The Effects of the FTC Policy and Affiliation Disclosures on Product Review Video Engagement: Evidence from YouTube

Practice- and Policy-Oriented Abstract Affiliate marketing on social media involves content creators posting product reviews with affiliate links, through which they earn a commission from resulting purchases. The FTC’s disclosure guidelines require creators to reveal affiliate relationships alongside product reviews. This paper examines how the FTC policy affects viewer engagement with affiliated content, defined as product review videos containing affiliate links. We find that after the FTC policy implementation, viewer engagement with affiliated content significantly decreases relative to nonaffiliated content. However, affiliation disclosure moderates this effect: after the policy, affiliated content with disclosures receives higher engagement than affiliated content without disclosures. The mitigating effect of disclosures varies across content creator and video characteristics. The mitigating effect is more pronounced for more experienced creators, more popular creators, and more negative videos. This paper provides important empirical evidence on disclosure policies’ effects on viewer engagement, addressing a notable gap in the literature. Our findings also have important implications for policymakers designing effective disclosure regulations, content creators managing compliance while maintaining viewer engagement, and social media platforms implementing disclosure features. This paper finds that whereas disclosure policies may lower engagement with affiliated content, proper disclosures can signal credibility and increase engagement.