Video UGC has become an indispensable asset for companies seeking to increase sales, visibility and community loyalty.
In this guide, we share best practices and strategies to help you harvest authentic video UGC.
Table des matières
Understanding authentic UGC videos
Define video UGC
UGC (User Generated Content) is content created by users of a product, for a brand. They are just as valuable for consumers seeking reliable information as they are for brands seeking to build trust and engage a community.
For example, a UGC can take the form of a publication on a network or a review on a product sheet.
As for video UGC, it combines the authenticity of UGC with the appeal of video. Here are two statistics that illustrate the impact of this format:
- 85% of people trust UGC more than branded content (Flocker, 2024)
- Engagement increases by 28% when consumers can view a mix of user-generated product videos and official content written by the brand (EveryoneSocial, 2024).
To sum up, using UGC videos in your strategy allows you to :
- Increase your sales: shared video UGCs build confidence, drive customers to the point of sale and boost online conversion rates.
- Building community loyalty: the use of UGC videos encourages active community participation and increases brand loyalty.
- Optimize your resources: save on content production, by letting consumers and creators create their own content.
- Boost your reputation: you build credibility and trust with authentic content.
Why do we talk about authentic video UGC?
UGC is considered authentic if the creator has truly experienced your product and gives an honest opinion about it. On the contrary, content is not authentic if the creator has repeated what the brand has told him or her to say. This is particularly the case with many scripted or paid collaborations.
Generally speaking, brands obtain authentic UGC organically or in exchange for a product, while non-authentic UGC is obtained in exchange for a fee.
For example, in August 2024, the ambassador program for Google Pixel phones (run by an external agency) caused a scandal, as they threatened their creators that they would no longer work with them if they didn’t give positive feedback. This scandal could easily have been avoided by being transparent and asking creators to be authentic.
Brands have a responsibility to be transparent with their audiences. In a world where consumers are increasingly distrustful, authenticity has become non-negotiable.
Comment récupérer des UGC vidéos authentiques ?
Consumers and creators
First of all, you can collect video UGCs by asking your current consumers for them. However, this won’t retrieve enough of them to have a real impact, and you won’t have the rights to re-share them.
To recover a significant amount of video UGC, brands need to work with creators.To recover a significant amount of video UGC, brands need to work with creators.
Note that the term “ambassador” is used to group these two profiles together.
Types of collaboration with creators
When collaborating with creators to retrieve video UGC, you can opt for two types of collaboration: paid or gifting.
Collaboration that offers payment for content created is more akin to advertising, and generally lacks authenticity.
Secondly, gifting collaborations work on a “product for content” principle. In this model, creators receive the product in exchange for their testimonials. This content is authentic and creates a real experience of the creator with the product.
Creator types
Creators are categorized according to the size of their audience:
- Mega-creator: over 1 million subscribers
- Macro-creator: between 1 million and 100K subscribers
- Micro-creator: between 100K and 10K subscribers
- Nano-creator: less than 10K subscribers
As a general rule, the more subscribers creators have, the less engagement and conversion they get.
Video UGC types
Video UGC can take many forms, each offering specific advantages for communicating about your products.
Here are the main formats you need to know to prepare your campaigns and brief influencers.
- Video testimonials: in these videos, the influencer shares his or her experience with a product. This is particularly convincing for your prospects, as they come from an unbiased source.
- Unboxing: in this very popular format, the influencer films himself opening a package and shares his first impressions. This is particularly useful if you’re offering attractive packaging and a pack of products.
- Vlog: in these videos, the creator shares his or her experiences and routines. This format offers an authentic insight into consumers’ lives and can inspire your prospects. A variation is GRWM (Getting Ready With Me), where the influencer prepares for an event. (For example, “Make-up and Hair for a Wedding”).
- Tutorials: these are instructional content that teach how to use a product or perform a task. Use them to show how to get the most out of your products. It’s best to launch campaigns with this type of product to consumers who are already familiar with your products.
- Hack: these videos share tips to help consumers achieve their goals. The product may be a hack itself, or it may facilitate one.
- Before/after video: these videos show the transformation after using the product, illustrating results and demonstrating effectiveness.
- Lip synching: this is a native TikTok format, which involves lip-synching to an audio track to create humorous or creative videos.
- ASMR: these videos can be used to create immersive sensory experiences using whispers or other sounds. It’s a way of providing a sensory experience with your product, thanks to video.
Launch a UGC video campaign
The process of collecting UGC, from conception to harvesting, is called a campaign.
Campaigns have several key stages to ensure your success. Discover them in this image:
Trustt makes it easy for you to carry out all these steps to ensure your success with UGC video campaigns.
Find out more about the different stages of a campaign in the rest of this article.
Planning a UGC video campaign
A successful UGC video campaign starts with careful planning. Here are the elements you need to define before reaching out to influencers:
Campaign objectives: clearly define your objectives and choose performance indicators to track your results. A good practice is to base your campaigns on data collected from a proprietary community.
The product(s): in the case of a non-remunerated campaign, the choice of product you send will have a significant impact on the attractiveness of your campaign. Sending a pack of products is a good way of attracting great content.
Campaign concept: develop a creative concept that will inspire your influencers and resonate with your target audience.
The type of ambassador: choose the type of influencer you’ll be working with, and the type of collaboration you’ll be working on.
Types of video UGC: determine the most relevant video formats for your audience and your objectives.
Social networks: define the networks from which you want to retrieve video UGC. Note that you can also run a campaign to get UGC from your product page or a reseller site.
Timing and distribution: establish a timetable for the creation, collection and distribution of UGC content.
Note that in the case of an unpaid partnership, you can’t impose a complete brief. Your aim is to inspire and guide influencers.
Preparing a mission letter
When working with influencers to harvest video UGC, it’s essential to share a mission statement with them. It’s the only way to ensure a good collaboration. This letter should summarize the important points, and you should include:
Presentation of the mission: explain your expectations precisely, while leaving them room to express their creativity.
Product specificity: they need to be able to talk about it and use it in the best possible way.
Do’s and Dont’s : draw up a concise list of recommended and avoided actions to guide creators while preserving content authenticity.
Brand guidelines : provide an overview of brand guidelines to ensure visual and tonal consistency with your brand image.
Deadlines and distribution: specify when you want to collect UGC.
Mentions: specify any product-related information to be included in the video description.
Moodboard : send them a folder with sample videos to inspire them.
By structuring your brief, you optimize the chances of receiving UGC content aligned with your marketing objectives, while allowing influencers to express their creativity.
Again, in the case of an unpaid partnership, you can’t demand a brief. The aim is to inspire with a mission statement.
Find video UGC influencers
When it comes to finding the ideal influencers to pick up video UGC, there are several options open to you. Here are the main options to consider:
Social networks
Search with hashtags relevant to your industry or on your discovery page.
The advantage is that access to these platforms requires no initial financial investment.
On the other hand, it’s a time-consuming process, as coordinating and monitoring collaborations is difficult without dedicated tools. The absence of a centralized system makes tracking performance and interactions complex.
It’s a solution for new businesses who want to run small, one-off campaigns.
Content creators agencies
These agencies put you in touch with designers who match your criteria.
They offer the advantages of finding your designers for you and ensuring that campaigns comply with current regulations.
The downside is that cost is high and control is limited; the brand may have less visibility over ROI and less direct control over campaign management.
Designer discovery tools
Some tools specialize in finding designers.
The advantage of these solutions is that they enable you to quickly find influencers with advanced filters.
The drawback is that these solutions lack management tools: they focus on discovery, without offering any functionality for managing relationships with influencers once identified.
Community engagement CRM
In addition to helping you find creators, a Community Engagement CRM allows you to :
- Select relevant designers for your brand.
- Manage your campaigns: from product dispatch to distribution on your e-commerce site.
- Get customer reviews on your site.
- Track your ROI and other key indicators.
- Evaluate your influencers to capitalize on the best profiles.
- Distribute reviews on your site using a dedicated module.
Note that these solutions require onboarding before you can start using them, so you’ll need to invest a little time.
It’s the best solution for brands that want to benefit from the power of video UGC.
Tools for scripted UGC
These tools enable you to order scripted UGC videos from content creators.
The advantage of these solutions is that they quickly deliver the expected visual result, since it’s their job to be attentive to the brief. In particular, they offer to go back and forth if necessary.
The disadvantage is that this content is not authentic, as the brand imposes a discourse on the influencer.
These tools can be interesting for generating one-off content for a website or a sponsored publication. However, they are not recommended for building an entire marketing campaign, where authenticity and consistency are essential.
Selecting influencers
Selecting the right influencers is crucial to the success of your UGC video campaigns. Carefully consider the following criteria:
- Influencer’s niche: make sure the influencer’s audience is interested in your products and is in your target audience.
- Style and content quality: choose designers whose aesthetic aligns with your brand.
- Audience demographics.
- Engagement rate: lets you know whether your audience is interacting with your content.
- Audience size: this is a relevant criterion, depending on your reach objectives.
By carefully selecting your influencers according to these criteria, you’ll be sure to get quality testimonials and communicate with your target audience.
Manage your campaign
Sending products
Make sure you receive your products, take care of the shipment, use elegant packaging and include detailed documentation. This attention to detail shows you care.
Evaluating ambassadors
Influencer evaluation is crucial for brands wishing to capitalize on their best profiles. This will enable you to find them at a glance.
In particular, Trustt lets you label influencers and filter them by type. This allows you to use expert influencers for each campaign objective.
To manage this process effectively, the use of a community engagement CRM is essential.
Taking care of relations with content creators
A caring, personalized approach with your creators strengthens your collaboration and improves the quality of the content produced. Here’s how:
- Interact with ambassadors: thank them in private messages, comment on their publications and share their content on your own platforms.
- VIP treatment: follow your most successful ambassadors with your official account to show your interest and support.
By investing time and effort in these relationships, you create an environment conducive to fruitful collaborations.
Sharing UGC videos
Once you’ve got your UGC videos, it’s time to get them out there. Here’s how to get the most out of them:
Social networks
- Instagram: share them in “story”, create a “front page story”, make publications
- TikTok: republish publications that talk about your brand on TikTok. To do so, hold down the mouse button on your ambassador’s video, then click on “republish”. It will appear on your profile and will be offered to your followers.
- Other social networks : facebook, linkedin, youtube, pinterest, etc.
Newsletter
The newsletter is the channel that converts the most in digital. It will perform even better if you add video UGC. This gives your prospects the confidence to take action.
To put your video UGCs in your newsletters, create GIFs, which are a lighter format. You can use this Adobe converter.
You can reference your influencers’ accounts directly in the newsletter to lend credibility to the content and build trust.
Sponsored contents
Les contenus sponsorisés sur les réseaux qui utilisent l’UGC obtiennent des taux de clics quatre fois plus élevés et un coût par clic inférieur de 50 % aux autres types de contenus (Everyonesocial, 2024). Utilisez vos meilleures vidéos UGC pour booster les performances de vos publicités.
Add subtitles for people watching their news feed without sound, and background music to punctuate the video.
On Tiktok, spark ads allow you to sponsor an ambassador’s publication directly. All you need to do is be identified in the publication.
E-shop
Sharing UGC videos on your home page and product sheets gives your prospects confidence and increases your conversion rates. Community engagement CRMs like Trustt offer solutions for broadcasting them on your eshop or showcase site.
