Guides / Hire UGC
What are UGC ads?
UGC ads are user-generated videos or images, usually made by a creator you hired, that you run as paid media. The “user” is often a paid creator, not a spontaneous customer. What you bought is the file, and sometimes the right to run it from their handle.
About 210 US searches a month for “what are ugc ads”. Updated October 4, 2026.
| Phrase | What you actually have |
|---|---|
| UGC ad | A creator’s file, licensed, running in your ad account |
| UGC-style ad | Anything cut to look like that, whoever filmed it |
| Partnership ad | The same file, or their post, running from their handle |
The meaning, without the slogan
About 210 US searches a month ask what UGC ads are, 170 ask the meaning, and 110 ask “what is UGC ads.” The honest definition is a licensed creator asset used as an ad. Organic posts you did not pay for are UGC too, and they are not what a media buyer means.
The look, separate from the license, is on UGC-style ads. Running it from their handle is on Meta partnership ads.
The license is the product
A file in your camera roll is not an ad you can run. You need paid usage: which channels, which countries, how long, and whether whitelisting is included. Creators price those separately, and marketplaces spell them differently.
Billo: The creator assigns all rights to you, for paid, owned and earned media, worldwide. Insense: Perpetual digital rights once content is approved and paid; the creator keeps ownership. How long it runs as a creator-handle ad is set in the brief. The comparison of who to hire is on UGC agency vs platform.
Why accounts buy them
A person holding the product gets the scroll to stop in a feed of polished brand spots. The ad is also cheaper to replace when it fatigues, because the next one is another brief rather than another production company.
How many of those replacements a spending account needs is on how many creatives a week. Examples of the form are worth saving into a swipe file.
Questions
Are UGC ads the same as influencer posts?
An influencer post is public on their profile and may never be an ad. A UGC ad is built to run in your account. One creator can do both, and the invoice should say which you bought.
Do UGC ads have to be vertical?
For Reels, TikTok, and Shorts, yes. Ask for 9:16 in the brief, with the claim away from the edges the platform covers.
Can AI-made video be a UGC ad?
It can be UGC-style. Calling it a customer’s video when it is not one is a different, worse idea. The boundary is on the AI UGC page.
Keep going
Put it in the account
Connect the ad account. Sprites reads it, drafts the change, and waits for your approval before anything spends.
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