UGC in Performance Marketing: Our Learnings, Insights and Best Practices
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2025 4:14 am
Our split test results speak for themselves: By using user-generated content in ads, we achieve up to a 258% increase in ROAS, a 678% increase in CTR, a 165% increase in scroll stop rate, and a decrease in CPCs of up to 89% compared to traditional video ads. And these results are evident in more than just one of our cases. Especially in the food, beauty, and supplement sectors, UGC provides a performance boost for our Facebook and Instagram ads. For this reason, we now aim to cover over 70% of creatives in new customer acquisition with UGC. But user-generated content is also effective in other industries such as fashion or lifestyle, even if the results here are not quite as clear. This is mainly because these products do not require as much explanation and are often purchased purely for visual reasons. Nevertheless, UGC is worth a try in performance marketing for almost all industries. For this reason, we have summarized our entire range of learnings, mexico phone number data insights and best practices on UGC in performance marketing in this article.
Table of contents
What makes UGC so special and what does good UGC have to be like in performance marketing?
How do you find suitable creators?
How do you get good UGC ads?
What do you think about high-performance UGC?
Inspirations from our best UGC cases
What mistakes should you definitely avoid?
What makes UGC so special and what does good UGC have to be like in performance marketing?
Right at the beginning, we will clarify what actually sets user-generated content apart from traditional advertisements and what distinguishes good UGC in performance marketing.
Authenticity & Emotions: Point number 1 is both a distinguishing feature and a quality criterion. UGC is more authentic than a glossy ad. The content is produced by the users themselves – by real people with personal stories, not by advertising models. This evokes emotions. UGC ads look like all the organic videos we encounter every day on social media. They don't immediately catch the user's eye as an advertisement. They are authentic. This is precisely a characteristic of good UGC. Simply putting any person in front of a phone camera and having them read a text isn't enough. UGC only works if it comes across as authentic, despite the fact that we actively commissioned and briefed the creators for the videos.
Trust: Good UGC acts like a recommendation from a friend. It builds trust, which is extremely important, especially for products that require explanation. But traditional advertisements often fail to achieve this: 92% of consumers trust user-generated content more than traditional advertisements (source: Nielsen Trust Index 2017). This is how brands generate trust, especially in new markets.
Experienceability: UGC makes it easy to show your products in action. Your plate is suddenly presented with great dishes, your handbag alongside a beautiful outfit. You help users imagine what it would be like to own your product, which makes them want to buy it. It's important that your UGC is truly vivid. So, be sure to actively encourage creators to show your products in action/in everyday life in their videos.
Variance: Ad fatigue is a major problem with social media ads. To maintain high performance, you constantly need new ads. This requires a lot of content and therefore a lot of work. UGC makes it easy for you to obtain a large amount of content. Not only that, but the content also comes from different people. This increases the variance of your ads and, on the other hand, allows you to address specific audiences through very specific creators. This increases identification and trust. Furthermore, using different creators, you can also reach audiences you couldn't reach before. And because we own all the rights to the produced UGC, it's possible to mix different creators in one video, thereby further increasing the variance in the ads.
Storylines: Actively sourced UGC offers you another major advantage over traditional ads: authentic and, above all, well-thought-out storylines. A targeted brief ensures that creators present your product the way you as a brand want it, but with the natural look of a self-shot mobile video. In summary, good UGC is characterized by one thing above all else: that creators do exactly what the brief requires, but in an authentic way.
Table of contents
What makes UGC so special and what does good UGC have to be like in performance marketing?
How do you find suitable creators?
How do you get good UGC ads?
What do you think about high-performance UGC?
Inspirations from our best UGC cases
What mistakes should you definitely avoid?
What makes UGC so special and what does good UGC have to be like in performance marketing?
Right at the beginning, we will clarify what actually sets user-generated content apart from traditional advertisements and what distinguishes good UGC in performance marketing.
Authenticity & Emotions: Point number 1 is both a distinguishing feature and a quality criterion. UGC is more authentic than a glossy ad. The content is produced by the users themselves – by real people with personal stories, not by advertising models. This evokes emotions. UGC ads look like all the organic videos we encounter every day on social media. They don't immediately catch the user's eye as an advertisement. They are authentic. This is precisely a characteristic of good UGC. Simply putting any person in front of a phone camera and having them read a text isn't enough. UGC only works if it comes across as authentic, despite the fact that we actively commissioned and briefed the creators for the videos.
Trust: Good UGC acts like a recommendation from a friend. It builds trust, which is extremely important, especially for products that require explanation. But traditional advertisements often fail to achieve this: 92% of consumers trust user-generated content more than traditional advertisements (source: Nielsen Trust Index 2017). This is how brands generate trust, especially in new markets.
Experienceability: UGC makes it easy to show your products in action. Your plate is suddenly presented with great dishes, your handbag alongside a beautiful outfit. You help users imagine what it would be like to own your product, which makes them want to buy it. It's important that your UGC is truly vivid. So, be sure to actively encourage creators to show your products in action/in everyday life in their videos.
Variance: Ad fatigue is a major problem with social media ads. To maintain high performance, you constantly need new ads. This requires a lot of content and therefore a lot of work. UGC makes it easy for you to obtain a large amount of content. Not only that, but the content also comes from different people. This increases the variance of your ads and, on the other hand, allows you to address specific audiences through very specific creators. This increases identification and trust. Furthermore, using different creators, you can also reach audiences you couldn't reach before. And because we own all the rights to the produced UGC, it's possible to mix different creators in one video, thereby further increasing the variance in the ads.
Storylines: Actively sourced UGC offers you another major advantage over traditional ads: authentic and, above all, well-thought-out storylines. A targeted brief ensures that creators present your product the way you as a brand want it, but with the natural look of a self-shot mobile video. In summary, good UGC is characterized by one thing above all else: that creators do exactly what the brief requires, but in an authentic way.