Share Your Content With the Right Community

clock iconApril 19, 2022

As part of Instagram’s commitment to empowering creators and increasing content controls, we make it easy for creators to customize their audience when promoting certain restricted goods like alcohol and more.

When posting affiliate or branded content, Instagram creators are required to adhere to our Branded Content Policies. They include guidance such as:

  • Using the paid partnership label on all branded content posts
  • Adhering to Instagram’s Community Guidelines
  • Avoiding promotion of goods, services or brands that are considered prohibited (e.g. tobacco products, weapons)

In addition to the above, there are certain goods, services and brands that are considered restricted, meaning they can only be promoted with restrictions, such as restricting who can see the post based on age or geographical location. Examples of restricted goods include:

  • Alcohol
  • Cosmetic procedures and weight loss
  • Subscription services
  • Financial and insurance products and services
  • Family planning and contraception

When creating an affiliate or branded content post, you can add a minimum age for your viewers. For example, if you set the default minimum age to 21, it blocks everyone under 21 from seeing the post. This can be set for people everywhere or in specific countries.

How to set age restrictions on branded content feed posts

5 images showing how set age restrictions on branded content feed posts

You can also control the age of your Instagram content’s viewers by setting up a minimum age for your account. Similar to individual posts, you can choose to set up a default minimum age that will be applied everywhere, or you can set up country-specific minimum ages to follow local policies.

For specific posts, you can also set location restrictions for any country across all age groups. For example, you can add a minimum age of 18 for people in Turkey and add France to your list of countries in Location Restrictions under Settings. This will block anyone from any age group from viewing your post in France, but those who are at least 18 years old in Turkey can see the post.

How to set location restrictions on affiliate Stories

3 images showing how to set location restrictions on affiliate Stories

When working with a brand, they may request certain age or location gating of a branded content post. Be sure to confirm with your brand partner before posting as you won’t be able to add gating to a post after it’s been created. You’d need to remove the content and repost it with the preferred gating.

Age and location gating is currently available on all eligible formats for branded content and affiliate, with the exception of Live. Learn more about managing post and account-level restrictions.