The UK’s advertising watchdog has warned influencers that they could be put ‘on notice’ if they flout advertising rules online. The new rulings come after a report by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found few than expected social media influencers complying with advertising regulations. ASA monitored 122 UK-based influencers in September, assessing Instagram Stories, posts, IGTV and reels to check compliance rates. The research discovered that one in four stories were advertising with only 35% clearly labelled as such. 

In summary, the ASA found:

• Inconsistent disclosure across Stories - when a piece of ad content spans a number of consecutive Stories, unless it’s absolutely clear that this is part of the same posting, each Story must be disclosed as an ad
• Inconsistent disclosure across Stories, IGTV, Reels, posts – ASA noted instances where a post would be accurately disclosed as an ad but a corresponding Story was not
• Visibility of ad labels – where Stories were labelled as ads, ASA noted labels were sometimes in a small font, obscured by the platform architecture or otherwise difficult to spot; mainly due to being in a very similar colour to the background of the Story where it was placed
• Affiliate content is still an ad – ASA noted the use of #affiliate or #aff with no additional upfront disclosure; those labels are not likely to be enough on their own to disclose to users the advertising nature of the content
• Own-brand ads – Influencers should not rely on bios or past posts to make it clear to consumers that they are connected to a product

Of the sectors monitored, beauty had the majority share of ad numbers online but with just 45% complying with advertising guidelines, followed by fashion with 36%. 

ASA Chief Executive, Guy Parker said: “There’s simply no excuse not to make clear to the public when positive messages in posts have been paid-for by a brand. While some influencers have got their houses in order, our monitoring shows how much more there is to do. We’ve given influencers and brands fair warning.  We’re now targeting our follow-up monitoring and preparing for enforcement action.”

In response, ASA has said that it must be obvious to consumers before the read, 'like' or otherwise interact with a social media post if what they are engaging with is advertising. In most cases, the use of #ad (or similar) is the clearest way of communicating the commercial nature of social media content. Alternatively, a platform’s own disclosure tools, such as Instagram’s Paid Partnership tool, can also help to distinguish advertising from other content.

ASA has contacted all the influencers, as well as a number of brands, and put them on notice that if future spot checks on any platform reveal problems, it will take enforcement action. That might include promoting their non-compliance on a dedicated page on our website, promoting their non-compliance through ASA's own targeted paid search ads and working directly with the platforms and the Competition and Markets Authority on further enforcement action.

You can read the full report here.