UGC Video Ads: The Ultimate Guide For Brands in 2025
Did that ASMR unboxing video on Instagram or TikTok ever catch your attention? I bet it did. That’s the magic of UGC video ads. It hooks and converts the audience without feeling like an ad. However, collecting UGC content and managing it by your brand seems like a daunting task. You need to collect the right UGC and obtain the UGC management rights for effective campaign execution. Despite all these challenges, UGC tops the trend game. To help you with these challenges and effective UGC collection, I have written this blog on UGC video ads. Let’s dive in:
What are UGC Video Ads?
UGC video ads are advertisements that utilize user-generated content in their ad campaigns to achieve higher performance and conversions. These UGC ads are built using real customer content rather than the usual polished ads. Some examples of UGC video ads include customer testimonial videos, unboxing videos, and ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos. These UGC video ads are among the most popular on social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
UGC video ads are often high-performing due to their authenticity and real content. When potential customers see how real users are using the product, it demonstrates the product in action, which builds trust among them.
Why UGC Video Ads Drive Better Ad Performance
Here’s why UGC video ads drive better ad results as compared to traditional video ads:
1. Builds Trust & Relatability
Consumers consider UGC 50% more trustworthy and 20% more influential than other types of UGC. A consumer sharing their genuine story creates a strong impression compared to scripted messaging, which builds trust and credibility in the viewer’s eyes. They feel that the brand is more reliable, and therefore, building trust through UGC videos should be imperative to a brand.
2. Boosts Engagement Rates
When users feel connected to the content, they are more likely to engage with it. This emotional connection is facilitated by user-generated content, which naturally encourages higher engagement rates, such as likes, comments, and shares. UGC featuring brands can drive engagement 9 times higher than branded content. Engagement is a crucial component in driving conversions; hence, it drives more conversions and sales as well.
3. Improves CTR and Reduces CAC
UGC video ad campaigns enhance ad performance and improve key UGC marketing metrics at a significantly higher rate. UGC ads get 4x higher click-through rates (CTR) and a 50% drop in CPC than average. This helps you run cost-effective campaigns that deliver better results and higher ROI. At the same time, UGC requires no production costs as it is created by real customers, thus lowering customer acquisition cost (CAC).
4. Drives Higher ROAS
UGC video ads have been proven to drive better conversions and ROAS compared to traditional ad campaigns. Brands that incorporate UGC into their campaigns see 4.5x improvement in ROAS. This is because of the engagement it brings, which improves campaign performance and efficiency.
UGC video is where the magic happens in 2025.
How Can You Leverage UGC Video Ads For Your Brand
If you are looking to incorporate UGC video ads into your next campaign, then this is the strategy that you need to follow:
1. Sourcing Authentic UGC Video Content
Honestly, this is the most challenging part: gathering UGC for your brand and making it brand-relevant. Ensure you gather authentic and genuine reviews for your ad campaign, as these are the backbone of your campaign’s success. As soon as the customer completes their purchase, make sure to ask for reviews at the right time. You can collect a video testimonial, a written testimonial, or an unboxing video, as per your preference. Additionally, if you are a brand with numerous reviews, consider using social media aggregators like Tagbox to collect them. It helps you curate content from 15+ social networking sites and streamlines your review collection process.
2. Managing UGC Rights & Permissions
UGC rights imply taking permission from the actual user to use their content for specific purposes. When it comes to UGC, the real customer is the owner, so to use their own, we need their consent. Getting these rights & permissions requires a legal framework and is crucial to safeguard the user’s privacy and avoid any legal consequences in the future. Tools like Tagbox help you effectively manage UGC rights by clearly communicating terms and streamlining the process of acquiring rights.
3. Creating High-Converting Video Ad Creatives
Once your UGC videos are collected, it’s time to craft compelling ad creatives for better engagement and conversions. Create various ad formats for your UGC video ads, including reels and story ads. A/B test different ad formats and optimize your ad strategy accordingly. This helps you refine your ad performance strategy and understand which ad format yields high-performing results.
Best Practices for Running High-Performing UGC Video Ads
Follow these best practices for a high-performing UGC ad campaign:
1. Keep it Real
The key to high-performing UGC ads lies in their authenticity. Ensure that you don’t overedit your UGC videos and keep them genuine. Avoid adding filters and overproduced visuals, as they can appear unattractive and less trustworthy. When viewers see real people giving honest reviews about your brand, they find it more credible and approachable.
3. Optimize for Sound-Off Viewing
85% of social media videos are without sound; hence, it is crucial to add captions and subtitles to your videos for long-lasting engagement. This ensures that your video reaches many, even when users are on mute, and can resonate with it.
4. Regularly Refresh Your Creatives
Ad fatigue can negatively impact your ad performance and result in suboptimal conversions. Ensure that you regularly refresh your ad creatives, as it keeps the messaging always exciting and catches the attention of users. A/B test different ad creatives, tones, messages, and ad scenarios to see which is performing the best. This helps you optimize your ad campaign and gives you high-performing results.
Tagbox: Powering UGC Video Ads
Tagbox is the one-stop solution for powering up your UGC video ads with its ultimate features. Let’s see some of the most relevant ones:
1. UGC Video Collection & Curation
Having UGC content on more than one platform? Tagbox provides you with seamless content curation from 15+ social media and UGC platforms, all in real time. You need to select your UGC platform and choose your feed time, and your UGC content will be collected instantly via Tagbox. Not only this, but it also gives you the option to moderate your UGC content by removing irrelevant content, keeping it branded and professional.
2. Rights Management & Campaign Publishing
Tagbox helps you avoid copyright content issues by giving effortless UGC rights management. It enables you to send bulk content UGC rights requests to users, allowing them to use their content lawfully.
Moreover, its campaign publishing feature allows you to seamlessly integrate UGC into your Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and gives you robust metrics for optimization.
3. Analytics to Measure Ad Performance
Tagbox also provides robust analytical tools to measure your ad campaign performance, along with effective UGC management. You can track metrics such as engagement rate, impressions, sentiment analysis, and word cloud. All this will help you resonate your content with the target audience and optimize your UGC campaign strategy.
UGC Video Ads Examples That Drive Results
Here are some famous UGC video examples for you to draw inspiration from
1. Glossier
This reliable beauty brand has over 3 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, all due to its loyal supporters and the UGC it brings with it. Glossier is built on the principles of authenticity and customer value. They launched a campaign focusing on the skincare transformation journeys of their target audience and featured them in their ad campaigns and social UGC. It invited customers to share their stories of how their product had impacted their skin and confidence. They collected all these stories from across social media and documented them across various UGC marketing touchpoints to gather engagement and trust.
This UGC strategy fostered a strong emotional connection with the target audience, driving engagement and enhancing the brand’s reputation.
2. Gymshark
This fitness brand has strong influencer partnerships and a UGC community, which helps drive strong customer relationships and a positive brand reputation. They consistently collaborate with creators and influencers to showcase their activewear most authentically. They encourage their target audience to post workout videos across their social media, and they repost this UGC at their websites, social media, ad campaigns, and more. This strategy has helped Gymshark create a loyal community base, driving engagement and sales.
3. Casper
This mattress brand effectively uses UGC to build its brand awareness and drive sales. They prioritize customer feedback and develop their products based on this effective feedback. Over time, the brand has developed numerous UGC campaigns, including unboxing videos of the mattress box, and utilized them at various marketing touchpoints. This helped the brand shape a positive brand image, with various new users trusting them.
4. Fabletics
Fabletics is a renowned activewear brand known for its stylish gymwear. They highlight genuine customer reviews, asking them to do a brand haul and shoot videos wearing their clothes. They incorporate positive customer reviews and create shoppable galleries, highlighting them on their websites and UGC ad campaigns. This helps the brand grow overall, building trust and credibility.
5. HelloFresh
HelloFresh has a thriving community of loyal customers that has helped the brand establish a strong reputation. They ask their regular customers to share their experiences and showcase real-life experiences from their satisfied customers. It also rely on influencer marketing to elevate most of their UGC ad campaigns. They regularly partner with food bloggers, home chefs, and lifestyle influencers to expand their reach and brand engagement.
UGC video is where the magic happens in 2025.
Conclusion
UGC videos offer more than just engagement; they have revolutionized the way brand connects with their target audience. Traditional video marketing cannot match the trust and connectivity that UGC video ads build. By sourcing it from your customers to curating UGC wth the help of social media aggregators like Tagbox, you can effectively utilize UGC the way you want. We hope now you are clear about the power of best UGC video ads and how to collect with rights management seamlessly. So, start your journey with UGC today and level up your ad campaigns with it.
