What counts as a material connection?
The Federal Trade Commission says a material connection can include a financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand. It is not limited to a cash payment. Free or discounted products, perks and other things of value can also create a relationship that viewers would reasonably want to know about when evaluating an endorsement.
The key question is not whether you personally believe the relationship affected your opinion. The FTC’s Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers tells creators to disclose even when they think their evaluation is unbiased and not to assume followers already know about the brand relationship.
Paid, gifted and discounted products
If a brand pays you to talk about a product, the connection is obvious to you but may not be obvious to the audience. A disclosure is needed. The FTC also specifically says that receiving a free or discounted product can require disclosure when you mention that product. The fact that the brand did not explicitly tell you to post does not automatically remove the material connection.
Do not use wording that makes a paid arrangement sound like an unsolicited personal recommendation. The disclosure should describe the actual relationship in language a normal viewer can understand.
Where should the disclosure appear?
The FTC says disclosures should be hard to miss and placed with the endorsement message itself. A disclosure only on a profile page, terms page or separate disclosure page does not reliably inform someone viewing the specific endorsement. Likewise, burying the disclosure after a long block of hashtags or behind a “more” expansion can make it easy to miss.
Placement should follow the way the audience consumes the content. If the endorsement appears in a social post, the disclosure should be visible with that post. If the creator is talking in a video, the disclosure should be presented in the video rather than relying only on a caption below it.
Video disclosures need to work with how people watch
For video endorsements, FTC guidance recommends making the disclosure in the video itself. The agency notes that viewers may watch without sound or may miss text on screen, so using both visual and audio disclosure can improve clarity in appropriate situations.
Do not flash a tiny disclosure for a fraction of a second. Make it readable and understandable in the context of the video. The objective is comprehension, not merely the technical presence of a word somewhere in the asset.
What wording is clear enough?
The FTC favors simple language that communicates the relationship. Terms such as “ad,” “advertisement,” “sponsored,” or a plain statement that a brand provided the product can be easier to understand than vague abbreviations. The right wording depends on what actually happened.
Avoid assuming that a platform label or an abbreviation is automatically sufficient in every context. The disclosure must communicate the material connection to the audience likely to see the endorsement. If you are uncertain about a campaign, check the current official guidance rather than copying a disclosure from another creator.
| Situation | Disclosure issue | Practical check |
|---|---|---|
| Paid creator post | Financial connection | Is the paid relationship obvious in the content? |
| Gifted product | Thing of value received | Does the viewer know the product was provided? |
| Affiliate link | Potential commission | Is the financial incentive disclosed near the recommendation/link? |
| Employee endorsement | Employment relationship | Would a viewer know the creator works for the brand? |
| Family/personal relationship | Personal connection | Would the relationship affect how the viewer weighs the endorsement? |
Affiliate content and commission links
If you can earn a commission when someone buys through a link or code, that financial incentive can be material. The disclosure should be close enough to the recommendation and link for the viewer to understand the commercial relationship before acting on it.
Do not rely on a generic site-wide disclosure as the only notice if the user is reading a specific recommendation. A persistent disclosure policy can be useful background, but the endorsement itself still needs clear context.
Honest opinions do not remove the disclosure requirement
A creator may genuinely like a product and still need to disclose a material connection. Disclosure and truthfulness solve different problems: disclosure tells the audience about the relationship; truthful advertising rules govern what the creator says about the product.
The FTC also warns endorsers not to make claims that would be deceptive if the advertiser made them directly. A creator should not claim a product cured a condition, produced a guaranteed financial result or delivered a performance outcome unless the claim is truthful and appropriately substantiated.
Do not claim an experience you did not have
An endorsement should reflect the creator’s actual experience. If you have not used the product, do not present a scripted statement as your personal experience. If a concept is fictional or demonstrative, the commercial team should structure it so viewers are not misled about what the creator actually did or believes.
This matters for UGC because creators are often hired to produce brand assets that look native and personal. Native style does not create permission to fabricate a real-user experience.
Who is responsible: brand or creator?
Brands have responsibilities for advertising they disseminate and for endorsement programs, but creators should not assume the brand will solve compliance for them. The FTC’s influencer guidance explicitly tells influencers that they are responsible for making disclosures and for being familiar with the Endorsement Guides.
In practice, a strong brief should tell the creator about required disclosures and restricted claims, while the creator should still check whether the final public content makes the relationship clear. If a brand asks you to hide a paid relationship or make a claim you believe is misleading, that is a reason to stop and clarify the requirement.
A practical approval workflow can reduce last-minute mistakes: the brand identifies restricted claims and required disclosure language before filming, the creator checks that the disclosure remains visible in the actual edit, and the final reviewer verifies the caption, on-screen text and audio together. This does not transfer legal responsibility from one party to another, but it makes disclosure a production requirement rather than an afterthought added seconds before publication.
What about content made for the brand but not posted by the creator?
Not every UGC deliverable is published on the creator’s own account. A creator may deliver video that the brand posts or uses in advertising. The legal analysis can depend on the final presentation, the claims, the relationship communicated to viewers and who is speaking in the asset. The creator should know the intended use and the brand should review the final ad for compliance.
This page cannot determine the legal requirements for a specific campaign. For ambiguous or higher-risk uses, the correct next step is to review the current FTC guidance and obtain qualified legal advice where appropriate.
International campaigns need additional review
This guide focuses on United States FTC principles. Other countries can have different disclosure rules, advertising codes and platform requirements. The FTC also notes that U.S. law can apply to posts from abroad when it is reasonably foreseeable that the post will affect U.S. consumers. Do not assume one hashtag solves every jurisdiction.
A pre-publish disclosure check
- Is there a material connection between creator and brand?
- Would an ordinary viewer understand that relationship from the content itself?
- Is the disclosure hard to miss?
- For video, is the disclosure actually in the video when needed?
- Does the wording accurately describe the relationship?
- Are all product claims truthful and supportable?
- Does the creator avoid describing an experience they did not have?
- Has the brand reviewed regulated or sensitive claims?
- Are platform-specific branded-content tools used when required, without treating them as a substitute for a clear disclosure when they are insufficient?
Keep the source current
FTC guidance and platform features can change. This page is periodically changing content, not permanent legal boilerplate. When materially updating a campaign workflow, review the official FTC pages rather than relying on an old creator checklist.
For creator business setup, return to the UGC portfolio guide, review rates and usage scope, or continue to brand outreach.