How to Brief a UGC Creator (So the Footage Works)

Every piece of content should be arguing one thing. Not 'showcase the product' — something specific: this is faster than the way you do it now; this solves the problem you assumed was unavoidable; this is what changed for someone exactly like you.

Write that argument as a single sentence at the top of the brief. If you cannot, the video will wander, and no amount of good delivery will rescue it.

One angle per video. The temptation to cover three benefits in thirty seconds produces content that makes no impression at all, and it destroys your ability to learn which idea actually resonated.

The opening line decides most of the outcome. Write the hook explicitly in the brief rather than leaving it to improvisation, and ask for two or three alternate openings recorded back to back while the creator is already set up.

Those alternates are the cheapest testing you will ever buy. Three hooks on one body of footage gives you three ads for a few extra minutes of filming.

Good hooks are specific and slightly uncomfortable: a number, a mistake, a contradiction, a direct address to the exact person you want. Vague enthusiasm — 'I'm so excited to share' — is a skip signal.

The creator needs to know what has to be visible: the product in use, the screen, the before state, the result, the packaging, the face while saying the key line. List those as required shots.

What they don't need is every word scripted. Word-for-word scripts produce recitation, and recitation is instantly recognisable as advertising. Give the required points and let them phrase it themselves.

The exception is anything legal, factual or claim-related. Those lines are quoted exactly in the brief and marked as must-say-verbatim, and everything else is theirs.

Keep technical requirements short and non-negotiable: vertical, filmed in the highest quality their phone offers, natural light from the front, clean audio with no background music, and no burned-in captions or filters.

The no-captions rule matters more than people expect. Burned-in text prevents recutting, reformatting and hook swapping, which are exactly the things that turn one file into five ads.

Ask for the raw files rather than a compressed export sent through a messaging app. Every re-compression costs quality you cannot get back in the edit.

The brief should state, in plain language, what the content will be used for and for how long: paid advertising, organic posting, website, and the term. Negotiating this after a video performs well is the most expensive route available.

Include whether you can edit, recut and change the hook. Some creators assume their delivery ships as-is, and discovering that mid-campaign is an avoidable conflict.

Also settle exclusivity. If it matters to you that they don't film for a direct competitor next month, that belongs in the agreement rather than in hope.

Casting somebody who doesn't resemble the buyer is the most expensive error, and no brief can fix it. The second is briefing five variations of one idea and calling it a test — you learn nothing about which argument works.

Third is over-scripting, which produces polished delivery of a message nobody believes. Fourth is asking for too much in one video, so the argument never lands.

Fifth, and the quiet one: giving no feedback after the first batch. The second batch should be measurably better because it knows which hooks held attention. Without that loop you're buying the same first attempt repeatedly.

Feedback should be concrete and performance-based: which openings held attention, which phrasing correlated with clicks, which shots got reused in the winning cuts. That's a brief for the next round almost by itself.

Separate the judgement about the creator from the judgement about the idea. A great delivery of a weak angle should send you back to the angle, not to a new creator — and the reverse is also true.