Frontiers: How much influencer marketing is undisclosed? Evidence from Twitter
File(s)influencers_final.pdf (724.43 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Ershov, Daniel
He, Yanting
Seiler, Stephan
Type
Journal Article
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.
Date Issued
2025-05-01
Date Acceptance
2024-12-30
Citation
Marketing Science, 2025, 44 (3), pp.505-515
ISSN
0732-2399
Publisher
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
Start Page
505
End Page
515
Journal / Book Title
Marketing Science
Volume
44
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2025, INFORMS. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2025-03-24