Can I say that? Checking the claims in a post before it goes out

Your own page counts

It is easy to think the advertising rules are for big brands and paid ads. They are not. The ASA says the UK ad rules cover claims, offers and promotions a business makes on its own social media and website, as well as paid ads.¹

The rule that matters most is simple. Before you publish a claim that people would read as a fact, you must already hold the evidence for it.² What counts is how a customer reads the words, not what you meant by them. A line you meant as a bit of fun can still be read as a promise.

Step two: sort the claims you found

Most claims in small-business posts fall into a handful of types. Each has its own question to ask.

• Best, cheapest, number one, leading. Customers tend to read these as a comparison with the whole market, so the proof has to cover the whole market. "Best-selling" and "number one" need evidence that you sell the most.³ A local business rarely has that.
• Prices and offers. Prices shown to consumers should include VAT and any charges everyone has to pay. A "from" price must be one people can actually get. A "was" price should be the price you normally charged.⁴
• Free and closing dates. Whether "free" is fair depends on what the customer has to buy or pay to get it, so check the ASA's note before you use the word.¹³ If an offer ends, say when.¹
• Reviews and testimonials. The person must be real, the words must be theirs, and you need their permission. Keep the evidence. Do not trim a review so it means something else, and never write one yourself as if you were a customer.⁵ Fake reviews have been banned outright under UK consumer law since April 2025.⁶
• Before-and-after photos. Show results a customer could really expect. The ASA has said an edited or AI-made image that shows results the product does not give is likely to mislead, even with a label on it.⁷
• Eco, green and sustainable. These are claims too. The CMA's Green Claims Code explains how to make them fairly.⁸ Read it before you use the words.
• Health and beauty results. These have stricter rules of their own.² If a post says a treatment fixes, cures or changes something in the body, stop and check before it goes anywhere.
• Urgency. "Only a few left" and "ends tonight" must be true. Leaving out something a customer needs to know can mislead just as much as a false line.⁹

When you are not sure

The ASA's sister body, CAP, gives free advice on draft non-broadcast ads. The standard service takes a few working days, and the advice is not binding.¹⁰ You can also search past ASA rulings to see how a similar claim was judged.¹¹

If you use an AI tool to draft posts, read every claim it writes as if a stranger wrote it. The business that posts the words is still responsible for them.¹²

Social Media Assistant, which Keepwright is building, checks each post before it reaches the owner for approval. It is being tested on Keepwright's own social media first and is not open to other businesses yet.