User-generated content ads: Brand story

With the rise of short-format video content material on social media platforms, user-generated content material has change into the brand new solution to talk with the skin world. TikTok has initiated this pattern, permitting customers to publish uncooked, unpolished, and “trustworthy” video content material. Following its success, different platforms have shortly aligned, offering extra avenues for customers to specific themselves.

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Right this moment, video content material is king. Over 65% of individuals seek advice from video content material as their primary supply of knowledge. Do you need to know whether or not your subsequent vacation vacation spot is as cool as they write about? You go and verify a YouTube video by a content material creator speaking about that place. Are you trying to find probably the most fascinating inventory to purchase? You verify a chunk of user-generated content material on one of many many video platforms about inventory funding.

You identify it, there’s somebody on the market speaking about it, and almost certainly selling some manufacturers.

Video has all the time been there. Earlier than on TV, yesterday in your laptop computer, immediately in your arms with 75% of all of the video content material consumed on a cellular machine. What’s totally different about immediately is that manufacturers are in customers’ arms (or we must always possibly say voice).

What’s user-generated content material?

User-generated content (UGC) is content material (not solely video) created and revealed organically by particular person customers quite than manufacturers or well-known influencers. In its origin, UGC was, and nonetheless is to a sure extent, unique and trustworthy content material that customers would submit on-line for the general public. Because the explosion of video-based social networks, nevertheless, entrepreneurs have acknowledged the ability of any such format and the so-called user-generated content material advertisements or UGC social media promoting has elevated in recognition.

Why is user-generated content valubale for (app) marketing?

There are a number of the reason why UGC advertisements have shortly change into an integral a part of the media combine for a lot of manufacturers.

It’s, to begin with, cheap in comparison with conventional video manufacturing. It’s not essential to work with in style (and really costly) influencers, as a matter of reality, micro-influencers and content material creators are sufficient. Furthermore, a single content material can be utilized throughout totally different platforms, lowering manufacturing prices much more. It’s additionally extra reliable in comparison with regular advertisements, in any case our model is being endorsed. It may be extra informative and, on the identical time, humorous or participating, in comparison with different advert codecs.

The right way to create UGC advertisements that work

Opposite to what one would possibly suppose, user-generated content material used for social media promoting wants planning and testing. A whole lot of testing, truly. UGC could be troublesome to handle, particularly for conventional manufacturers with numerous restrictions or tight branding pointers.

To efficiently create a successful user-generated content material advertisements technique, entrepreneurs want to go away the proper house for creators to suppose, create, and ship ideas that align with their types and the social media platform used.

A conventional strategy gained’t work for UGC. The important thing to profitable user-generated content material for promotional functions is to be hands-off and don’t attempt to impress the viewers together with your advertising and marketing methods. TikTok says it very clearly “Make TikToks, Not Advertisements”.

Scaling app development via user-generated content material advertisements

Opposite to in style perception, UGC promoting will not be just for branding functions. Person-generated content material advertisements, if used appropriately, could be the important thing to scaling effectively on a efficiency foundation. At REPLUG, we’ve recognized this for a while and have seen the ability of any such format for a few of our companions. In 2020, we managed to scale massively and in a cheap manner, past the normal acquisition channels, because of a tailored UGC advertisements technique on TikTok.

Though within the early stage, UGC advertisements had been primarily used on video-focused social networks, with time, entrepreneurs have been experimenting with this format, additionally on different, extra conventional SNS, similar to Fb.

Right this moment, greater than ever, info is consumed quick and customers are in search of truthful sources for app discovery, and that’s why user-generated content material ought to take a particular place in cellular entrepreneurs’ artistic technique.

Price effectivity additionally for restricted geographical areas

Relying on the expansion stage or serviced areas, some cellular apps may need the necessity to promote solely to restricted places. Promoting via conventional artistic codecs, similar to banners, carousels, and even movies may end up quite costly when limiting the geographical attain of a marketing campaign. That is much more true when video-first promoting platforms, similar to TikTok, the place the artistic strategy turns into essential for fulfillment.

When working in these circumstances, entrepreneurs should rethink how they strategy their media combine and thoroughly think about their CAC. At REPLUG, we’ve been working for the previous few months with a newly launched relationship app within the German market, particularly Berlin, referred to as ODXClub.

The relationship house is very aggressive, with many established gamers utilizing a variety of actions and channels to achieve customers. The target is one and solely: to be the primary related selection to search out the proper date.

ODXClub launched simply on the excellent time, a number of months earlier than Summer season. This gave us sufficient time to organize from a communication and artistic perspective, and ideal, over time, our strategy. As our Paid Person Acquisition specialists began their actions, they determined to check a number of totally different approaches to then slim all the way down to the best-performing channels and ideas.

The primary channels the place creatives performed a big position had been TikTok and Fb (with Instagram included). The strategy examined had been:

Basic static creatives (banners and carousel portraying options, and advantages of the app)
Basic video advertisements (specializing in the expertise that the app would offer)
Person-generated content material (having the creators produce movies that would doubtlessly be used additionally on their natural web page)

“From the very starting, the REPLUG group insisted on profiting from user-generated content material, as of their expertise this could have introduced nice outcomes. Due to a coordinated effort between the groups, we achieved the “not possible”, bringing a wholesome ratio of male-female within the app from the very starting at extremely low prices, contemplating the restricted geographical radius.”

Phillip Schacht – Head of Advertising at ODXClub

As we began scaling spending throughout totally different promoting platforms, we seen that Person-Generated Content material was performing significantly higher than conventional creatives. When wanting on the outcomes achieved, we noticed that UGC advertisements performed additionally a big position in lowering the price of acquisition on non-video social networks, similar to Fb.

Extra particularly, on Fb and Instagram, the fee per set up (CPI) was 38.46% decrease than the static format, and eight.2% than a conventional video format. On the identical time, when down-the-funnel metrics, UGC advertisements additionally introduced higher customers, with a lower in CPA of 41.38% in comparison with static advertisements, and 16% to video.

When TikTok, we seen the identical pattern. Person-generated content material was (and nonetheless is) outperforming video advertisements on the Chinese language Social Community, with a mean enchancment of CPI of 44.3% and CPA of 49.2%.

With marketing campaign knowledge in our arms, we had been capable of verify our information, seen additionally with different companions, that UGC advertisements carry out a lot better than regular movies on TikTok. Nevertheless, most apparently, we seen that any such content material when used on Fb additionally created a optimistic uplift in performance-based actions with clear enhancements in value per acquisition.

Inform your story in a novel manner

With regards to user-generated content material, manufacturers and entrepreneurs have to have a distinct strategy than conventional artistic property creation. Creators have to be free to provide content material in their very own manner and magnificence. Right here, we collected a number of recommendations primarily based on our expertise and outcomes seen with a few of our companions:

Undertake a “devoted” strategy to user-generated content material. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t information or limit content material creators an excessive amount of.
Neglect about conventional advertising and marketing and communication methods. UGC advertisements want to talk a distinct language.
Refresh content material repeatedly. Entrepreneurs have to have a large pool of content material to check and select from, because the advert fatigue is increased than in different codecs.
Take a look at. Analyze. Scale. Repeat.