Can you prove your marketing claims? Keep a claims evidence file

Register the promise the customer will see

A claim can appear in an ad headline, landing-page badge, social caption, testimonial, quote or sales script. Start with the exact words and where they appear, rather than a broad note saying the campaign is compliant. The ACCC warns businesses about false or misleading claims. Its guidance also says claims about future matters must have reasonable grounds when made. A disclaimer should not be used to disguise a stronger overall impression than the evidence supports.

Keep readingReview the claims on each service page

Use a claims register with a clear owner

For each material claim, record the wording, page or campaign, intended audience, evidence file, source date, scope and limitations, approver and next review event. Keep the actual supporting material in an appropriately controlled location.

This is an editorial operating tool. The appropriate evidence and legal assessment depend on the claim; a completed spreadsheet does not by itself make a statement acceptable.

• Price or inclusion: the current approved offer, conditions and what the customer receives.
• Performance or saving: the underlying measurements, period, comparison method and relevant exclusions.
• Experience or qualification: the record supporting the named person or business's claim.
• Customer result: permission and accurate context, with no implication that everyone will achieve it.
• Future outcome: the assumptions and reasonable basis for the prediction, not a guarantee added by a copywriter.

Distinguish results from illustrations

If numbers are a hypothetical example, label them that way and avoid presenting them as a customer case study. If they are actual results, identify what was measured and retain the source records needed to reproduce the calculation. For example, a campaign report counting form submissions cannot alone substantiate a headline about qualified customers. Define the qualification step, remove test or duplicate activity appropriately, and explain any limits in attribution. Do not quietly upgrade an interaction measure into a commercial outcome.

Work through one claim before launch

Imagine a business wants to say its new booking page “saves hours every week.” The reviewer asks whose time was measured, over which period, against which previous process and whether time spent handling unsuitable bookings was included. If that evidence does not exist, use a more accurate description of the function, such as allowing customers to request an available appointment time, provided the page actually does so. Changing the wording can be the correct fix; inventing a savings calculation to rescue a headline is not.

Check the whole customer impression

Read the headline, image, footnote, call to action and next page together. A qualification hidden after the enquiry form may not resolve a stronger impression created at the top of the ad. Make important limits understandable at the point they affect the decision. Environmental claims deserve the same discipline. The ACCC's environmental-claims guidance asks businesses to make claims that are clear, accurate and supported. Keep the evidence for the specific product and scope rather than treating a supplier's broad sustainability language as proof for your own claim.

Keep readingHandle review-based claims carefully

Maintain the file after publication

Give claims an expiry or review trigger: an offer ends, data becomes stale, a staff qualification changes or a product feature is removed. Keep track of every place the old wording was reused so a correction reaches ads, pages and sales material. When the claim changes, retain the prior wording and the reason for the revision in the internal record. The practical benefit is a team that can explain its promises quickly and update them consistently.