How to get reviews for a product launch

General information on US review rules, not legal advice. We run product trials that produce reviews, so we have an interest here: the rules below come from the FTC, not from us, and are worth reading at the source.

The launch problem is circular. Shoppers will not buy a product with no reviews, and you cannot get reviews without buyers. Every shortcut out of that loop is either slow, expensive, or illegal, and it is worth being clear about which is which before you pick one.

What the rules actually say

Three points cover most of what a brand needs to know.

Fake reviews are prohibited, explicitly. That includes reviews from people who never used the product, reviews written by employees or their relatives presented as ordinary customers, and purchased reviews. It also covers buying followers or engagement to inflate perceived popularity.

Incentivised reviews are allowed, but the incentive must be disclosed. Giving someone a free product in exchange for an honest review is legitimate. What is not legitimate is hiding that they got it free, or conditioning the incentive on the review being positive.

You cannot suppress the bad ones selectively. Publishing only the favorable reviews from a set you collected creates a misleading overall impression. If you collect them, publish them, or do not publish any.

How to run incentivised reviews properly

The distinction that matters is between paying for a review and paying for the reviewer's time and honesty. Four practices keep you on the right side of it:

• Never condition anything on sentiment. The tester keeps the product and any compensation whether their review is glowing or brutal. The moment that stops being true, your review base stops being evidence of anything.
• Disclose clearly and near the review. A visible label on the review itself, not a line in a policy page three clicks away.
• Publish the negative ones. They are also the most useful reviews you will get, both for shoppers and for your next formulation.
• Require actual use. A review from someone who never used the product is a fake review regardless of how it was solicited.

That last point is worth being concrete about. On TryMe a review cannot be posted without a fulfilled trial behind it, ratings are computed from verified-trial reviews only, and anything unverified is labeled as such on the page and excluded from the score. Whatever platform you use, that is the property to look for.

What actually works at launch

Seed the product before it goes on sale

A structured pre-launch trial gives you reviews on day one rather than month three, and it does something a post-purchase email flow cannot: it tells you whether the product works for the people you built it for while you can still change something. This is what review generation through a matched panel is for.

Ask existing customers, properly timed

If you have any customer base, a post-purchase request timed to when the product has actually been used is the cheapest source of reviews you have. For skincare that is weeks after delivery, not the day it arrives.

Collect structured feedback, not just stars

Skin type, concern and routine turn a wall of anonymous five-star reviews into something a shopper can filter to people like them. It also makes the same data useful internally, which a star rating never is.

Reply to the critical ones in public

A brand that answers a three-star review usefully reads as more trustworthy than one with an unbroken run of five stars, which shoppers have learned to discount.

What to avoid

• Buying reviews. Now explicitly prohibited and penalized, and trivially detectable by the platforms.
• Writing them yourself. Includes employees, founders, agencies and family members posting as ordinary customers.
• Filtering out the negatives. Publishing a curated subset creates a misleading impression even when every individual review is genuine.
• Gating incentives on positivity. "Leave a five-star review for a discount" is the single clearest violation in common circulation.
• Undisclosed seeding. Sending free product to creators and letting the resulting posts read as unpaid enthusiasm.

The uncomfortable part is that a perfect five-star average is itself a weak signal. Shoppers read a small number of critical reviews as evidence that the rest are real, and products with a spread of ratings often convert better than flawless ones.

Common questions

Can I give free products in exchange for reviews?

Yes, provided the incentive is clearly disclosed near the review and the reviewer keeps the product regardless of what they say. What is prohibited is hiding the incentive or conditioning it on the review being positive.

Are incentivised reviews against FTC rules?

Not in themselves. Undisclosed incentives, fake reviews from people who never used the product, and selectively suppressing negative reviews are the violations. Disclosure and genuine use are what separate a legitimate program from a penalized one.

How do I get reviews before a product launches?

Run a structured trial with real testers before the product goes on sale. They use it, give feedback, and the reviews are ready on day one. It also surfaces formulation problems while you can still act on them.

Should I delete negative reviews?

No. Selectively removing unfavourable reviews creates a misleading overall impression and is directly targeted by the FTC rule. A small proportion of critical reviews also increases shopper trust in the rest.

How many reviews does a new product need?

There is no fixed threshold, but the largest gain is going from zero to a handful, because that is the point at which a product stops looking untested. Depth matters more than volume once you are past that.