It’s about to get little easier to spot when your favorite Instagram account is shamelessly pushing merchandise in your face in exchange for a payout.
The popular photo sharing app announced on its blog this morning it’ll start using a new format that makes it clear when pictures or Stories are being paid for. “Influencers” will tag their content with the “Paid partnership with” sub-header whenever a post is part of a brand arrangement.
Instagram’s blog said the new feature “makes the nature of the [business] relationship more transparent for the community.” The tag will also come with a tool allowing the creator and business to check a post’s engagement.
The influencer hustle is a serious business. The average price for an Instagram post is $300, according to Ad Week. If you’re good looking, congratulations, because models make the most money doing it.
And obviously, the bigger the following, the bigger the paycheck. Accounts with more than 100,000 followers can rake in $800 per post. Kim Kardashian — the queen bee of influencers — can command up to $500,000 for sharing a post with her 101 million followers.
Instagram’s move is a step towards curbing a consistent trend among its influencers.
The Federal Trade Commission has been cracking down on creators who fail to share their brand arrangement within the first three lines of a post. A report from Mediakix earlier this week showed more than 90 percent of influencers violated FTC guidelines.