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How to make UGC videos for your brand
UGC, user-generated content, started as the photos and videos customers post on their own. In advertising the word now covers any video made to look like that: one person, a phone camera and a recommendation that feels personal. Brands use it because it sits naturally in a feed where polished ads stand out as ads.
There are three ways to get UGC videos made. Most brands end up using all three, for different jobs.
Route 1: your customers
The real thing. Ask happy customers to post, put a card in the package, run a hashtag, or reshare what people have already posted. It's the most credible UGC there is, and the only kind that can honestly show results over time.
The catch is control and rights. You can't choose what customers say or how it looks, and you need their permission before you use their video in an ad. Get it in writing, including where you'll use it and for how long.
Route 2: paid UGC creators
Creators who make videos for brands to run as ads, whether or not they also post them on their own channels. You send the product and a brief; they send back drafts. You get a real person who has really used the product, with more control than customer content gives you.
The cost is time and coordination: finding creators, shipping product, waiting for drafts, asking for changes and agreeing usage rights with each one. That works for a handful of videos. It's slow when you want to test dozens of hooks.
A creator brief that gets usable videos
PRODUCT
Name, what it does, who it's for, the one thing that
makes it different.
DELIVERABLES
Number of videos, length, vertical 9:16, raw footage
plus an edit, no music.
THE IDEA
One sentence: what the viewer should take away.
HOOKS TO TRY
Two or three opening lines or actions. Suggest your own too.
MUST SHOW
The product with the label facing the camera.
The product being used.
MUST SAY / MUST NOT SAY
Approved claims only. No health, money or results claims
unless we've approved them in writing.
FILMING
Natural light, a quiet room, phone at eye level,
no other brands in shot.
USAGE
Where we'll run it, for how long, and whether we can edit it.Filming tips to pass on
- Start with the product already in frame or in hand. No intro.
- Face a window; avoid overhead light.
- Film several takes of the first line. It's the part that gets tested most.
- Hold the product still for a beat with the label to camera.
- Record in a quiet room. Captions go on in the edit.
Route 3: AI UGC
A generated creator in a generated setting, using your product, made from your photos and a written plan. No shipping and no scheduling, and a new version takes minutes. It's the quickest way to test many hooks, settings and lines, and to find the angle worth paying a real creator for. The method is in AI UGC ads, and the general steps in how to make an AI ad.
Two AI UGC clips, five seconds each. More are broken down in AI ad examples.
The limit is honesty. An AI creator hasn't used your product, so AI UGC should show and describe the product rather than testify to results. Label it as AI-generated, and make it look real by keeping it simple; how to make an AI video that looks real covers how.
Which route, when
- Testing hooks, settings and angles: AI UGC, because the number of ideas you can try matters more than any one video.
- Testimonials and results: real customers, with their permission.
- Scaling an angle that has already won: paid creators, briefed with what your tests taught you.
- A new product with no customers yet: AI UGC to find the message, then paid creators.
What makes a UGC video work, whichever route
- A first second that stops the scroll: the product in hand, a question, a visible reaction.
- One idea per video.
- The product clearly in view, label readable, for at least a beat.
- Captions for everyone watching with the sound off.
- Vertical 9:16 from the start, not cropped from a horizontal video.
- Words that sound like a person talking, not a slogan.
Make UGC videos with fairytale video
fairytale video is built for route 3. Choose a fictional creator and a voice, add your product and pick a scene, then describe the ad or let the studio draft the description and lines for you to edit. Choose 9:16, 4 to 30 seconds, and 720p or 1080p. Each video is a paid Seedance 2.5 render with its own concept, timed plan and saved references. Check the result, then add captions in the font and position you choose at no extra credit cost.