User-generated content (UGC) is present across the social media landscape. If you’ve ever seen a fashion enthusiast unpacking a bag of new clothes or an amateur chef experimenting with a new brand of olive oil, then you’ve experienced this digital content marketing strategy. A UGC marketing strategy is all about harnessing that content to amplify your brand presence.
A 2025 Deloitte survey reported that 43% of millennial and 56% of Gen Z participants believed social media content was more relevant to them than traditional TV shows and movies. That same survey found 45% of millennials and 52% of Gen Z claimed they felt, “a stronger personal connection to social media creators than to TV personalities or actors.” If your target audience includes these generations, it’s worth experimenting with UGC in your social media strategy.
Learn what UGC marketing is and how you can use it to your brand’s benefit.
What is UGC?
User-generated content (UGC) includes the videos, photos, and written statements made by social media users to promote or review a product or service. Testimonials, product demonstrations, and unboxings are all forms of UGC. This type of content should be authentic, which can help connect with younger consumers who are less interested in being overtly sold to.
UGC marketing can come together in different ways. In some cases, a brand will choose creators to collaborate with and have them develop content specifically for promotion. In other instances, creators may be inspired to produce content highlighting a product they like and tag or mention the brand in the post.
You can run UGC marketing as an organic or paid campaign. In organic campaigns, creators share their thoughts on your product with their own audience. You can then share their video on your own social media channels, without paying for ad space. In paid campaigns, you pay social media platforms to run UGC videos as targeted ads to a predetermined audience.
User-generated content marketing example
In this user-generated content example, an Instagram account with the handle @twopplcooking puts together a meal of shrimp tacos with a color theme of blue and orange. To do this, Chuck and Hailee prepare homemade tortillas using blue corn flour from Masienda. They bring the bag into frame to show viewers the label and also verbally reference Masienda by name.
Masienda eventually reposted this organic product endorsement in an effort to share it more directly with their audience.
Who creates UGC?
By definition, user-generated content is made by customers and social media users rather than brands. Here are some of the types of people who create UGC content.
Customers
These are the everyday people who use your products and services and make content about their experience without being prompted. They have a genuine interest in your business and a desire to share their feedback with followers. UGC from customers provides the benefit of being non-incentivized, which means they bring the sincerity and authenticity that viewers crave.
Brand advocates
Brand advocates are creators who frequently make UGC that promotes your brand. Sometimes you can collaborate with brand advocates by asking them to make content highlighting a specific product or promoting a launch. Often, they are guided by their own ideas, and their strength lies in a genuine support for your brand.
Paid UGC creators
Sometimes, brands will source UGC from paid creators. These are not influencers, and they do not make content to post on their own social media pages. Instead, they are outsourced to make videos or other types of content that will then be shared by the businesses paying for their service.
This can be a good option for businesses that don’t have a large enough following to source their UGC from fans or customers exclusively. A possible downside of using paid UGC creators is that if they don’t have a genuine interest in your brand, their content might not be as convincing.
Types of UGC
While video is a very common form of UGC, there are other ways in which it can be presented. Here are the different types of UGC, along with their use cases, as well as potential strengths and weaknesses for each type.
Videos
Videos are frequently used for UGC marketing, and there are many common formats people use to make them:
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Get ready with me videos. These follow creators through their morning routine or getting ready for an event.
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How-to videos. These walk viewers through a process to educate or inspire them.
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Testimonial videos and product reviews. In these videos, creators give viewers a rundown of a product or group of products.
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Unboxing videos. Unboxings highlight your products and packaging along with the creator’s initial reactions to opening them both.
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Before and after videos. These demonstrate any effects a product has had on the person using it.
Video content provides more opportunity for detail, since creators can walk viewers through whatever they’re presenting. They can also include more key information via narration or voice-over.
Photos
Photos are some of the easiest examples of UGC to create and share. A UGC photo can be as simple as a customer posting a selfie in a new pair of running shoes, tagging the brand with a caption describing their experience. The brand can repost this to their own Instagram Story, showing their audience how users are responding to their product.
While easy to obtain, photos are limited in their dependence on a single image. You can use captions and text overlays to provide additional information, but not to the same extent that viewers get from video.
Carousels
For a hybrid option, carousels are curated collections of videos, images, or a combination of both for viewers to flip through. You can use carousels in a variety of ways. For example, you can post a carousel of multiple UGC photos to show the same product from multiple angles. You could also create a carousel to highlight multiple opinions about a specific product or to show what customers have to say about a variety of your products.
Written reviews
With written reviews, customers are able to give thoughts and feedback on their experience using a product or service, all without having to make a video or take a photo. This makes written reviews less visually engaging, but also makes them more accessible and less time-consuming as well.
How to incentivize user-generated content
Here are some methods for how you can incentivize UGC.
1. Offer rewards
To encourage customers to leave reviews of their protein snacks, Elavi uses a platform called Junip to offer rewards in exchange for their feedback. “We offer a $5 credit,” cofounder Michelle Razavi says on Shopify Masters. “Incentives are great when you can use them.”
While you don’t have to follow the same method as Elavi, finding a way to incentivize UGC with a discount or free shipping can help encourage customers to make and share content—and purchase more from your store.
2. Provide free products
Pimple patch retailer Starface shares free products with creators, knowing the exchange will lead to UGC content. “We give out as much product as possible to people who genuinely want it, and then those fans amplify it for us by wearing it and sharing pictures,” Kara Brothers, Starface’s president, says on Shopify Masters. “And we just repost it and spread that love right back to them.”
If you have genuine fans with their own audience, consider gifting free products with the hope that they’ll post content sharing their experience. While this might not be ideal for a business specializing in larger-ticket items, smaller products like Starface pimple patches make sense for this kind of approach.
3. Repost tagged content
Michelle of Elavi also mentions the importance of reposting UGC as a way of encouraging people to make more.
“What’s really interesting is that when you post people’s reviews or testimonials, then other people want theirs to be posted too,” she says. “So it’s kind of like creating this cycle where people want to be reposted.” She explains that this creates a flywheel effect where reposting UGC inspires more UGC to be made, which provides additional content to post.
4. Create UGC-centered experiences
Another strategy for incentivizing UGC is to host events that encourage people to participate and document their experience. Canned food brand Heyday Canning has curated multiple pop-ups, including a can swap in NYC.
Founder Kat Kavner says on Shopify Masters, “We really wanted to create an experience that we felt had a high probability of people wanting to capture and create UGC if they went. So we thought about that and created some bait throughout every angle of the store for people to experience, capture, and put on TikTok so other people would want to be there too.”
Consider spaces where you could host a pop-up or collaborate with another event that matches your product. Imagine how you might curate that experience in such a way that attendees would want to share what they saw and encourage others to come out and do the same. Think about concepts that would be fun to talk about as well as visually exciting to see.
How to incorporate UGC marketing into your strategy
Once customers and creators begin making UGC for your business, there are different ways to weave it into your marketing.
Your website
Many businesses feature UGC on their websites, from insole retailer Fulton to cookware label Our Place. Otherhalf Studio cofounder Jaz Fenton says that brands don’t prioritize it enough.
“I think the big thing that people miss is definitely that focus on UGC,” she says on Shopify Masters. “I would definitely challenge people to use those content blocks where they might put a more curated editorial image, and instead play with some UGC video or more of a visual type of review.” Jaz’s approach to featuring UGC more predominantly can be seen on the websites for brands like Elavi, Liquid+, and Good Bacteria.
If you aren’t already spotlighting UGC on your business’s website, consider adding some examples where they feel appropriate, like on a product page or a separate testimonials page. And if you are already integrating UGC, consider how you can draw more attention to it.
Your social media
In addition to reposting tagged reviews and content, consider running UGC campaigns as paid advertising on your social media channels.
When an unboxing video from a micro-influencer gained over 100,000 views on TikTok, book subscription service Book Box decided to run that content as a Meta ad. “Since it was such a huge organic success, we knew we could put a bit of funds back into it and then get success out of that as well,” says cofounder Carl Matheson.
Using UGC as a form of social media marketing creates ads that are presented in the same format as the other content viewers will find on the platform. This allows your campaigns to appeal to the viewers mentioned in the introduction, who respond better to social media than commercial entertainment or traditional advertising.
UGC marketing FAQ
What is UGC in marketing?
UGC in marketing can include videos, photos, carousels, and written reviews that provide feedback on customer experience and satisfaction. Brands use positive UGC as a way to provide social proof of customer approval, in an effort to encourage purchases from other potential consumers.
Do brands pay creators for UGC?
Sometimes brands do pay creators for UGC, but it’s not always necessary. When brands don’t have a big enough following or organic buzz about their product, they may pay creators to make UGC for them to use for promotion and advertising. For some brands, users create content about their product or service voluntarily, and this UGC can be reshared without requiring payment.
What are the different types of UGC marketing?
UGC marketing encompasses any form of published opinion of a business from a user or consumer. Some of the most common forms of UGC include videos, photos, carousel posts, and written reviews.
