by Google
Advertising has become a completely normal part of social networks, and Instagram is no different. Influencers engage in various paid collaborations, create sponsored posts or stories, but the vaguely defined rules of this social network can be confusing for creators, and they often do not know how to label the advertisement correctly. For this reason, we decided to do some research, study the rules and create a simple how-to guide for you, the creators.
• When do you (not) have to mark advertising?
• Tagging using the paid partnership function
WHEN SHOULD YOU (NOT) TAG AN AD?
It is not easy for every ordinary person to recognize an advertisement on the Internet, especially if it is not visibly marked. Before we explain the proper way to label ads, it's important to look at what is considered advertising. Using a very simple definition, we can define advertising as the promotion, publication, support or communication of a product, information or opinions about a product or service, or an organization, with a focus on for sale. In other words, any promotional activity whose goal is to sell a product or service. This includes any commercial cooperation such as: paid cooperation, barter cooperation, discount codes, embassies, PR packages, gifts from brands, PR events, competitions and others.
EXAMPLE OF COMMERCIAL COOPERATION:
All the above mentioned types of commercial collaborations are considered advertising and must always be marked without exception. You can even get a lot for not tagging an ad on Instagram high fine. However, if it is not a commercial cooperation, but a voluntary brand support based on an excellent experience, then the creator does not have to mark his post as an advertisement and it is completely fine. What do we mean by this and how to distinguish it?
Imagine such a situation. A Swedish furniture company approaches an influencer with an offer to participate in a campaign aimed at spreading awareness of their new menu item, vegan balls. The influencer accepts the offer and communicates the new currency on his social networks for a fee or other benefits. In this case, it is an advertisement and it is necessary for the creator to indicate such cooperation.
From our own practice, we can show you an example when we obtained free products through cooperation, which we presented on our social networks. And since it was an ad, we added the #collaboration #ad visible tag to the story.
EXAMPLE OF LOVEBRAND SUPPORT:
In another case, such a situation may arise. In addition to shopping, the influencer often and likes to have lunch at a Swedish company selling furniture. He notices that they have a new item on the menu, vegan balls. He orders the novelty, tastes it and lets his fans know about it without the right to a reward. In this case, it is not a commercial collaboration and there is no need to mark the advertisement.
Another example of our practice was when we bought cookies from a local pastry shop and since they were very tasty, we decided to share them with our fans. However, since there was no collaboration involved, we did not use any of the advertising hashtags in the story. Can you see the difference?
While in the first case the influencer was approached with the aim of creating an ad about the given product for a fee or other benefits and actively participated in the advertising campaign, in the second case the influencer was not part of any pre-agreed marketing cooperation and he let his fans know about the product spontaneously, because he simply liked it.
HOW TO CORRECTLY MARK AN AD?
Now that you know what is considered advertising, it is very important to ensure that it is always clearly marked. There are several different labels on Instagram depending on the type of ad. In general, we could distinguish 2 basic ways of tagging commercial collaborations, namely tagging directly using the Instagram tools built into the app or via hashtags.
TAGING USING THE PAID PARTNERSHIP FEATURE
In the case of Instagram tools, creators have the option to tag an ad using the "tag a business partner" function. They can do so both in posts and in stories on this social network, while sa will appear in the upper left corner of every photo or video tagged in this way notice "paid partnership with XY"or "paid partnership with XY". When using this type of label, influencers can also grant permission to promote their posts and stories to the brands they work with.
TAGING USING HASHTAGS
The second and in Slovakia much more used way of marking commercial collaborations are advertising hashtags, they often appear in Slovak or in English under advertising photos or videos. Popular advertising hashtags include:
1. #COOPERATION OR #AD
You can never go wrong using #collaboration or #ad. These are clear and universal hashtags that can be used for all types of ads. However, considering the target audience, we recommend considering which # will be placed in the post or story. If the influencer has an international audience, we recommend using #ad. On the other hand, if the creator addresses more Slovakia and the Czech Republic, it would be more appropriate to choose #spolupraca, or ideally both hashtags in the case of a combined audience, in order to avoid a language barrier, which can cause ambiguity in the labeling of the ad.
2. #GIFTED
This hashtag is ideal for situations where the influencer receives a PR package or other gifts from different brands. It is important to mention that companies send PR packages to influencers for the purpose of visibility, i.e. advertising, and therefore even if the influencer does not receive any fee for mentioning the brand, it is still advertising and it is in the best interest of the creator to communicate clearly to his fans. that it is a PR package.
3. #PREVENT
Presentation of a new product or the opening of a new business can also look like PR events. Their goal is nothing more than building awareness of their product or service and is therefore advertising. Influencers are often invited to PR events to use their influence on social networks, they let their audience know about the news and thus contributed to the visibility of the brand. Even in this case, you can't forget to mark the advertisement in the form of, for example, #PRevent.
Hashtags such as #collaboration, #ad, #gifted or #PRevent are among the most used, but they are not the only # that can be used when tagging ads, their similar variations such as e.g. #advert, #advertisement, #PRday and many more. It is more or less up to the influencer which advertising hashtag he chooses. The most important thing is that the advertisement is clearly and distinctly marked.
With influence comes responsibility, including in the form of marking commercial collaborations. We hope we've covered the topic of Instagram ad tagging in today's post, and we'd love for you to let us know what type of tagging you'll be using. If you found this article helpful, please help us spread this information by sharing it.
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