Was That Post Actually An Ad?

"The brand wants proof the #ad was there. It is there now. Was it there on Tuesday?"

Anyone can open a post today and see a tag. Nobody can show you the version that actually went live - the caption before it was edited, the tag that turned up nineteen hours late, the one that quietly came off last month.

We watch the post, not the screenshot. Across a creator's recent feed you get every paid partnership label, #ad and sponsor tag, where in the caption it actually sat, how much of the post's life ran before it appeared, and how often this creator bothers to tag at all.

What comes back reads like this:

"@creator tagged 3 of their last 12 paid posts. The one for the sportswear brand went live untagged and the #ad appeared 19 hours later, after most of its reach had already happened."

Paste that into the deck. The fields underneath are there for when someone asks you to prove it.

⬇️ Input

Field	Type	Description
postsOrHandle	Array	Post links (instagram.com/p/..., reels too) for the posts you want checked, or an account handle. Mix them however you like.
maxPosts	Integer	How many posts to read, 1 to 100.

Paste the links when you know exactly which posts matter - a campaign you are auditing, a creator you are about to sign. Give a handle when you want the wider picture: you get their own posts and the other accounts posting about them, each row labelled with which it is.

⬆️ Output

A real row from run bYcBb5jcRbrlekGeC, trimmed to the fields that matter:

{
  "whatIFound": "This is @samson__dauda posting about @gymshark, not @gymshark's own post. @samson__dauda did say this one was paid - tagged #Ad. It has 23,697 likes against 1,800,000 followers.",
  "whatItMeansAcrossTheSet": "Every one of the 2 paid-looking posts by @samson__dauda is tagged. We cannot compare paid against their own yet: needs 3 paid and 3 unpaid posts with a follower count to compare; this run has 2 and 0.",
  "brandDisclosureLine": "10 other accounts posted about @gymshark in what we read, 10 of them reading as paid and 8 of those tagged.",
  "postUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ_iz1NCCZb/",
  "username": "samson__dauda",
  "postedByThem": false,
  "aboutThem": "gymshark",
  "disclosed": true,
  "howDisclosed": "tagged #Ad",
  "disclosureSignals": [
    "#Ad"
  ],
  "looksCommercial": false,
  "likeCount": 23697,
  "followerCount": 1800000,
  "hashtags": [
    "Ad",
    "gymshark",
    "thenigerianlion",
    "bodybuilingapparel",
    "bodybuilder",
    "bodybuilding",
    "powerbuilding",
    "fitness",
    "fitnessmotivation",
    "workout",
    "gains",
    "motivation"
  ],
  "postsRead": 2,
  "paidPostsFound": 2,
  "disclosedCount": 2,
  "undisclosedCount": 0,
  "disclosureRate": 100,
  "caption": "@gymshark ..#Ad #gymshark #thenigerianlion #bodybuilingapparel #bodybuilder #bodybuilding #powerbuilding #fitness #fitne..."
}

Every row carries whatIFound - the answer in one sentence - plus the evidence underneath it: the exact caption, every hashtag, the signals the verdict was based on, and the post link so any row can be checked by eye. Numbers that cannot be computed come back null with the reason beside them, never as a guess.

How it works

1. Reading the post. The caption comes back exactly as the creator typed it, hashtags intact, along with the like count and the poster's follower count.
2. Was it disclosed. A disclosure counts when it is a deliberate act - an ad hashtag, or a partnership named against a brand handle. Prose about disclosure rules does not count, which is what separates a real ad from a creator explaining the rules.
3. Does it read like an ad anyway. Only purchase mechanics count here: a discount code, money off, a stated commission. Tagging a friend or linking your own article does not.
4. The part one post cannot tell you. Across a set we work out how many paid posts were tagged, and how the paid ones performed against that same creator's own - because the follower count is what a brand is being sold.

❓ FAQ

Which tags does it look for?

#ad, #sponsored, #paidpartnership, #gifted, #affiliate, #advertisement and their German, Spanish, French and Italian equivalents, plus partnership phrases named against a brand handle - "paid partnership with @brand", "sponsored by @brand" - and a caption that opens "AD:". Every marker found is listed on the row in disclosureSignals, so you can check the call.

What happens if a post has no sign of a paid deal?

It comes back with disclosed: false and looksCommercial: false, and the sentence says so plainly. That is a real answer, not a gap - most posts are not ads, and a checker that only ever finds problems is not telling you anything.

Why did it read somebody else's post when I gave it a handle?

Because that is usually the more useful half. Give it a brand and you get the brand's own posts and the creators posting about them, each row marked postedByThem. For a brand, "who is promoting me and did they say it was paid" is the question with money attached.

💬 Your feedback

Want it tuned to your own rules, or run across a whole campaign? reapxdev@proton.me.

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