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Spotted the term "UGC creator" on your social channels and unsure what it means? You've come to the right place.
This blog post will teach you what UGC creators are, how to use them for effective brand promotion, plus how to find UGC creators for your next social media campaign.
Should you go down the influencer marketing or the UGC content creator route? We explain how to choose the right creator for your content strategy.

What is a UGC creator? If you're unsure what it means, here's your answer. UGC (User Generated Content) actually refers to any content that is created by users rather than brands or organisations. i.e., it's content made by real people. UGC creators are simply people who make this content.

However, the term 'UGC creator' has recently come to mean something slightly different: it's someone who is paid to make social media content for brands.

Sounds like an influencer, right? Well, professional UGC creators are similar to influencers, but they're also different in a few crucial ways.

What's the difference between UGC creators and influencers?

Professional UGC creators are the new social media content creation experts that marketers are excited about.

User Generated Content often resonates because it comes across as relatable and authentic. When professional UGC creators make product reviews, for instance, they have a slightly different feel to the content made by social media influencers, seeming more like a straight-up review rather than a brand-influencer partnership.

UGC creators also don't rely on having a huge following on social media. They're less about carving their own niche or 'house style', and more about flexible output to suit the brand's needs.

This means, compared to influencers, UGC creators are actually more open to brand direction.

To understand the difference between professional UGC creators and influencers, let's differentiate between their styles of content and their roles in marketing for brands.

Here's a handy table to help:

Aspect	UGC Creators	Influencers
Definition	Regular: consumers creating content about a brand. Professional: content creators making paid-for content for brands	Individuals with a dedicated following promoting brands
Origin of content	Regular: self-generated by consumers. Professional: created intentionally for brand promotion	Created intentionally by influencers for promotion
Motivation	Regular: genuine interest or experience with the brand. Professional: financially incentivised.	Financially incentivised to promote brands
Relationship with Brands	Regular: organic, voluntary content creation. Professional: work with brands to create content for brand channels	Collaborative paid partnerships or paid endorsements.
Follower engagement	Regular: varied audience sizes and engagement levels. Professional: often not shared on the creator’s own channel, meaning no engagement from their followers	Typically, larger, engaged followings on platforms.
Content Authenticity	Regular: Usually more authentic, real-life experiences shared. Professional: content style depends on brand direction.	Often more polished, stylised content for brand promotion, although this depends on the influencer's personal content style.
Control over Content	Regular: largely beyond a brand’s control. However, careful crafting of open-call UGC campaigns influences better outcomes. Professional: brands have a high degree of control over content.	Brands have some control over content but should approach influencers as they would a brand partnership. Their followers expect continuity of content style.
Cost-effectiveness	Generally, more cost-effective to create content. Professional UGC creators tend to charge less for brands to use their content in ads. However, UGC creators don’t tend to have large organic audiences, so you will need to pay to expand reach.	May require higher budgets for sponsored content; influencers with large followings will generally be more expensive.
Long-term Brand Association	Regular: May have long-term loyalty but not exclusive to one brand. Professional: content often not shared on their page, so personal brand association is low.	Often engaged in short-term brand partnerships

What about non-professional (or regular) UGC?

Non-professional UGC is the content that's just made by people rather than brands. Anyone can be a UGC creator in this sense. If you use social media platforms to post online reviews or talk about your experience with certain brands or products, you are a regular UGC creator.

Every so often - and especially on TikTok - these regular, spontaneous UGC videos can go viral. If it's a positive review, that's powerful stuff: this kind of word of mouth marketing can reach thousands of potential customers with genuine recommendations. And when this happens, a steady stream of sales often follows.

This is partly why professional UGC creators tend to resonate with us, too. Unlike macro influencers, who can feel 'untouchable' with their massive social media followings and presence, more people relate to UGC creator content. It feels more like the kind of spontaneous posts we might be motivated to create if we felt super enthusiastic about a product or brand, so we pay more attention.

Why are brands turning to UGC creator marketing?

Increasingly, brands are turning to UGC creators to add a layer of social proof to their marketing strategies. And it works.

One study found that ads featuring UGC garner 73% more positive comments on social networks than traditional ads. Another recent study found TikTok UGC videos scored 22% higher than brand videos in their ability to encode emotion, and they held viewers' attention for longer, too.

You may think that spontaneous, non-professional user generated content is impossible to create or utilise as a brand. But you'd be wrong. A common strategy is to keep an eye out for positive organic reviews on social media platforms and get in contact with the UGC creator, offering them a gift in exchange for new content that you can reuse.

This is what happened when a TikTok user, Dani @danimarielettering posted this video of her car after a fire. Her Stanley cup miraculously survived, clearly demonstrating their #BuiltForLife ethos and earning a whopping 97 million views. Stanley sent the influencer a collection of Stanley products and even gifted her a brand-new car, which resulted in this sweet, heartfelt video (linked here). This drew even more users to the original video, and improved brand reputation even further.

It's this kind of genuine connection and customer appreciation that can make people fall in love with a brand, and spark long-term brand loyalty.

The benefits of User Generated Content creators

Stanley isn’t the only example of UGC done right. There are many benefits to using UGC creators, including:

Increased Authenticity: UGC often showcases real experiences and opinions, which makes it more authentic. This can help build trust and credibility.
Cost-Effectiveness: UGC allows brands to save money on content creation and advertising costs.
Increased Engagement: UGC can be highly engaging and shareable, especially the more low-fi, spontaneous style.
Diverse Content: UGC can come in many different forms, such as reviews, photos, videos, and social media posts. This can help diversify your content and give your audience something new and fresh.
Stronger Community: Encouraging UGC amongst your audience can help build a sense of community around your brand, as people share their experiences and connect with each other.
Improved SEO: UGC can provide fresh, relevant content that can help boost your search visibility. Content from professional UGC creators can help through deliberately including relevant keywords. Read more about other SEO trends here.
Flexible agreements: depending what works best for your campaign or strategy, UGC creators can offer short-term or long-term loyalty.

Need more proof? A staggering 93% of consumers that think that UGC is "very helpful" when making purchasing decisions, a figure that speaks for itself.

Achieving all this while not having to spend the big bucks? It’s a no-brainer.

Clip from Ghosts "We'll take it!" in response to a bargain

So...how do you find the right UGC creators for your brand?

Before you go searching for the perfect UGC creator, first take into consideration the audience you want to target with your campaign, and what style of UGC content will connect with them. This will help you pin down exactly the kind of user generated content you should make - and what kind of creator is best placed to make it.

Then you need to go looking. One route is to hang out in specific content communities and keep tabs on the content created here. The TikTok search bar is many marketers' first port of call. Another is to use freelancer platforms and other platforms specifically designed for UGC creators. Some social platforms have even introduced their own tools to facilitate UGC campaigns. However, the vetting process for these is often cumbersome, which means it'll take longer to share content, or you won't get the quality you expect.

At Bottle, we're experts in the eb and flow of social media. We can help you quickly find and partner with trusted UGC creators that make content that resonates with your brand's theme and mission, all the while ensuring quality control.

We've devised a go-to strategy that'll have you finding the perfect UGC creator - and craft the perfect content campaign.

Crafting the perfect UGC content campaign: what to consider

Think target audience first
The first step towards a top-level UGC portfolio is to understand your audience. Which social media channels or online platforms do they hang out on? What conversations are they having about your brand, products or vertical? What kind of social proof would resonate with them?
It's worth looking beyond your standard social channels, too. Check out industry forums, scour your customer feedback channels, find creators in your niche and investigate the conversations going on in their comments, and forage through the comments on your competitors' posts.
Note the trends, themes, concerns, questions and requests you see. Is there any disconnect between the message you want to share, and the opinion of your target audience? This should all fuel content pillars for your UGC.

2. Set realistic goals… but shoot for the stars

You'll likely have goals such as improved brand visibility, improved brand reputation, or higher conversion rates. UGC can help you reach each of these, but it's important to be realistic.

Professional UGC content creators can make relatable videos perfect for awareness marketing campaigns via TikTok paid ads. But because great UGC content resonates with audiences, it can be used throughout the marketing funnel.

Spontaneous UGC is an invaluable asset that improves brand trust and speeds conversions. But you can get similar results with low-fi professional UGC that's designed for social proof. "How-to" -style UGC that demonstrates how products work is also a great way to educate customers about your products. Share this user generated content on your channel, and engage your community by asking questions. You'll form a strong connection with your followers, and you'll get ideas for other content streams, too.

UGC content is great for your website too. Embed videos or share images on your product pages, and you'll see higher conversion rates from potential customers who have more confidence in your products.

Whichever goal you set for your campaign, you need to have KPIs that align. Perhaps it's a number of new followers to your page, views or engagement on posts, or sales. A/B test and double down on what’s working.

3. Make instructions clear

Your user generated content will only be as strong as your brief.

Some brands make the mistake of thinking that, because professional UGC creators are more open to direction, this means endless rounds of amends. This is not the case. UGC videos often require more work upfront, because as the brand you need to script and storyboard the content.

Include a contract with a revision, in case they misinterpret your brief.

With open-call UGC, naturally you'll have less control, so clear instructions are vital here too. It's a good idea to run contests, but you'll need to make the challenge easy to understand and fun to do - and offer a worthy prize for the best content - as most people will be creating content for free.

There's nothing like a little competition to get the conversation flowing, plus, once you tell them exactly what kind of content you're after, you can sit back and let their creativity flourish.

4. Focus on your brand story, too

User generated content is a great way to grow engaged followers and produce content that looks real. But you should also supplement it with branded content on your social channels, so people learn to recognise your brand identity too.

Sure, this branded content might not make the most engaging posts in the world, but they perform a vital role: they make all your messaging harmonise, and tell people that you're a trustworthy brand.

UGC creators can explain and demonstrate how products work, or answer FAQs. But it's not their job to do this alone. As a brand, your profile should be the hub where people learn all they need to about you and your products. The same goes for your brand narrative: if you have something interesting to say, you should be saying it yourself, as well as encouraging UGC creators to share the message.

It means that if someone sees a UGC ad, and clicks through to your profile, they'll understand who you are. Plus, if they become a customer, they might be more encouraged and confident to post their own spontaneous content about your amazing brand story or superlative products.

5. Always consider relationships

At the end of the day, you're working with people. You want people to want to work with you. Being respectful is the most important aspect of collaboration - so, if something goes awry, it's always best to keep a cool head.

Brands that have genuinely good relationships with their UGC community foster an atmosphere where people enjoy making content for the brand, which makes the content more engaging and enjoyable for viewers.

It’s all about the shared experience associated with your brand: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

Things to watch out for:

Quality control: Be mindful that open-call UGC campaigns result in a mixed bag of content. It can help to kick off the campaign with influencers to help people understand what kind of content to create (or emulate). A creative agency (hi there!) can help you find the right creators.

Over-relying on UCG: UGC should be a section of a comprehensive strategy that involves multiple approaches to improving your brand's findability and reputation.
Surprise criticism: If you craft an open-call UGC campaign and you get critical content in return, treat it as a gift: criticism means you can show that you're listening, improving, and taking your customers' comments on board. If you can co-create a better product with your audience, they'll be more engaged and invested in your brand in the long run.

Schitts Creek David "I'm now invested" quote — Take it from us (and David Rose) - even if your feedback is negative, it’s because your audience *cares* enough to respond. You can work with that!

Our most important advice: be creative

It's vital to come to your UGC with a creative mindset. Some trial and error and a bit of troubleshooting might be required to find the correct angle or narrative for your first campaign, but working with experts will help. Stay open-minded and don't get too bogged down by what you had planned. Your audience is the most important aspect of your UGC campaign, so be flexible to their needs.

Try to consider new ideas or potential creators who might not align exactly with your brand, but possess a value that might elevate yours. Maybe they're the gateway to a new range of fresh ideas you never knew your brand needed. You never know what or who might come your way, the future possibilities are pretty endless with UGC.

Lean into what makes UGC great. Be audience-first, be adaptable, and be honest. If you're not sure where to start, our creative team can help you out!

If you're feeling inspired to kick off a UGC content campaign, get in touch!

UGC Creators: What they are & how brands can use them