{"id":1069,"date":"2023-06-30T05:38:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/2023\/06\/30\/ftc-updates-disclosure-guidelines-for-affiliates-and-influencers\/"},"modified":"2023-06-30T05:38:54","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:38:54","slug":"ftc-updates-disclosure-guidelines-for-affiliates-and-influencers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/2023\/06\/30\/ftc-updates-disclosure-guidelines-for-affiliates-and-influencers\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC Updates Disclosure Guidelines for Affiliates and Influencers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"FTC<\/p>\n

We have been waiting for this update for a LONG time and it is finally here! The FTC has updated its Endorsement Guides, which are the source of the disclosure rules that affiliate marketers and influencers (among others) must follow. I think my favorite part of this new update is the reference to \u201cdog influencers.\u201d Most of this is what we expected when we saw the proposed guidelines changes<\/a> back in May of 2022.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m breaking this down into two sections\u2013 what I think is most important for affiliate marketers and all of the other interesting stuff. It\u2019s 80 pages of Guidelines talk plus another whole site of FAQs, so there is a lot to cover!<\/p>\n

First, the tl;dr for Short Attention Spans<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Affiliate marketing and influencer marketing were heavily targeted<\/li>\n
  • Everyone can now be liable\u2013bloggers, influencers, affiliates, agencies, advertisers (no mention of tracking platforms\/networks unless they are also acting in the capacity as agency)<\/li>\n
  • \u201cClear and Conspicuous\u201d means \u201cUnavoidable\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Advertiser and intermediary responsibilities include\u00a01) provide guidance on the rules, 2) monitor compliance, 3) take\u00a0 action in the event of non-compliance<\/li>\n
  • Reliance on disclosure tools built into social media platforms may not be adequate<\/li>\n
  • Review sites cannot accept payment for rankings<\/li>\n
  • Effective disclosure is based on who is being targeted as the audience (children, elderly, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    FTC Guidelines\u00a0Updates Most Important to Affiliate Marketers<\/h2>\n
      \n
    • Saying this loud for the people in the back because I see this wrong on so many \u201cexpert\u201d sites. \u201cAffiliate link\u201d is not an adequate disclosure.<\/strong> Which means \u201cAffiliate\u201d also would not be adequate. Other related terms that are not adequate include \u201cBuy Now\u201d and \u201cCommissionable Link.\u201d However, \u201cPaid Link\u201d is adequate.<\/li>\n
    • Endorsers can be held liable for a review<\/strong> when they represent falsely that they personally used the product.<\/li>\n
    • Tags in social media posts<\/strong> can be considered endorsements that have to be disclosed if the influencer has a material connection to the brand. For example, if you post a picture of your outfit and tag the brands you are wearing but you are also getting paid by them or sent free products. Simply tagging the brand is also not a sufficient disclosure.<\/li>\n
    • An influencer cannot simply disclose connections to a brand on their profile page.<\/strong> The disclosure has to be done on the post and be unavoidable when viewing it.<\/li>\n
    • Endorsers cannot rely on the built-in disclosure tools of a social media platform<\/strong> because if anything in those tools would make the disclosure not satisfy the \u201cunavoidable\u201d and \u201cclear and conspicuous rules.\u201d Use them but add to them if what they have isn\u2019t sufficient.<\/li>\n
    • Whether a disclosure is effective will be evaluated from the perspective of the TARGET audience<\/strong> (e.g. kids or elderly or people who speak a foreign language).<\/li>\n
    • So what about affiliate managers and agencies<\/strong>? We sort of got an answer. \u201cAdvertising agencies, public relations firms, review brokers\u2026 and other similar intermediaries\u201d can be liable when they \u201ccreate or disseminate endorsements\u201d that they either knew or should have known were deceptive. But they can also be held liable when they \u201chire and direct\u201d endorsers who do not properly disclose. Your company must have \u201creasonable programs in place to train and monitor the influencers you pay and direct.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n
    • What is the standard for monitoring endorsers<\/strong>? They won\u2019t give specifics. They say \u201creasonable efforts\u201d and if you can\u2019t periodically search for what the endorsers are saying, you should consider having to pre-approve all posts.<\/li>\n
    • Affiliate review websites<\/strong> that rank brands higher based on the site accepting money from the brand are deceptive and both the website owner and the brand can be held liable<\/strong>. The site can use affiliate links in general and disclose them as long as payments are not taken for higher rankings. Any \u201cmethodology that results in higher rankings for products whose sellers have a relationship to the operator because of those relationships\u201d is misleading.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      FTC Guidelines Additions and Clarifications That Are Interesting<\/h2>\n
        \n
      • For disclosures to be effective, they must be \u201cunavoidable.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
      • Some examples given for adequate disclosure for videos<\/strong> are \u201cThis video is paid for by brand\u201d or \u201cbrand paid me to tell you about it.\u201d Also \u201cCompany X gave me\u201d the product or \u201cThe products I\u2019m going to sue in this video were given to me by their manufacturers.\u201d<\/li>\n
      • Some examples given for social media<\/strong> are \u201cAd:\u201d \u201cPaid ad\u201d \u201c#ad\u201d \u201cAdvertising:\u201d \u201cAdvertisement\u201d \u201cSponsored\u201d \u201cPromotion\u201d \u201cSponsored by X\u201d or \u201cPromotion by X\u201d. Adding \u201cad\u201d to the end of the brand name to create a hashtag is NOT enough. (#BrandAd) Saying \u201cthanks\u201d to the brand is not enough but saying \u201cThanks Brand for the free product\u201d would be. The hashtag #endorsement is NOT sufficient. The hashtags #ambassador and #partner work only if you include the brand name in the hashtag (#BrandAmbassador). The hashtags #comped and #hosted are not sufficient for free travel.<\/li>\n
      • Podcasters<\/strong> do not need to disclose content that is \u201cobviously a commercial\u201d and is fine as long as the podcaster upholds any views expressed.<\/li>\n
      • A little more information was given about free products<\/strong>. If a brand sends a coupon to an influencer for free product and asks the consumer to feature the brand in their feed, any resulting posts would need to be disclosed. (this is where the \u201cdog influencer\u201d came in)<\/li>\n
      • Advertisers are required to<\/strong> 1) provide guidance to endorsers on the rules, 2) monitor compliance, 3) take\u00a0 action \u201csufficient to remedy non-compliance and prevent future non-compliance.\u201d<\/li>\n
      • Advertisers need to not only instruct endorsers about the need to disclose their connection, they also need to give guidance that any statements made by the endorser are truthful and substantiated.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
      • If the endorser is an \u201cexpert\u201d in the field<\/strong>, there are a lot of clarifications about how that should be handled.<\/li>\n
      • There is an example about a woodworking influencer who is sent a lathe and for free by a brand and ends up using it in several videos and \u201ccomments favorably.\u201d The FTC says that if a \u201csignificant minority of viewers\u201d is \u201clikely unaware\u201d that he got it for free, it needs to be disclosed. There isn\u2019t any type of exception made in the example for videos that may be made using that same lathe for years in the future. The Q&A page indicates \u201ceach new endorsement made without a disclosure could be deceptive because viewers might not have seen the prior posts.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Important Links<\/h2>\n

        <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        https:\/\/www.tricia.me\/2023\/06\/29\/ftc-updates-disclosure-guidelines-affiliates-influencers\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}