How to Run a UGC Campaign

A UGC campaign for an app pays everyday creators to make short videos or slideshows of themselves using your app, in their own style, to post on their accounts, to give you for your own channels, or both. Running one well comes down to six steps: a clear goal, a tight brief, the right creators, a simple contract, correct disclosure and per-creator tracking.

UGC overlaps with influencer marketing, and the difference is what you pay for. Influencer deals pay mainly for reach in a large audience; UGC deals pay mainly for the content and often for the right to reuse it. Small app teams often get more from several small creators whose audiences match their users than from one large following. Where creators fit beside your other channels is covered in how to market an app; this post walks through the campaign itself, one step at a time.

Step 1: Decide what the UGC campaign is for

"UGC" covers two different jobs, and many campaigns blur them.

Make this choice before anything else, because it changes the brief, the contract and the price. If you plan to run the videos as ads later, say so now. Usage rights for ads are a separate line in the contract, and creators price them separately.

Run a UGC campaign once you know what works. If your own posts have already shown which hooks and formats bring installs, creators can multiply them. If you have no idea yet, start with your own accounts as in how to promote a mobile app on TikTok without ads, because a brief built on guesses produces expensive guesses.

Step 2: Write a one-page brief

A good brief is short enough to read in two minutes and specific enough that two creators would make recognisably similar videos. Write it on one page and include:

1. Who the user is, in one sentence: "University students who fall behind on reading."
2. The problem and the moment: when do they reach for the app?
3. The one feature to show. One. A video that tours five features shows none of them well.
4. Two or three hook ideas that already worked on your own accounts, plus room for the creator's own.
5. Format and length, for example a 20 to 40 second vertical video or a 6-slide slideshow, filmed on a phone.
6. Must-dos: say the app's exact name, show the real app, end with where to get it.
7. Must-nots: no claims you cannot back up, no competitor names, no fake reviews or results.
8. Deliverables and dates: number of videos, raw files or edited, draft date, posting date.

Leave the style to the creator. The reason to hire them is that they know how to talk to their audience, and a brief that scripts every line throws that away.

Step 3: Find and vet creators

Start in your niche on TikTok and Instagram. Search the topics your users watch and note the creators who already post about them; smaller accounts are often easier to reach and closer to their audience.

Your own users are the next place to look. People who already like the app make the most believable videos, and an in-app message or an email can ask who among them creates content. Creator marketplaces, run by the platforms and by third parties, round out the search by letting you filter by niche and audience location.

Vet every creator before you pay:

• Audience match: does their comment section sound like your users?
• Consistency: do most posts get similar views, or is it one viral video and silence?
• Real engagement: comments that respond to the content, not generic emoji. TikTok removes inauthentic followers and likes, so an account built on them is a risk to you too.
• Brand safety: scroll their last few months of posts.

Start with a small batch of creators and a test fee, then rebook the ones whose posts bring installs. A first round is a test of creators as much as of content.

Step 4: Agree the terms in writing

Before anyone films, put these in a short agreement:

• Deliverables: how many videos or slideshows, in what format and at what length.
• Timeline: draft date, revision window, posting date.
• Revisions: how many rounds, and that they cover the brief, not taste.
• Usage rights: where you may use the content (your accounts, your store page, paid ads), for how long and in which countries.
• Exclusivity, if any: no competing apps for a set period.
• Disclosure: the creator will label the post as paid, as described in the next step.
• Payment: amount, method and when it is paid.

There is no standard rate for UGC creators. Fees depend on the deliverable, the creator's niche and audience, and above all the usage rights. Ask several creators for their rate card against the same brief, so you compare like with like.

Step 5: Handle disclosure correctly

Paid posts must be disclosed. In the US, the FTC's guide for influencers says an endorsement must make a material connection to the brand obvious, whether that is payment, free products or a family or employment tie. In a video, the disclosure belongs in the video itself, not only in the description.

Each platform also has its own tool, and creators must use it. On TikTok, branded content, including posts for gifted products, paid posts and affiliate links, requires the commercial content disclosure toggle when posting. On Instagram, branded content must carry the Paid partnership label with your brand tagged, and you approve the creator's request to tag you.

Write the disclosure requirement into both the brief and the contract, and check each post when it goes live. A missing label is the creator's mistake on paper and your problem in practice.

Step 6: Track installs per creator

Give every creator their own link, so you can compare them on results rather than impressions. On the App Store, create one campaign link per creator in App Store Connect, with a name such as "ugc-maya-oct". On Google Play, add UTM values to the store link and read them in Play Console's acquisition reports.

Keep a simple spreadsheet beside the links, with one row per creator: fee, posting date, views, link clicks, installs and, later, paying users. That sheet is what turns a set of posts into a decision.

Judge each creator by installs and paying users per amount spent, not by views. Rebook the best, drop the rest, and turn the strongest videos into ads if your contract allows it.

Keep your own posts going between creator posts

UGC works best alongside a steady stream of your own posts in the same formats, so the audience keeps seeing the app between creator posts. Slideshows are the cheapest way to keep that stream going, and the method behind them is in TikTok slideshow marketing for apps.

Viral Slide Post is built for that stream. An AI agent, connected through the API, the MCP server or the open source skills, or you in the dashboard, writes TikTok and Instagram photo slideshows, makes the images and publishes them on schedule. The hooks your best creators proved can become the next round of slideshows in Viral Slide Post, so what the campaign taught you keeps working after the paid posts stop.

Putting the campaign together

A UGC campaign is a small, repeatable process rather than a one-off bet. Decide whether you are buying reach, content or both, and let that choice shape the brief and the contract. Keep the brief to one page and one feature, pick creators for audience match rather than size, and settle usage rights, revisions and payment before anyone films.

Disclosure is not optional: the FTC expects a clear label on any paid connection, and TikTok and Instagram each require their own. Track every creator with a separate link, judge them by installs and paying users per amount spent, and rebook only the ones who earned it. Run that loop a few times and the campaign stops being a guess.