Stop Working With UGC Creators

Happy Wednesday!

I’ve got some good news and bad news this week.

The great news is that Jakub is back from his vacation, yay!

He mentioned that for next week’s newsletter, we’ll answer your questions and provide our expertise on a problem you’re experiencing when producing UGC.

Respond to this email and we will answer your questions and share our ideas for your brand.

Now, the bad news: UGC creators are not the best creators you can find.

What you will learn today:

• Why working with UGC creators is often a bad idea

• Pros and cons of working with UGC creators

• Who the best creators are and where to find them

• Follow these extra tips to improve the output of your ads

And much more…

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Brands (and even agencies) face this singular dilemma when sourcing creators: finding good quality creators who aren’t charging hundreds of dollars for a few clips.

Why Working With UGC Creators Is a Bad Idea

Over the last 3 years of working with hundreds of creators, we’ve seen it all.

Those who want to charge you $300 for their low-quality videos and then threaten to sue you if you don’t comply. Or worse, creators who demand $2000 for a SINGLE video.

One day we discovered that if we wanted to sleep better at night, we needed to stop hiring UGC creators. This was a game-changer for us.

Now, before we discuss how we arrived at this conclusion, let’s talk about the pros and cons we’ve experienced when working with those labeled as “UGC creators.”

Twitter

Pros:

Good place to look for UGC creators with minimal time investment.

Just fire off a tweet with hashtags like #ugc, #ugccommunity, #ugccreator, #ugccreators, and #ugccreatorsneeded.

You'll get swamped with responses super quick.

But there's a catch with Twitter…

Cons:

A lot of new UGC creators jumping on the bandwagon don’t really know how to film quality content that performs for paid ads.

They see the buzz around UGC and think it's okay to charge big bucks for not-so-great content, which doesn’t hit the mark.

This can make dealing with them a bit of a headache.

Nugget:

Sure, there are some gems out there—seasoned pros who know their stuff and are fantastic to work with.

But finding them on Twitter? It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

Billo

Pros:

If you’re looking for budget-friendly UGC creators, you may feel like you've hit the jackpot sourcing from here. But not so fast—let’s talk about its flaws…

Cons:

The main problem with UGC creators from Billo is that they usually don't have a deep understanding of the product or the creative strategy.

They often lack the knowledge of what makes videos perform well and end up just filming some basic content.

Without good guidelines, briefs, and scripts, these creators tend to just read off the product label.

They'll say things like:

"This product is amazing for my skin, it helps with dry skin and acne”

And then add filler phrases like:

"I'm completely obsessed with this product"

Which don't provide any real value to potential customers watching.

Your initial excitement turns into complete dismay when you get back quality that is often terrible, requiring you to scrap and re-film.

In other words, a total waste of your time and money plus a whole new problem on your plate.

Insense

Pros:

After getting really bad quality from your first round of creators, you probably want to find creators who can actually produce better-quality content.

So your search may have landed you at Insense.

Cons:

UGC creators at Insense will offer you much better quality than Billo, but they will charge you thousands of dollars just to use their platform.

Although you will find some good creators, you still need to do all the heavy lifting.

Here’s the thing: unless you provide briefs, write scripts, and manage creators, you don’t have much control over the final outcome.

Is finding a good balance between quality and affordable price even possible? We're here to tell you that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

The Best Creators You’ll Ever Find

If brands really want to afford quality UGC creators on a limited budget, the best strategy is to reach out directly to individuals who are not established UGC creators.

These are people who don't present themselves as UGC creators on social media and aren't responding to every post asking for UGC creators on platforms like Twitter.

Even a friend who posts great travel videos could produce better content if provided with a detailed brief and script compared to someone who calls themselves a UGC creator (without solid examples of their work).

Here are two ways you can find regular people who’ll probably be the best creators you’ll ever work with:

Manual Outreach

Pros:

You will get the best value for your money working with regular people who don’t present themselves as UGC creators on social media but can film quality content.

They are the easiest to work with, and you can teach them your systems and processes.

Cons:

We recommend this option only if you have unlimited time on your hands or if you’re based in smaller countries in Europe or Asia where there aren’t many platforms to source creators from.

Otherwise, this may be too time-consuming unless you have an in-house team that can do the manual outreach.

You can find some quality creators, but those presenting themselves as UGC creators tend to be overpriced for their value.

All-Time Fav: Backstage

Pros:

Our favorite platform for finding creators with untapped potential is hands-down, Backstage.

Many of our long-term creators, whom we have been working with for over 2 years, have come from Backstage.

If you come across most of these actors (aka creators) on social media, you’ll notice that the majority do not promote themselves as such.

Nevertheless, they’ll be some of the most talented creators you’ll come across.

And the best part? They will not expect thousands of dollars in return for turning on their camera.

Cons:

It’s key that you filter through hundreds of spam applications, terrible creators, overpriced creators with low experience, and more, with a very good application form.

Otherwise, you may end up having a similar experience as with Billo creators.

Get Our Free Guide: How to Source, Qualify & Train Hundreds of Top UGC Creators

One email is not enough for all the lessons we collected over 3 years of reviewing thousands of creator applications and working hands-on with hundreds of creators.

We put everything we know about sourcing and managing creators into a full guide you can access completely free here.

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1. If you’re looking for a creative partner who will handle your entire creative production, deliver winning ads every month, and help you scale, apply to work with us here. We have worked with brands like HexClad, BestSelf, Product Hunt, Morning Brew, and others.

2. Want us to train your internal team and implement all of our creative production systems and strategies in your business? Apply here and we will help you build an in-house team that can create hundreds of winning ads every month.

3. If you’re looking to take your ad performance to the next level and have a consistent stream of winning creative, but don’t want to hire anyone, we have created a program that teaches you our entire creative production process and everything we have learned over 3 years of creating tens of thousands of ads.