B2B influencer marketing disclosure policy: clause by clause

What to take away

A B2B influencer marketing disclosure policy is the written rule set that explains how a paid creator's commercial relationship will be made obvious to the audience.

The six clauses to draft

Write the policy in this order, one short clause each. A creator and a campaign manager should be able to read all six in one sitting.

Clause 1: the trigger

Put the rule first: if you are paid, given something of value, or asked to promote us, label it. A creator then never has to guess what counts, and an audience size or a niche readership never becomes the excuse.

Cash payment is the obvious trigger, but not the only one. Free software licences, paid travel and affiliate commission create the same duty when the brand controls what is said. Name each of them in the clause.

Gifts are the grey area. A sample sent with no conditions or briefing is rarely advertising; one sent with a deadline and a hashtag request is. Tell the team to check the brief before they decide.

A brand that approves drafts or pays a retainer has a commercial relationship with the creator. Long-running relationships need the same label on every paid post, not just the first one.

A professional audience does not exempt a paid post. A post read by a small group of procurement managers needs the same label as one read by a mainstream audience.

Clauses 2 and 3: wording and position

Placement decides whether a disclosure works. The label belongs in the post text before the "see more" cut, at the start of a video, and in the first visible frame of an image. Write that into the policy as a position rule, not a preference.

Profile bios and hashtag blocks fail on their own. A reader who sees one post may never open the profile. Short video needs the disclosure twice: a spoken line and on-screen text in the opening seconds.

Platform tools help but do not settle it. Check each platform's current paid-partnership or paid-promotion tool on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and use it where available alongside a visible label in the content. A label hidden behind a click or shown only on a profile does not count on its own.

Clause 4: situations

The table maps five common B2B situations to the label choice that works and the one to avoid. Paste it into the policy appendix so a campaign manager can check a deal in seconds.

Where a campaign reaches buyers in the United States, the FTC's business guidance resources are the starting point for checking how US rules apply. US guidance expects disclosure to be clear and conspicuous, which can mean changing the wording even when the placement stays the same. This is general guidance only, so individual cases need a qualified adviser.

Clause 5: correcting a post that went live unlabelled

Pause the campaign, ask for an edit in writing, and record the request. If the post stays up unlabelled, the contract should let you withhold payment or ask for removal. Put that step in the signed contract before work starts.

Escalate in writing rather than in comments. Keep the brief, the request and the date in one folder, because the paper trail decides who carries the cost.

Clause 6: records and review

The CAP Code does not set one universal retention period for these records. Specify a proportionate period in the policy and delete records when they are no longer needed, in line with the UK GDPR's storage limitation principle.

Date each version of the policy and review it once a year. Review it sooner when a platform changes its paid partnership tools or you enter a new market.

One cite to avoid: the Digital Economy Act 2017 is not the statute that sets advertising-disclosure duties. Point readers to Section 2 of the CAP Code and the UK rules and compliance guide instead.

A sample clause to adapt

Adapt this wording to your own contract and have it checked before it is signed. It covers the label, the video rule and the correction step in one place.

For every campaign post promoting [Brand], the Creator must identify the commercial relationship clearly and prominently at the start of the post using "Ad" or "Paid partnership with [Brand]", and use any relevant platform disclosure tool. For video, the disclosure must also be spoken and shown on screen at the start. If a post goes live without a clear label, the Creator must correct it promptly on written request or remove it if it cannot be corrected.

Common questions

Who is responsible for an unlabelled post?

Both sides. The brand is the advertiser, so the ASA can act against it, and the creator also carries a duty to disclose. A ruling can name the brand even when the creator pressed publish.

Does a free gift need a label?

It depends on the strings attached. A sample with no conditions or briefing is rarely advertising; one sent with a deadline and a hashtag request is.

Do we need one policy per platform?

No. One policy with a platform appendix is easier to keep current than four documents.

What should the policy say if a creator refuses to label?

Pause the campaign, ask for an edit in writing and record the request. The contract should then let you withhold payment or ask for removal.