Consumer Generated Marketing (CGM) is one of the most sought-after marketing strategies in the world of ecommerce & Shopify dropshipping.
Simply put, consumer generated marketing means product video ads made by customers themselves.
Why Should I Use UGC Video Ads?
You walk into a store, a bakery, for example, and you eat a pie, and it tastes heavenly, what do you do? You’ll leave that bakery feeling incredible and you will tell Your friends & family to visit the bakery as well. Why?
This is simply because you were the customer of a great product and You want to share it with Your friends & family. Your friends will visit the bakery as well, because You vouched for it and they trust You.
Now, imagine that instead of Your recommendation, Your friends saw an ad for the bakery on TV. Would they still visit it? Probably not.
This is a basic example of Consumer Generated marketing; otherwise known as User Generated Content (UGC).
As a business owner, you might wonder what is the best-performing AD format for ecommerce & shopify dropshipping websites? UGC Ads!
Why? It's simple. Social proof!
Social proof is a validation from the society at large to the society at large. This means that people prefer they are being referred to a product by someone they know and trust, rather than being advertised to by a business, who they know just wants to sell their product or service.
In the bakery example stated above, the bakery would have more customers due to the fact that one person who tasted the pie decided to tell her friends and family about it and the friends and family in turn will tell more people about it who will end up telling more people about it and thus the trend continues.
In the world today, however, internet rules everything, and therefore advertisers must learn to implement this type of advertising into their online marketing campaigns.
The ads that perform the best are typically consumer generated content video ads. Statistics has shown that when people watch ads that shows a person using a particular product, they are more inclined to get that product and use for themselves; this is the most resourceful Consumer Generated Marketing strategy and these video ads can be advertised anywhere on the internet.
The most popular form of UGC ads can be found on TikTok ads, Instagram ads and Facebook ads as they reach a larger audience.
Here are three of the most popular methods to get user generated content & consumer generated marketing video ads for Your Shopify dropshipping business.
DM Influencers and KOLs on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook
Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are undoubtedly the top three social media platforms. Over 200 million people log-in to these apps every day, therefore they are the perfect platforms to connect with potential customers.
Find Influencers or Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) that work round brand or are in your own niche and who also have your target audience on their space.
The influencer should be adequately knowledgeable about Your product niche to be able to explain to their following what your brand stands for, and how it can bring value to the life of their followers.
For example, it would make sense for a protein-powder business to work with influencers in the health & fitness niche.
Reach out to influencers by searching for them online. Remember, follower counts are not important. Just find influencers who You'd want to represent Your brand.
Give them a juicy offer to send them your product, and in exchange, ask for a 15 second Consumer Generated Content video.
The UGC ad should be straight to the point, and if possible, write them some guidelines for the video so they can know what You are expecting from them. To prevent them from feeling like a sell-out, give them room to improvise and do their own thing, after-all, they know best how to appeal to their audience.
Note, though, that there are always risks involved. If the influencer is unhappy with Your product, they might start ignoring Your messages, and refrain from creating UGC for Your business. To create leverage, You can offer to make an additional payment to them once the UGC ad has been delivered.
Get Consumer Generated Content from Customers Who Bought From Your Shopify Store
Customer product review videos are another form of Consumer Generated Content, as it is a review from someone that has directly bought Your product.
How do I get my customers to create user generated content?
After shipping the product to your consumer, you can reach out to them on social media, or via email, to just talk about the product that they’ve bought.
If they are happy with the product they bought, then they will surely be down to create an UGC ad for You. Be ready for a brutally honest review video, though, since You cannot give them a script for the UGC.
Furthermore, remember to ask for commercial rights, so You can use the UGC video for Your marketing campaigns.
To create leverage, You can offer a discount or an additional product, free of charge in exchange for the UGC ad.
This is, however, probably the most difficult and time-consuming method of obtaining consumer generated content for Your dropshipping website.
Buy Consumer Generated Content from an UGC Marketing Agency
This is by far the easiest method of consumer generated marketing strategy.
For beginners in ecommerce, influencers can be difficult to manage & You might run into unexpected problems.
Therefore, it might be a good idea to simply buy the UGC Ads online. This allows You to avoid any unwanted problems, such as long shipping times, inconsistent communication etc. Another benefit is that You can submit the exact script You want in the video, which might otherwise be hard to get from real Influencers.
All you need to do is to submit your requirements for the UGC AD and we will handle the rest. There is no risk of getting scammed by influencers, no delay in delivery of video and no need communicating for long hours with the other party.
To learn more, You can see examples of UGC Video Ads here.
Read our in-depth breakdown of the Top 5 UGC Video Ad Examples here.
Summary
UGC Video Ads are by far the top-performing AD format of 2022. Whether You realize it or not, brand-created ads are slowly becoming a thing of the past, especially on platforms such as TikTok and Facebook.
If Your ROAS is struggling, then UGC ads might just be the thing You need to skyrocket Your next TikTok or Facebook AD campaign.
