UGC (User Generated Content): definition, benefits and tips for making it work

UGC (User Generated Content) is increasingly prevalent on the internet and competes with traditional advertising: 85% of shoppers¹ are more attracted to UGC than to content provided by brands themselves.

To get the most out of UGC, businesses are integrating it into their marketing strategies to increase their online profiles and boost conversion rates.

Read on for an explanation of UGC, the advantages of using it as part of your marketing strategy, and our tips for making it work for you.

What is UGC?

User Generated Content (UGC) is any contact created directly by a brand's users and not by the brand itself.

This could be one of many formats:

• Unboxing videos
• Customer reviews
• Tips and tutorials
• Product photos
• Social media posts
• FAQs

Each of these types of content has its own characteristics and represents an opportunity for the brand to be mentioned, shared, and recommended on digital channels. For example, UGC integrated into customer reviews gives shoppers a better idea of a product before buying. 61% of shoppers² mix reviews with the information provided by the brand to assess a product.

The benefits of using UGC

More confidence in the brand

UGC gives a brand a more « authentic³ » image to build trust among shoppers.

UGC is seen more as a « recommendation⁵ » than advertising, creating a sense of closeness to the brand. It also increases customer loyalty as 60% of shoppers⁴ are more loyal to a brand that shares this type of content.

Reduced marketing costs

Using UGC is a means of greatly reducing marketing costs.

By using content created by customers, businesses eliminate the costs of creating promotional and/or advertising content: photoshoots, photo editing, writing social media posts… These economies can be huge, representing an average of 25,000 to 50,000 dollars per year⁶.

Businesses also save on the costs of « Pay per click » campaigns which represent between 100 and 300 million dollars per month⁷.

Increased conversion rates

UGC is seen as social proof⁸, increasing conversion rates for a business.

UGC proves to shoppers that the users of a product are happy with it and gives a positive view of the product: 94% of shoppers⁹ state that a positive review can persuade them to buy. UGC also leads to better conversion rates for ad campaigns. Ads including UGC have 29% higher conversion rates¹⁰.

Implementing a UGC strategy

Encourage UGC creation

There are several tips for encouraging the creation of UGC and « increasing its reach », such as competitions on social media, ambassador programs, or making the unboxing experience extraordinary…

One of the easiest methods is the integration of hashtags in any UGC to facilitate the sharing of actions on social media. 92% of shoppers¹² value content shared by their acquaintances.

One example is the Apple brand's creation of an ad campaign called #ShotOniPhone, encouraging amateur photographers to share the photos they took with their iPhone. Following this campaign, Apple selected and used the best photo content¹⁰ on their social media accounts to prove the quality of photos taken with its iPhone.

Gathering UGC on your brand

It is important to gradually collect UGC relating to your brand.

You can do this by searching for hashtags or content mentioning your brand name. You can also use dedicated tools to automatically incorporate existing UGC on social media and choose the content most relevant to your brand.

Whatever the method you choose, we recommend that you obtain an authorization⁵ to use the content created by other users. Simply contact them directly via email and/or direct message.

Integrate UGC in your website

You can use UGC on your website to draw traffic and persuade shoppers to buy from your brand.

This content can be integrated as « web stories⁷ » in key areas of the customer journey: product page, home page and/or mobile app.

Web stories are like Instagram stories, except that they can be integrated directly into the website and will not disappear automatically. It is essential to include this type of content in your website to provide shoppers with information at various times and not just when they are first discovering a product.

PIM (Product Information Management) solutions are an effective means of managing this content. PIM will gather, organize, and secure all content associated with your product (photos, UGC, technical characteristics, web stories…) in a central repository. Its various functionalities (calculated fields, digital asset management, supervision…) and user rights and workflow functions allow you to monitor the quality of content, check the associated authorizations and validate content before sending to all digital channels.

¹ Comarketing-News. (2023, August 31). L'UGC impacte de plus en plus les décisions d'achat.
² CB News. (2016, November 22). Le User Generated Content (UGC) ou l'influence presque parfaite. CB News.
³ User Generated Content : définition et exemples. (2023, February 6). blog.hubspot.fr.
⁴ Beveridge, C. (2024, March 26). User-Generated Content (UGC) : What It Is + Why It Matters. blog.hootsuite.com.
⁵ Duke, D. (2023, March 13). Why User-Generated Content is winning. Forbes.
⁶ Adobe Experience Cloud Team. (2023, March 3). What is UGC (user-generated content) ?
⁷ Le contenu en fil rouge : comment faire vivre vos contenus toute l'année ? (2023, November 22). join-stories.com.
⁸ Semrush Team. (2023, December 8). A Beginner's Guide to User-Generated Content (Definition, Examples, and Tips). Semrush Blog.
⁹ Qu'est-ce que la preuve sociale et comment l'utiliser ? (2023, November 9). blog.hubspot.fr.
¹⁰ Seigne, B. (2023, March 31). User Generated Content, le nouvel outil incontournable du marketing. Metricool.
¹¹ 5 astuces pour motiver vos clients à créer du contenu autour de votre marque. (2023, March 29). join-stories.com.
¹² Qu'est-ce que l'User Generated Content (UGC) ? | SendPulse. (2023, March 28). SendPulse.