Frontiers: How Much Influencer Marketing Is Undisclosed? Evidence from Twitter

Daniel Ershov (), Yanting He () and Stephan Seiler ()
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Daniel Ershov: School of Management, University College London, London E14 5AA, United Kingdom; and Center for Economic Policy Research, London EC1V 0DX, United Kingdom
Yanting He: Business School, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
Stephan Seiler: Center for Economic Policy Research, London EC1V 0DX, United Kingdom; and Business School, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

Marketing Science, 2025, vol. 44, issue 3, 505-515

Abstract: We study the disclosure of influencer posts on Twitter across a large set of brands based on a unique data set of over 100 million posts and a novel classification method to detect undisclosed sponsorship. Using our preferred empirical specification, we find that 96% of sponsored posts are not disclosed. This result is robust to a series of specification tests, and even a lower-bound classification still yields an undisclosed share of 82%. Despite stronger enforcement of disclosure regulations, the share of undisclosed posts decreases only slightly over time. Compared with disclosed posts, undisclosed posts tend to be associated with young brands with a large Twitter following. Using an online survey, we find that many consumers are not able to identify sponsored content without disclosure. Our findings highlight a potential need for further regulatory scrutiny and suggest that researchers studying influencers must account for undisclosed sponsored content.

Keywords: social media; influencer marketing; advertising disclosure; consumer protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:44:y:2025:i:3:p:505-515

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