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Today, the best performing ads are not the best produced ones. They're the most relatable ones.

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Recently, one of the trends that we’ve noticed here at Ubu is how many brands are using user-generated content, or content that looks like it’s user-generated, as part of their paid advertising campaigns.

And it doesn’t come as a surprise to us—we’ve spoken before about how today social media users look for more “relatable” content as opposed to “aspirational” content online, because as high quality smartphone cameras and editing softwares become more and more widespread and accessible, the novelty of highly produced content has reduced greatly.

As people now have more and more friends that create good quality content, it stands out to them when a brand posts a highly produced advertisement. They’ve grown to ‘automatically’ ignore it, instead paying more attention to content that’s more relatable, just out of habit.

And some pioneering brands have caught on—the DTC Twitterverse is reporting that when they used raw UGC as ads, they saw even greater results. Let’s have a look!

Ads as Content, Content as Ads

Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing @Cody_Wittick

You want a COMMUNITY 🌎 of influencers that love your brand and share about it to their audiences. 📱 You also want great content for paid ads. That means your community needs to be full of GREAT CONTENT CREATORS ☄️

First and foremost, if one of your objectives is to get great ad content, the way to start is to build a community of great content creators. This way, the people that love your brand will be the people that create the coolest content for your brand, and then you can use that content for your paid campaigns.

Kristen ✨ @kristenxjones

A brand I sent some of my fav content/ads to has been running one of my raw videos (a live, real moment of me trying their product). Unpolished. Of course, it's outperforming everything else. This is a reminder to stop nitpicking creatives and let them be ✨authentic✨

When you send products to creators, you need to trust their vision. Do a lot of work on building a curated community so that once you’ve done that, you’ll know that the community is one that you trust. Just let your creators be authentic.

Alex @heyitsalexP

People like ads that don't look like ads "But it's not on brand" ok, is your brand stronger than Facebook, Snap or Tiktok?

People like ads that don’t look like ads.

An ad that is ignored is useless. An ad that gets people to stop scrolling and actually watch it—now that’s useful. People inherently don’t like ads, but people love good content.

Make your ads good content.

Noah Hunt @whoisnoz

4/ Native advertising - “advertising that looks like content” Ever watched a Tiktok video only to realise it’s actually an Ad? Answered a query with a blog only to be prompted toward a “recommended solution”? Purchase intent is 53% higher with native advertising.

Ads that look like content is called “Native Advertising” and it’s not a new concept!

Native Advertising has been around for a long long time, just that earlier it was done on blogs that you clicked on through a search engine, and now it’s the form of posts, stories, Reels and TikToks. And since it’s been around a while, we know from experience that it WILL outperform non-native ads.

What is GOOD content

Savannah Sanchez | Performance UGC | TikTok Ads @social_savannah

I realized that good UGC ads simply just follow formulas. Capture attention in the first 3 seconds, demonstrate the product benefits, and have a genuine testimonial. So I went on a hunt to find content creators/actresses who I could train on how to get the content I needed...

When you have GOOD content creators creating content for you, they’ll know how to make the content engaging.

And as mentioned in the tweet above, it’s really not that hard—get attention in the first three seconds, demonstrate benefits and have a genuine testimonial.

Zach Stuck @zachmstuck

First “high quality content” If the video is not shot in good lighting (literally requires standing in front of a window) it’s not going to work. No one wants to watch someone talk about a product from their dimly lit basement. The creator loses all credibility when they do this

Zach Stuck @zachmstuck

Now let’s talk about audio. If a creator is not speaking clearly and loud enough no one will listen let alone buy. When someone has to increase their volume just to hear what the creator is saying that’s one extra step for them to take before they consider clicking or swiping up.

It’s super important to get the basics right—good lighting and good audio. I would argue that audio quality is even more important than video quality. Without this, everything else falls apart.

Zach Stuck @zachmstuck

Let get to the fun part, knowing how to sell. When a creator says “I love this product” or “It’s a great product” it’s NOT going to work. Everyone says this. WHY do they love it? WHY is it great? What problem did it solve for them? Why do they need it now after trying it out?

Remember how we spoke about a genuine testimonial? This is what is a genuine testimonial. Not just “I love it”, but also WHY do they love it?

Wrapping up

DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter

🚀 8 must-have ad types: - Attention grabbers - Spokesperson - Lifestyle - Product demo - Case study - Unboxing - Social proof - Finishing touch What else?

This tweet by the DTC Newsletter is a great sum up of all the different ad types that you should have for your brand—and you can do each of these ad types using UGC.

Are any of you already doing this? Hit reply and let me know, I’d LOVE to chat with you about your experience.

I hope you enjoyed this issue, and see you guys next week again!

—Mayank from Ubu

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Shameless plug: Ubu is a tool that helps DTC brands engage and grow their community better by combining Inbox Management, UGC/Analytics and an Influencer CRM. We're growing pretty fast in Europe, and I'd love to have you give it a shot for free for your brand.