User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content (UGC) is any content about a brand that is created and published by customers, fans, or creators rather than by the brand itself. UGC stands for user-generated content. It covers reviews, social posts, photos, videos, and forum comments, and it carries weight with buyers precisely because the brand did not write it.
Types of UGC
UGC splits into six formats, ranked roughly by how directly each one moves a purchase.
- Reviews and ratings. Star scores and written feedback on product pages, Google Business Profiles, G2, or Trustpilot. The highest-intent format, because shoppers seek it out at the moment of decision.
- Customer photos and video. Unboxings, hauls, tutorials, and in-use shots posted to TikTok, Reels, or YouTube Shorts.
- Social posts and tags. Mentions, story tags, and hashtag entries that reach a creator’s own audience first.
- Testimonials. Named quotes and case studies, usually solicited and approved before publication.
- Community and forum posts. Reddit threads, Discord channels, and Quora answers. Rarely controllable, frequently the first result a buyer sees.
- Q&A and comments. Answers on product pages and comment threads under brand posts.
UGC Examples
Four campaigns show the range, from fully open submissions to tightly curated feeds.
- Apple, #ShotoniPhone. Customer photographs run on billboards and Apple’s own channels. The product demo is the content.
- GoPro Awards. GoPro pays cash for customer footage and licenses it for ads, which turns a UGC program into a stock library.
- Airbnb listing photos. Host and guest images are the inventory. Almost every image on the site is user-created.
- Starbucks #RedCupContest. A seasonal hashtag prompt that generates thousands of entries in a fixed two-week window.
The pattern in all four: the brand supplies a prompt, a reason, and a place to post. It does not supply the content.
Why UGC Works
Trust is the mechanism. Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising study found 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know above every other form of advertising, and earned media outranks all paid formats.
The gap between UGC and brand content is measurable. Research from Stackla (now part of Nosto) found 79% of shoppers say UGC highly influences their purchase decisions, compared with 13% for brand-created content and 12% for influencer posts. Roughly 60% of consumers rate UGC as the most authentic content a brand can show.
Cost structure matters too. A UGC library grows as the customer base grows, while paid creative depreciates the moment a campaign ends.
How to Build a UGC Marketing Strategy
Five steps take a UGC program from ad hoc reposting to a repeatable system.
- Pick the format that fits the funnel. Reviews for consideration, video for discovery, testimonials for enterprise sales cycles. Do not collect video when the conversion blocker is a missing review count.
- Ask at the moment of satisfaction. Post-delivery email and in-app prompts after a success event outperform generic requests by a wide margin.
- Give a specific prompt. “Show your setup” produces usable content. “Tag us” produces noise.
- Secure rights in writing before use. Covered in the next section.
- Track each placement separately. Give every creator and every placement its own tagged link so results land in distinct rows rather than one lump of social traffic. The methods for this are covered in the influencer campaign tracking breakdown.
Without step 5, a UGC program cannot be evaluated. Organic creator posts land in dark social or direct traffic, and the content that actually drove revenue is indistinguishable from the content that did nothing.
UGC Creators vs Influencers
The two roles are routinely conflated. They are different purchases.
| UGC creator | Influencer | |
|---|---|---|
| What the brand buys | The content asset | Access to an audience |
| Where it runs | The brand’s ad account, site, or email | The creator’s own feed |
| Audience size | Irrelevant | The entire basis of the fee |
| Deliverable | Raw video and photo files | A published post |
| Typical pricing | Per asset | Per post, scaled by reach |
A UGC creator with 400 followers can be the right hire. They are producing ad creative that looks native to the feed, not lending reach.
Rights, Disclosure, and Legal Limits
Posting with a brand hashtag does not grant a license. A repost to a brand’s own feed is generally tolerated; running that same photo in a paid ad without written permission is a copyright exposure. Get explicit consent in writing, naming the channels and the duration.
Two US rules apply directly:
- The FTC Endorsement Guides, updated in June 2023, require clear and conspicuous disclosure of any material connection between a brand and a creator. Free product counts as a material connection.
- The FTC Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, effective October 21, 2024, bans fake reviews, purchased positive or negative reviews, and undisclosed insider reviews. Civil penalties were set at $51,744 per violation when the rule took effect and are adjusted annually for inflation.
Incentivizing reviews is legal. Conditioning the incentive on the review being positive is not.
The rel=”ugc” Link Attribute
In SEO, UGC also names a link attribute. Google introduced rel="ugc on September 10, 2019 to mark links inside user-generated areas of a site, such as comments and forum posts.
this tool
The attribute tells Google the link was placed by a visitor, not endorsed editorially, which limits the damage from comment spam. Any site accepting public comments or profile links should apply it. Adoption remains thin: Ahrefs found the attribute on under 1% of sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does UGC stand for?
UGC stands for user-generated content. The term covers any brand-related content produced by customers, fans, or paid creators instead of the brand’s own marketing team. It appears in two distinct contexts: marketing, where it describes reviews and social content, and SEO, where rel="ugc marks links inside comment sections and forums.
What are examples of UGC?
Product reviews, unboxing videos, hashtag photo entries, Reddit threads, and customer testimonials are the most common examples. Named campaigns include Apple’s #ShotoniPhone, GoPro Awards, and Starbucks’ #RedCupContest. Airbnb is an outlier case where user-supplied photos are the product catalog itself.
Is UGC free?
Organic UGC costs nothing to acquire but does cost to run, since sourcing, rights clearance, and moderation take staff time. Commissioned UGC is paid work, typically priced per asset rather than per post. The economics still favor UGC because assets accumulate rather than expiring with a campaign.
What is a UGC creator?
A UGC creator produces content for a brand to publish on the brand’s own channels, rather than posting it to their own audience. The brand buys the footage, not the reach, so follower count carries little weight in pricing. The output is ad creative styled to look like an organic post.
Do you need permission to repost UGC?
Yes for any commercial use. The creator holds copyright in their photo or video, and a brand hashtag does not transfer it. Request written permission that specifies the channels, the paid or organic usage, and the time period, and keep the record. The FTC separately requires disclosure whenever payment or free product changed hands.
To tag creator and campaign links so each placement reports separately, use the free Instagram UTM builder at linkutm.