Affiliate Disclosure Compliance: FTC Rules and How to Audit Your Site

Short answer: If you earn commission from links on your site, the FTC says you must tell readers, before they click, in language anyone can understand. The penalties for getting it wrong run from warning letters to six-figure fines.

What the FTC actually requires

The FTC Endorsement Guides set three rules:

Clear language. "I get paid when you buy through these links" is fine. "Some links may be affiliate" is not, because "may" hides the relationship.
Conspicuous placement. The disclosure must appear before the first affiliate link, not in a footer or on a separate page.
Per-platform. Every channel needs its own disclosure: blog post, YouTube description, Instagram caption, TikTok bio.

What good disclosure looks like

The shortest compliant disclosure on a blog post is a single sentence near the top:

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

For Amazon Associates, you must use their exact wording in addition: "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."

The 4-step disclosure audit

1. List every page that contains affiliate links

Use any site crawler. Filter outbound links by network domain: amazon.com/dp, awin1.com, shareasale.com, and so on.

2. Scan each page for a disclosure block

Look for any of: "affiliate", "commission", "earn", "paid", "sponsored". Pages with affiliate links but no matching keyword are non-compliant.

3. Check the placement

The disclosure must sit above the first affiliate link in the rendered HTML. A footer-only disclosure does not count.

4. Repeat on social

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X each need their own check. Hashtags like #ad must appear in the visible portion of the caption, not after the "more" cutoff.

Common compliance gaps we see

Old posts written before disclosure rules tightened, never updated.
Imported posts (newsletter to blog, blog to syndication) that lose the disclosure block in transit.
"Round-up" pages where the disclosure sits below ten product cards.
Affiliate buttons added by a third-party widget that bypasses the editorial disclosure.

Automate the recheck

One-off audits drift fast. Continuous monitoring flags new pages that ship without a disclosure and lets you fix them before they get traffic. Our scanner does this as part of its standard crawl. Run a free site scan to see your current coverage.

Frequently asked questions

Is an FTC disclosure legally required?

In the US, yes. The FTC Endorsement Guides require clear and conspicuous disclosure when a creator has a material connection to a brand they recommend. Affiliate commission counts.

Where should the disclosure appear?

Above the fold and before the first affiliate link. Burying it in a footer or on a separate "disclosure" page is not considered conspicuous.

Does "as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases" satisfy the rules?

For Amazon links specifically, yes, that exact wording is required by Amazon. For other networks, you still need a separate disclosure that names the relationship clearly.

Do I need disclosure on social posts too?

Yes. The FTC has warned creators and penalized companies over missing #ad and #sponsored tags on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Hashtags must be visible without expanding the caption.

How can I audit my pages for missing disclosures?

A site crawl that searches for affiliate domains alongside disclosure phrases catches the gaps. Our scanner flags pages where affiliate links appear without a matching disclosure block.