Deciding whether to invest in a UGC strategy? Statistics are the perfect place to start.
Despite strong evidence of UGC’s (user-generated content) effectiveness across the marketing mix, as few as 16% of brands have a strategy for UGC, according to OfferPop. If you aren’t using UGC on your website, third party marketplaces, product pages, ads, emails, and all social accounts–you may be missing out on a huge growth opportunity.
We’ve pulled together more than 50 statistics to help you decide:
Is UGC effective?
Is the UGC trend here to stay?
Do you need a UGC strategy?
50 UGC Statistics To Learn More
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Ads based on UGC have a click-through rate that’s 400% higher than traditional ads.
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Brand engagements rise by 28% when consumers are exposed to a mixture of professional marketing content and user-generated content.
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Exposing shoppers to UGC on your product detail page (PDP), increases conversion by 8.5%, according to Power Reviews.
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Visitors who interact with UGC in some way convert at a rate that’s 102.4% higher than average, according to 2022 data from Power Reviews. This is up slightly from a conversion lift of 100.6% in 2021.
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Brand engagements rise by 28% when consumers are exposed to a mixture of professional marketing content and user-generated content.
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Toyota saw a 440% boost in Facebook advertising engagement when using UGC advertising compared to non-UGC.
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UGC ads outperformed other ad formats, scoring 20 to 50% higher at holding attention.
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Video gets 12 times more engagement than any other type of UGC.
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92% of users are likely to share video ads on their social media accounts.
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Word-of-mouth marketing generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising.
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Ads featuring UGC garnered 73% more positive comments on social networks than traditional ads.
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Advertising has only half the impact of earned media as people prefer to hear directly from technical experts or people like themselves.
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UGC in email campaigns has been shown to increase email click-through rates by a 13% average and increase in email conversion rates by a 35% average.
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Websites featuring user-generated content saw an increase of 29% in their web conversions.
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Social media campaigns incorporating user-generated content get 50% more engagement.
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UGC ads cost 50% less than average ads. https://www.inbeat.co/articles/ugc-stats/.
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Two of three brands have increased their budgets for creator campaigns, according to Creator IQ research.
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It’s estimated that UGC saves businesses on average nearly $60,000, the average salary of a content producer in the United States.
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35% of Gen Z believes that in the next 3-5 years, user-generated content will have more credibility than content created by a company or independent source. https://everyonesocial.com/blog/user-generated-content-statistics/
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84% of consumers say they trust peer recommendations above all other sources of advertising.
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79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions.
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About 45% of people like to watch YouTube and Facebook videos to check reviews and recommendations instead of promotional videos created by the brands.
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82% of consumers said they were highly likely to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer.
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90% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support.
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61% of shoppers find themselves encouraged to engage more with certain brands thanks to the user-generated content surrounding them.
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57.03% of consumers feel stock photography should be replaced with the diversity of real customers and teams.
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Customer perception of user-generated content as legitimate is 2.4 times higher than that of a brand.
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37% of people say they want to read personalized recommendations in their promotional emails.
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92% of consumers turn to people they know for referrals above any other source.
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48% of customers say that UGC is a great way to discover new products.
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41% of consumers only need to see between 1 and 4 UGC reviews in order to be influenced to purchase. 30. 68% of millennials say that user-generated content is generally a good indicator of the quality of a brand or service.
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More than 90% of consumers are influenced by positive reviews before visiting a business.
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88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
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User-generated content represents 39% of weekly media time vs. 61% of weekly media time spent with traditional media.
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Millennials surveyed in the study said that they trusted user-generated content 50 percent more than print or TV media.
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56% of internet users say they find out about products from friends or acquaintances while 32% rely on customer reviews.
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92% of customers are looking for reviews and recommendations from existing customers.
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64% of consumers agree that when a brand they like and use re-shares content by customers, they are more likely to share content about the brand or its product.
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48% of professional marketers believe that UGC helped them create more authentic and humanized promotional content than they create.
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UGC is the ideal format for companies to raise their trust score, and 93% of marketers agree that consumers trust material provided by customers more than content created by brands.
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Only 35.75% of marketers often or always use UGC in their marketing strategies.
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Content engagement was regarded as the top KPI for monitoring user-generated content by 41% of marketing professionals.
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42% of marketers say user-generated content is vital to their marketing strategy.
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60% of marketers report their audience has engaged more with UGC through marketing channels than branded content.
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75% of marketing pros consider influencer engagement effective in lead generation.
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76% of marketers consider influencer engagement effective in garnering customer loyalty.
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93% of marketers are seeing results in improving brand exposure through influencer engagement.
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95% of marketers said that personalized content improved their open rates https://www.inbeat.co/articles/ugc-stats/
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47% of the Top-Performing Content Marketing Teams Rely Extensively on UGC. https://getflowbox.com/blog/user-generated-content-statistics/
- 59% of marketers use influencer engagement efforts for product launches and content generation.
If your target market is millennials or Gen Zs, odds are you need a strategy to generate and leverage UGC. The good news is there is significant upside to getting started today.
Build your library of UGC
UGC is now mandatory for consumer brands. Shoppers are looking for it. To compete in today’s content hungry world, you need UGC in your marketing mix. If you’re like most brands and can’t get enough UGC organically, influencers can help. Are you ready to explore how to build your content library? Schedule a quick chat with an ApexDrop strategist.
