Brands Are Pushing Influencers to Hide Their Paid Deals

The chase for authentic-looking social media content is creating a strange incentive for brands: make the advertising look less like advertising.

Influencer marketing was built on a fairly simple premise. People are more likely to listen to people they trust than to traditional advertisements. A creator talking enthusiastically about a new skin-care product, restaurant or software platform can feel considerably more persuasive than seeing the same company in a banner ad.

The problem begins when brands decide that the best way to preserve that authenticity is to hide the fact that they paid for it.

A recent Business Insider report found that some brands are asking creators to avoid identifying sponsored posts as advertising. In a SheSpeaks survey cited by the publication, 18% of creators said they had been asked by brands not to disclose a paid partnership. Meanwhile, 84% said they always or almost always disclose partnerships, compared with 95% a decade earlier.

The incentive isn't particularly difficult to understand. Brands worry that labels such as "Ad," "Sponsored" and "Paid Partnership" immediately change how audiences perceive a post. Instead of seeing a recommendation from someone they follow, viewers suddenly see an advertisement.

There is even research suggesting that this concern isn't entirely imaginary. Academic studies have found that sponsorship disclosures can increase consumers' recognition that a post is advertising and, under some circumstances, reduce engagement. At the same time, researchers have also found that consumers can appreciate transparency, which can improve perceptions of an influencer's honesty.

That creates an uncomfortable temptation for marketers: remove the label and perhaps the advertisement works better.

The FTC Has a Different View

For marketers operating in the United States, however, disclosure isn't simply a matter of marketing preference. The Federal Trade Commission's guidance says influencers should disclose a "material connection" with a company when that relationship could affect how consumers interpret an endorsement. That connection can include payment, employment, personal relationships and even free or discounted products.

The disclosure also needs to be difficult to miss. Burying "#ad" among a thicket of hashtags or putting sponsorship information somewhere a user must click to see it may not be sufficient. In its revised Endorsement Guides, the FTC also made clear that advertisers, endorsers and intermediaries can potentially face liability.

In other words, asking a creator to make advertising appear organic doesn't make the commercial relationship disappear. It merely makes it invisible to the consumer.

The Bigger Problem Is Trust

There is another problem that might ultimately matter more to brands than engagement rates.

Influencers effectively rent out trust.

The valuable asset isn't necessarily the creator's Instagram account, TikTok following or YouTube subscriber count. It is the relationship that creator has accumulated with an audience over hundreds or thousands of interactions.

Undisclosed advertising borrows against that trust.

And we're starting to get a better idea of just how widespread undisclosed sponsorship may be. A 2025 study published in Marketing Science, analyzing a dataset of more than 100 million Twitter posts, estimated that 96% of sponsored posts were undisclosed under its preferred classification method. Even its more conservative estimate put the share at 82%.

That should concern legitimate advertisers because influencer marketing works best when audiences believe recommendations have some credibility.

Once every enthusiastic recommendation begins to look potentially purchased, the entire ecosystem becomes less valuable.

Marketers Should Be Building Assets They Actually Own

There is a broader marketing lesson here. Businesses have spent years chasing rented audiences. First it was Facebook followers. Then Instagram. Then TikTok. Now creators themselves have become another distribution channel companies can temporarily rent.

Influencer marketing can absolutely work, but businesses should pair it with channels that produce relationships they can continue developing after a campaign ends. That could mean turning campaign traffic into email subscribers, sales inquiries, product trials or qualified prospects.

For B2B companies in particular, tools such as Salesfully's B2B sales leads platform can help companies identify prospective customers rather than depending exclusively on social algorithms to put a message in front of the right people.

Businesses can also use Valkyrie, Salesfully's AI Sales Copilot to research companies and decision-makers, organize prospect information and assist with the outreach that happens after a potential customer has been identified.

That creates an important distinction.

Influencer marketing creates attention. A sales and marketing system should turn some of that attention into an audience, prospect list and customer relationships that the company controls.

Transparency May Become a Competitive Advantage

Trying to disguise advertising is ultimately an attempt to solve the wrong problem.

If consumers immediately lose interest when they learn an influencer was paid to promote something, marketers should ask whether the content was compelling enough in the first place.

The better response isn't to conceal the commercial relationship. It is to create partnerships where the creator actually fits the product, has room to speak naturally and can disclose the sponsorship without destroying the usefulness of the recommendation.

Advertising has always contained a little theater. Influencer marketing simply moved the stage into our feeds.

But there is a meaningful difference between making advertising entertaining and pretending advertising isn't advertising.

Brands that understand that distinction may ultimately end up with something more valuable than another spike in engagement: credibility.