What is a UGC creator?

What does a UGC creator actually make?

A UGC creator makes short, natural-looking videos about a product, filmed on a phone and delivered as files the brand can post or run.

The videos are short-form video made for TikTok, Instagram and Reels, and they are meant to feel like something a real person would post: you in your kitchen, at your desk, on your commute. The letters stand for user-generated content, and the UGC entry in the glossary covers the term itself. What makes it a job is the brief: the brand tells you what the video needs to say, and you turn that into something that sounds like you.

• Talking-to-camera videos where you explain why you picked the product up and what you noticed.
• Routine or day-in-the-life clips where the product shows up in a real moment.
• Unboxing and first-look videos that show the product close up.
• Short story videos that open on a problem and end with what you did about it.
• Extra openings for the same video, so the brand can try more than one.

How is a UGC creator different from an influencer?

An influencer is paid for reach to their own audience; a UGC creator is paid for the video, which the brand posts where it chooses.

That one difference changes everything else about the work. You do not need a large following to start, because the brand is not paying for your followers. What you are judged on is whether the video is clear, believable and on brief. Your skill is closer to a writer and performer than a personality, so learning the parts of a UGC video script is time well spent.

Some people do both. If you do, keep the two kinds of deal separate in writing, because the brand may want to post a UGC video on its own channels and a sponsored post on yours, and those are different jobs.

What does a UGC creator do day to day?

Day to day you read briefs, write scripts, film and edit, send files, handle revisions, and pitch new brands in between.

Filming is the part people picture, but it is only one step. A single job runs like this, and it helps to plan your week around the whole chain rather than the shoot day:

• Read the brief and split it into lines you must keep and choices left to you; how to turn a brand brief into a script walks through this.
• Write the script, starting with the hook, because the opening line decides whether anyone watches the rest.
• Film in good light with clean sound, and take each line more than once so you have options in the edit.
• Edit to the length and format the brief asks for, then export the files the brand listed.
• Send the files with a short note, then make any agreed changes in one tidy round.
• Use the gaps between jobs to pitch brands and update your portfolio.

What skills does a new UGC creator need first?

Start with three skills: writing a script that sounds spoken, talking to a phone camera naturally, and following a brief exactly.

Gear matters less than you might expect at the start. A phone, a window for light and a quiet room will carry your first videos. What a brand will notice is whether the first line makes them want to keep watching and whether you delivered what the brief asked for. Practise by writing short scripts for products you already own and filming them as if a brand had asked. A UGC script template that holds up gives you a shape to practise with.

How do you know if UGC work is right for you?

UGC work suits you if you like making things to a brief and are happy for your face to appear on a brand's channels.

Ask yourself a few plain questions before you start pitching. Are you comfortable on camera, even when you are not the focus? Can you take notes on your work without taking them personally? Do you want to build a body of videos for other people rather than an audience of your own? If the answers are mostly yes, film three sample videos for products you already use, because a brand can judge your range from them. You can find more on getting work in finding UGC brand deals.