UGC Facebook Ads: What They Are and Why They Work in 2025
If you have been using Facebook for your business, you may have noticed a steady increase in UGC-style video ads. According to statistics, UGC-based ads have a 4x higher click-through rate and a 50% drop in cost-per-click compared to the average.
One of the main reasons these ads are so effective for businesses is that they blend naturally into users’ feeds. Potential customers often engage with the content before even realizing it’s a paid promotion. If you’re a business owner curious about this advertising style and how to make it work for your brand, you’re in the right place, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about using a UGC Facebook ads to drive results.
Let us get into it.
What are UGC Facebook Ads?
UGC Facebook ads are advertisements that utilize content created by users for the brands, rather than created by the brand itself. These ads often feature authentic testimonials, reviews, and How-to tutorials, which showcase genuine experiences with the product or service.
These ads can take many forms, such as
- A customer recording a selfie-style UGC review of your product
- A creator showing how they use your service in a short tutorial
- An unboxing UGC video from a real buyer
- A repost of someone’s Instagram Reel using your product
- A screenshot of a 5-star review or positive tweet
Because this user-generated content comes from real users, they do not appear salesy. This makes them a perfect fit for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, where people scroll for connection and not for hard sells.
Why Do UGC Ads Work On Facebook?
Here are some of the reasons why UGC Ads work on Facebook.
- Native look: These UGC Facebook ads blend well with the platform.
- Social Proof: Real people make your brand more believable.
- Cost-effective: Cheaper than producing branded ads.
Types of UGC Content You Can Use for Facebook Ads
Take a look at the types of UGC content for Facebook Ads :
1. Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Customer reviews and testimonials are one of the most popular types of UGC for Facebook ads. They are considered as digital word of mouth. This form of user-generated content helps potential customers learn about the product or service even before they make a purchase. In a world full of brand messaging, opting for user-generated content can help you build more credibility and trust.
2. Product Unboxings and Demos
Unboxing videos and demos are among the most effective types of user-generated content on Facebook, as they help potential buyers make a decision more quickly. These types of user-generated content involve creators opening and showcasing the products. In these videos, creators often share their initial impressions of the product, demonstrating it in action and helping to build trust.
3. Lifestyle Photos From Real Users
Lifestyle photos from real users showcase the product in a real-life setting. Lifestyle UGC captures your brand in an everyday setting, such as a dining hall. This helps build credibility and reliability; no studio-shot video can ever match that level of authenticity. Here are some examples of Lifestyle photos from real users:
- A customer is taking a photo of their new coffee maker brewing a cup in their kitchen.
- A group of friends enjoying a picnic with the brand’s outdoor tent.
- Someone wearing a piece of clothing in a casual, everyday setting
4. Influencer-Generated UGC
Influencer-generated content combines the authority of the creator with authenticity. This often involves creating relatable videos or posts around your product, often using their own storytelling style. These pieces can then be used as organic content or boosted through Spark Ads or whitelisting. It taps into the creator’s credibility and delivers powerful social proof that resonates with their audience. This helps in driving trust, engagement, and conversions.
Why Does UGC Work So Well on Facebook?
Facebook isn’t just a platform for social updates; it’s a massive engagement engine built around real people sharing real experiences. That’s precisely why user-generated content (UGC) performs better than traditional branded creative in UGC campaigns.
Here’s what matters most to performance marketers:
1. Higher Engagement = Lower CPA
UGC grabs attention and sparks interactions, comments, shares, and reactions, the very signals Facebook’s algorithm loves. That means apply UGC for your next Facebook ads will help you achieve higher relevance scores, stronger delivery, and lower CPMs. As a result, you reach more people at a lower cost per acquisition.
2. Built-In Social Proof = Higher Conversion Rates
People trust other customers more than they trust brands. A simple video testimonial or unboxing clip from a real user reduces friction in the buyer’s journey. This allows the potential buyer to form a first-hand impression of the product they have been eyeing. As a result, it helps business owners increase click-through and conversion rates, especially in mid- to bottom-funnel campaigns.
3. Fresh Creative Content Without the Production Hassle
Businesses with a lot on their plate are not always available to create content. When they do, they sometimes face a dead end in the bottomless sea of social media trends. UGC on Facebook provides a constant stream of fresh, authentic content, eliminating the need for photoshoots or influencer deals. And once you identify which formats convert best (spoiler: video reviews and real-life use cases), you can scale them across audiences.
4. Audience-Driven Insights = Better Targeting
UGC often emerges organically within niche communities, geographic locations, or interest groups. These signals help you refine targeting, build custom audiences, and even discover new high-intent segments, all from content your users are already creating.
5. Cost-Effective at Scale
Traditional creative production is expensive. UGC flips the script by providing you with high-converting assets at a fraction of the cost. When you combine innovative collection strategies with strategic amplification, you’re reinvesting budget into what converts.
How Can You Leverage UGC in Facebook Ads
Here is how you can leverage UGC in Facebook ads.
1. Collecting High-Quality UGC
Your target audience is likely to post about your brand; therefore, it’s essential to monitor your social media platforms. They might have mentioned your brand. Discover this content and request permission to acquire UGC rights and utilize them for your Facebook ads.
2. Through Hashtags and Branded Campaigns
Create a custom-branded hashtag for your brand and encourage your followers to share content using the hashtag on social media platforms. For example, use hashtags like #YourBrandNameXEventName and ask your customers to create content around it. To increase the entries, you can also reward the best entry. This approach helps to create a steady stream of content for your brand.
3. Via Taggbox UGC Platform
As a business owner, you can also consider tools like Tagbox for UGC collection and rights management. Tagbox pulls content from multiple social channels based on hashtags, tags, or mentions. It also helps you curate, moderate, and organize content before turning it into ads, streamlining the whole process.
Brands using UGC in their Facebook ads see higher click-through rates, better engagement
Best Practices for Running UGC Facebook Ads
Take a look at some of the best practices for running UGC Facebook ads.
1. Showcase Real Stories, Not Polished Content
The power of UGC lies in authenticity. As a business owner, you can skip the lighting and scripted lines with UGC. Instead, feature real customers or creators discussing their genuine experiences with your product. Candid reactions, relatable problems, and casual language resonate better with social media audiences than overly produced brand ads.
2. Optimize for Mobile-First Formats
Over 90% of the users access Facebook via mobile devices. Therefore, it is important to fetch more UGC Facebook ads that are mobile-friendly. Make sure your UGC is
- Shot vertically in 9:16 format.
- Text is prominent and visible.
- Has a subtitle for better understanding
3. Keep Videos Short and Engaging
One of the best practices for running UGC Facebook Ads is to source user-generated content that is concise and engaging. Here is a checklist of what you should be aware of when selecting a UGC for your Facebook platform.
- Hook to engage the audience.
- Visuals that catch the attention of the target audience
- Relatable pain points
4. Test Multiple Creatives
What works today might not work tomorrow. Test various versions of your UGC ads with different:
- Hooks
- Creators
- Editing styles
- CTAs
- A/B testing helps you find winning combinations and scale what performs best
5. Continuously Refresh UGC Content Pool
Keeping your content pipeline fresh is crucial for staying relevant and engaging across campaigns. Tools like Tagbox make this effortless by serving as a complete UGC management solution tailored for your business owners and marketers.
Tagbox acts as a perennial source of user-generated content, consistently collecting, curating, and updating content from social platforms, hashtags, mentions, and reviews. Tagbox makes sure you have an authentic, engaging, and constant stream of content at your fingertips.
Real-Life Examples: UGC Facebook Ads in Action
Take a look at some of the real-life examples of UGC Facebook ads in action.
1. Crown Resorts: Boosting Engagement & Reducing CPM with Authentic Visuals
Industry: Hospitality & Entertainment
Challenge: The Crown Reports wanted fresh and engaging visuals for their Facebook ad campaigns. However, they wanted to incur a small amount of production costs.
Strategy:
As a part of their Facebook ad campaigns, the brand sought social media for high-quality customer photos and videos. They quickly reach out to creators for permission to reuse the content. The approved UGC was immediately integrated into Facebook’s feed and story ads.
Results:
- UGC-based ads received 25% more likes than traditional branded content.
- Achieved a 21% lower CPM due to higher engagement and improved relevance scores.
- Helped drive a 25% increase in positive brand sentiment, reinforcing authentic storytelling as a core UGC marketing strategy.
Key Takeaway:
User-generated content does not need to be complicated and can eventually come from customers. Brands can also reach out to influencers to create polished content for their brand. Quick identification, rights acquisition, and rapid deployment of high-performing visuals can significantly improve campaign efficiency and audience perception.
2. Toyota: Scaling Engagement Without Increasing Budget
Industry: Automotive
Challenge: The challenge was to maintain high engagement levels during Toyota’s annual “Feeling the Street” campaign without increasing spend.
Strategy:
They leveraged Instagram UGC, showcasing real-life experiences with Toyota vehicles. They curated the most compelling clips and repurposed them into dynamic Facebook video ads. Apart from that, they also utilized Facebook’s native tools to retarget engaged audiences and expand their reach via lookalike audiences.
Results:
- Generated over 1.2 million total engagements (likes, comments, shares).
- Achieved a 440% increase in year-over-year ad engagement, all without raising the campaign budget.
- Increased organic UGC mentions through strategic amplification of top-performing content.
Key Takeaway:
High-quality, emotionally resonant UGC can supercharge engagement metrics and extend campaign reach, even with flat budgets. Focus on curating and reusing content that already performs well organically.
3. West Elm: Outperforming Branded Content with #mywestelm
Industry: Home Furnishings
Challenge: The challenge was to showcase how real customers styled their furniture while improving click-through and conversion rates.
Strategy:
- Launched the branded hashtag #mywestelm across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
- Encouraged customers to share photos of their spaces featuring West Elm products.
- Used the best submissions in Facebook carousel ads and Reels-based video campaigns.
Results:
- In an A/B test, UGC-powered Facebook ads delivered:
- 2.6x higher Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- 3x increase in website conversion rate
- Built a growing library of visual UGC for ongoing creative refreshes.
Key Takeaway:
Branded hashtags are a simple yet effective way to crowdsource authentic content. When used strategically in paid campaigns, UGC can dramatically outperform traditional creatives, especially in visually driven markets.
Tagbox: Your All-In-One Complete UGC Solutions For Facebook Ads
Tagbox is a social media aggregation and UGC ads solution tool that helps brands run UGC ad campaigns with a single dashboard. Tagbox allows you to send automated permission requests to users, store approval records, and ensure you’re always legally compliant before running ads with user-generated content.
You can also moderate what goes live. With Tagbox, you can easily filter out low-quality or off-brand UGC and showcase only the best. Set up moderation rules or manually approve content for complete control over your content. Track the performance of UGC ads.
Tagbox’s analytics suite lets you monitor key ad performance metrics, including:
- Engagement (likes, comments, shares)
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rates and ROAS
Use these insights to iterate and optimize future campaigns, ensuring your UGC always performs at its peak.
Taggbox helps you easily source, curate, and publish UGC that turns casual browsers into loyal customers
Upcoming Features
Here are the upcoming features by Tagbox that you must be aware of:
1. Campaign Management for UGC Ads
Tagbox helps users collect, curate, and manage UGC for their ad campaigns. Tagbox also empowers users to launch and manage multiple UGC powered Facebook ad campaigns directly from its dashboard. This helps to look into what sort of content is working for their UGC Facebook ads and how it is performing, all without switching tools or tabs.
2. Content Scheduler
With Tagbox, you can now plan and schedule UGC creatives across campaigns for consistent engagement and fresh ad experiences.
The Final Note
UGC Facebook ads have the power to drive real results for your business—boosting engagement, trust, and conversions. If you’ve been caught in the cycle of repeatedly creating the same type of content, it’s time to rethink your strategy. This blog is designed to help you take control and manage your UGC Facebook ads more effectively and creatively.
