How to build a UGC portfolio with no brand deals

The first problem every new UGC creator hits is circular: brands want to see work, and you cannot get work without showing some. The way out is spec content, short videos made on your own initiative for products you already use. Nobody pays for them. They exist to show a brand what you would make if it did.

How many videos you need

Four to six. That is enough to show range without padding. A portfolio of twenty videos across skincare, pet food, a mobile game and protein powder tells a brand you will film anything. A portfolio of five videos about training and tracking tells a fitness app you are its person.

What to film

Cover the formats brands actually order, in your niche:

1. A talking head testimonial, 30 to 45 seconds, about something you really use. This shows you can hold a camera's attention.
2. A problem and fix video. The annoyance in five seconds, the product solving it in the next twenty.
3. A product in use or screen walkthrough. For apps, a real screen recording with your voice over it. The app filming guide covers how.
4. One video with three different hooks. Same body, three openings. Brands test hooks constantly and this shows you understand that.
5. Optional: a short set of stills of a product in a real setting.

Keep each video short. TikTok's guidance for performance ads is to introduce the product proposition in the first three seconds and to shoot vertically at 9:16. Brands review dozens of portfolios at a time, and a sample that gets to the point in three seconds shows you can do it for them.

Pick products you actually use

This is a practical rule and an honesty rule. Practically, your footage looks real when the product is really in your life: the half-used tub, the app with three months of history. On honesty, the FTC's guidance for influencers says you cannot talk about your experience with a product you have not tried. Spec content is not paid, but if you later post it publicly it is still you describing a product, and it should be true.

For health and fitness apps, that means filming the app you actually log in. If you track meals, workouts or wearable data, film the real screens with your real data, cropped or blurred where it is private.

Label spec work as spec

Do not present a spec video as if a brand commissioned it. Put "spec" or "concept, not commissioned" next to each sample on your portfolio page. Do not use a brand's logo or name in a way that suggests a relationship you do not have. Brands reviewing portfolios know what spec work is and do not mind it. They do mind being misled, and a brand that sees itself named in a portfolio it never hired will remember.

If you post spec videos on your own social accounts, you have no material connection with the brand, so the FTC does not expect a sponsorship disclosure. Its guidance says you do not need to state that you have no relationship when you mention a product you bought and like. Once a brand pays you or sends you free product, that changes. The FTC disclosure guide explains when.

Where to host it

Pick one place and make it fast to open on a phone. Common options:

• A simple one-page site with the videos embedded and a short contact line.
• A shared folder with clear filenames, such as "fitness-app-walkthrough-30s.mp4".
• A dedicated social account that posts only your UGC samples.

Whatever you choose, the brand should be able to watch two samples in under a minute without logging in.

What brands check

• The first three seconds. Did the hook make them keep watching?
• Audio. Can they hear you clearly without turning it up? Bad audio is the fastest rejection.
• Light. Is your face visible and evenly lit?
• Fit. Does your setting, routine and way of talking match their customer?
• Format awareness. Is it vertical, with captions and text kept clear of the parts of the screen the app covers?
• Range within the niche. Can you do a testimonial and a walkthrough, not just one?

Add a short rate card and an about line

Under the samples, put two lines about you (niche, where you film, what you can deliver) and a starting rate or "rates on request". The rates page has the published figures. Note that you price usage and paid ads separately; it signals you know how the job works. The usage rights guide covers the terms.

Replace spec with paid work as it comes in

Once you have paid jobs, ask each brand whether you can show the work in your portfolio. Some contracts restrict it, especially during exclusivity windows. Swap spec samples out for paid ones as you get permission, keeping the strongest of each format.

A portfolio for health and fitness apps

If tracking is your niche, a strong set might be: a 30 second talking head on why you log your training, a screen walkthrough of a week of meals and workouts, a "what my sleep data showed me" video using your own wearable, and one video with three hooks. Keep claims to what you saw in your own data, and avoid anything that reads as medical advice. The health and fitness rules page explains why.

That set is also close to what Peptide AI asks for. Read creating for Peptide AI, and when the portfolio is ready, apply to create for Peptide AI.