How to find UGC creators, and pick the right ones

Finding UGC creators is easy. There are marketplaces, agencies, and millions of people posting product videos. Picking the few who will actually move your numbers is the hard part. This guide covers both.

Where to find them

• Creator platforms and marketplaces: you post a campaign and creators apply. Fastest way to get volume.
• Your own customers: people already using your product make the most believable videos. Ask in your app, emails, or community.
• Platform search: search TikTok and Instagram for your category and your competitors' names, and note who is already making this kind of content.
• Agencies and managed services: someone else sources, briefs, and reviews for you. Costs more, but saves team time.

What to check before you approve

Median views, not the best video

One viral video tells you little. Look at the median (the middle value) across the creator's recent posts. A creator whose videos land between 20,000 and 40,000 views is usually a better bet than one with a single 2M hit and everything else under 1,000.

Posting cadence

Check posts per week. A creator who posts steadily is more likely to hit your deadlines, and more likely to have an audience the algorithm already serves.

Fit with the product

Does their content look like your customer's feed? A creator who already talks about your category needs less briefing and sounds more believable. Watch three or four videos with the sound on.

Engagement and comments

Engagement rate helps, but the comments tell you more. Are people asking where to buy, or is it all emojis? Purchase-intent comments are the signal that a creator's audience acts on what they see.

Audience location

If you only sell in some countries, check where the creator's viewers are. Views from outside your market are reach you pay for and cannot convert.

Test before you commit

1. Shortlist more creators than you need: roughly two for every slot.
2. Message the promising ones with one or two questions. How they reply predicts how they will work.
3. Start with a small paid test: a couple of videos on a flat rate or a capped CPM.
4. Keep the creators whose videos hold up, and scale them with a retainer.

Red flags

• Big follower counts with little engagement, a sign of bought followers.
• No recent posts, or long gaps between them.
• Reluctance to sign a contract or disclose sponsorship.
• A portfolio made only of screen recordings or reposted clips instead of original footage.

How this works on NewWave

Creators apply to your campaign, and your roster shows each applicant's connected accounts, engagement rate, total and median views, posts per week, and top videos in one panel. You can shortlist, message before deciding, and approve with a contract created automatically. Once creators are posting, per-creator CPM and pace show you who to scale. See the finding creators docs, or let our team run it for you.