How to create successful UGC campaigns: examples, inspiration and how to do it with HICARI

In a world where brands struggle to create authentic messages and be as relatable as possible, UGC campaigns have become one of the most powerful strategies. They not only increase engagement and social proof, but also help build community and reduce production costs.

1. Spoiler: creating UGC is not the same as working with a micro-influencer.
2. Spoiler 2: a UGC campaign is not about asking your customers to create content or launching viral challenges. That is organic UGC, and while it can work, it is neither repeatable nor scalable for a brand that needs a constant volume of content.

Professional UGC campaigns consist of creating content recorded by specialised creators —UGC creators— who are neither influencers nor do they publish the content on their social media, but rather record for your brand, following a strategy, a brief and a specific objective.

In this article, we explain how to launch effective UGC campaigns (step by step), show you real examples —including some campaigns created through HICARI— and give you practical ideas for inspiration if you are a brand looking to invest in authentic content.

First things first: what is UGC? It never hurts to remember…

A professional UGC campaign is a strategic collection of UGC-format videos recorded by specialised creators, based on a defined brief and designed for use in:

• Web (PDP, PLP, landing pages). You need a series of videos for your landing pages.
• Ads (Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, YouTube). You need a series of videos to use in paid campaigns.
• Organic social media. The brand needs a series of UGC videos for its own campaign (for example, a Christmas campaign or a specific promotion). These videos are for the brand’s social media.
• Email marketing. The brand is working on automations and needs videos for its automated email strategy, to add the videos to the different email landing pages.
• Internal communications.
• Branding and educational content.

As you can see, the main difference between creating UGC regularly and running a UGC campaign is that the latter involves a usually high volume of videos to be delivered to the brand.

This also means savings for the brand when ordering at volume, as well as faster delivery and the need for support from the UGC agency (see the best UGC agencies).

Key features:

• They are not influencers.
• They do not need followers.
• They do not publish on their social media.

They are actors of naturalness, experts at recording credible and effective videos.

You choose the message, script, style, duration, tone and deliverables.

Small parenthesis: some brands also need creators to upload this content to their social media, even if they have 100 followers. Only a minority of brands ask for this.

Campaigns with 5, 10, 20, 50 or 200 videos. It is tailored to your needs.

When producing at volume, the cost per video goes down for the company.

With HICARI, you get a huge discount.

UGC content is delivered with rights granted for ads, web and social media.

If you work with HICARI, don’t worry: all content includes organic and paid usage rights at no extra cost.

• Users distrust corporate content
• They ignore overly polished ads (including static images and corporate videos)
• They want authenticity
• They need visual social proof to make a purchase

That is why UGC works so well (see all the benefits of UGC):

Seeing someone use or explain the product is more convincing than anything else. It is the evolution of the “influencer” and written reviews into a concept where an anonymous user comments and explains things from home or in the street, in a very natural way.

On PDPs, PLPs and landing pages, UGC videos can increase conversion by up to 80% (just ask Amazon). But not only on the web—also in Ads and even in organic content.

While a professional video can cost €2,000–€15,000, a professional UGC video costs from €70 (on HICARI).

On Meta, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, UGC-style ads have higher:

• CTR
• Retention
• Lower CPL
• Higher ROAS

Don’t forget to use HICARI’s calculators to calculate engagement and returns for your videos.

For the price of 1 corporate video or advertising spot, you can produce 20 different UGC videos and test hooks, angles, styles, creators and, of course, different scripts, uses and channels.

• Videos of 15–30 seconds
• Testimonial or POV style (see other types of UGC here)
• Powerful hooks in terms of copy and visuals
• Variants for A/B testing (changing the creator, hook or script)

Ideal for any business running social campaigns.

UGC integration into:

• PDP
• PLP
• Reviews
• Landing pages

They increase trust, boost product or service conversion and reduce returns for ecommerce businesses that require shipping.

Weekly formats with 2–4 videos/week on TikTok, Reels, Shorts… Ideal for:

• Supporting the communication of a campaign with a series of sketch-style, educational videos…
• A brand campaign built around a series of testimonials
• Communicating news with a series of videos
• A one-off seasonal campaign such as Black Friday, Christmas, sales…

Launch a series of UGC videos, such as unboxings, first impressions, educational videos and reactions.

UGC campaign to explain its platform (“the Airbnb of parking”). The company is entering Spain and needs to attract hosts (people with garages who want to rent them out by the hour). We created a series of videos with powerful hooks for organic social media and social ads such as:

• “A friend told me she was making X from her garage…”
• “My parking space is paying my mortgage…”

Very natural, easy-to-understand content, perfect for ads and organic channels.

Campaign cost: less than €500. With 7 videos.

Series of professional UGC testimonial videos from students for its social ad campaigns. MasterD is a client that continues to work with HICARI, creating videos regularly for its training programmes. You can read the full MasterD success story here. MasterD’s videos aim to:

• Build trust
• Increase the number of leads
• Humanise the brand

UGC video filmed during real training sessions, showcasing:

• The fitness chain’s different concept
• Effort and results
• Real atmosphere

In this case, with HICARI’s support, the gym chain requested content for social media and to use in its social ad campaigns to raise awareness of its Madrid centre, as it had been using corporate videos and wanted to test new, more relatable formats for its centres.

Organic content creation campaign for Quehoteles.com’s social media, with the aim of increasing reach and awareness by showcasing charming places from the perspective of local creators. Real travellers explaining their experiences. It builds credibility and increases bookings. You can view the full success story here.

Metalida is a brand that makes highly effective use of social ads to raise awareness of its products. Its campaign therefore consisted of a series of UGC videos featuring all its products and explaining them and their real benefits.

See more HICARI clients and projects here.

• Step 1: Define your objectives internally. What do you want to achieve with this campaign? Conversion, branding, content, education, CRO, traffic…
• Step 2: Create the brief. Your HICARI account manager will help you for free.
• Step 3: Select the creator. We filter by tone, style and type of content.
• Step 4: Scripts. We combine hooks, messages and persuasive angles.
• Step 5: Filming and delivery. Within 5–7 days.
• Step 6: Multiplatform use. Web, Ads, Social, Email… all with rights included.

Important: if you are planning a campaign with a high volume of videos, contact HICARI to receive a quote with an additional discount.

With HICARI, you can launch a campaign from €350, including:

• 3–6 videos
• All usage rights, including paid media
• Scripts included
• Free account manager
• Creator selection
• Editing
• 1 free revision per piece of content

The higher the video volume, the lower the cost per video with HICARI.

• CTR
• CPC
• CPA
• ROAS (ROAS calculator)
• ROI (ROI calculator)
• Video retention

• Time on PDP
• Add to Cart Rate
• Conversion Rate (conversion calculator)
• Returns
• Scroll depth

• Engagement (calculate Instagram engagement, TikTok)
• Watch time
• Shares
• Saves

• [ ] Ads
• [ ] CRO
• [ ] Testimonials
• [ ] Social media
• [ ] Education

• 1 benefit per video

• Visual hook
• Copy hook

• [ ] Natural
• [ ] POV
• [ ] Testimonial
• [ ] Humour
• [ ] Before/After
• [ ] Voice-over
• [ ] Talking to camera

• [ ] Subtitles
• [ ] Logo
• [ ] Typography / headings
• [ ] Music

• [ ] 15 seconds (for ads)
• [ ] 30 seconds
• [ ] 1 minute

• Profile
• Gender
• Age
• Style

• [ ] Ads
• [ ] Web
• [ ] Social media
• [ ] Email
• [ ] App

Professional UGC campaigns are now one of the most effective, scalable and cost-effective ways to communicate and sell online. They do not depend on external audiences, do not require expensive productions, and generate content that works across all channels. Contact HICARI or get started yourself on our platform.