How to Disclose Affiliate Links the Right Way (FTC Basics)

90% of new affiliates worry that admitting they earn a commission will scare people off.

In practice, the opposite tends to be true: audiences trust affiliates who are upfront more than ones who hide it.

And regardless of how it affects conversions, it isn't a choice. If you earn a commission from a link, you have to say so.

The good news is that the rules are simpler than the legalese suggests. This guide covers the basics in plain language.

A quick note: this is general information, not legal advice, and I'm not a lawyer. If you're running large campaigns, promoting regulated products like finance or health, or operating across multiple countries, it's worth having someone qualified review your approach.

What the FTC actually requires

The relevant rules come from the FTC's Endorsement Guides, which interpret the law against deceptive advertising.

The core idea is a single concept: the material connection.

A material connection is any relationship between you and a brand that your audience wouldn't expect and would want to know about, because it might affect how much weight they give your recommendation. An affiliate commission is unambiguously a material connection.

So are free products, gifted items, sponsorships, discounts, perks like free trips or tickets, employment, ownership, and even a close personal relationship with the brand.

The FTC doesn't care what you call the money. Commission, referral fee, bounty, revenue share, store credit. If you get something of value when someone acts on your recommendation, disclose it.

A useful test: would your audience care that you received something of value? If yes, say so.

The standard: clear and conspicuous

Everything comes down to two words: clear and conspicuous. That's the actual legal standard, and it's less about the exact wording you use than about whether an ordinary person would actually notice and understand it.

In practice, this means:

• Unavoidable. The reader shouldn't have to hunt for it, click anything, or scroll past your links to find it.
• Before the endorsement. Put it where people see it before they act, not after.
• Plain language. Words an ordinary person understands immediately.
• Same format as the content. A visual disclosure for visual content, spoken for audio, both for video.

A disclosure that technically exists somewhere on the page but takes effort to find does not meet the standard, even though it's there.

Where to put it, by platform

Placement is where most affiliates go wrong, so here's the practical version.

Blog posts and articles

Put it at the top, before the first paragraph and before any affiliate link. A sitewide footer disclaimer isn't enough, because someone landing on your post from a search engine passes every link before they'd ever reach the footer.

YouTube

Disclose in the video itself, not just the description. Say it out loud near the beginning, and also include it in the description near your links. Plenty of viewers never scroll down.

Instagram

First line of the caption, before the "more" cut-off. For Stories, put it on the frame itself, not just in a bio link. If a carousel has separate recommendations across slides, don't assume one caption covers all of them.

TikTok and short-form video

On screen and, ideally, spoken. Short videos get watched fast and often muted, so a visible label on the video itself is more reliable than a caption people scroll past.

Livestreams

Repeat it. Viewers join at different points, so a single mention at the start means most of your audience never hears it. Periodic disclosures, or a persistent on-screen one, are the safe approach.

Email and newsletters

Near the top, before the first affiliate recommendation. Not in the unsubscribe footer, and not behind a link to a separate disclosure page.

Podcasts

Say it out loud, near the recommendation itself. A line in the show notes alone doesn't reach listeners.

Wording that works

The FTC doesn't publish a mandatory script. What matters is clarity.

These all work:

• "Affiliate links below. I may earn a commission if you buy through them."
• "I earn a commission from purchases made through links in this post."
• "This post contains affiliate links, meaning I get paid if you purchase."
• "#ad" or "#sponsored" placed where it's immediately visible

And these don't:

• "Partnered with," "in collaboration with," or "supported by," since none of them signal that money changes hands
• "#sp," "#collab," "#thanks," "#ambassador," or vague hashtags an ordinary person wouldn't decode
• Anything buried at the end of a long hashtag block
• A link to a separate page explaining your disclosure policy

The rule of thumb: if a stranger reading quickly wouldn't immediately understand that you get paid, it isn't clear enough.

Platform tags aren't a complete answer

Most platforms now offer built-in tools, like paid partnership labels or automatic commission tags.

Use them, but don't rely on them alone.

They're a supplement, not a substitute, because they're easy to miss and they don't always convey what an ordinary viewer needs to understand.

There's a narrow exception worth knowing: where a platform's own affiliate program applies an automatic "creator earns commission" tag and that program is your only connection to the brand, that tag has been treated as sufficient on its own.

But the moment you have any additional relationship on top, a paid collaboration, an ambassador deal, anything extra, the tag alone doesn't cover you.

Common mistakes

The ones that catch people most often:

• Relying on a footer or bio disclosure: Readers never see it before they click.
• Disclosing after the recommendation: By then they've already acted on it.
• Disclosing once and assuming it carries: Every post, video, and email needs its own.
• Using vague language: "Partnered with" doesn't tell anyone you get paid.
• Forgetting discount codes: If your code earns you a commission, that's a material connection too.
• Assuming gifted products don't count: Free product is compensation.
• Skipping it on reposted content: If you repost something with your affiliate link in it, you still disclose.
• Not checking mobile: A disclosure that's visible on desktop and cut off on a phone doesn't do its job.

Why enforcement is worth taking seriously

The FTC treats undisclosed material connections as deceptive advertising, and it has become noticeably more focused on how disclosures hold up in real content rather than whether they technically exist somewhere.

Its rules also now specifically target fake and manipulated reviews, which carry civil penalties that adjust annually and run well into five figures per violation.

Beyond regulators, there are practical consequences.

Platforms remove non-compliant content and suspend accounts, programs terminate affiliates who create risk for them, and your audience loses trust in you if they discover a relationship you didn't mention.

Worth knowing if you also run a program: brands share responsibility for their affiliates' disclosures.

If you're a merchant, that means training your affiliates, giving them compliant language to use, and monitoring what goes out.

A note if you're outside the US

The FTC's rules apply to content reaching US consumers, but they're not the only rules.

The UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and others have their own advertising standards with similar principles and different specifics.

If your audience is international, the safe approach is the same either way: disclose clearly, every time, where people will actually see it.

Conclusion

Disclosure isn't the obstacle new affiliates think it is.

Say plainly that you earn a commission, put it where people see it before they click, use words an ordinary person understands, and do it on every piece of content.

That's most of the compliance right there.

It's also just good practice.

The affiliates who build durable income are the ones whose audiences believe them, and being upfront about how you get paid is part of earning that.

Ready to find programs worth being honest about? Browse the Affilitrak marketplace and join free.