What's the difference between UGC and AI UGC for brands doing influencer marketing?

What's the difference between UGC and AI UGC for brands doing influencer marketing?

User generated content (UGC) refers to promotional content made by real customers of a brand, as opposed to traditional ads that are produced by marketing teams.

When considering the built-in social proof and increased sales, it comes as no surprise there’s been a staggering growth in adoption and reliance for UGC in effective marketing strategies.

In fact, research shows that 92% of consumers trust UGC more than traditional advertising.

With more social media usage today as well, influencer marketing and UGC naturally intersect to create authentic and relatable promo videos that are far more effective in driving sales than traditional ‘salesy’ ads.

This approach has seen influencer marketing deliver up to 11x higher ROI than traditional forms of marketing.

However, with the rise of AI and its increasing application across industries, it’s important for brands to understand the key differences between traditional UGC and AI UGC to keep our fingers on the pulse with advancements.

‍

Authenticity and Trust in UGC vs. AI UGC

Traditional UGC is often considered the most authentic and trustworthy form of marketing because it’s created by real customers and their genuine experience with a brand or product. It’s this authenticity that helps build valuable trust and increase LTV in a brands customer base.

However, producing and managing UGC for your brand still comes with pains:

• managing influencers and maintaining brand message
• need for producing high quality and engaging content
• no guarantee in ROI (risky given the costs)
• high demands from influencers

AI UGC on the other hand can sidestep the production pains of UGC whilst simulating the human like authenticity that makes UGC promo video so effective.

While there’s still skepticism around the use of AI generated video, every new cutting-edge technology has brought with it divided opinion and its fair share of risk in its early stages. Yet eventually, it is accepted and used by the majority.

The proof of concept is in the rise of AI influencers who are taking social media by storm with the likes of:

• Lil Miquela (+20m followers)
• Lu do Magalu (+9m followers)
• Barbie (+13m followers)

This shows the acceptance of AI use for brand content, whilst also providing confidence in its use case for brand marketing with UGC. For more on how and why we are shifting from traditional to AI influencers, read our previous article here.

For brands, the key lies in striking a balance between UGC and AI UGC. By combining the maximum authenticity of traditional UGC with the high efficiency and cost effectiveness of AI UGC, brands can promo content at scale and capitalise on the potential ROI of both while maintaining the ‘genuine feel’ that customers need.

If you’re a brand looking to capitalise on AI UGC, read our previous article here where we explain how you can quickly get started with Argil.

You can also try using Argil now for free if you skip our waitlist by signing up here.

‍

Scalability and Efficiency

As effective as UGC might be for brands, the pains associated with its production and management cause a significant bottleneck for scalability.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise with the list of tasks you need to manage for producing UGC for your brand:

• Sourcing diverse content
• planning briefs for influencers
• holding them accountable to standards and direction
• financial restrictions
• Finding influencers

It can all be both time and resource intensive. This is why AI UGC is a viable option for brands looking to scale up their UGC efforts cost effectively.

We understand from research that UGC typically leads to 29% increase in online sales, but imagine the competitive advantage from AI UGC:

• Virtual influencers with 24/7 availability
• Full control and consistency of brand messaging
• Adaptability to multiple different languages for global reach.

We can now achieve this level of scalability without compromising on the quality or authenticity.

‍

Creativity and Content Diversity

The challenge for brands producing content has always been to foster content diversity while maintaining consistency.

But simply put, with less time spent on production and management, brands can invest more of their efforts into creative direction and brand messaging to focus on connecting with customers more.

The real leverage is what happens when you combine content diversity and efficiency:

A streamlined, data-driven approach to content.

With far reduced turnaround times and necessary resources to produce UGC, you can create tests at scale to see which types of content resonate most with your brand’s audience.

Argil’s features are built specifically for this kind of use case:

• Create UGC in minutes
• Engaging content variations to select
• Multilingual capability
• A/B testing videos

You can try some of Argil’s features for free and see for yourself by signing up here.

Being able to rapidly create and test variants of UGC videos at scale is leverage and ROI that traditional means simply won’t ever match - especially if you’re a more budget sensitive brand.

Speaking of which…

‍

Cost Effectiveness and ROI

Brands can save up to 50% on content creation costs by using AI UGC by reducing the need for human involvement.

Even KFC have capitalised on this with their digital Colonel Sanders. They’ve already created popular promo collaborations with big brands such as Dr.Pepper and Old Spice, proving you can achieve similar or even higher levels of engagement without hiring costly human influencers or production teams.

The best way for brands to future proof themselves as well as getting ROI from their marketing budgets, is to embrace the obvious benefits of content at scale with AI.

By incorporating AI tools such as Argil’s AI UGC generator, brands can position themselves to adapt to any market or consumer needs with scalable video production without limitations, high costs, or need for professional equipment.

If you’re curious in the ROI of UGC at scale, try using Argil for free by signing up here. It only takes 2 minutes to get started.

‍

Conclusion: The Future of Influencer Marketing with UGC and AI UGC

The key takeaway from this article is that traditional UGC and AI UGC offer two very distinct strengths that are both necessary for effective marketing strategies in 2024:

By combining the authenticity of UGC with the scalability, consistency, and cost effectiveness of AI UGC, brands can fully capitalise on the opportunity behind social proof at scale without any need for big budgets.

The future of social media and influencer marketing undoubtedly lies in the strategic balance between the two, and the forward thinking brands that choose to take advantage will quickly position themselves as market leaders.

To start leveraging UGC at scale, skip our waitlist and try using Argil for free by signing up here.

‍