UGC
user generated contentUGC, user generated content, means content customers and users create about a brand themselves: photos, videos, reviews and posts. It is marketing your audience does for you, and therefore more credible than anything self-produced.
Good to know
UGC’s power rests on social proof: another customer’s experience reads as a peer’s recommendation, while a company’s own content is always also an ad. That is why UGC works both as organic content and as ad creative, where it often beats studio production.
The term now also covers the paid UGC style: creators make authentic-looking user content for brands’ ad use. It works as a format, but is a different thing from spontaneous customer content, and commercial collaboration must always be disclosed. Genuine UGC requires asking permission before use and crediting the maker.
IN PRACTICE
How more UGC gets made
Make sharing easy and rewarding
A branded tag, a photo spot in the store and sharing customers’ content in your channels. Attention is the audience’s reward.
Ask at the right moment
The satisfaction peak is the best time: after delivery, at a successful project’s end. A direct ask produces multiples.
Use with permission and credit
Ask permission, credit the maker and use the content on the site, in social and in ads. Good treatment feeds new content.
PITFALLS
Two UGC mistakes
Content used without asking
A public post is not a licence. Unpermitted use costs trust and can breach copyright.
Paid UGC presented as genuine
Undisclosed commercial collaboration breaks the rules and, when exposed, eats exactly the credibility UGC was meant to bring.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Frequently asked questions
How do I get customers to create content?+
Ask directly at the right moment, make sharing easy with a tag and reward with attention: share the best in your channels. A product or experience worth talking about is still the foundation.
May I use a customer’s post in marketing?+
Only with permission: ask in writing and say where the content will be used. Always credit the maker.
What are UGC ads?+
Ads styled as user content, produced by creators for a fee. The format works because it does not look like an ad, but the collaboration must be disclosed.
Does UGC work in B2B?+
In its own form, yes: customer talks, reviews and event photos are B2B’s user content. An expert’s genuine recommendation outweighs any brochure.
Why does UGC convert well in ads?+
It bypasses ad blindness: authentic-looking content is read as a recommendation, not an ad. It is especially strong in social ad feeds.
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Maintained by the VSCY editorial team · Updated 6 Aug 2026 · Part of the marketing glossary (99 terms)
