Are you feeling lost in a sea of user generated content (UGC) acronyms and terminology? Fear not, because we’ve got you covered with our A-Z UGC glossary!
From inbounds to whitelisting, we’ve compiled all the essential terms you need to know to navigate the world of UGC.
So, let’s take a journey together and master the language of UGC.
A
A/B Test
This is a method of comparing two variations of an ad, content, or any other material to determine which one performs better. This is also known as split testing. A/B Testing involves changing one tiny element at a time to refine your results. For example, changing a graphic in an ad. Only a portion of our audience sees each test.
Aesthetic
An aesthetic is the overall look of your feed on a social media channel. This usually reflects the creator’s/brand’s style, colours and vibe.
Algorithm
This is a set of steps a ‘computer’ uses to accomplish a task. For example, on social media, an algorithm is how a social media platform determines which content to display at any given time to a particular user.
Analytics
Analytics is an umbrella term used to describe both social analysis tools and the information those tools provide. Most social networks include their own analytics tools to help businesses analyze how well their posts are doing for metrics such as reach, engagement, and follower growth.
Angle
A UGC angle or hook is the approach you take to a product. The angle may focus on an issue that potential customers are facing or the goals that they want to achieve. For example if you are a company selling sleep vitamins, your angle could be a student going through high levels of stress, or a new mum who wants to make the most of the little sleep she gets.
B
Brief
A brief is provided to UGC Creators to provide clear context, deliverables and requirements by the brand the UGC Creator is collaborating with.
Budget
How much money a brand has delegated to a specific project.
C
ChatGPT
Chat GPT is a powerful language model that can help automate content creation, generate new ideas, and more. You’ll type in a query, and it’ll produce an answer by pulling information from the internet. By leveraging ChatGPT’s AI capabilities, UGC creators can speed up the process of creating content.
Find out how UGC creators can use ChatGPT.
Content Approval
When brands work with UGC Creators, they may ask that the content is approved by their team before it is accepted by the brand.
Contract
A UGC contract is an agreement between the brand/agency and UGC creator that includes the campaign information.
Conversion
A conversion occurs when the user does what you want them to do. In the case of a social media conversion. This means a user that completed an action with your business that originated from social media.
Conversion Rate
The number of conversions divided by the number of visitors. It’s a social media metric that allows you to measure how well your social media efforts are working to achieve specific business goals.
Copy
Written content.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
A marketing metric that measures the aggregate cost to acquire one paying customer on a campaign or channel level.
CPL (Cost Per Lead)
A metric that marketers use to measure how cost-effective campaigns are at generating new leads.
CPM (Cost Per Mile)
This is a formula that calculates the total ad spend for every thousand impressions on a web page. In CPM campaigns, an impression occurs every time an ad is successfully displayed to the target audience. Also known as Cost Per Thousand Impressions.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view an advertisement. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online ad-campaign.
D
Dark Posting
Similar to Whitelisting/Spark Ads, dark posting content is shared to your page & the brand is able to run the video as a paid ad. However, although it’s posted to your profile, the brand is running the content on the back end, and the post is hidden from your feed.
Deliverables
The items that you are expected to produce, as confirmed in the outreach and negotiation phase. For example, the deliverables might be one video, three images of the product.
Disclosure
The action of making it known to consumers whether a brand has engaged you to produce content as an advertising or marketing initiative. Simply put, be transparent. Every country has its own laws regarding disclosure. Do your research.
DTC (Direct-to-Consumer)
A sales strategy where manufacturers and CPG brands sell their products directly to their customers instead of selling them through retailers and wholesalers.
E
Engagement
Any form of interaction with you on social media. Likes, comments, and shares are all forms of engagement.
Engagement Rate
A measure of how many people interact with your social media content.
Evergreen Content
Content designed to last for the long term. It’s not tied to any specific event or promotion.
Exclusivity
Refers to the amount of time you are prohibited from working with competitors. This is included in the contract.
H
Hook
The attention-grabber that gets your audience invested in your video. A UGC hook is used in the first few seconds in a video.
I
Impressions
A metric that counts how many times an ad or a promoted post is fetched from the server and displayed on a social platform. It is not a measure of how many people have seen the ad.
Inbound
When a brand reaches out to you with an offer, requesting to work with you, is called an inbound lead.
K
KPI
KPI, or Key Performance Indicator is a quantifiable measure of performance over time for a specific objective. ROAS, CPM, CTR, CPA & Thumbstop Rate are all different sets of KPI’s you should ask for from your clients so you can analyze how well your concepts are performing.
M
Media Kit
A digital document used by UGC Creators when reaching out to brands for collaboration opportunities. It’s basically your UGC portfolio, but will also include your rates. A media kit may include video/photo examples, statistics, packages, skills, and contact details.
N
Native Advertising
A type of social media ad that matches the style and format of an organic post. A boosted post is an example of native advertising. Ads are always identifiable by a label that says “sponsored” or “promoted,” but other than this native ads look just like organic social content.
Niche
A small segment of the population that has unique and very specific characteristics.
O
Organic Content
This type of content is great for establishing branding/brand aesthetics. The client posts this content to their platforms, but it isn’t run as a paid advertisement.
Organic Reach
The number of unique users who view your content without paid promotion.
P
Paid Ad-Content
The brand is putting money behind your content to run as a paid advertisement. The goal of paid social is to distribute and promote content to a targeted audience.
Payment Terms
The amount of time it will take for you to get paid after the agency/brand receives your invoice. Net 30 means you’ll be paid within 30 days of receipt of invoice and net 60 means 60 days after. This is included in the contract.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
A type of advertising where an organization pays each time a user clicks on an advertisement. The costs incurred during a PPC campaign vary based on the competitiveness of the target keyword. The amount that you pay for each click in a pay-per-click campaign is your cost per click (CPC).
Perpetuity
The release of content rights for an infinite amount of time in the future. In other words, when the collaboration is over, the brand has indefinite rights to your content. This is included in the contract.
R
Rate Card/Sheet
A price list of your services.
Raw Footage
The content without any editing, text overlays, video/photo overlays, or music.
Reach
The total number of people who have been exposed to a social post or ad. This metric does not necessarily indicate that all of these people have actually seen your content. They could have scrolled right past it, for instance.
Real Time Marketing
The practice of using a current event or popular trend to connect with an online community.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
The amount of revenue that is earned for every dollar spent on a campaign.
S
Scope of Work
Detailed outline of the work you and the brand have agreed upon.
Sponsored Posts
Social media posts in which an UGC Creator highlights a brand or product that they have been paid to promote.
T
Target Demographic
A type of market segmentation according to age, gender, etc. This is the brand’s ideal customer.
Thumbstop Rate
The percentage of people that viewed at least three seconds of your video.
Trending
A topic, sound, hashtag that is trending is said to be popular on social media at a given moment.
U
URL Shortener
A tool that condenses a long URL into a shorter, and more social media friendly format.
User Generated Content (UGC)
Content created by regular people like me and you on social media, rather than brands. Unlike Influencers, who promote brands using their own channels, UGC Creators hand over the content they make for distribution on the brand’s own channels.
V
Value Proposition
A simple statement that clearly communicates the product or service benefit you promise to deliver to customers.
Viral
A particular post that brings in an unusual large number of engagements. Think of a virus spreading. It needs to be shared many times.
W
Watch time
Watch time is the average time social media users watch your UGC content before clicking off. If your watch time is just 1 – 3 seconds, then it means that your hook is weak. If people stay beyond the hook, however, drop shortly after, that might mean you have to re-hook the user once again.
Whitelisting
The Creator shares the content to their own platform and the brand runs the content as a paid ad through your profile. On TikTok, this is known as a Spark Ad. When you see an ad on TikTok posted by a creator and it says ‘Sponsored’, this is whitelisting.