In a move that is being viewed as a sign that influencer marketing is now one step closer to being professionalised, Instagram has just launched its first paid partnership labelling tool, available to all users around the world, which appears below any given user’s name to indicate an advertiser relationship.

According to Digiday, before users post, they will be prompted to confirm if they’ve been incentivised to promote something, although labelled posts won’t be treated differently to organic ones in news feeds.

Instagram will also be creating a tool to help advertisers understand how products are being promoted by users, as well as to request the removal of inadequately labelled posts.

More data will also be provided for marketers, such as conversion and brand-lift metrics, to encourage companies to require the influencers they use to disclose any and all commercial relationships.

The move comes after the Competition and Markets Authority carried out an investigation last year into misleading online endorsements, calling out celebrities like Rita Ora and Ellie Goulding for failing to disclose that they had been rewarded for posts on social media.

Influencer marketing can have a hugely positive impact on your brand, in part because such individuals are usually experts in their chosen fields or because they’re staunch supporters of a particular cause.

Influencers with fewer followers can actually see better engagement rates because they have closer relationships with those that do follow them and are more likely to respond to comments and questions.

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