What Are The New ASA Guidelines for Influencers All About?

Do you know what Instagram posts are adverts? Sometimes as an influencer it's hard to know what to tag #Ad or #Affiliate. 

There has been some new rules dished out from the ASA (The Advertising Standards Authority) as recent as 30th October on the back of a report that found that consumers had difficulty identifying influencers’ posts that included ads. 

SO WHAT ARE THE CHANGES? 

In a nutshell, affiliate/commission links need to be now marked as AD. Even if you have bought the outfit, and are now linking to it through an affiliate site (LIKETOKNOWIT for example) you still have to declare you're getting commission by hash-tagging the link with #AD. 

I'm only on YouTube, how does this work for me? 

So let's start with YouTube. I'll work through the guidelines and best practices with you. However, this infogram below is a very easy way of digesting the guidelines. 

Q. In your video, are you only talking/vlogging about products you're affiliated to? 

In the title you must now put AD so that you're transparent with your audience that the relationship between yourselves and the brands is transactional. 

If you're talking loosely about a subject, then include a product that you're affiliated with, that has to be declared also. Not so much a requirement in the title but even in a text pop up on the Vlog, certainly in the show notes next to the affiliate links. 

You might want to read about the case study one influencer had with Matalan. That will help contextualise it for you. 

INSTAGRAM STORIES (Swipe Ups)

In contexts where only an image is initially visible,  it is likely that an identifier like “Ad” should be included on the image itself so that the nature of the content is clear before consumers engage with the post by clicking on the image.

FACEBOOK

If all of the links within a single post are affiliate links and the post appears on social media where there is no character limit, for example on Facebook, it is likely that the post will need to include an identifier at the beginning, for example “Ad”. 

Similar to Instagram. This is so there is no ambiguity and the casual reader/viewer can see the relationship between you and the brand immediately. 

TWITTER/PINTEREST

On Twitter, as space is limited, labelling the content with “Ad” or similar is likely to be the clearest way of identifying it as advertising.  Similarly, on Pinterest where the amount of content actually controlled by the ‘pinner’ is limited, placing “Ad” or similar at the beginning of the free text ‘Description’, because only a small portion of this appears without clicking, is likely to be acceptable.

So label the content, such as the Title of your Blog or Vlog, but not necessarily the caption as there are too few characters. 

Ultimately, ask yourself; 'Do people know I'm making commission here?' Is it clear without having to click through the content that I'm actually being paid to endorse a product etc. 

Don't see the 'Ad' as a blocker or as something that Google will punish you for. This is just a truth-indicator, almost a badge of honour, that you're being as transparent with your audience as possible about the relationships you have with the brands.