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In today’s digital marketing landscape, UGC videos have emerged as a powerful tool for brands seeking authentic connections with their audience. As consumers increasingly seek genuine, relatable content, UGC videos have become essential for brands looking to build trust and engage with their audience effectively.
This guide explores every aspect of user generated video marketing, from understanding its fundamental concepts to implementing successful strategies.
A UGC video is an authentic, customer-created piece of video content that showcases real experiences with products or services. User generated content videos can range from spontaneous social media posts to crafted bespoke reviews which provide genuine perspectives that resonate with potential customers.
A UGC video is an authentic, customer-created piece of video content that showcases real experiences with products or services
User generated content videos have become instrumental in building trust and credibility in brands. Unlike any traditional paid advertising, the authentic voice of an organic UGC video creates a connection with the audience which in turn leads to higher engagement rates with the content and more effective brand communication.
The popularity of UGC videos continues to rise with the increasing popularity of social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. This content generally appears in two forms: organic UGC videos that users create and share naturally and UGC video ads that brands can repurpose for promotional campaigns.
Both of these types of UGC content -organic and ads- can be turned into a shoppable video by adding the corresponding tags and CTAs to the piece. But we will see this later.
A UGC video offers several key advantages that make it an invaluable content marketing strategy. Here’s why UGC videos becoming increasingly important:
When real customers share their experiences, it creates a powerful form of social proof that can be hard to replicate. With the content being unscripted and the feedback being honest, it helps to build trust with other potential customers who can relate to naturally authentic stories and experiences.
91% of shoppers are influenced by social content, therefore building trust through UGC videos should be imperative for brands.
When you leverage content organically created by your customers, you can significantly cut down on production costs, all the while maintaining a steady stream of fresh content. This allows you to scale content creation without increasing your marketing budget in proportion.
Companies that incorporate UGC videos and content into their campaigns save an average of 15% on content creation costs
When customers create content, specifically UGC videos for your brand, they will naturally become more invested in it. This participation in turn leads to stronger community bonds and turns what were casual customers into brand advocates who actively participate in your brand’s story.
There is a 12x higher engagement for UGC videos over any other type of UGC content.
UGC organically spreads through social media platforms as creators share with their followers. This organic reach often results in higher brand awareness simply as the content comes from trusted peers rather than the brand itself.
Studies show that 85% of users find UGC videos and content more influential than photos or videos from a brand.
UGC videos come in many different kinds and on multiple platforms. Here are some of the best examples of UGC videos that consistently drive engagement and build authentic connections with audiences.
From quick social media clips to detailed product reviews, each format offers unique opportunities to showcase genuine customer experiences:
Customer testimonials are authentic videos where customers share their firsthand experiences, success stories, and transformations achieved through the product or service. These can range from brief social media clips to detailed video reviews, often highlighting specific benefits, challenges overcome, and emotional connections formed with the brand.
This can be really powerful for skincare brands like ISDIN as customers can show tangible results in the difference of their skin, the relatable nature of these UGC videos helps customers to trust the brand.
This video by @ellengendlermd demonstrates the power of UGC videos as she tells her authentic story on how a product from ISDIN has benefitted her. Thus increasing social proof for the brand.
Product reviews are one of the most powerful forms of UGC video that help to build and maintain social proof for brands. Generally, product reviews have been longer form and posted to YouTube, but with the rising popularity of TikTok, they have migrated to the platform, too.
UGC video reviews for footwear companies like ALOHAS can be very beneficial as UGC videos can do a much better job at showing the true style of a shoe compared to a static website image.
This product review by @sarammacholz serves as a great example for product reviews. By receiving tagged UGC videos like this, ALOHAS get an authentic customer voice for their marketing at a fraction of the cost of any traditional brand-made marketing.
Gymshark started its ‘Change Your Life’ campaign which encouraged users to set a fitness goal on January 1st. They then told users to post again after 66 days, using the hashtag #gymshark66 to show their transformation. The winners of the Gymshark challenge won a whole year’s worth of Gymshark products.
Gymshark are able to leverage this organic UGC video content to promote their brand. With thousands of people taking part in their challenge, brand awareness spreads rapidly.
Vlog or Day-In-The-Life style videos are becoming a hugely popular form of UGC video. Users are able to showcase their authentic experiences with the brand. Like with this customer with Vera Wang Bride, they document the whole process from going to their appointment, trying on the dresses and eventually purchasing one.
This video by @vanessatiiu can be incredibly helpful and very strong for a brand because it can show potential customers the behind the scenes of what a brand really is like if you use their products.
Unboxing experiences are UGC videos where customers document their first interaction with a product, from opening the packaging to examining contents and sharing initial reactions. This video for Holdit, a mobile phone accessories company is a great example of showing the usability and features of their phone cases.
These videos help to build anticipation and showcase product presentations while offering authentic first impressions that potential customers find valuable when making purchase decisions.
The premium cooking knife brand Global present YouTube videos of professional chefs showing how best to use their products. This features prominently on their social media channels and their website. The use of a UGC video helps to showcase the product in a much more dynamic way rather than a static image.
As these UGC videos are made by professionals, it further enhances the trust in the products made by a brand like Global. However, even if the UGC videos were made by regular at-home chefs, they still serve as positive forms of social proof.
User hacks and modifications are creative UGC videos where customers adapt or improve products, such as this example of a customer of IKEA customising furniture for specific spaces or developing alternative uses that extend product functionality. Check out this article on how Flowbox have helped IKEA Switzerland have a 30% increase in average online order value.
These videos showcase customer ingenuity and often inspire other users to experiment with products in new and exciting ways, creating a cycle of innovation within the community.
Before and after videos can be a very prominent form of UGC videos. For example, the image below shows a user of the skincare brand CORSX showing their results of using one of their products. It helps to serve as strong social proof that the product does exactly what it claims to do.
Before and after UGC videos, like this where the user shows their transformation after using a product are increasing in popularity, especially in short-form on platforms like TikTok.
Here are the main platforms where UGC video content thrives, each offering unique opportunities for creators to share authentic experiences and connect with audiences through UGC videos, as well as for the brands to find and collect these.
Instagram has become a world-leader for UGC video content through features like Stories, Reels and general posts. Due to the platform being ‘visual first’ and having many diverse video formats, it makes it perfect for users to share authentic experiences. With other features like shopping tags, it’s particularly effective for Instagram marketing campaigns.
YouTube excels in long-form UGC videos, with it being mainly used for product reviews and tutorials when it comes to the creation of UGC videos. The longer videos of user generated content on YouTube are great for storytelling and making the content more engaging and immersive for a potential customer.
TikTok has transformed short-form UGC due to the engaging UI format and high virality potential. The algorithm on TikTok is great for surfacing authentic content to its’ intended audience, which makes it ideal for not just larger brands but smaller ones, too, by leveraging TikTok’s UGC trends. Brands can ensure consistent engagement with consumers by keeping up to date with current trends.
A UGC tool like Flowbox helps you to seamlessly connect your social media sources to its platform so you can collect and manage UGC videos from Instagram, TikTok and Youtube for your brand.
To kickstart or improve a UGC video strategy, there are several proven methods to encourage and cultivate authentic video content creation within your community. The key is to create an environment that naturally inspires creators while maintaining brand authenticity.
Here are some effective approaches that have shown consistent results across various industries and platforms:
A successful UGC campaign has to begin with some guidelines for users. Whether that be to address a seasonal theme like Christmas, a product launch or a challenge that engages the entire community, the prompts should be able to guide creators and allow them to express their personality.
It can be helpful to provide examples to creators. Authentic UGC video creation thrives when the creators feel empowered to share their own natural experiences in their own unique way.
Develop rewarding systems to praise creators to incentivise the creation of organic UGC video content. Obviously, material rewards can be an effective incentive, but often, creators can value recognition and exposure over this.
By featuring great submissions on your social media channels and website, you effectively motivate participation in your UGC strategy, and as a byproduct, you foster a strong community surrounding the brand.
Effective community management is truly the foundation of successful UGC video campaigns. Create an environment where the creators feel valued and heard by the brand. This can be done through responding to the content, facilitating discussion around the UGC campaign or even celebrating the submissions.
This approach naturally encourages organic UGC video creation because members of the community become brand advocates where they create content because they feel genuinely connected with the brand and its’ values.
As Europe’s leading UGC platform, Flowbox specialises in streamlining the collection and management of user generated content through automated collection tools, rights management systems and features to organise content. The platform makes it simple to utilise organic UGC videos whilst ensuring proper permissions.
The features of Flowbox make it easy to manage and organise the organic UGC posted to social media. The “Pre-Approval” feature allows you to maintain control over the content that represents your brand. Therefore, with this feature, you can monitor and filter UGC videos and images before they are displayed on your website and social media channels.
The great thing about using Flowbox is that you can send rights requests directly to the users and easily track their responses. Additionally, Flowbox provides pre-designed templates to message the user for a request, but you can personalise this message to whatever you like.
Once the request is granted, Flowbox can automatically approve the content for use, making the whole process even easier for your brand.
Check out this article if you want to know more about rights requests and permissions: User Generated Content Permission, Rights, Laws & Legal Issues
Flowbox also allows you to manage your catalogue and add tags to the UGC embedded in your eCommerce web pages to create shoppable content, facilitating the seamless creation of a fully customised and unique content flow.
By leveraging Flowbox, eCommerce brands can optimise their shoppable content strategies and effectively engage their target audience, ensuring their video content efforts drive more conversions.
Check out this article if you would like to see successful shoppable content examples in action.
The analytics section of the Flowbox platform has a wide variety of sections to analyse different metrics:
Posts tab: With the Posts tab, you can track and analyse the performance of your approved UGC videos. Monitor engagement metrics, reach, and content effectiveness through our intuitive dashboard to understand which videos resonate most with your audience and optimise your UGC strategy accordingly.
Evangelists tab: The evangelists tab allows you to see which profiles are creating the best and most engaging content around your brand. Moreover, Within this tab you an also communicate with these creators and foster a collaborative atmosphere.
Influencers tab: This tab serves as a dedicated portal to access insights into the content that has been produced by influencers that are aligned with your brand. It also enables you to discover new influencers whose profiles align perfectly with your brand. The performance analysis allows you to make well-informed decisions based on real-time data modelling.
Check out this article if you want more details on the advanced website analytics on Flowbox’s platform.
As we’ve explored throughout this guide, UGC videos have revolutionised the way brands connect with their audiences. The authentic, user-driven nature of this content creates unparalleled trust and engagement that traditional marketing simply cannot match.
From customer testimonials to creative product hacks, UGC videos provide diverse opportunities for brands to showcase real experiences and build genuine connections across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
As we look to the future, brands that successfully embrace and nurture user generated content while maintaining proper management practices will find themselves at a significant advantage in connecting with their target audience.
Stay ahead in UGC video marketing by embracing emerging trends. With Flowbox’s platform, you can effectively manage and leverage community-driven content that resonates with your audience.
Ready to transform your UGC strategy? Book a demo with Flowbox today!
Got questions about UGC videos? We’ve got you covered. Here are the answers to your most common questions about creating, managing, and leveraging UGC videos for your brand’s success.
User generated content (UGC) videos are authentic, customer-created video content that showcases real experiences with products or services.
Yes. UGC video content is completely legal to use. However, you must gain permission from the creator. Read more on how Flowbox can help you gain permissions.
UGC videos can be far more effective than traditional marketing videos. UGC stats show that 93% of customers trust UGC more than traditional ads, whilst UGC ads see 4x higher click-through rates.
With Flowbox, you can measure the success of UGC video campaigns through a variety of metrics with their advanced website analytics features.
The best platforms for sharing UGC videos are TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
An organic UGC video is made by a consumer of a brands’ products or services. They are created naturally and are not sponsored by the brand. It can come in various kinds: product reviews, tutorials, un-boxings, how-to videos, etc.
