In short: On Usicri you do not browse portfolios, shortlist creators or negotiate prices. You write one campaign, set the payout and say how many videos you want. Creators film and upload finished videos, you watch each one, and you pay only for the videos you approve. The decision you make is about the thing you will actually use, and the money moves at the moment you say yes.
Two ways to hire a UGC creator
Hiring UGC usually follows one of two orders of events. What differs is what you get to see before you commit.
| Step | Portfolio-first | Video-first (Usicri) |
|---|---|---|
| You review first | A portfolio, profile or application | The finished video for your product |
| You decide on | Past work made for other products | The video itself, against your brief |
| The price | Agreed with each creator | Set by you in the campaign, visible before anyone films |
| Money moves | On Fiverr, you confirm and pay when you place the order and review the delivery afterward | When you approve a video |
| Your work | Search, message, shortlist, then review the video | Write the brief once, then review what arrives |
Why a portfolio tells you less than it seems
A portfolio shows that a creator can make a good video — for someone else’s product, in someone else’s light, against someone else’s brief. It does not show how that creator will film your serum texture, your shade range or the way your jacket moves. It cannot tell you whether the brief will be followed, and portfolios can be borrowed (see how to tell if a UGC creator is real). A hiring decision based on a portfolio is still a prediction. A finished video is not.
What video-first changes
- You judge the output, not the promise. Every decision is about a real video of your product, checked against your own brief.
- One yes-or-no decision per video. Approve it, or reject it with an optional note. A rejected video can come back once as a corrected version, unless you tell the creator you do not want another.
- The price is not a negotiation. You set the payout; creators see it, the open spots and whether you send a product before they start. They decide whether it is worth their time.
- Nothing to pay up front. There is no deposit, no subscription and no minimum spend. Your card is charged for a video when you approve it.
- Less admin. No shortlists, no direct messages to chase, no sample rounds. You get an email for each new video, your dashboard tells you how many are waiting, and My campaigns lists those campaigns first.
What you still have to get right
Video-first does not remove the work that matters; it moves it to the beginning. Three things decide how good the videos are:
- The brief. List the shots, what must appear, what must not appear and any approved claim wording. Leave the script to the creator. The field-by-field guide is how to launch a UGC campaign on Usicri.
- The payout. Creators compare offers. Check what comparable briefs pay in UGC rates for beauty and fashion, and read what makes creators say yes.
- The review. Decide your approve-or-reject rules before the first video arrives. A simple scorecard is in how to choose between UGC submissions.
Why video-first rewards a specific brief
On Usicri a creator films before knowing whether you will approve the video, and is paid only if you do. That works when the brief is specific and the decisions are explained. A vague brief produces videos you reject, and rejected videos cost the creator their time. Specific must-haves, a payout that matches the effort and a one-line note on every rejection (see UGC feedback notes) are what make a campaign worth answering.
When portfolio-first is the better route
Video-first is the simplest way to buy a lot of finished, usable videos. It is not the right tool for every job. If you need one particular face or voice, a long-term retainer with a single creator or a full custom shoot, you will want to choose the person yourself. On Usicri brands cannot search for creators or invite them, so use another route for that kind of work; UGC agency vs marketplace vs freelancer compares the options, and Fiverr and Upwork for UGC shows how gig platforms work.
On Usicri
Usicri is built around this order of events. You create a free brand account, write a campaign with a title, a brief, a category, the payout per approved video, the number of videos and whether you send a product, and save a payment method so creators can see it; saving it charges nothing. Creators choose your campaign, film the video themselves and upload it, confirming on every upload that they filmed it and that it shows real people. You approve or reject each video, and you pay only for the ones you approve, with no platform fee on videos approved through December 31 and a platform fee of 15% after that. An approved, paid video comes with a license that covers advertising (section 5 of the Terms of Service); ads run through the creator’s own account, known as whitelisting, need a separate agreement. Creators come to your campaign, so there is no guarantee of submissions; a clear brief and a fair payout are what bring them. See how Usicri works for brands or create a free brand account.