The ASA rules every business posting reviews and ads should know
The Advertising Standards Authority's remit covers far more than TV ads: your website claims, social posts, testimonials and use of reviews all count as marketing communications, and the rules are stricter than most small businesses realise.
The core principles
Marketing must not mislead, and that includes by omission or by overall impression. Claims need evidence held before publication. "The area's best-rated plumber" needs to be checkably true on the platform implied, on the day it runs.
Reviews and testimonials
- Testimonials must be genuine, from real identifiable people, and reflect their real opinion
- You cannot present selected reviews in a way that misleads about overall opinion
- Incentivised reviews must disclose the incentive, and platforms mostly ban them anyway
- Star ratings quoted in ads must be current and sourced
Disclosure
If you pay or incentivise anyone, influencer, customer, partner, to promote you, the content must be clearly identified as advertising. Free product counts as payment. The #ad rules are enforced, and the reputational cost of a ruling usually exceeds the sanction.
Why this belongs in your listening programme
Monitoring catches your own claims being repeated wrongly, affiliates or fans making claims you cannot support, and competitor practices worth reporting. It also evidences your compliance culture, which matters if a complaint ever lands. The practical habit: pre-flight every public claim with one question, could we prove this to a sceptic today?
MyView watches every mention of your brand and tells you what needs a reply.
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