What is UGC (user generated content) and how to leverage it in marketing?

UGC (User Generated Content) is any content created by real users about a brand, product, or service, without the brand having produced it directly. It includes reviews, unboxing videos, usage photos, testimonials, and reactions. UGC can arise spontaneously or be incentivized by the brand. In both cases, its main value is authenticity: it comes from real people sharing their genuine experience, which generates credibility that brand-produced content can hardly replicate.

What is UGC and what is it for?

The term UGC comes from the English User Generated Content. It refers to any piece of content that a consumer, customer, or follower creates around a brand without being an employee of it or necessarily receiving direct financial compensation.

UGC serves multiple purposes within a digital marketing strategy:

• Build trust with new audiences that don’t yet know the brand
• Reduce the production cost of advertising creatives
• Increase the conversion rate on product pages and paid ads
• Feed organic content channels with authentic material
• Create scalable social proof without relying solely on influencers

It is mainly used by e-commerce brands, mobile apps, subscription services, and any business that sells products or services to end consumers. Digital marketing agencies also work with UGC to improve their clients’ campaign performance and justify investment in alternative creatives.

The most effective types of UGC by channel and goal

Not all UGC formats work the same way in every context. The choice depends on the channel where it will be published and the goal of the campaign.

Formats by channel

Organic UGC vs. hired creator UGC

There is an important distinction within the UGC ecosystem:

• Organic UGC: content that customers create and post on their own initiative. It’s the most authentic, but also the hardest to obtain consistently.
• Creator UGC: people who produce content with a real-user aesthetic, commissioned by the brand and with financial compensation. They don’t need a large audience. Their value lies in the format and tone, not the reach.

Both types are valid for use in paid advertising, as long as proper permission is obtained.

Why UGC outperforms brand content

People trust other users more than they trust brands. This is the fundamental premise that explains UGC’s superior performance in both paid and organic campaigns.

Concrete reasons for its effectiveness

• It blends into the native feed: a UGC video resembles what the user already consumes organically, which reduces resistance to the advertising message.
• It generates implicit credibility: seeing that a real person used the product and talks about it automatically activates social proof.
• It lowers production costs: it doesn’t require sets, actors, or professional production. This reduces the effective CPM by allowing a larger volume of creatives.
• It makes creative testing easier: with more pieces available, performance teams can run more robust A/B tests.

Agencies managing e-commerce accounts consistently observe that UGC-format creatives tend to outperform professionally produced pieces in CTR and ROAS, especially on Meta Ads and TikTok Ads. The margin of improvement varies by industry and audience, but the trend is consistent.

How to get UGC for a brand, step by step

1. Identify the moment of highest customer satisfaction. The ideal time to ask for content is right after the purchase or the first use of the product, when the experience is freshest.
2. Create a simple request mechanism. This can be an automated post-purchase email, a message on the packaging, or a social media story. The easier the process, the higher the response rate.
3. Define what type of content you need. Specify the format (vertical video, usage photo, written review) and expected context, but avoid rigid scripts that remove authenticity.
4. Offer a clear and proportional incentive. Discounts, loyalty points, mentions on the official profile, or early access to products are effective incentives. The incentive shouldn’t compromise the honesty of the content.
5. Consider UGC creators if you need scale. Specialized platforms connect brands with creators who produce authentic content on demand. It’s a valid option when organic volume isn’t enough.
6. Get explicit permission before using the content. If the UGC will be used in paid advertising or commercial communications, you need written or digital authorization from the creator. This applies even if the person uses the brand’s official hashtag.
7. Organize and catalog the available pieces. Classify UGC by format, product, creative angle, and historical performance. This speeds up the selection process for future campaigns.

How to use UGC in digital marketing campaigns

Once you have a library of UGC, you can integrate it across multiple channels and funnel stages.

In paid advertising

Meta Ads and TikTok Ads are the channels where UGC generates the greatest visible impact on performance metrics. Short videos with a real-user format work especially well in feed and Reels placements. For Google Ads, text testimonials and real usage photos are useful in Performance Max campaigns.

On product pages and landing pages

Photos of real customers using the product, combined with verified reviews, increase the conversion rate on e-commerce pages. UGC in this context reduces buyer uncertainty before making a decision.

In email marketing

Including real testimonials or review excerpts in email flows improves open and click rates, especially in abandoned cart recovery sequences.

On organic social media

Reposting customer content on brand profiles is more efficient than producing everything from scratch. Additionally, publicly recognizing creators strengthens the community and motivates other users to generate more content.

For agencies managing multiple clients across different platforms, tools like Master Metrics allow you to visualize UGC creative performance against other formats in a single dashboard, without needing to manually consolidate data from each platform.

UGC vs. alternative content for campaigns

Frequently asked questions about UGC

What does UGC mean in digital marketing?

UGC stands for User Generated Content. In digital marketing, it refers to any content that a real person creates about a brand, product, or service without being part of that brand’s communication team. It includes videos, photos, reviews, testimonials, and social media posts.

Does UGC always have to be free for the brand?

Not necessarily. There are UGC creators who produce content with a real-user aesthetic in exchange for financial compensation. This model is completely valid and widely used by brands that need to scale their creative library without relying solely on organic content from their customers.

Is it necessary to ask permission to use a user’s content in advertising?

Yes, always. Even if a user has used the brand’s official hashtag or tagged the account, that doesn’t automatically grant rights to use the content in paid advertising. You need explicit authorization from the creator before using their content in any commercial communication.

Which platforms are most effective for UGC?

TikTok and Instagram are the platforms where short-video-format UGC generates the highest performance in paid campaigns. For e-commerce, reviews with photos on product pages and Google Business are especially valuable. YouTube is effective for longer-form UGC, such as unboxings and detailed reviews.

How is UGC performance measured in advertising campaigns?

The main metrics for evaluating UGC in paid media are CTR (click-through rate), ROAS (return on ad spend), CPM, and conversion rate. It’s also useful to compare UGC performance against other creatives within the same campaign to determine which formats deliver better results by client and vertical.

Is UGC only useful for e-commerce brands?

No. Although e-commerce is the sector where it’s most used, UGC is effective in any category where there’s a user experience that can be documented: services, mobile apps, restaurants, software, education, and more. The requirement is having real customers or users willing to share their experience.

How does Master Metrics help agencies that work with UGC?

Agencies that integrate UGC into paid media campaigns need to compare the performance of different creatives across multiple platforms simultaneously. Master Metrics centralizes data from Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, Google Ads, and other sources into a unified dashboard, allowing you to quickly identify which UGC pieces generate better ROAS or CTR without needing to check each platform separately. This reduces analysis time and speeds up decisions about which creatives to scale.

Conclusion

UGC represents one of the most effective and scalable content sources available to brands and digital marketing agencies. Its main advantage isn’t the low production cost, but the authenticity that builds trust with audiences increasingly resistant to traditional advertising messages. Implementing a system to consistently obtain, organize, and activate UGC can transform paid campaign performance and reduce dependence on costly productions.

For agencies managing multiple clients across different platforms, the challenge isn’t just getting good UGC but measuring its real impact against other creatives. Master Metrics makes that analysis easier by consolidating performance data from all platforms in one place, eliminating manual reporting work and letting the team spend its time making strategic decisions about which content to scale and for which clients.

Whether you manage a brand directly or work at an agency with multiple clients, integrating UGC into your strategy is a decision that directly impacts measurable results. The next step is to set up the system: identify the right moment to ask for it, simplify the process for the customer, and have the right tools in place to measure what actually works.