How Does Google Disclose Sponsored Ads?
Does Google have a sentence next to each “sponsored” search engine listing saying, “I received payment from this brand in exchange for putting this ad here.” That sounds silly, they just put a pretty image that says “Ad.”
Bloggers How Can You Copy?
Instead of saying “I received this product in exchange for writing this review, all opinions….” or “This is a sponsored post in behalf of….” or “spilling out ever boring step you did to receive this $5.00 product you are reviewing” try what Google does:
On The Actual Blog Post:
You don’t need to have a sentence explaining your life story on how you get paid to review products bloggers. The New York Times, Buzz Feed and The Washington Post don’t (see examples). Notice how DigiDay uses the same yellow color as Google does when their content is sponsored:
What About FTC Disclosure:
Read the FTC disclosure again carefully. They just emphasize the proximity and prominence of the disclosure, not dictate what it actually must be. The do give you suggestion for Twitter. They say to use “#Ad” “Ad:” or “Sponsored” in tweets to be ultra-clear that a tweet or link within a tweet includes compensated content. What makes a blog post any different? Here are some buttons you could download and use on your blog:
Download Proper FTC Disclosure Buttons:
Here are 4 example disclosure buttons that you can download and use on your blog:
