner.
If a label disappears, a claim changes or a restricted audience receives the advert, stop paid promotion and correct it before it continues. Repeat the full check after any material asset, incentive, platform or audience change. Publication stays on hold until named advertising, consumer, safeguarding, accessibility, IP and sector reviewers clear the configured work.
Before you act
- Record advertiser, agency, creator, platform, payment and incentives separately.
- Check the first encounter on mobile and desktop, not a screenshot.
- Put every factual claim in a register with source and approver.
- Preserve evidence of any genuine experience described in the content.
- Capture the live presentation, URL, time and platform setting.
- Hold publication until named reviewers clear the configured work.
Common questions
Does a platform disclosure tool settle whether a commercial relationship is clear?
No. Test the actual mobile and desktop rendering, accessible alternatives and destination, and keep comparison copies of the organic post, paid-amplified version and cropped placements.
Can a disclosure fix an unsupported performance or health claim?
No. Put each factual product statement in a claim register with source, permitted wording, qualification, territory, expiry and subject approver. If evidence changes, pause derived versions.
What should happen if a label disappears or a claim changes after release?
Stop paid promotion and correct it before it continues. Repeat the full check after any material asset, incentive, platform or audience change. Publication stays on hold until named reviewers clear the work.
