For Creators

The #ad disclosure rulebook

6 min read•Updated Sep 2026

1When #ad is required

Any post you make in exchange for payment or free product through Adswish is advertising under the UK CAP Code and CMA influencer guidance — even fixed-fee jobs where you are not paid per sale. The label must be upfront (not buried in a hashtag wall) and before a person engages with the content.

Adswish runs affiliate and hybrid campaigns with unique tracking links. UK rules treat tracked promo links the same as direct payment: the audience must know the link is advertising before they click.

2Where the label goes

TikTok: #ad must be the very first thing in the caption — the feed cuts captions around 150 characters, so anything later can be truncated away.
YouTube: descriptions fold after roughly two lines, so #ad goes on the first line of the description.
Instagram: captions truncate around 125 characters — keep #ad within the first line.

The platform #ad caption generator in your dashboard (next to every live tracking link) already places the label correctly for each platform — use it as your starting point and edit the personal wording, never the position of #ad.

3The attestation checkbox

When you submit a deliverable for an affiliate or hybrid campaign you attest — with a checkbox — that the post will carry a #ad label. The business sees that attestation when they review your work. Submitting without the flag is rejected for affiliate and hybrid campaigns: the attestation is server-enforced, not just a UI nicety.

Fixed-fee-only submissions don't ask for the checkbox today, but the labelling duty still applies to any paid post — see section 1.

4Reminders and escalation

If your submission has no attestation when a business is about to review it, Adswish emails you a reminder with caption templates. If you still haven't attested 48 hours later, the reviewing business is notified too. Repeated unlabelled posts are a profile risk: businesses can reject deliverables, which revokes the tracking link and stops future conversions.

5The caption generator

Open Dashboard → Campaigns, find your live affiliate link, and use the disclosure prompt beside it. Pick your platform, drop in a sentence about the product, and copy the result — the #ad label is already positioned where each platform keeps it visible.

New here? Start with the getting-started guide →

6Frequently asked questions

Where should the #ad label go in a TikTok caption?

At the very start — TikTok collapses captions after roughly 150 characters, so a label placed later can be hidden until the viewer expands the post.

Is the #ad attestation optional?

No. The attestation is server-enforced — an affiliate or hybrid submission without it is rejected.

What happens if I submit without disclosing?

You are reminded before the business reviews the post, and the platform escalates the issue to the business at 48 hours.