What counts as UGC?
- Reviews and ratings on Google, marketplaces or your website.
- Photos and videos customers post with your product.
- Comments, answers and questions in your community.
- Posts that tag your brand or use your hashtag.
- Content made by a creator that you ask for and pay for, often called creator content.
Creator content that you paid for is sometimes also called UGC, because it looks like a customer made it. The difference matters for rules. See below.
Why brands use UGC
UGC shows real people using your product in real settings. It can also fill your feed with fresh content without a studio shoot. And it gives buyers a way to see what others think before they buy.
How to use UGC safely: a made-up example
Say a bakery in a small town gets a photo from a customer who tagged it. Before reposting, the bakery asks the customer for permission in writing, a simple message is enough, and credits them. It keeps the original post link. If it wants to use the photo in an ad, it asks for that permission separately.
- Ask first, and keep the reply.
- Credit the creator.
- Never edit a review or invent one.
- If you pay or give free products, tell people it is a paid or gifted post. India's ad regulator, ASCI, expects influencers and creators to label promotional content.
For a full plan, read our user-generated content strategy guide.
How to measure UGC
Count what the content brings: enquiries, orders and the cost of getting each one, compared with your own ads. Do not judge it only by likes. If you run UGC as ads, track it like any other ad.
Related terms
- Influencer marketing: paying people with an audience to talk about you.
- Social proof: the effect of seeing others use and recommend a product.
- Community management: replying to and caring for the people who talk about you.
Want a plan that mixes UGC with creators and ads? Read about our social media marketing work.
