I've been thinking about this one a lot, and maybe I'm too Gen X to really understand UGC marketing online, but I understand it in the real world and I think there's a lot of carry-over.

This entire post stems from a thought I had a few days ago when looking at yet-another service promising to make AI-generated short-form videos to promote your product. The thought was: "Why the f*ck should I care about what some rando tries to sell me?"

Ok, sure, "brand awareness" ... but at what cost? Oh look, it's a semi-cute female in her 20's doing something random and there's big text over the top saying something like "I couldn't believe how my life changed when I tried {product}". So?

I'm not trying to say there's no signal among the noise. A beauty-supply app using a semi-cute female in her 20's is hitting their market by inferring "using our beauty products makes you look this amazing". Similarly, a match-making app using the same AI-generated female is hitting their market with "find girls who look like this on our app". It's not a 100% complete waste, but there are definitely products that fit better than others.

What I'm trying to say in way too many words is: ai-generated UGC misses out on Authority. The characters they generate are fake and, as such, have never accomplished anything of note. There is nothing to point to when a person asks "Why should I trust this 'person' to recommend something to me?".

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Let's go WAYYYYYYYYYYYY back in time to the late 1990's and early 2000's.

Back then, I was an amateur competitive snowboarder. I had sponsorships from a few companies for clothes, goggles, bindings, gloves ... even got free season passes to my local resort. I was the 2001 version of "UGC marketing" or "influencer marketing". I wore and used certain brands both on the mountain and off. People saw "ohhh, the guy who rides super well uses {x} bindings and wears {y} hoodies" and it influenced them.

I'm not going to say I ever drove a million dollars in sales or made/broke a company. I was a small-time guy doing small-time things (still had a lot of fun doing them), but the entire reason that skate/snowboard shops and clothing/equipment companies sponsored me was because I proved authority in the space (by being at least decently good at the sport and worth looking up to). I wasn't just bold text on a screen, I was actually out there doing the thing and being good at it and my recommendations mattered.

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Where I am now is in a space that says AI-generated UGC is of extremely limited and low value (especially as it becomes insanely common). You're better off finding people with actual authority in the space and having them help you out with promotion.

If you don't have a lot of money, target micro-influencers (~1000 followers) who are willing to do things for trade (like a lifetime free membership on your app) or a low price. That said, the more authority you can find in people who are willing to promote your product, the better. And it's probably best to leave all those UGC-video marketing apps alone. They're not likely to move the needle for most of us.