User-generated content (UGC) is content about a product made by the people who use it: reviews, photos, unboxing videos and testimonials. In e-commerce advertising, the term also covers videos that brands pay creators to film in the same casual, first-person style.
UGC works because it looks like the posts people already scroll through and feels like a recommendation rather than an ad. It shows the product in a real setting and answers questions a polished studio shot leaves open.
- Brief creators on the problem, the key benefit and the hook, but let them speak in their own words.
- Ask for several hooks and versions of each video so you can test them.
- Use real customer reviews and photos on product pages as well as in ads.
- Get the usage rights in writing before you run a creator's video as an ad.
Common mistakes: scripts so rigid that the video sounds like an ad anyway, using one creator for everything, and presenting paid content as an unpaid review. Follow the disclosure rules of each platform and country.
To see how brands in your niche use UGC, search the Ads Library for video ads and read their transcripts, or see which partners run ads for a brand in the Brand Tracker.