Creator and Customer Content

On This Page

1. Three Kinds of Creator Content
2. Encouraging Customer Content
3. Finding and Briefing Creators
4. Usage Rights
5. Running Creator Content as Ads
6. In Practice
7. Key Terms
8. Sources

Three Kinds of Creator Content

Kind	Who makes it	Typical use
Customer content	Real customers posting about their experience	Reposts, reviews and testimonials, with permission
UGC creators	People paid to make videos in a customer style, often without posting them to their own audience	Ad creative and website video
Influencers	Creators with an audience who post about you to their followers	Reach and credibility with a specific audience, plus content for reuse

UGC stands for user-generated content. In marketing the term now covers both genuine customer posts and paid creator videos made to look like them.

Encouraging Customer Content

Make it easy and pleasant for customers to share. Ideas include a photo-worthy spot in the shop, a short card asking customers to tag you, a monthly feature of a customer post and a follow-up message after a job asking for a photo or short video. Always ask before reposting, and credit the customer's handle.

Finding and Briefing Creators

Look for creators who already make content your customers watch, ideally local for local businesses. Judge their recent videos on clarity, energy and how well they speak to camera, more than on follower count.

A good brief is one page and includes:

1. The goal, such as booked consultations or trial class signups
2. The audience and the problem the product or service solves
3. Two or three key points, plus anything that must not be said
4. The format, length and shape, for example a 30-second 9:16 video
5. Hook ideas for the opening seconds, leaving room for the creator's own style
6. Deliverables, deadlines and the number of revisions

Usage Rights

Agree in writing how the content can be used before work starts. Points to settle include whether you may use it organically, in paid ads or both; for how long; whether you receive raw files for editing; and whether the creator may work with competitors during the agreement. Paid ad use and longer periods usually cost more.

Running Creator Content as Ads

• Meta partnership ads Ads that run from both the creator's handle and your business's, with the creator's permission granted inside Meta's tools. They show the creator's name at the top of the ad.
• TikTok Spark Ads Ads that promote an existing TikTok post, including a creator's, using an authorization the creator provides. Likes and comments stay with the post.
• Ads from your own account Uploading the creator's video as your own ad, which requires the usage rights described above.

In Practice

Consider a home cleaning company that pays three local creators to film a real clean of their own homes, with rights for 12 months of paid use. One video, in which the creator opens on her messy kitchen and reacts to the finished result, becomes the company's best-performing Meta partnership ad and is cut into a TikTok Spark Ad from the same creator.

Key Terms

UGC

User-generated content, made by customers or by creators in a customer style.

Creator brief

A short document setting out the goal, message, format and deliverables.

Usage rights

The agreed terms for where and how long content may be used.

Partnership ad

A Meta ad that runs with both a creator's and a business's identity.

Spark Ad

A TikTok ad that promotes an existing organic post.

Whitelisting

An informal term for running ads through a creator's account, now largely handled by partnership ads and Spark Ads.

Sources

1. Meta Business Help Center www.facebook.com
2. TikTok Support support.tiktok.com
3. Meta Ads Guide www.facebook.com

Last reviewed October 6, 2026. Platforms change often, so confirm details in the sources above before acting on them. This guide is general information and is not marketing advice for your business.