How to vet a UGC creator before you ship the product

Most vetting advice tells brands to check follower counts, which is close to the least useful signal available. Followers measure an audience. You are not buying an audience, you are buying footage that will run as an ad from your account.

Watch the first three seconds, with the sound on

Open three of their videos and watch only the openings. You are checking whether the hook does any work, whether the delivery sounds like a person talking or a person performing, and whether the audio was recorded somewhere real.

Most portfolios fall apart in the first three seconds, which is convenient, because it means vetting takes about four minutes.

Look for your category, or something structurally like it

A creator who has shot skincare knows how texture behaves under light and how long a viewer will watch someone apply something. That knowledge does not transfer from unboxing electronics.

If they have not shot your exact category, look for the closest structural match. A supplement routine and a haircare routine are different products but the same build: a sequence, a claim, a payoff. Fashion and jewelry are both “how does it look on a person in motion”.

Numbers that matter and numbers that do not

Follower count does not matter. You are licensing footage, not renting an audience. The exception is whitelisting, where the ad runs from their handle, and even then their engagement quality matters more than the number.

Watch-through rate on their own posts is a reasonable proxy, if they will share it. Ask what percentage of viewers reach the end, not how many views the video got.

The number that matters most is not public. Ask how many videos they have shot for paying brands in the last six months. Someone shooting steadily is calibrated. Someone who has shot twice this year, however good those two were, is going to be slower and less predictable.

Four questions that tell you how it will run

1. What is in a revision round, and how many do I get? Vague answers here become arguments later.
2. What is your turnaround from receiving the product? The honest answer includes shipping time. If they quote you a number that assumes the box teleports, they have not thought about it.
3. What rights are included, and what costs more? A creator who answers this crisply has been through it. One who is vague has not, and you will be negotiating it later under pressure.
4. What do you need from me? The best answer is a real list. It means they have a process and they are about to save you a week.

Signals worth trusting

Someone who asks about your claims and compliance before the shoot. Someone who tells you a piece of your brief will not work and says what they would do instead. Someone whose portfolio has range within a category rather than fifteen near-identical videos.

The last one is worth dwelling on. Fifteen versions of the same setup can mean a creator with one good idea, or it can mean fifteen brands who all wanted the same thing. Ask.

Signals worth a second look

Portfolios that are entirely product close-ups with no face. It might be a stylistic choice, or it might mean they are not comfortable on camera, which you find out after shipping.

Rates far below the market with no explanation. Sometimes it is someone new and good. Sometimes it is organic rights only and the real number arrives later.

No questions about the product. If someone will shoot anything without asking what it does, that is what the video will look like.

Before you ship anything

Confirm what you are getting in writing: deliverables, rights, revisions, turnaround. Not a contract necessarily, an email is fine. The point is that both of you wrote it down while everyone was still optimistic.

Then write the brief, which is the part that decides how the footage actually turns out.

You can look through my archive by niche and apply all of this to it. If it holds up, tell me what you are launching.