In short: On a marketplace, creators choose the campaigns they film, so your campaign page does the selling. Creators say yes to a title that tells them what to film, a payout they can see, a brief with one goal and room for their own voice, and a clear answer on the product. Vidovo’s brief guide says a brief should “make the creator’s job easier, not turn their video into a scripted brand ad.” This guide turns that into seven checks you can run before you launch.
On a marketplace, your campaign is the pitch
When you hire a freelancer, you write a message and wait for an answer. On a marketplace the order is reversed: you publish the terms, and the creators who like them come to you. That saves you the outreach and moves the work into the campaign itself. A creator who is scrolling through open campaigns decides in a few seconds whether yours is worth opening, and again after reading the brief whether it is worth filming.
On Usicri a creator sees the things you set in the campaign form: the title, the payout per approved video, how many spots are left, whether you provide a product, and your brief. All five are yours to get right, and all five can be improved in an afternoon.
Seven checks before you launch
- One goal per campaign. Collabstr’s briefing guide puts it plainly: “Every UGC video or photo should serve one purpose.” A campaign for a product-page demo reads very differently from one that tries to cover awareness, conversion and retargeting at once. See how to run a UGC campaign.
- A title that says what the creator films. “Morning routine video for a vitamin C serum” tells a creator more than “Brand campaign”. Creators scan titles first.
- A payout you can stand behind. Creators compare offers, so state it and make it fit the work the brief asks for; a long list of requirements on a low payout is a hard sell. Collabstr advises settling payment and usage rights before the brief goes out. On Usicri the usage rights are already settled: an approved, paid video comes with a license for all media, including your own paid ads, so there is no usage fee to negotiate (what the license covers).
- Deliverables that need no guessing. Vidovo says “Creators should never have to guess what they owe,” and lists the video count, length, format, deadline and upload location. On Usicri the count is the number of spots, the upload happens on the platform and there is no delivery date to agree. Add the length and format you want to the brief.
- Guardrails, not a script. Twirl’s guide says a brief should tell the creator “who the content is for, what the campaign needs to communicate and which requirements cannot change,” and show where the creator can shape the content, such as the opening line, the setting and the phrasing. Its warning is worth keeping in mind: a creator “might follow every instruction perfectly and still produce a video that feels awkward.”
- A product plan. Say whether you send a product and, if you do, where you can ship it. A creator who has to guess will often pass. On Usicri you choose the option in the form, and interested creators write to you through “Ask a question” to agree on delivery. See how to send products to UGC creators.
- Disclosure and claims, up front. Vidovo says creators should know how the brand wants the disclosure handled before they start filming. List the claims they may make in your exact wording and the ones they must not make. See UGC disclosure rules.
What to leave out
Collabstr says creators “don’t need your full brand guidelines,” and suggests talking points instead of a script and a short list of things to avoid. Vidovo says creators should be able to “scan the brief and quickly understand what is required” without digging through long decks. The 8x team, writing for creators about what brands expect, puts it this way: “Clear beats clever when the brand needs performance.” A brief that fits on one screen gets read.
Hard to say yes to, easy to say yes to
| Element | Hard to say yes to | Easy to say yes to |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Summer campaign | Get-ready-with-me video featuring our tinted moisturizer |
| Brief | Pages of brand values and a word-for-word script | The goal, a few talking points, the shots to include, a short list to avoid |
| Product | Not mentioned | “No product needed”, or where you can ship it |
| Claims | “Say it works great” | Approved wording, and what not to say |
| Disclosure | Left to the creator | One sentence on how the video must be labeled |
After you launch
Read the campaign once as a creator would before you publish it. The details of a campaign can be edited only until the first creator has submitted a video, and the payout and category cannot be edited at all, so the first version matters. Once videos start to arrive, answer questions quickly: a question usually comes from a creator who is interested and one answer away from filming. If the same question comes up twice, add the answer to the brief while you still can. Then review the first videos closely and note what you would change next time; how to review UGC videos and feedback note templates help with that.
On Usicri
On Usicri you publish a campaign and the videos come to you. There is no creator search, no outreach and no negotiating: creators on Usicri choose the campaigns that fit them, film the video themselves and upload it, and you approve the ones you like. You pay only for those, with no platform fee on videos approved through December 31 and a platform fee of 15% after that, and a rejected video costs nothing. Creators decide by the brief and the payout, so the seven checks above are where to put your effort. See how it works for brands, or create a free brand account and launch your first campaign.