Industry surveyBBB National Programs, 2025

Adding #ad or #sponsored usually does not make influencers seem more trustworthy to most US consumers.

Briefing creators

Reader Note:: The finding is that a disclosure hashtag on its own neither builds nor destroys trust: respondents said being told about a partnership usually does not reduce trust, and that #ad or #sponsored does not increase it. What moves trust is whether the influencer comes across as honest. The report publishes no percentage for this item. More than nine in ten respondents were women.
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Survey of 3,720+ U.S. consumers ages 18-65, fielded over 3 days in February 2025; 3,484 women, 235 men, and 5 non-binary respondents.

Good for

A rough sense of size and direction, and deciding what to look at first.

Not for

Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source talks about this as cause and effect — that is its reading, not a finding.
The source never says how this number was measured.

U.S. AI shoppers 55+ penalize hidden sponsorship 20+ points more than labeled; 25–34s react slightly the other way

Extra trust lost from hidden vs labelled sponsorship disclosure, by age group
Age group	Extra trust lost (points)
All AI users	10.5
18 to 24	3.6
25 to 34	-5.2
35 to 44	12.7
45 to 54	15.6

Saying the brand name out loud in sponsored creator content lifts branding by an average of 22 points in Kantar’s model

Branding in sponsored creator content: lift in branding percentile — Creator x Brand interaction elements (points)
Element	Lift in branding percentile (points)	Share of sponsored creator content featuring this element (%)
Brand name in audio	22	49%
Interaction with product	17	77%
Shopping activities in action	15	29%
Using the product	11	58%

Keyword and search strategy for influencer content ranks dead last in self-reported team capability, with a mean rank of 7.14 out of 8

Team capability by area, self-ranked from strongest to weakest (mean rank, 1-8)
Capability	Mean
#1 Influencer discovery and vetting	2.28
#2 Creative briefing	2.97
#3 Content review and quality control	3.86
#4 Consumer research and tribe identification	4.21
#5 Social listening and trend analysis	4.93

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Fixing your influencer marketing campaign: How to get into the top 10% of advertisers

Influencer briefs only include structured keyword strategy for both social and AI/LLM discoverability 13% of the time; most either provide only social search keywords or just general hashtags

Keyword and search guidance included in influencer briefs (% of marketers)
Guidance type	Share (%)
Keyword strategy for social search (TikTok, Instagram)	34%
General hashtag guidance but no structured keyword strategy	34%
Keyword strategy for both social search and AI/LLM discoverability	13%
Leave keyword and caption decisions to the influencer	9%
Have not considered search optimisation in influencer briefs	9%

0.75x

the conversion odds remained when sponsorship disclosure was present

70%

of U.S. consumers feel negative if an influencer fails to disclose being paid or given free product for promotion in February 2025

Adding #ad or #sponsored usually does not make influencers seem more trustworthy to most US consumers.

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