TikTok branded content toggle: how to disclose paid partnerships

TikTok says you must turn on the disclosure setting whenever a post promotes a brand, product or service, including your own. Legal rules vary by country. In the US, TikTok points to the FTC's Endorsement Guides. TikTok flags a video as commercial content when it shows clear marketing intent through these signals:

• Financial incentives: money or benefits for promoting something, such as URLs, promo codes, hashtags, collaboration mentions, QR codes or overlay ads.
• Brand mentions: a brand's name as a hashtag or @tag, or a logo on screen.
• Product recommendations: demos, tutorials or calls to action such as buy now or shop today.
• TikTok's advertiser page adds that a video with no obvious financial incentive can still be flagged if it has both a brand mention and a product recommendation.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for creators, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for advertisers, checked 15 October 2026

TikTok's steps in the app:

1. Create a post as usual.
2. On the post screen, tap Content disclosure and ads. If you're not part of TikTok One, tap More options first, then Content disclosure and ads.
3. Turn on Disclose commercial content.
4. Choose Your brand or Branded content.
5. If you chose Branded content, tap Brand partnership to tag the brand you're working with.
6. Tap Save, then Continue to confirm.
7. Leave the More options menu and tap Post.

Source: TikTok Business Help Center: How to turn on the Commercial Content Disclosure setting in TikTok, checked 15 October 2026

Each route ends with the same switch:

1. Existing post: go to your profile, open the post, tap More options, then Ad settings, and turn on Disclose commercial content.
2. LIVE: tap Add post, choose LIVE, tap Settings, then Content disclosure, and turn on Disclose commercial content before you go LIVE.
3. Web: click Upload, select your video, click Show more and turn on Disclose commercial content.
4. In each case, pick Your brand or Branded content, tag a brand partner if needed, and save.

Source: TikTok Business Help Center: How to turn on the Commercial Content Disclosure setting in TikTok, checked 15 October 2026

The choice decides the label viewers see:

• Tagging a brand partner adds the post to that brand's Content Suite, where they can find it and run it as a Spark Ad.
• The tag pre-authorises the post for Spark Ads for 60 days by default.
• Projects run through TikTok One switch the disclosure on automatically.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: How to turn on the Commercial Content Disclosure setting in TikTok, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About the Brand Partner tag in content disclosure settings, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for advertisers, checked 15 October 2026

TikTok says no. It compared nearly 2 million videos with and without proper disclosure and found no performance difference (a 2023 TikTok Marketing Science study tested in Indonesia and Pakistan). The risk runs the other way: TikTok says commercial content that isn't disclosed may not be eligible for the For You feed.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for creators, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for advertisers, checked 15 October 2026

You get an in-app notification. What to do:

1. Respond within 24 hours. After that, the video becomes ineligible for the For You feed.
2. If the post is commercial, turn on the disclosure setting from the notification.
3. If it isn't, submit an appeal. TikTok suggests reading its Branded Content Policy first.
4. Only the original poster can appeal. If you're a brand, ask the creator to respond.
5. A successful appeal makes the video eligible for the For You feed again.

Sources: TikTok Business Help Center: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for creators, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Business Help Center: About the Commercial Content Disclosure setting for advertisers, checked 15 October 2026

Zolyp, which publishes this guide, is an AI social media manager: it plans, writes, designs and schedules posts for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads, and you approve the week before anything goes out. Whichever tool publishes a sponsored post, check on TikTok that the disclosure setting is on once it's live.