UGC (user-generated content)

UGC originally meant content customers made on their own: a review, a photo of your product on their shelf, an unboxing video. In marketing today, the term also covers content brands pay creators to make in that same casual, real-person style, often called creator UGC or UGC ads.

What ties it together is the look and feel. UGC is filmed on a phone, in a real setting, talking like a person. Our guide on what UGC content is covers the history and the types in more detail.

• Organic: a customer posts their first week with your app without being asked.
• Reposted: you share a customer's photo with permission and credit.
• Commissioned: you pay a UGC creator for a review-style video to run as an ad.
• Boosted: you run a creator's post as a Spark Ad.

Browse more in our UGC examples.

UGC fits the feed. On TikTok and Reels, content that looks like everything else people are watching tends to get more of a chance than content that looks like a commercial. It also lets a brand show many faces, use cases and opinions instead of one polished message.

For small teams, UGC-style formats are also cheaper to produce in volume, which matters because short-form rewards testing lots of hooks.

UGC also answers questions a product page cannot. Seeing someone use the product in a normal kitchen, bathroom or office helps viewers picture it in their own life, and hearing an opinion in everyday language often lands better than a list of features.

Over-scripting is the big one; if every word is written by the brand, it stops sounding like a user. Another is ignoring rights. Get permission before reposting customer content, and agree on usage terms with paid creators. Finally, never present paid or generated content as an unpaid customer review. Disclose partnerships where platforms or laws require it.