What is an FTC Disclosure, and How do you write one?

Summary: FTC Disclosure is an extremely important piece of information for anyone doing affiliate marketing in any form. In this blog, we will take a detailed look at the FTC Disclosure and how you can write one.

Affiliate marketing is in full swing today. You will find a lot of influencers, bloggers, and celebrities participating in affiliate marketing. Even I work with certain brands as their affiliate partner. While this business could be a good way to generate some income, it comes with a lot of responsibilities and regulations.

One such regulatory guide is FTC disclosure. A lot of affiliate marketers are not aware of FTC guidelines and FTC disclosure. Then there are some who know what is an FTC disclosure but don’t realize its gravity and impact on their business model.

If affiliate marketers fail to follow the FTC guidelines, the FTC considers this a “deceptive marketing practice.” And this can impact your website and revenue significantly.

So, I decided to come up with a complete guide on FTC and how to write a proper and effective FTC disclosure. This article is extremely important for affiliate marketers as it directly touches on established laws and regulations. So read till the end.

But first, let’s clarify some basics around the affiliate marketing and FTC guidelines.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

As the name suggests, it’s a form of marketing. Here, there is some sort of affiliation between the brand and the individual or an agency that’s promoting the product of that brand. Here, the affiliate marketer promotes the product or service, brings in traffic to the brand’s website, and gets a commission in some form when the customer buys that product.

It doesn’t matter what method you are using to promote that particular product. It could be anything like a blog, a video on YouTube, an Instagram post, a Reddit Post, or even an X post. All of it is covered under affiliate marketing, and you become an affiliate marketer (whether you want to or you don’t.)

Now, let’s understand what FTC is.

What is FTC?

FTC, or Federal Trade Commission, is a federal body of the United States of America, established in 1914. It focuses on protecting the consumer rights of the customers from any malpractices. More importantly, it promotes consumer rights protection.

FTC regularly takes action against any deceptive, unfair, or fraudulent trade practices in the market. This can be anything from a misleading or false ad to identity theft and privacy violation. On top of that, FTC offers detailed guidelines to businesses on how they can comply with existing laws of the land. The same applies to all affiliate marketers.

What is an FTC Disclosure?

An FTC disclosure is a statement that an affiliate marketer needs to put up along with any promotional content related to any brand. The FTC disclosure should clearly indicate how the endorser might benefit if the customer buys a product from the links available in affiliate marketers’ content.

It helps the customer better understand the context and make the right decision. This disclosure helps maintain transparency with this disclosure. Your consumers are aware that you will receive some sort of compensation for the brand’s promotion. Now, the most important thing is the structure and placement of the FTC disclosure.

It should be crystal clear, crisp, and placed in a location where your readers can easily them. It should be within your content itself, whether written, audio, or video. But why exactly do you need to create an FTC disclosure? Well, FTC disclosures are extremely helpful in preventing any misleading or dishonest promotions.

FTC affiliate disclosure examples

Below is the one used in all of our promotional content:

We earn a commission when you buy through the links on this page. Affiliate disclosure.

Affiliate disclosure from Geekflare:

FTC affiliate disclosure from TheVerge:

When You Have to Add FTC Disclosure?

FTC Disclosure is mandatory in multiple cases. If you are mentioning a brand or endorsing it in any form and you will be getting compensation in some form, you will have to add FTC Disclosure. But remember, the compensation can be in any form. Here’s how FTC defines “compensation” broadly.

• Cash payments
• Free products
• Store Credit
• Discounts
• Free services
• Special access
• Favors of any kind

Let’s say you are creating a vlog or writing a quick food blog for some restaurant. They are not paying you any money, but just a meal or food. It’s FTC’s eye; that’s compensation, too! Let’s say you are promoting a theme park, and they are inviting you to an event for free so you can promote it.

That’s fair compensation in the eyes of the FTC. In short, the compensation can be anything, but IT IS COMPENSATION. Moreover, the disclosure rules apply regardless of the size of your platform. Whether you’re a prominent influencer or a casual social media user, you must comply with the FTC guidelines.

 Overall, anyone who promotes or mentions a product, brand, or service online and receives any form of compensation must disclose this fact. A small-time blogger, an occasional post on X.com, or promoting a product on Facebook, everything counts as affiliate marketing. And hence, the FTC disclosure.

Now, let’s understand what exactly you have to disclose.

What Do You Have to Disclose?

Now, this is extremely important. As an affiliate marketer, you will have to disclose any and every form of relationship you have with the brand or company that you are promoting. If you’re an employee, state it. If you receive a commission on sales, make that clear.

If the company paid for the advertisement, or if you have a financial stake in the company, this must be disclosed as well. In a nutshell, you cannot and shall not hide any form of connection between you and the brand. This makes it easy and fair for the potential customer to make the right decision.

When Do You Have to Disclose?

This is the most important part. If you post about a product today and share the FTC disclosure after a month, it makes no sense. On the contrary, the FTC might treat it as malpractice! So, you have to share the FTC disclosure immediately.

Let’s say you are creating a blog and mentioning a particular brand in it for affiliate marketing. Then, you have to add the FTC disclosure right away to the same blog post.

If you are posting a video on YouTube, you’ve to disclose the relationship in the video itself. The same goes for a Facebook or Instagram post. In fact, you have to do the same even for your small promotional post on X.

In short, it has to be near your “trigger.” The trigger could be anything that asks the viewer or reader to use a particular product of your affiliate brand.

What are Clear and Conspicuous Disclosures?

This is, by far, the most important factor in N FTC disclosure. FTC says that your FTC disclosure must be “Clear & Conspicuous.” Now, what does this mean? Well, putting it simply, you cannot obscure or hide your disclosures in fine print or behind multiple clicks.

Your potential customer should be able to see and read the FTC disclosure as easily as possible. Moreover, it should be extremely simple and lucid to understand. Finally, the FTC disclosure should fully inform you about your relationship with the product or brand to your visitors.

If you are wondering if there are any exceptions, there are none! FTC disclosure policy strictly indicates that no one is allowed to share the FTC disclosure. Whether you are a newbie blogger with minimal following or an extremely popular social media influencer, the FTC rules apply equally to all.

Now that you know everything about the FTC disclosure, it’s time to learn how to write one.

How to write a Clear and Conspicuous FTC disclosure?

You already know that Clear and Conspicuous FTC disclosure is mandatory. In fact, a lot of marketers know. However, they get confused about how to write the FTC disclosure accurately to ensure it’s clear and conspicuous.

FTC Disclosure should be visible on the Same Screen

This is simple to understand and follow. FTC mandates that the disclosure should be exactly on the same screen as the ad or marketing trigger you have placed.

Even if you have remotely mentioned a brand or a product that you are marketing, your FTC disclosure must go on the same page. This is very important for affiliate marketers. Here, the triggers are often the entire piece of the content.

So the question is, where should FTC disclosure be placed? If you ask me, I’ll say place it in a way that the exact affiliate link and your FTC disclosure are visible on the same screen. The most effective disclosures are those that appear on the same screen as the claim or advertisement they relate to.

This is particularly important in affiliate marketing, where the “triggering claim” may be an entire piece of content rather than a single word or phrase. Often, the affiliate ad link (the hyperlink leading to the sale process) is the critical element that should be paired with the disclosure. Ideally, this link and the disclosure should be visible together on the same screen.

Your FTC Disclosure Placement should be accurately placed

Your FTC disclosure should be placed accurately. If it’s lying somewhere randomly, it makes no sense., right? So it should be closely placed where there is an advertisement. What’s more important is that the viewers can easily relate to the advertising itself. Only then it serves the purpose.

The process is super easy for print media ads as you can easily measure the distance between the ad and FTC disclosure. But when it comes to websites, the job becomes tougher.

As the website itself is interactive and has multiple pages with varied lengths, placement becomes challenging. On top of that, popups, animations, and dynamic screens might increase the challenge even more.  

Your FTC disclosure should be visible for the optimum time.

Creating and sharing FTC disclosure is not enough. You’ll have to ensure that people see it for enough time to read or listen to it. If you are sharing a visual FTC disclosure, make sure it’s visible for enough time for people to read it. If it’s in an audio format, the volume should be loud, and the tempo should be slow. This will help people understand what you are disclosing.

I’ve seen numerous audios that run at high speed. To be honest, that sounds more like a shady deal than a proper FTC disclosure. Look, people know that affiliate marketers make money via affiliate marketing.

So, there is no sense in trying to sugarcoat it or twisting the words to confuse the listener or reader. Be honest, let them know that you will get some form of compensation, and you are good to go! People reward honesty, and that’s it.

Scrolling and Disclosure Placement

There is one issue that I have found in a lot of affiliate marketing posts. Affiliate marketers often place the FTC disclosure at the bottom of their posts. Now, the problem here is that you might feel you have done your part by adding the disclosure.

But let’s be honest, do you think each and every reader will go to the end and read the disclosure? Rare occurrence, right? Most of the readers will make their decision before reading that part and that’s a problem. In the eyes of the FTC, that’s “below-the-fold” disclosure. And it’s not enough! So make sure you place.

The better option is to place the disclosure at the top of your post. But if the disclosure takes up too much important space, there’s an option. You can mention what type of post it is. For example, you can throw in titles like “Ad,” “Sponsored Post,” or “Please note: This post contains affiliate links.” This makes the reader read the post with proper context.

However, for some posts, such a small disclosure is not enough. In such cases, you cannot place the entire disclosure on the top. You will have to deal with the scrolling part. For this, you can follow these steps:

1. Use visual or textual cues to indicate the need to scroll. The FTC specifically notes that scroll bars alone are not sufficient cues.
2. Provide partial disclaimer language above the fold. Link it to a more complete disclaimer below the main content. For instance, you might place the phrase “Sponsored Post” above the content and link it to a fuller explanation below. This allows you to explain your relationship to the brand or product in a positive light. On top of that, the disclosure is still visible.
3. Place unavoidable disclaimers directly next to or right above any links that lead to a purchase process. This will ensure that they are seen by anyone moving through the sales funnel.

Keep it Simple and Lucid

I’ve already said this in my multiple blog posts; keep it simple! Do not confuse the readers with the jargon and terms that they don’t understand. Your FTC disclosure language should be super easy and lucid.

Even someone with basic reading and writing skills should be able to understand it. If you are sticking with audio FTC disclosure, make it so that people can easily understand the language. There’s one more thing you need to understand.

Your target audience matters a lot! So understand them and speak their language, their tone and their terms. This will make your FTC disclosure more understandable and readable (This doesn’t mean you use slang or an unprofessional tone!).

Look, the overall goal here is to communicate the nature of the relationship between you and the product or brand in a way that anyone can understand. So make it happen, no matter how.

No Distractions

This is very important. The entire goal of the FTC disclosure is to make people read about the relationship between you and the brand. So, if they are distracted from the FTC disclosure itself, it makes no sense. So place it in a way that no other elements can steal its glory!

Avoid the elements that can cause distraction near the disclosure. Competing visuals, sounds, or animations should not overshadow or draw focus away from the important information in your disclosure.

Repetition of Disclosures

Some disclosures might demand repetitions. This is important, especially for those who drive traffic to their website from multiple places. Ensure the FTC disclosure is visible throughout their entire path of reaching your post. Repeating the disclosure ensures that it reaches the consumer regardless of how they navigate your content.

Can You Use Hyperlink Disclosures?

Now, this is a tricky question. There are some cases where you will need a bigger FTC disclosure. This cannot be on the same page or post as your main content. In some cases, multiple mentions of FTC disclosure are required, but this is practically not possible.

In such limited cases, the FTC allows the use of Hyperlink Disclosure. But there are certain regulations that you must follow. And by “follow,” I mean “follow strictly.” Your FTC disclosure must meet the FTC’s stringent requirements.

So, what are these requirements? Well, the FTC emphasizes that the hyperlink text (anchor text) must be prominently displayed and placed close to the triggering claim. This means the hyperlink should clearly indicate that it leads to important disclosure information.

Simply linking to the word “Disclaimer” or using vague phrases like “Click here for more info” is NOT ENOUGH. The anchor text should explicitly mention that the link involves a disclosure about compensation or a potential conflict of interest.

Here are a few things that you should keep in mind while using the hyperlinking FTC disclosure:

Labeling

You must label your hyperlink accurately. Your label should be such that the reader must understand what it will offer. Make it clear and conspicuous for the reader. For example, “See details on compensation” is more effective than “Disclaimer.”

Design Consistency

Make sure you style your hyperlink in a way that feels consistent throughout the site. Make sure it’s clearly visible and clickable. Make sure it’s clearly identifiable and distinct from other text on your website or in the post. You can do the same by using different colors, underlining the text, or you can add other visual cues.

Accessibility

Make sure your FTC disclosure is visible with a single click. We all know our readers are a bit lazy! They don’t even bother to do multiple clicks to read the information they are looking for. So, do you think they will click multiple times to read the FTC disclosure?

I don’t think so! So, the better option is to make the path accessible and keep the number of clicks required to 1. In this manner, you can ensure that a maximum number of your readers will actually read your FTC disclosure.  

Keep all platforms in mind

Sometimes, an interactive FTC disclosure link (that appears when you hover over it) seems like a good idea. They don’t take up space or impact your overall page design. But that’s a problem. Interactive does not work properly on platforms like smartphones and tablets.

And the world’s 50%+ traffic comes from these mobile devices. So, you have to create an FTC Disclosure that works well for all types of platforms and not just laptops and desktops.

Placement

This is also equally important. Place your hyperlink at a prominent position where there is a high chance of the viewer clicking it. Make sure it’s near the trigger that needs an FTC disclosure.

The FTC also advises that hyperlinked disclosures should be evaluated based on how many users actually click through to the disclosure page. If click-through rates are low, it could indicate that the hyperlink isn’t clear or prominent enough.

This means you are failing to meet the FTC’s standards and need to identify other alternatives to make your FTC disclosure more easily available. 

So yes, you can use hyperlinks to add the FTC disclosure to your website. But it must meet all the requirements /I mentioned above. If you fail to meet any of these requirements, the FTC will treat it as a violation of their guidelines. So, if possible, avoid using hyperlinks for FTC disclosure. However, if there is no alternative, stick strictly to the FTC guidelines.

How to manage FTC Disclosure in Constraint Spaces?

There are numerous instances where the FTC disclosure becomes difficult if there is less space. This is especially true in terms of ads and Twitter posts. But that does not give you the exception to avoid FTC disclosure! In fact, if you cannot add the FTC disclosure, you should not publish that post or the piece of content! So how do you manage it?

Well, it’s pretty simple. Just add the suffix “ad” in your post. This will help the viewers understand that the post they are going to read is an ad. So, if they decide to buy after reading the post, they know what they are doing.

How to Make Your FTC Disclosure Prominent and Conspicuous?

The FTC strictly mandates that the FTC disclosure should be clearly visible and easily noticeable. It’s the advertiser’s responsibility to make that happen. So it’s you who have to work hard to grab the user’s attention via strategic placement and accurate design.  

To do so, make sure your disclosure’s text size is bigger than the other text around it. You can also use contrasting colors between the disclosure text and the rest of the content. This helps the readers easily gauge the difference.

If there is no contrast, the readers might overlook the FTC disclosure almost entirely. Additionally, while not mandatory, incorporating visual elements like icons or graphics can further draw attention to the disclosure.

With users accessing content across various devices, it’s essential to ensure that disclosures remain prominent on all screen sizes. A disclosure that is clear on a desktop may become hidden or less noticeable on a mobile device if not properly adjusted for different layouts.

Disclosures should also be placed where users are most likely to see them rather than buried within lengthy paragraphs or hidden among unrelated text. Positioning them deep within a terms of service agreement, for example, defeats their purpose.

Instead, disclosures should be placed in relevant areas where they are clearly visible and directly connected to the content they relate to.

FTC disclosure is critical; nail it!

I sincerely hope this guide on FTC has offered you insights into the topic. Look, FTC disclosures are a critical part of any affiliate marketing campaign. There are a lot of moving parts in the FTC disclosure, and I believe I have covered almost every one of them.

Remember, as an affiliate marketer, your goal is not to take advantage of your position. Instead, it puts you in a very responsible place where your opinion matters. When you say a product is good, people will buy it.

That’s the respect you get as an affiliate marketer. But you cannot take it for granted. Your readers or viewers must not feel that you pushed some product or brand onto them without properly disclosing the benefits you might get from sales.

So it’s your moral, ethical as well as legal responsibility to keep your FTC disclosure easy to access and easy to understand. This will help you build even stronger trust in the market. Till then, explore this guide, read it once, twice and thrice if you need and craft an accurate disclosure that makes your viewers and readers well aware.

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