What Is UGC? User-Generated Content and UGC Creators

Wikipedia defines user-generated content as content made by users of the internet, such as images, videos, audio, text and testimonials. Hootsuite puts it as content created by regular people on social media rather than brands, and Shopify as content produced by real customers rather than a brand's own team.

So a customer's unboxing video, a star review with a photo, or a tagged post showing a product in use are all UGC.

Hootsuite says brands pay UGC creators to produce content that looks like organic UGC, and that, unlike influencers who promote brands on their own channels, UGC creators hand the content over. Shopify adds that a UGC creator is not posting to their audience; the brand uses the videos, photos or testimonials on its own channels.

Shopify cites Collabstr's 2025 report: the number of UGC creators grew 93% in a year, and 15% of influencer collaborations are now UGC campaigns.

An influencer is paid for reach: the post goes out to their followers. A UGC creator is paid for the content itself: the brand gets the video and runs it as an ad or puts it on a product page. That is why a UGC creator's work is judged on how real the video looks, not on a follower count.

Reviral's UGC studio makes customer-style videos from product photos: an AI creator reviews, unboxes or demonstrates the product in a 15-second clip, or a faceless format shows hands and product only. The live price of a 15-second 720p video is in the price table on this page, and the storyboard is written free.

Label realistic AI videos where the platform asks: TikTok requires a label on AI content with realistic images, audio or video, YouTube asks creators to disclose realistic altered or synthetic content at upload, and Meta adds an AI info label to ads made with generative AI tools.