How to get UGC for your brand

Your store is live and has a few orders, but every product page and every ad shows only your own photos, so strangers scroll past. To get UGC for your brand, user-generated content, meaning photos and videos made by real buyers and small creators, ask every buyer for a short phone video and send free products to people who fit your buyer in return for an honest one, then get a written yes before you use any of it. If you wait for buyers to post on their own, a store with 9 orders gets none, your first sales stay stuck at people you know, and your ads keep showing a product nobody has been seen using.

Do these three things

About 5 hours a day, every day, for 4 weeks. Judge it after 2,800 messages, and pay a creator only for a video that already beat your other ads.

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1. 1Today: write a 20-second video brief, then ask every past buyer for a phone video of your product in use, with a written yes to show it.
2. 2Every day: send 100 personal messages offering people who fit your buyer a free product for an honest video, and ship to up to 15 yeses a week.
3. 3Every Sunday: count videos and written yeses, put the best on your product pages, and test the top 3 as ads.

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ChatGPT or Claude reads this guide and works through it with you.

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1. Write a video brief anyone can film in 10 minutes

Write one short brief that tells a buyer or a creator exactly what to film: a portrait video, 15 to 30 seconds, in three shots. People who get no brief send a long, dark unboxing clip you cannot use. People who get a script send a stiff advert. A brief with three shots gets you something in between: a real person, using the product, in their own words.

Short portrait video (9:16, the shape of a phone screen) is the size Instagram Reels, TikTok and most ad placements use, so one clip works everywhere. The first 3 seconds decide whether anyone keeps watching, so the brief puts the problem there.

Give ChatGPT or Claude your buyer sentence, the problem your product fixes and the template below, and ask for a brief that fits on one phone screen. Then cut every claim you cannot prove. The FTC's rule on reviews and testimonials bans fake or false testimonials, so never ask anyone to say something they did not experience. "It fixed my eczema" is a health claim; "my scalp felt less tight" is something a person can honestly say.

Thank you for trying [product]! If you'd like to film a short video, here's all we need:
Hold your phone upright (portrait). 15 to 30 seconds. Daylight, near a window.
Shot 1, the first 3 seconds: say the problem in your own words. "[The problem, as a buyer says it]."
Shot 2: show yourself using [product], the way you really use it.
Shot 3: show or say what happened, honestly, good or bad.
No script. Talk like you would to a friend.
If we sent it to you free, please say so on screen and in the caption: "Thanks to [store name] for the free product."
We'll only use it with your written OK.

• Tool: Google Docs, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft.
• Time: 45 minutes.
• You will have: a brief that fits on one phone screen, ready to paste into every message.
• It worked if: you send it to one friend who has the problem, and they film a usable clip in 10 minutes without asking you anything.
• Common mistake: a script with lines to read, or a list of 8 shots. Both make the video look like an ad, which is what people scroll past.

2. Ask every past buyer for a 20-second phone video

Send every person who has already bought a personal message today, and ask for a 20-second phone video of the product in use, with the brief from step 1. Buyers who know you are the fastest source of your first videos, and their words are the ones a stranger trusts.

Ask each past buyer one by one, by email, text or the app where you already talk. Send it at least 7 days after their order arrived, so they have used it. Paste the brief under the message. Send one reminder 5 days later to people who have not answered, then stop. Ask again when someone orders a second time: they have used it longest.

Mark who knows you. The FTC's rule names family and staff, and its endorsement guides say friends should say so too. Ask each of them to say how they know you in the video or the caption: "My friend made this." The same rule is in getting your first product reviews.

Make every new order ask too. Three places, all free:

1. Your review app. Judge.me's Forever Free plan collects "unlimited visual reviews (photos/videos)" and shows them in a video carousel on the product page. Add one line to its review request: "A 20-second video helps the next person most."
2. The parcel. Add one line to your parcel card: "Film it in a week? Here's how: [short link to the brief]." Make the card once in Canva's free plan.
3. Your post-purchase email. If you send one, add the same line. Setting up that email is in Klaviyo flows for a new store.

A thank-you is fine, with two rules. You may thank people with store credit or a free refill, but only for any honest video, good or bad, never for a positive one. And when you show a video from someone who got a thank-you, say so next to it. The FTC says that if customers expected a benefit for their comments, the benefit must be disclosed in the ads that use them.

ChatGPT or Claude can draft each message from the template and one line about the buyer. You check it and send it yourself.

Hi [first name],Thank you again for ordering [product]. How is it going so far?Would you film a 20-second video of it in use? Just your phone, your own words, good or bad. Here's all we need: [paste the brief]If you do, I'll ask before using it anywhere, and I'll credit you by name.[If they know you: As we know each other, please say so in the video or caption, for example "My friend made this".]Thank you,
[Your name], [store name]

• Tool: email, text or Instagram messages, Judge.me's free plan, Canva's free plan, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft.
• Time: about 5 minutes a buyer today, then 30 minutes once to update the review request, the card and the email.
• You will have: one personal ask to every past buyer, one reminder to each one who did not answer, and a video ask on every new order.
• It worked if: at least 1 in 3 past buyers sends a video within 2 weeks. If none do, ask two of them why, in one line.
• Common mistake: asking only the buyers you know loved it, or asking the day the parcel arrives. Ask everyone, after a week of use. A testimonial from someone who used it for a week says something real.

3. Send 100 personal messages a day offering a free product for an honest video

Every day, send 100 personal messages to people who fit your buyer, offering a free product in return for an honest video. Ship to the people who say yes, up to a weekly number you can afford. With 9 buyers, this is where most of your videos will come from.

Who fits. Send a free product only to people who have the problem now, the person in your buyer sentence. A happy person who is not your buyer makes a video that sells to nobody. Watch their last 3 posts before you message: if they never show their face or talk to the camera, they are unlikely to start for you.

Where 100 people a day come from. Add 100 new names to your sheet every day, in this order:

1. People you know who have the problem and have not bought, and the people they name when you ask "who do you know who has [problem]?". This is warm outreach, and it lasts the first few days.
2. People who already showed interest: your email list, your waitlist, and people who commented on or shared your posts.
3. People who post about the problem on Instagram and TikTok. Search the words your buyers use, open the posts and videos, and read the comments for people describing it themselves.
4. Small creators with 1,000 to 20,000 followers who posted about a product like yours in the last 30 days. They are called micro-influencers, and how to find and check them is in finding micro-influencers.
5. People who already tagged you. In Meta's Ads Manager, the Partnership Ads Hub has shown posts from creators who tag or mention your brand since December 2025. Message each one to thank them, and ask if you may use the post (step 4).

In communities such as Reddit, do not message strangers. Answer questions there instead, as in finding communities where your buyers talk, and post a call for people to try it only where the group's self-promotion rules allow it.

How to spread 100 a day within the limits:

• Instagram and TikTok messages: neither app publishes a daily limit for messaging people who do not follow you, and new accounts get warnings early. Send about 20 a day from your store's account. If you see a warning, stop for the day, as in promoting your business on Instagram.
• Email: for creators with a business email in their bio, and for your own list. If you email more than about 50 people a day who do not know you, or your spam complaints rise, set up a second domain and warm it up first, so your order emails stay out of spam. In the US, each email needs your postal address and a way to say no.
• Text and the apps you already chat on, for people you know.
• Follow up once, 3 days later, with one new line. Follow-ups count toward your 100.

How 100 a day is possible. Paste 10 names at a time into ChatGPT or Claude, each with one true line about the person: the comment they wrote, the video they made, how you know them. Ask for one message per person from the template. Read each one, fix anything that is not true, and send it yourself. A first line about the person is what gets replies. That is about a minute a message, plus about a minute to find each name.

Hi [first name],[One true line: their comment, their video, or how you know them.]We make [what it is] for [people with the problem]. Could I send you one to try, free?In return, I'd ask for one thing: an honest 20-second video after [a week of use], good or bad. Here's what to film: [paste the brief]. Please say on screen and in the caption that you got it free, for example "Thanks to [store name] for the free product". There's no need to post it on your own account.If yes, just send me your address.[Your name], [store name]
[Postal address, for email]
Not for you? Reply "no" and I won't write again.

Ship to yeses, up to a weekly cap. Set the cap from your marketing budget: what one product costs you to make and post, times the number you can afford. 15 a week is a good start. Post each one within 2 days of the yes, with the brief printed in the parcel. Put yeses above the cap on next week's list. When next week's list is also full, change the offer in the rest of the day's messages to a discount code of their own, so the extra interest turns into orders, and orders get the ask from step 2.

The rules for free products. The FTC says "Thanks to [brand] for the free product" or "Gifted by [brand]" is clear enough when a free product is all they got; "Gifted" alone is not. A video needs the words on screen, and spoken too if they talk about the product. The FTC says a platform's own label, such as Instagram's paid partnership label, is no guarantee on its own, so ask for their own words too. Never ask someone you sent a free product to for a review on Amazon, Etsy or the Shop app: all three forbid it, as in launching on Amazon and your first Etsy sale.

If you sell on TikTok Shop: creators there ask for free samples through the affiliate program and earn a commission on sales from their videos. Approve samples with the same rules: watch their last 3 videos first. The detail is in getting TikTok Shop affiliates to post.

• Tool: Instagram, TikTok, email, a Google Sheet, Shopify discount codes, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft.
• Time: about 3 hours 30 minutes a day: about 1 hour 40 minutes to find 100 names, about 1 hour 40 minutes to check and send 100 messages, and a few minutes a parcel.
• You will have: 100 new names and 100 messages a day, and up to 15 free products posted a week, each with the brief inside.
• It worked if: at least half of the people you ship to send a usable video within 3 weeks of delivery, and every one says it was free.
• Common mistake: sending to big accounts because the follower count looks good, or to anyone who asks, without watching their last 3 videos. You pay for products that come back as videos your buyer never sees. The other mistake is shipping 50 in week one and having no money for week two.

4. Get a written yes before you use any video

Before you put any video on your store, in a post or in an ad, send the person a short message that says exactly where you will use it and for how long, and keep their written reply. A tag, a mention or a video sent to you is not permission, even though it is the best social proof you have. The person who films a video owns it from the moment it is made, unless they agree otherwise.

Ask for two yeses, separately. One for your product page and your own posts. One for ads. Many people say yes to the first and no to the second, and that is their right. Give each a time limit: 12 months for your page and posts and 90 days for ads is a fair start. Credit them by name or handle, and keep their "free product" line wherever the video appears. The FTC says that when people expected something in return for their words, the ads that use those words must say so.

Keep the yes. Take a screenshot of the reply, or save the email, in a folder with the video. Write in your sheet the date, the uses agreed and the end date.

For ads from their own account, ask for a code. Meta and TikTok both let you run a creator's own post as an ad, with their name on it. In Meta's own figures from December 2025, adding partnership ads to campaigns brought a 19% lower cost per acquisition on average:

• Instagram (partnership ads): when they post, they tap "Partnership label & ads", add your account, and turn on "Get partnership ad code". Instagram says the code lets you boost that post as a partnership ad for the next 180 days. Only one advertiser can boost a post at a time.
• TikTok (Spark Ads): they open the video, tap the three dots, then "Ad settings", then "Generate", and send you the code. You add it in TikTok Ads Manager under the TikTok posts tab, with "Add post". The caption cannot be changed once you use it, and a private video becomes public in an ad.

If they would rather not post at all, ask them to send you the file. Then you run it from your own account, with the same written yes for ads.

Hi [first name], thank you so much for the video. It's really good.May we use it, with credit to [@their handle]?
On our product page and our own Instagram and TikTok posts, for 12 months.
In our ads on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, for 90 days. [If they posted it: Could you send us the ad code for that post? Here's how: (one line from above).]
Your line "Thanks to [store name] for the free product" stays on it wherever it appears. You can say yes to 1 and no to 2. If you agree, just reply "Yes, I agree to 1 and 2" (or "1 only").[Your name], [store name]

• Tool: Instagram or TikTok messages, or email, and a folder for screenshots.
• Time: about 2 minutes a video.
• You will have: a written yes for every video you use, with the uses and the end date in your sheet.
• It worked if: every video on your store, in your posts and in your ads has a saved yes that names that use, and no yes has passed its end date.
• Common mistake: reposting a video because it tagged you, or running a "page and posts" video as an ad. Both use someone's work in a way they did not agree to. The other is asking for "all uses, forever" for a free product. People say no, or say yes and feel used.

5. Put every video on your product page and in 2 posts a day

Put your best 3 videos on each product page, and use the rest in 2 posts a day on Instagram and TikTok, each one cut into your own edit. A product page with a real person using the product answers the question a stranger cannot ask you: what does it look like on someone like me?

On the product page. Use Judge.me's video carousel, which is on the free plan, or add the clips to the product's media in your Shopify admin. Put the 3 best near the top, close to the Add to cart button, not in a tab at the bottom. Choose the ones where the first 3 seconds show the problem and the person looks like your buyer. Customer videos are one part of a store that looks trustworthy, next to reviews and clear delivery times.

In your posts. Aim for 2 posts a day on each channel you use, as in Instagram post ideas and your first 1,000 followers. Customer videos are one of the easiest of the two, and the plan for the rest is in marketing a D2C brand. Since 30 April 2026, Instagram stops recommending accounts that mostly post photos, carousels or Reels they did not make or change in a real way, and a credit alone does not count. So:

• Cut each clip into your own edit: your own opening line on screen, a second clip of yours, or two customer clips side by side with your words. Repurpose the same edit for TikTok without the other app's logo.
• Keep most of your posts made by you. Customer videos sit alongside your own short videos, not instead of them.
• Invite the creator as a collaborator when you post on Instagram (Tag people, then Invite collaborator, before you share), so the post can show on both profiles.
• Keep their "free product" line on screen and in the caption.

AI makes 2 a day possible: give ChatGPT or Claude the clip's transcript and ask for 5 opening lines and a caption, then pick one and fix it. Plan the week in a content calendar on Sunday. Strong clips also make good proof in an affiliate or referral program later, and what buyers say in them is free feedback from your first users. A buyer whose video shows a real result is also the start of a short customer story.

• Tool: Judge.me (free) or the Shopify admin, a free phone editor such as CapCut, and Instagram and TikTok.
• Time: 30 minutes once for the product pages, then about 1 hour a day for the posts.
• You will have: 3 customer videos near the top of each product page, and 2 posts a day on each channel, with customer clips in your own edits.
• It worked if: every video on the page has a saved yes, and your posts still reach people who do not follow you. If your reach from non-followers drops for 2 weeks, post fewer customer clips and more of your own.
• Common mistake: a "customer videos" tab at the bottom of the page that nobody opens. The other is a feed made only of reposts, which Instagram now stops showing to new people.

6. Count videos every Sunday and test the top 3 as ads

Every Sunday, fill in one row: messages sent, yeses, products shipped, videos received, written yeses for posts and for ads, and videos live. Once 3 videos have a written yes for ads, test them as ads within the budget you set. Judge the whole routine after 2,800 messages.

Week | Messages sent | Yeses | Products shipped | Videos received | Yes for page and posts | Yes for ads | Videos on product pages | Change this week

Results stay small, so count honestly. Decide with these rules:

• Under 1 usable video for every 200 messages, after 2,800 messages (fewer than 14 from your messages): change who you message, not the product. Read the videos you did get: the people who sent them are your buyer. Message more people like them.
• Fewer than half the people you ship to send a video within 3 weeks: ask three of the quiet ones why, in one line. Usually the invitation did not make the video the one thing asked, or they were not your buyer.
• 3 videos have a written yes for ads: test them. Rank them by reactions per 1,000 views on your own posts, as in making ad creatives. Run the top 3 as ad creatives in one campaign, with the codes from step 4, inside the test limit and stop line from how much to spend on ads. Tag each ad's link with UTM parameters, and count orders in Shopify, not in the ad platform. Testing Facebook ad creatives has the full method.
• One video brings orders below your break-even cost: that is a winner. Only now, offer that person a fee for more: 90 more days of ads, or two new versions with different first lines. Ask their price, and keep it under your stop line, 3 times what one order leaves you, so one video never costs more than an ad you would turn off. Your break-even ROAS is the check; ROAS is sales divided by ad spend.
• Ads get clicks but no orders: the video may be fine and the page may be the problem. Work through ads that get clicks but no sales, then a store with traffic but no sales.
• Never fill the gap with AI-made "customers". The FTC's rule does not ban AI avatars, but it bans fake testimonials. A made-up person saying they used your product is one.

Once a month, step back for a marketing review, and check where each order came from in your Meta ads for a Shopify store and your own records.

• Tool: Google Sheets, Meta Ads Manager or TikTok Ads Manager, and your Shopify orders.
• Time: 30 minutes each Sunday.
• You will have: one row per week, a folder of videos with written yeses, and, once 3 have an ads yes, one small ad test.
• It worked if: after 2,800 messages you have at least 20 usable videos, at least 3 with a yes for ads, and you know which one brought the cheapest order.
• Common mistake: paying a marketplace for 10 videos before you know which first line sells. Get the free ones first, find the winner, then pay for more of that one.

Your UGC checklist for the next 4 weeks

0 of 12 done

Work through this list with an AI assistant

It drafts the work and keeps track of what is done.

Do this with ChatGPT(opens in a new tab)Do this with Claude(opens in a new tab)

Step 1 · Write a video brief

• Write a one-screen video brief with 3 shots, and test it on one friend.

Step 2 · Ask every past buyer for a video

• Message every past buyer for a 20-second phone video, with one reminder after 5 days.
• Add the video ask to your review request, parcel card and post-purchase email.

Step 3 · Send 100 messages a day

• Every dayAdd 100 people who fit your buyer to your sheet.
• Every daySend 100 personal invitations offering a free product for an honest video.
• Every dayShip to yeses up to your weekly cap, with the brief in the parcel.

Step 4 · Get a written yes

• Every daySend the permission message for every new video, and save each written yes.

Step 5 · Put videos on your page and in posts

• Put your best 3 videos near the top of each product page.
• Every dayPost 2 times on each channel, with customer clips cut into your own edits.

Step 6 · Count every Sunday and test as ads

• Every SundayFill in one row of the Sunday sheet.
• After 2,800 messagesCheck usable videos per 200 messages, and change who you message if it is under 1.
• Test the 3 best videos with an ads yes as ads, and pay a creator only for a video that beat the others.

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