How to become a UGC creator

A UGC creator makes short videos and photos that a brand pays for and then posts itself, usually as an ad or on its own account. The work looks like something a customer filmed: a person talking to camera, the product in hand, a screen recording of an app. The brand pays for the footage and the right to use it. Your follower count matters far less than it does for an influencer, because the brand is the one putting the video in front of people. The what is a UGC creator page covers the difference in more detail.

The steps below are the order most people find works. None of them needs money up front beyond a phone you already own.

1. Pick a niche you can film every week

Brands hire for fit. A skincare brand wants someone whose bathroom shelf looks lived in. A fitness app wants someone who actually trains. Pick a category where you already have the routine, the props and the vocabulary, because you will be filming it over and over.

Health, fitness and wellness apps are a good niche for people who already track things. If you log workouts, weigh food, wear a ring or a watch, or follow your own blood test results, you can film real use of a tracking app without inventing a story. That matters more in health than anywhere else, for reasons covered in what health and fitness creators can and cannot say.

2. Learn the formats brands buy

Most UGC orders are one of a handful of formats. Learn to film each one cleanly before you pitch anyone.

• Talking head testimonial. You, to camera, on why you use the product. Thirty to sixty seconds.
• Problem and fix. A short setup of the annoyance, then the product solving it.
• Unboxing or first use. Common for physical products, less so for apps.
• Screen walkthrough. For apps: a screen recording of a real task, with your face or voice over it. The guide to filming app UGC covers the setup.
• Hooks. Three or more different opening lines for the same video, so the brand can test which one holds attention.

3. Build a portfolio before you have clients

Brands want to see work, and you have none yet. The answer is spec content: videos you make for products you already use, unpaid, shown as samples. Three or four short videos in one niche beat twenty scattered ones. The UGC portfolio guide goes through what to film, how to label it so nobody mistakes it for a paid ad, and where to host it.

4. Set your rates

Published figures vary a lot. Collabstr's 2025 report, which looked at more than 15,000 collaborations on its marketplace, put the average asking price for a UGC video at $198.06 and the average amount actually paid at $177.68. Vendor guides from Billo, Insense and Influee give wider ranges, from about $50 a video for beginners to $500 or more for experienced creators. The UGC creator rates page puts the sources side by side and explains where they disagree.

Two things matter more than the base number. First, price usage separately: a video a brand runs as a paid ad for a year is worth more than one it posts once on its own feed. Second, price add-ons such as extra hooks and raw footage separately, so the brand can see what it is paying for. The usage rights page explains how.

5. Find brands and pitch them

Work comes from three places. Marketplaces and platforms where brands post briefs and creators apply. Direct outreach to brands whose products you already use. And creator programs that brands run themselves, where you apply once and get briefs as they come up. If you track your health or training, you can apply to create for Peptide AI through its creator page.

A cold pitch should be short. Say who you are and what niche you film, link to two samples that match the brand's category, name the format you would make for them, and give a starting price or say you will quote on the brief. Do not attach a ten-page media kit. A brand that wants more will ask.

6. Read the brief, then the contract

Every paid job should have a written brief and a written agreement, even if the agreement is a short email both sides reply to. The terms that cause the most trouble later are the ones people skip:

• Deliverables. Number of videos, length, aspect ratio, number of hooks, whether raw footage is included.
• Revisions. How many rounds are included, and what counts as a revision versus a new brief.
• Usage. Organic only or paid ads too, which platforms, and for how long.
• Whitelisting or partnership ads. Whether the brand can run ads from your handle, and the monthly fee if so.
• Payment. Amount, due date, and what happens if the brand never uses the video.
• Exclusivity. Whether you can work for a competitor, and for how long.

Copyright stays with you by default. Under US law a commissioned video only becomes a "work made for hire" in limited categories and only if both sides sign a written agreement saying so, according to the US Copyright Office's Circular 30. If a contract says "work made for hire" or "assigns all rights", you are selling the footage outright, and the price should reflect that.

7. Disclose, every time

If a brand pays you, gives you free product or has any other material connection with you, the FTC expects that connection to be disclosed clearly wherever the endorsement appears. That applies to videos on your own account and to ads a brand runs from your content. The FTC disclosure rules page covers the wording, placement and the 2024 rule on fake reviews and testimonials.

8. Treat it as a business

UGC income in the US is usually self-employment income. The IRS says you owe self-employment tax and must file Schedule SE if your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more in a year, and the self-employment tax rate is 15.3 percent, covering Social Security and Medicare. Keep a simple sheet of invoices, payments and expenses from the first job.

A realistic first month

Week one: pick the niche and film two spec videos. Week two: film two more, including one with three hook variations, and put them on a simple portfolio page. Week three: write a rate card and send ten short pitches to brands you use. Week four: apply to two or three creator programs. If health and fitness tracking is your niche, apply to create for Peptide AI and read what Peptide AI looks for from creators first.