UGC vs influencer content: what you’re actually buying

The short answer

What UGC means now

User-generated content used to mean what customers posted on their own: an unboxing, a review, a photo with your product. It still does. But “UGC creator” has become a job. These creators are paid to film videos that look like a customer’s, which the brand then runs as ads or posts on its own accounts. They often have small followings or none at all. You’re paying for the video, not their audience.

That’s why UGC shows up most in paid social. A brand that runs ads needs a steady supply of new creative to test. Paid UGC gives it lots of videos, in different angles and hooks, that it owns the right to use.

What influencer content is

An influencer posts on their own account, to people who chose to follow them. The value is the post and the audience together: the people who watch trust the creator’s taste, and the video sits next to everything else they make. You don’t get the file to run as you like, and you usually don’t control the edit.

Influencer content can be paid (a fee for an agreed post) or unpaid (a gift they chose to post about). Gifted posts are influencer content too.

What each costs

Prices vary too much by niche, platform and creator to quote a single figure, and we won’t make one up. What you can say is what the price is made of:

• Paid UGC: a fee per video, plus extras for raw footage, more hooks or versions, longer usage, or the right to run it in ads. You also pay for product and shipping. Audience size barely affects the price.
• Paid influencer post: a fee that tracks the creator’s audience and typical views, plus product, plus extras for usage rights or for running the post as an ad.
• Gifted influencer post: product and shipping only, and no guarantee anyone posts.

To get a starting number for a specific creator, try our influencer rate calculator. To check what a campaign’s views cost you, use the CPV calculator. And for planning the whole budget, read how to set an influencer marketing budget.

Usage rights: who owns the video

This is the part most small brands get wrong. In the US, a creative work is protected by copyright from the moment it’s created, according to the US Copyright Office. A creator who films a video owns it, whether you paid them or sent a gift. Paying for a video or sending product doesn’t, on its own, give you the right to use the file wherever you want.

So whatever you want to do with someone’s content, agree it in writing first. A usage agreement should say:

• Where you can use it: your organic accounts, your website, emails, paid ads.
• How long: a fixed period, or indefinitely.
• Edits: whether you can cut it, add captions or combine it with other footage.
• Ads from their account: whether you can run their post as an ad through their handle (sometimes called whitelisting). See influencer whitelisting and Spark Ads.
• What they’re paid for each of those.

This isn’t legal advice, and the rules differ by country. For a paid deal with real money on the line, have a lawyer look at your agreement.

Disclosure applies to both

If you send free product or pay a creator, that’s a connection people need to know about. The FTC’s Disclosures 101 counts “free or discounted products” as a financial relationship that should be disclosed. And when a brand runs content in its own ads, the FTC’s endorsement guides Q&A says an ad featuring an endorser who was paid or given something of value is usually misleading unless the connection is made clear. A UGC video that looks like an independent customer review, run as an ad, needs care for that reason. See our disclosure guide.

What product gifting gets you

Gifting gets you influencer content, not paid UGC. When a gifted creator posts, the video is theirs and it lives on their account. That has real value: their audience sees it, and it reads as a genuine recommendation because often it is one. What it doesn’t get you is the file, the right to run it in ads, or any say over the edit.

It does get you something UGC can’t: proof. A gifted post shows you how a creator talks about your product when nobody told them what to say, and how their real audience reacts. That’s exactly what you need to know before you pay anyone.

• Want to repost a gifted video on your account? Ask the creator, and credit them.
• Want to run it as an ad? Ask, agree terms in writing and offer a fee. Most platforms also require the creator’s authorization in the app.
• Want more videos like it for your ads? That’s when you offer the creator a paid UGC deal.

How to use both

For a small brand, the two work best in order, with gifting first.

1. 01

   Seed widely

   Send product to creators who fit, with no brief and no obligation. Our influencer seeding guide covers how.

2. 02

   Find every post

   Including the untagged ones. Creators often show a product without tagging the brand, and those are easy to miss.

3. 03

   See which posts worked

   Compare views and engagement across the posts against each creator’s normal. Use the engagement rate calculator and our guide to engagement rate.

4. 04

   License or boost the winners

   For a gifted post that clearly worked, ask the creator for usage rights or permission to run it as an ad, and pay for it.

5. 05

   Commission UGC from the best on-camera creators

   Some creators who posted will be great at making videos even if their audience is small. Offer them paid UGC work: you already know how they present your product.

That way you aren’t buying UGC from strangers or paying for posts on hope. You pay the people who’ve already shown you, for free, that their content works for your product.