How to Review a Sponsored Video Before It Goes Live: The Complete Checklist

A sponsored video that goes live with a problem in it is expensive in every direction: FTC exposure, a burned creator relationship, a public correction, or just a launch asset you can't amplify. The fix is unglamorous — a complete review before publish, every time. Here's the full checklist a careful reviewer walks, in the order that catches problems fastest.

1. Disclosure check

The highest-stakes item, so it goes first.

• Present — the material connection is disclosed at all
• Conspicuous — on-screen and verbal for video; near the start; legible long enough to actually read
• Unambiguous — "ad," "sponsored," "paid partnership." Not "#collab," "#sp," or "thanks to our friends at…"
• Format-proof — still works with sound off, in Stories/Shorts crops, and after platform compression
• Platform label used — the "Paid partnership" toggle where available, in addition to the creator's own disclosure

We covered the disclosure rules in depth in the FTC disclosure checklist.

2. Claims check

Every factual statement about the product is either in the brief or flagged:

• No efficacy, health, or results claims that legal hasn't cleared
• No guarantees ("this will…", "guaranteed to…") unless explicitly approved
• No pricing or promo terms that don't match the actual offer
• Personal-experience framing ("my skin cleared up") still counts as a claim when the brand pays for it
• Nothing that contradicts the label, the terms, or the fine print

3. Required content check

The inverse of the claims check — what must be there:

• Required talking points from the brief, all present
• Discount code / link correct and shown long enough to use
• Mandatory legal language (e.g., "results may vary," regulated-category boilerplate) included where the brief requires it

4. Competitor and exclusivity check

• No competitor products visible in frame — including background shots, shelfies, and previous-partnership merch
• No competitor mentions, comparisons, or "better than X" framing unless cleared
• Content doesn't violate an exclusivity window from the creator's other brand deals that you know about

5. Brand-safety and adjacency check

• Nothing in the video (language, gestures, background media, jokes) the brand can't stand next to
• Music is cleared or platform-licensed — a muted video kills the placement
• Visible third parties, minors, or private information handled appropriately
• The creator's surrounding content this week isn't a landmine the placement will sit inside

6. Technical and format check

• Correct aspect ratios and cuts for each platform in the plan
• Captions present and accurate (a big share of viewers watch muted — and captions are where disclosure survives)
• Tagging, links, and tracking parameters correct

The part nobody budgets for: writing the feedback

Running the checklist is half the review. The other half is turning failures into feedback a creator can act on in one round: the timestamp, the rule, and what compliant looks like. "0:04 — disclosure is on-screen only; add a verbal 'this video is sponsored by…' in the first 10 seconds" closes in one revision. Vague notes are how a two-round review becomes a five-round one.

Making it repeatable

One video, one careful reviewer, 20–30 minutes — the checklist above is entirely doable. The problem is that campaigns aren't one video, and every item on this list is a structured check: a known rule applied to a transcript and a frame sequence. That's exactly the shape of work that no longer has to be done by hand.