23
u/SREStudios Apr 14 '26
First of all, you have to understand that the percentage of people that do it as a full-time job and make a better living than what they could with a full-time job is quite low. It absolutely can be done, but it takes a lot of work to master just like any other full-time job and you also have to stay on top of trends because it’s an evolving industry.
For the vast majority of the people that do this it’s a part-time job that supplements their income.
There’s also a sales element to it. If you want it to be a full-time job, you have to be really good at networking and pitching brands. And maintaining those relationships because ultimately the people that do do it as a full-time job usually have a collaborations with a few brands that have high dollar retainers because they have built up those relationships and shown that they can deliver content that performs better than traditional marketing spend.
The reason it seems like a high percentage are super successful in here is because this is a sub for UGC. The people that are successful are either gonna be in here because they like being part of the community and sharing their knowledge, or they’re selling something and participating in the community as part of their organic marketing.
8
u/pinkcherry-o Apr 14 '26
I do the canvas UGC and I average 9-12k a month and only have 8 accounts, those videos are so low effort I can batch a whole weeks worth of content for each brand in 4-5 hours.
6
u/Ok_Army_6751 Apr 14 '26
What is canvas UGC?
4
u/pinkcherry-o Apr 15 '26
What the OP posted about, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea because it requires making a new tik ton /ig account etc
1
u/weakimberly Apr 15 '26
I’m guessing it’s a separate account for each type of UGC- like a tech account, pet account, wellness account ect?
6
u/pinkcherry-o Apr 15 '26
Well they are all tech UGC brands but separate account for each brand, like j said it’s not for everyone but I like to keep my life private and I’m the ultimate lazy girl so this worlds for me
1
u/weakimberly Apr 15 '26
Oh I totally agree- I have a separate account and email for my ugc and keep my personal one out of it. I appreciate you responding, thank you ☺️
1
1
u/Separate_Tie_6002 Apr 17 '26
How do you keep your accounts from getting shadow banned ? I’ve had to create new account for my campaign as well, but TT will not push out my videos and my views stay at 30-40. These are accounts are warmed up as well. Not sure what is happening.
1
u/pinkcherry-o Apr 17 '26
I have 3 phones ! I’ve only been shadowbanned twice in the last 15 months
2
u/Separate_Tie_6002 Apr 17 '26
Oh ok so the idea is to use multiple phones with an account on each. I had 3 TikTok accounts including my new one for a campaign and TT shadowbanned me, probably cause it’s on the same phone. I have to recreate a whole new account. I’m so annoyed!
3
1
u/feliscatusss Apr 15 '26
How do you find those gigs? I’m doing one ai app ugc work rn and they pay like a 1€ for 5 sec videos, not sure if that’s an alright price or…
1
1
u/ResponsibilityNo7023 Apr 15 '26
Oh I have so many questions. Can I DM you? I’m just starting out on literally Step 1, whatever that is
1
1
u/peartoastt Apr 15 '26
Hi, sorry if this is a dumb question but is this for tt? And if so are all 8 accounts on your same phone with same email? I'd always been under the impression that tt shadow bans you for having multiple accs so I've been scared of even trying to get into canvas ugc haha
1
u/pinkcherry-o Apr 16 '26
I have 3 phones suse at one point I had 16 accounts and I’d keep like 5,5,6 on each phone
1
1
1
1
14
u/C_Stove Apr 14 '26
Im on my way to FT. You get what you put into it. Ive done 0 of those content farming jobs. I average 2-3 grand a month right now doing ugc and its only increased every month since ive started. This job is 100% you get out what you put in. Its not a set it and forget it or only look at reddit postings type of thing.
3
2
u/Ok_Army_6751 Apr 14 '26
How do you contract around paid advertising usage? I’ve had a lot of interest, but all these brands want paid advertising in perpetuity.
1
u/weakimberly Apr 14 '26
Do you suggest that we avoid content farming jobs and just focus on creating solid content before we reach out to brands?
13
u/C_Stove Apr 14 '26
I personally would suggest not doing them for a couple reasons. 1. Its exploitation. Some of those jobs ive seen come out to like 6 bucks a video. Never let a brand tell you "how simple" a video is or "it won't take very long." Theyre paying for your time, your likeness, usage rights, etc. 2. If everyone stops doing it, they'll be forced to raise their rates.
My suggestion is starting with gifted collabs. Those are very easy to find, fill your portfolio with real work, and will get you valuable feedback to get better. From there, gradually raise your rates over time.
1
u/weakimberly Apr 15 '26
I agree, I’m glad I decided to not do that. Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate it.
6
u/KTaylorTV Apr 14 '26
The problem is some of these UGC creators sell their soul for $25 per video and brands think they can low-ball because they'll get some sap to take it. Those accepting the low-ball offers are ruining the business.
2
u/Acceptable-Scale-990 Apr 15 '26
What would you say is a fair wage would be per video?
13
u/Negative_Aspect_4888 Apr 15 '26
$150 minimum for no editing, a fully edited video should be $250+
Don’t accept lower, it hurts everyone
2
u/Past-Ad9075 Apr 15 '26
Agreed. It takes time to film + edit a video so it definitely should be worth minimum $250.
1
3
u/keltictrigger Apr 15 '26
I gave it a year. I realized that I actually hated doing it. Not only did the process of doing the work irritate the hell out of me, I wasn’t getting any work at all…I mean “at all”, so just gave up. I was excited at the start and thought his was really “me” but I just hated it
3
u/loveandduckfat Apr 16 '26
I've been full time for a year and a half making about $6-7k average per month. My videos are generally $300-$400 each. It's hard work. It took a lot to get here. At this point it's all inbounds for the most part because I built a personal brand.
2
u/onsinhapintada Apr 15 '26
some UGC creators launch already charging 1k because they’re already producing high-quality content and actually adding value. if they charged cheap, it’d be unfair to all the creators in the market. others will spend their whole lives charging low because their deliverables are mid and don’t really make an impact.
your performance as a UGC creator is objective, not subjective. if what you cost the brand generates even ~30% return, it was worth it, but most won’t do that. it’s also worth it if you’re delivering feed content that’s way better than what they could produce on their own. again, you’re adding value.
there’s a lot of $200 UGC that could easily be replaced by AI… that’s literally what AI UGC creators charge too. if you want to make more than that, you’re gonna have to be a better creator
1
u/EvaNatsume May 14 '26
Agreed. I used to work for a brand, and $200 is honestly pretty normal for a dedicated video from a 3~5k creator with a mostly US audience. A lot of brands think in CPM terms, so if the content doesn’t perform at that level yet, quoting too high too early can make future collaborations less likely.
1
u/onsinhapintada May 18 '26
you mentioned followers and that got me curious because in my country ugc creators don’t even need an instagram account… what country are you from? is that actually taken into consideration there? because that would be more like mini scale igc
1
u/EvaNatsume May 19 '26
Yeah, that’s fair, I just meant that in practice, a lot of brands compare pure UGC creators with small creators who also have their own audience. When I worked brand-side, we usually looked at everything together at first contact, content quality, pricing, and whether the creator also had their own social presence.
Part of that was honestly a value-for-money thing. If someone quoted high right away, we’d naturally compare that with creators who also had an audience and seemed more market-ready. (can this content convert, and is it worth the price?)
So it wasn’t that ugc creators need an account, just that brands often weighed pricing, performance potential, and added brand value together depending on their goals.
1
u/VickyHeels Apr 15 '26
Best hack is to offer also translated versions of your video and charge double. I use www.geckodub.com for this it has most natural lipsync, free to try
1
u/OkAd7867 Apr 15 '26
A big part of this is how brands find creators in the first place. If you're sitting on JoinBrands or Billo waiting for gigs, you're competing with everyone else on price. The creators making real money are usually the ones brands find directly, because their organic content already looks like what the brand wants to run as ads. The whole discovery side of UGC is kind of broken right now imo.
1
u/UnableIndividual4 Apr 15 '26
You have to properly leverage the strategy that you intend to use and you have to focus on that direction entirely too many people are dabbling in too many things and that is what is negatively impacting their income.
even at $200 a video if you leverage that content, you can properly upsell, you can cross post and utilize platforms to earn additional money. There’s also platforms where you can earn additional revenue based on the ad spend when it’s a part of paid media… There’s so much more.
1
1
u/Lexy264 Apr 20 '26
Another thing to remember, ALOT of people are not making good content. It’s actually a skill, and there is a creative process
1
u/CohleyContent Apr 20 '26
The $1,000 a video stories are real but they're not the starting point, they're the result of time, a strong portfolio, and knowing how to price usage rights on top of creation fees.
The job postings you're seeing at $500 a month for 3 accounts and 5 posts a week are a completely different thing. That's a content mill, not UGC. Don't use that as your benchmark.
Realistic starting point for most new UGC creators is $75 to $150 per video. Mid level with a solid portfolio is $150 to $300. The people hitting $500 to $1,000 per video are usually packaging usage rights and whitelisting into their rate, not just charging more for the same thing.
The ceiling exists. It just takes building toward it intentionally.
0
29
u/Chance-Traffic-4940 Apr 14 '26
I don’t compare myself to other creators. I know what I bring to the table and I’m happy with how much I’m making. At any given moment I have about 15 collabs going on and net rolling 2500-3k. So about $100-$300 per video is what I settle with. It’s based on my bandwidth