Both UGC and influencer marketing might seem to be quite similar. In fact, both of these marketing strategies promote your cool products right? But it’s more than that. In this blog post, we’ll compare UGC and influencer marketing. And help you choose the right option for your business. 

What is UGC (User Generated Content)?

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User generated content is exactly what it sounds like. That is, content created by the users of your products. Genuine users. These can be social media posts by your customers showing your products, product reviews and testimonials on your website or other ecommerce sites like Amazon, unboxing videos uploaded by your customers and so on. 

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See how the word “customer’ is common here? This is the most authentic form of UGC. However, brands can now hire UGC creators that create authentic-looking content for brands to use in their marketing channels. Or they can also use AI to create these UGC.

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Why does UGC work so well?

In simple terms, UGC works because it's real. It’s great for building trust among people. It’s like a friend recommending a product to you, so there’s a high chance you’re going to believe it and buy the product. 

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Unless you’re hiring UGC creators, getting UGC is kind of free. Your happy customers create it for you. If you’re paying UGC creators, it’s still going to be less expensive than influencer marketing. 

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The biggest advantage with UGC is you can post on your website, social media accounts and even in ads, which is not that easy with influencer marketing. 

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To learn more about how much it would cost to get UGC, head over to this post here. 

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The downsides of UGC

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UGC isn’t perfect and the biggest issue is that you can’t control it. More often than not, it’s not going to align with your branding. The style, the quality is out of your hands. You might have to pick and choose what you want to share. 

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Also, getting customers to create content can be hard. But this type of UGC is the most impactful. 

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing involves paying a popular person on social media, with a large following, to talk about your products. You’re making your product known among the loyal followers of that particular influencer. 

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There are a fair share of both advantages and disadvantages of this type of marketing. But before that let’s just go through the different types of influencers. 

Types of Influencers 

Influencers are categorised based on the number of followers. And higher the number, higher you’ll have to pay. 

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• Nano-Influencers - 1k-10k followers - usually have a high engagement rate.
• Micro-influencers - 10k-100k followers - good reach and good engagement
• Macro-influencers - 100k-1M followers - wider reach but lesser connection with followers
• Celebrity influencers - 1M+ followers - maximum visibility but less authenticity

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Benefits of Influencer Marketing 

The biggest plus of influencer marketing is control. You can always guide influencers to create content that aligns with your brand message. It is also the best option when you want to get your products in front of people really fast. 

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For example, the gaming marketplace Kinguin’s, Black Friday campaign resulted in a 25% boost in sales, over the course of 3 months, through influencer marketing. They had worked with 50 to 100 influencers monthly for this campaign.

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The downsides of Influencer marketing

The biggest issue with influencer marketing is the cost. Based on how popular your chosen influencer is, you might have to spend a few hundred to thousands of dollars just for a single post. 

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Now, people are able to recognise when a product is getting promoted. And those posts might have a good chance of performing worse than usual. Because one thing that lacks here is authenticity. 

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Also, if an influencer promotes many brands, then promoting your products through such an influencer might not get you desired results. 

UGC Vs Influencer Marketing

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How to Choose between UGC and Influencer Marketing

If you’re still on the fence trying to decide which one to choose, here’s a very straightforward guide to help  you out: 

When to pick UGC

• Building trust is your main goal
• Not focusing on quick sales but want more engagement from customers
• Your budget is tight
• You have customers who naturally share content about your brand

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Sephora’s Beauty Insider Community is a place where users share tips and photos of their products. It’s a genius level of engagement no other marketing strategies can match.

When to pick Influencer marketing

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• You need visibility super-quick
• You’re launching something brand new
• You have big budget to partner with influencers
• You want to reach a very specific target audience

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Daniel Wellington, a watch brand, is an amazing example of a brand that grew mostly through influencer marketing. Read case study here.

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Choosing your best marketing strategy

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Hope we could help you choose between UGC and influencer marketing. If you’re still unsure which to choose, the best strategy would be to test out both on a small scale. 

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For example, combine a few UGC along with a collaboration with nano or micro-influencers, which cost less. See which is getting better results for you before doubling down on one. 

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What should a new business with less customers choose?

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If your business is new, chances are that you’re tight on budget and you also might not have a lot of customers to get UGC. 

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The best option for you would be to get UGC created by AI. Yes, lots of new brands are gradually understanding the need to create UGC with AI. You can create these using different AI tools like Synthesia, HeyGen, ElevenLabs, etc. 

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To learn more about how you can create UGC with AI, book a call here. 

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