How do you disclose a paid partnership on TikTok and Instagram?

To disclose a paid partnership on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, do two things on every paid post. Switch on the platform’s own setting, which puts a label such as “Paid partnership” on the content. Then say it is an ad yourself, in plain words, in the video, and again at the start of the caption. The first step is a platform rule. The second is your own responsibility: consumer law asks for a disclosure that is clear and hard to miss, and regulators do not all accept the platform’s label as enough. The caption does not replace the video, least of all on TikTok. In their FAQ, staff of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US consumer protection agency, call a disclosure in TikTok’s text description “very unlikely to be clear and conspicuous”.

Yousie, which publishes this guide, is a site where app brands run collabs: campaigns that pay you per install or per subscription the brand confirms. The rules below are taken from the regulators’ and platforms’ own pages, read on October 8, 2026. Where those texts leave a gap, the guide gives its own reading and says so. This is general information, not legal advice.

How do you disclose a paid partnership on TikTok?

TikTok requires its content disclosure setting on any post that promotes a brand, a product or a service. Its Branded Content Policy, in force since August 31, 2026, covers promotion “in exchange for payment or any other incentive”. In the app, TikTok’s help page gives this path from the post screen:

1. Tap “Content disclosure and ads”. If you are not part of TikTok One, TikTok’s platform for brand deals, it is under “More options”.
2. Turn on “Disclose commercial content”.
3. Choose “Branded content” for a brand that pays you. “Your brand” is for your own business.
4. Tap “Save”, then “Continue”, and post.

The post then carries a “Paid partnership” label. In a web browser, click “Upload”, choose the file, click “Show more”, then turn on “Disclose post content”. For a LIVE, tap “Settings”, then “Content disclosure”, then turn on “Disclose LIVE content”.

If you forgot, you can still switch the setting on: open the post from your profile and tap “More options”, then “Ad settings”. The label shows from then on, but do not plan on adding it late: France’s advertising self-regulator, the ARPP, does not accept an ad being identified only after it is published.

A label can be added late but not altered: once a published post carries one, TikTok says the label “can’t be changed”, and to correct a mistake you remove the post and create a new one.

Name the app in the video or the caption. TikTok’s policy says viewers must be able to tell which product you are promoting from the video or the caption alone, without going to your profile or to a link, so “link in bio” with no app named would not meet that rule. The policy also prohibits or restricts some industries, certain dating and financial services among them.

TipTagging a brand partner on TikTok is optional. TikTok’s help page says the tag can authorize the brand to run your video as an ad, for 60 days by default. Under Yousie’s terms, a brand that wants to run your video as its own ad needs your agreement.

How do you add the paid partnership label on Instagram?

Instagram’s policies require the paid partnership label on branded content, meaning content a brand compensated you for, and allow such content only from accounts that have the label tool. The tool exists only in the mobile app, and the names below are those of the US-English app.

The same policies limit what can be promoted: dating, real-money gambling and cryptocurrency partners need Meta’s written pre-authorization, and branded content for subscriptions, credit cards, loans or insurance may only be shown to viewers aged 18 or over.

Set the tool up once

Do this before you post. The set-up page gives the path: from your profile, tap “Menu”, then “Creator tools and controls” or “Business tools and controls”, then “Branded content”, then “Set up branded content tools”, then “Enable”. If the app does not offer “Enable”, the page says you can request a review, without saying where.

Label a post

The label page gives this path for a post:

1. After the caption, tap “Next”, then “More options”.
2. Under “Ads and monetization”, tap “Partnership label & ads”.
3. Turn on “Add paid partnership label”.
4. Tap “Add brands manually” or “Add a brand from a project”, and add up to two brands.
5. Tap “Done”, then share.

For a reel, the toggle is under “More options”. For a story, tap the tag icon at the top. For a live video, the brand can only be tagged before you go live.

To add the label to a post you have already published, open the post from your profile and tap the three dots (“Options”), then “Partnership label & ads”. Turn on “Add paid partnership label”, tap “Add brand partner”, select the brand, then tap “Done”. The path comes from Instagram’s page on permissions for partnership ads, which are posts of yours that a brand runs as its own ad.

An optional toggle, “Allow brand partner to boost”, lets the brand run ads with your content. Under Yousie’s terms, a brand needs your agreement for that use. A collab’s conditions can include that agreement, but only when they state it clearly.

If the brand does not approve or has no account

Name the brand in your own disclosure, which stays up whatever the brand does. The brand needs a professional account. The first time you tag it, Instagram sends it a request, and until the brand approves, the post shows the label without the brand’s name. If the brand refuses, the label is removed; the label page’s advice is then to check that you tagged the right account and to contact the brand. A caption can be edited after posting, from the post’s “Options”.

If the brand behind the app has no Instagram account you can tag, turn the label on without a partner. Instagram’s page on branded content allows that for content with an affiliate link. It does not mention a link paid per download, and this guide treats the two alike. Instagram’s pages do not say what that label shows, so name the app in your own disclosure. Under Yousie’s collab agreement the brand accepts being named, so tag it on Instagram whenever it has an account.

How do you declare paid promotion on YouTube?

YouTube requires you to declare paid promotion, Shorts included, and the declaration adds a disclosure label at the start of the video (help page). Its branded content policy page gives this path on a phone, in the YouTube app or the Studio app:

1. Select the video.
2. Tap “Show More”.
3. Tap “Products, Paid promotion, and brands”.
4. Tap “Paid promotion and brands”.
5. Under “Paid Promotion”, tap “Yes”.

On a computer, the same page gives a path in YouTube Studio: click “Content”, then the video, then “Show More”, check the box that begins “My video contains paid promotion”, and click “SAVE”. Both paths work on a published video.

Is the platform’s paid partnership label enough on its own?

Not everywhere, so switch the label on and add your own disclosure. On TikTok and Instagram the label reads “Paid partnership”, and the 5 Key Principles of the EU’s national consumer authorities list “partnership” among the ambiguous words to avoid.

The duty stays yours when you use the tool: the same document says a platform’s tool “does not take away the legal responsibility” to disclose, and TikTok, YouTube and Instagram say as much about their own tools.

In the United States, treat the label as an extra. The FTC staff brochure, Disclosures 101, says: “Don’t assume that a platform’s disclosure tool is good enough, but consider using it in addition to your own, good disclosure.” The FTC’s Endorsement Guides give an example in which a built-in label appears in small white text on a light image, on a post visible for five seconds: “The disclosure is easy to miss and thus not clear and conspicuous.”

In the UK, check that your label is clear: the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the consumer regulator, accepts such tools “provided the label is clear and easy to see or access” (creator guidance). A platform’s label may also not be enough on its own, according to 2026 research by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s advertising self-regulator. That finding is cited in advice from the executive of the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), which writes the codes the ASA enforces.

In France, the law leaves the question open: Article 5-2 of the law on commercial influence (June 9, 2023) accepts “publicité”, “collaboration commerciale” or equivalent wording, and does not say whether a platform’s label is one. The Ministry of the Economy’s page for influencers says to use the platform’s feature, and the ARPP’s recommendation accepts such a tool when the result is instant, explicit and legible.

Where does your own disclosure go?

Put it in the video itself, at the start, and again at the start of the caption. No single authority states the whole instruction: combining the three below is this guide’s reading.

It goes in the video because Disclosures 101 says “the disclosure should be in the video and not just in the description uploaded with the video”. It goes at the start because the CMA says it “must be given at the beginning of the ad”. And it is repeated in the caption because of the European Commission’s legal brief #6: when the disclosure is only in the video, it says, viewers who do not watch the whole video “will likely not be able to easily see your disclosure”.

A screen recording with music and no voice should carry text on screen; if you talk, say it as well. The FTC staff FAQ on the Endorsement Guides says the disclosure should be at least visual when you endorse visually, at least audible when you endorse audibly, and both when you do both.

Write the caption so that the disclosure shows without a tap. The same FAQ asks for it to be readable on Instagram without clicking “more”.

Name the brand too: the French ministry’s page says you must identify the advertiser.

Stories, live streams and Instagram videos

On a story, superimpose the disclosure over the picture and, in the words of Disclosures 101, “make sure viewers have enough time to notice and read it”.

In a live stream, repeat it: Disclosures 101 wants it “repeated periodically”.

In an Instagram video, use text over the footage, not an opening card: Instagram’s policies bar title cards in a video’s first three seconds.

The places that do not count

Do not rely on the bio, the comments, a brand tag or a discount code. Disclosures 101 says disclosures are likely to be missed “if they appear only on an ABOUT ME or profile page”, and the FTC staff FAQ calls a disclosure in the comments “easily avoidable”. The CMA adds: “It is not enough just to tag a brand in your post, use discount codes or affiliate links.”

If your link is in your bio, say it is an ad in the video and add a short line beside the link. The FTC staff FAQ answers a similar case, a reviewer with commission links under a video: “You should disclose the affiliate relationship both in the videos and in the description near the links.”

How long does the disclosure have to stay on screen?

Long enough to notice and read it. None of the regulators’ texts sets a number of seconds; the test comes from Disclosures 101, which gives it for a story.

Placement matters as much. Asked about “#ad” at or near the end of a post, the FTC staff FAQ answers that the FTC “doesn’t dictate where you have to place the disclosure”, and that a disclosure placed in the middle or at the end is easier to miss.

Which words work as a disclosure?

Choose the word by the language of the video: the 5 Key Principles ask for wording “in the language used in the post/video”, as does Disclosures 101. In English, use “Advertisement”, the only wording in the table below that no US, UK or EU source restricts or tells you to avoid. In French, use “Publicité”, which the law names.

In the United States, “Advertisement” or “Ad” at the start of a post “would likely be effective”, in the words of the FTC staff FAQ. “Sponsored” there “might also be effective”, and “Sponsored by” plus the brand “would be clearer”. Disclosures 101 names “Sponsored” too and puts “collab” among the terms to avoid. The table’s verdicts on “Gifted” and “affiliate link” come from the same staff FAQ.

In the UK, the CMA names “Advertisement” and “Ad” and tells you to avoid “Sponsored”, “Collab”, “Gifted” and “Affiliate”, which it lists as hashtags (“#sponsored”, “#collab”, “#gifted”, “#affiliate”). The CAP advice says the ASA is likely to expect “Ad” upfront. In the EU, the 5 Key Principles recommend “Advertisement”, do not name “Ad” and say to avoid abbreviations; they also tell you to avoid “collaboration”.

In France, the law’s own words are “Publicité” and, in full, “Collaboration commerciale”. The other verdicts are the ARPP’s. It accepts “Sponsorisé par” and rules out “Sponsored” and “Collab”. It treats “Ad” as a foreign-language term, not to be used, and rules out foreign-language terms such as #gift too.

For an English-language video watched in France, show both words. That is this guide’s reading of a case that stays open: the 5 Key Principles point to the language of the video, the ARPP recommendation to French terms.

On Yousie, the word “collab” names the deal and does not disclose it. Nor does “Gifted by” cover it: FTC staff say “Gifted by” plus the brand “should be sufficient” when a free product is all you received, and if you are paid per install you have received more.

What do the rules require in the US, the UK, the EU and France?

In all four, content you were paid or rewarded to post has to be recognizable as advertising.

How binding is each text?

In the United States, the Endorsement Guides set the standard: a connection the audience does not expect “must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously”. The Guides are the FTC’s official reading of the law it enforces, and describe themselves as “administrative interpretations”. The FTC staff FAQ says they “don’t have the force of law”, though going against them can lead to enforcement. Disclosures 101 and the FAQ are staff guidance, and mostly say “should”.

In the UK, the CMA guidance explains consumer protection law, which is set out in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The CAP advice is not a ruling: it states that it binds neither CAP nor the ASA.

In France, article 5-2 makes the absence of clear, legible and understandable wording a misleading commercial practice, unless the commercial intent is already apparent from the context.

The European Union has, in the words of the European Commission’s legal brief #2, “no explicit law for influencers at European level”. Article 26(2) of the EU’s Digital Services Act obliges online platforms to give users a way to declare that their content is commercial, which explains the platform settings.

Which posts and which creators are covered?

Every post. The disclosure goes on each paid post: the 5 Key Principles call it necessary to “individually label each commercial communication”.

Small accounts. The CMA guidance applies “no matter how many followers you have”.

Posting from another country. Living abroad does not by itself put you outside the US or the French rules. Disclosures 101 says US law applies to a post from abroad “if it’s reasonably foreseeable that the post will affect U.S. consumers”, and the French ministry’s page says the French rules apply to those who address a French audience. Yousie’s creator obligations page lists the exceptions to the French rules.

Does a deal paid per download or through a link count?

Disclose it like any paid post, on this guide’s reading. No regulator mentions pay per download, but the texts cover a reward that depends on results. The Endorsement Guides list “the possibility of being paid” among the connections with a brand that have to be disclosed. The CMA counts “commissions” as payment. The 5 Key Principles mention a “percentage from affiliate links”, and the French ministry’s page a percentage of sales.

A Yousie collab is that kind of deal. This guide calls it pay per download for short. What a collab pays for is each install and each subscription the brand confirms, when it comes through your personal Yousie link. Both the creator dashboard and the creator guide show what a collab pays you after Yousie’s 20% commission. For the deal itself, read how app collabs work; for a first one, how to start as a creator without followers.

The dashboard hands you a tracking link, not a disclosure. A collab’s page opens with a panel named “Your link”, and its advice is “Put it in your bio or under your video.” Nothing in the dashboard marks a post for you. The disclosure is your job under the terms of use, which ask for it “in the content itself and in a way the audience cannot miss”, and the collab agreement forbids the brand to ask you to hide or play down the deal.

What happens if you do not disclose?

On the platforms

TikTok says it may remove or restrict a post without the proper disclosure. Its business help page adds that TikTok notifies you when it suspects undisclosed branded content: you then have 24 hours to switch the setting on or appeal before the video loses eligibility for the For You feed.

YouTube may add the label itself, or remove the content. Instagram’s pages do not say.

Under the law

In France, a misleading commercial practice is punishable by two years’ imprisonment and a fine of €300,000, raised to five years and €750,000 when it is committed online: that is article L. 132-2 of the Code de la consommation.

In the UK, the maximum penalty for banned practices, undisclosed paid promotion among them, is the higher of £300,000 or 10% of worldwide turnover, according to the CMA’s guidance on unfair commercial practices.

In the United States, the person who posts can be liable. The Endorsement Guides say endorsers “may also be liable for failing to disclose unexpected material connections”, and the FTC staff FAQ adds that “the FTC could seek substantial civil penalties” after a Notice of Penalty Offenses, a document the FTC sends to companies listing conduct it has already ruled unfair or deceptive.

The brand shares the duty: the FTC staff FAQ places it on “the influencer and the brand – not the platform”. How influencer marketing for mobile apps works covers the brand’s side.

On Yousie

If content you publish for a collab does not meet Yousie’s terms, it can lose its results: its installs and confirmed subscriptions stop counting toward your earnings, and the account may be suspended or closed. Under the collab agreement, a brand that sees a post for its collab without a clear disclosure asks you to correct it.

What does this guide not settle?

It covers four jurisdictions and three platforms on one date. Other countries and other platforms have rules of their own. One question also stays open, the English-language video watched in France: see the section on words.

EU law may change. The European Commission describes a Digital Fairness Act as “currently under preparation”, with “misleading marketing by influencers” among the problems it is meant to address.

A disclosure does not make every promotion lawful. In France, finance, crypto, gambling and health products carry bans, authorizations or required wording, and retouched or AI-generated images need wording of their own. Yousie’s creator obligations page lists what you may not promote and the rules on images.

What about cross-posting, or a post you forgot to label?

The same video on all three platforms. Switch on each platform’s own setting. Keep the disclosure inside the video, shown and spoken, so it travels with the video, and add the caption line on each platform.

A post that went out without the setting. Switch it on from the post itself, which all three platforms allow, and add your own line to the caption wherever the app lets you edit it. Instagram’s page says a caption can be edited after posting; the TikTok and YouTube pages cited here do not say.

For the law in more detail, read Yousie’s creator obligations. Before you post, run the creator tips checklist.