What does a UGC agency do for your ads?

A UGC agency finds creators and makes creator videos for your ads. Here is what good ones do, how much UGC to run, and when to build your own team.

Dennis Ksendzov

Founder · November 10, 2026 · 2 min read

Hand-drawn sketch of UGC Agency: Brief winners to Test videos to Keep the best

A UGC agency gets you creator videos to run as ads, at volume. A good one briefs creators on angles that already sell, the way Ridge briefs its agencies on angles that first won in static ads. (Marketing Operators)

UGC creators are affiliate and performance-based folks who don't have much of a following and make content they know performs.

There are other influencers that are going to create an amazing UGC ad for you and you can ask them to also record two additional hooks and two additional CTAs. So, one deliverable is actually six.
Lily Comba

How do brands brief a UGC agency?

Brief the agency on angles that already sell

When an angle proves out in a static ad, Ridge briefs its agencies to make creator videos on that same angle. (Marketing Operators)

Ridge used an agency called Narrative for high volume performance videos. Narrative briefs odd visual moments into each creator video on purpose. (Cody)
Jones Road spends 15 to 20 thousand dollars a month on UGC creative, mostly sourced in house, and about 40 thousand once agencies are added. (Cody)

Once the briefs are right, the next question is how much of your account these videos should be.

Is UGC still a thing in 2026?

Yes, as part of the mix, never the whole account

Common Thread Collective says creator style assets make up 30 to 70% of the media mix in most healthy ad accounts. Marketing Operators argues raw UGC cannot be 80 to 90% of an account. (Common Thread Collective) (Marketing Operators)

At HexClad, a side by side test showed UGC ads beating a high production brand film by 45% efficiency at the same spend. (Cody)

One brand's best ad came from a 62 year old woman, and it broke the brand into a new revenue band. (Marketing Operators)
Vary age and ethnicity. Do not book nine look alike 25 to 34 year old women. (Marketing Operators)

Ecommerce consultant Brando Monetti says the sheet he gives clients to scale has an ROI calculator, a daily creative report & a UGC tracker tab.

The mix only works if you keep feeding it fresh videos from people who can deliver.

Should you hire a UGC agency or keep your own creators?

Test wide, then keep the winners close

Turn the winners into paid UGC creators. Keep a roster of the best performers.

A brand Ridge's size only needs a roster of 30 to 50 UGC creators; 100 is too many to keep in consistent work.

Lily Comba asks each creator for two extra openings and two extra calls to action, so one video becomes six. (Lily Comba)

How Grüns counts it: 1,500 tracked UGC assets 4 months after launch.

Running all of this every month takes real hours from your team.

More on this:

Can someone run this whole creator program for us?

If finding, briefing and sorting creators sounds like a full time job, that is the job we do for brands.

Put ad money behind the creator content that already works.

If you have some of the steps in place, we audit what's missing in each and how to take it further.