These days, it feels like everything we see is an ad. A trusted influencer loves this Amazon top? Ad. A Kardashian posts about the brand they’re wearing? Ad. A post from a popular X account about a new movie or show they loved? Ad.
Today, it can feel almost impossible to identify what’s paid promotion or authentic brand loyalty when browsing our favorite social platforms. Whether called sponsored content, branded content, paid promotion or simply #ad buried in a sea of 20 other hashtags, it’s getting harder and harder to sort fact from fiction when consuming content online.
We identified three key tactics to uncover branded content on the internet.
What is branded content?
Branded content is a content marketing technique that involves influencers and public figures creating content for a company in exchange for compensation, complementary items or other non-monetary benefits. The content is directly linked to a brand and to its values, allowing consumers to make a connection with it in order to increase brand awareness.
An increase of brand awareness is the key reason why companies pay for branded content placement. If a consumer can see or read about a product changing someone else’s life, they will want that product for themselves.
Now we know what branded content is, and why companies pay for it, let’s move onto the key ways to identify it as you browse TikTok, Instagram and other platforms.
Key identifiers of branded content:
- Look closely for any indications that the post is advertised. The FTC has strict guidelines regulating disclosures of advertised content online, so to avoid scrutiny, influencers will place hashtags like #ad, #adv, #paidpromotion or #sponsored somewhere within their posts. Even if a disclosure doesn’t come in the form of a hashtag, social sites often place the phrases “Paid”, “Sponsored”, or “Paid Partnership” in some discreet location on the post, like under a username, or near the bottom of a post’s caption.
- Be on the lookout for any indications of a brand partnership between an influencer, content creator or celebrity and the product, service, or company they’re promoting. This could come in the form of indicators like “@COMPANY #Partner” or “#COMPANYPartner”. The FTC’s guidelines for disclosing ads clarify that a brand partnership does not only need to be a financial transaction. It could manifest as any “financial, employment, personal, or family relationship” between an influencer and a brand. So, indicating that the poster has some kind of partnership with a brand is enough to categorize any collaborative post as an ad.
- Intuition is key. With the explosion of the influencer space, the internet is inundated daily with sponsorships and ads from millions of micro and macro content creators. Sometimes, creators simply forgo traditional disclosures. It is impossible to fully crack down on every single creator due to the sheer volume of posts put out on the internet each day. However, when creators are genuinely sharing their love of a brand or product, they will often authentically share that they are not a brand partner or being paid to share about it.
Still unsure if it’s an ad, or if it seems like an ad was improperly disclosed (e.g. not disclosed at all)? Here are a few questions you can ask:
- Does the influencer admit they were sent the product by the company, free of charge?
- Is there an affiliate link to the product where it’s implied the poster earns commission (as is standard on TikTok Shop or Amazon Storefronts)?
- Is the review of the product a bit too fawning, with no mention of any defects?
- While there might be no hashtags like #ad, is the company tagged?
Even when an influencer or celebrity isn’t being entirely transparent, these are some ways to train your intuition to spot an ad even when it isn’t properly disclosed.
Being constantly inundated with ads in our digital world can be tiring. But knowledge is power, and knowing the myriad ways an ad can be presented on the internet is the best way to arm yourself with the tools to identify them, and determine whether or not you are truly “influenced.”
Curious to learn more about influencer marketing? Reach out to us.