UGC

UGC is content created by real customers or creators, rather than by a brand's in-house team or agency, often used as ad creative.

In performance marketing specifically, "UGC-style" ads (creator-shot, phone-camera aesthetic, testimonial-style) have consistently outperformed polished studio ads on feed platforms over the past several years, largely because they blend into the native content format instead of visually announcing themselves as an ad. Note that most "UGC" run as paid ads today is commissioned — brands pay creators to produce content in that style — rather than organically sourced from unpaid customers, which is a meaningful distinction from the term's original meaning.