On Twitter, I asked what your biggest questions were for content creation. Here is what our friend, Aaron Luckie asked:

What Aaron is asking is how to build a SYSTEM for influencer/User-generated content.

I know that each person reading this newsletter is at different stages of their brand. Some of you already have a big influencer program and some have no influencers.

This newsletter will focus on how you can start UGC ads and then how to scale your efforts effectively with this content creation system.

Before we talk about testing creative, we need to acquire the content

1.  Find and shoot influencer/User-generated content

Let’s first acquire any content that is out there on the internet that was created by users.

If you are already working with influencers, reach out to them to whitelist the content so you can use it for your ads.If you don’t have influencers but you have seen customers post videos, you can ask them to use the videos for ads.Another great way to get content is to give a discount to customers who send in video testimonials.

If you find that you don’t have a lot of content created about you, you can pay to get some User-Generated Content (UGC).

If you have more of a budget, you can bring influencers on set to film your ads.

This first step takes a lot of time and consistent effort, so make sure you have the right team member managing relationships with influencers and customers.

2. Optimize the UGC for performance ads

Not all UGC is created equal.

Customers don’t know about performance ads, hooks, and everything that goes into making a great ad.

They just wanted to share their experience.

So some of the videos will not be optimized for an ad.

You will need to add captions, add text about the product, or other aspects to the ad.

You will need to have a person ready to edit some of these videos for your ads. 

This is step is A LOT harder than you think. 

Downloading footage from an email or online drive, putting it into editing software before you even edit can take like 15 minutes.

So just know whatever time you think editing will take, budget for double.

If you don’t have someone on your team that can do this, you will need to find a creative partner to help you with editing.

Once you get the videos ready, start running ads.

3. Look at the data and test variations

I have talked a lot before about what data you should look at for videos in past newsletters but a quick recap.Look at three stats:

First 3 second viewsAverage view durationClick-through rate

This data will let you know how you can improve the ads that you created.

For example, let’s say that your UGC ads aren’t getting many views past 3 seconds. This means that your hook is not great, so you need to edit the first three seconds to grab the attention of the viewer better.

Depending on the data, you will have to make different decisions.

The data is a feedback loop that goes to your creative partner to help optimize and improve the ads being created.

4. How to cut down testing time from weeks to days

To be honest, if you don’t have someone dedicated to editing and creating content, you can’t bring down testing to days.

Editing is HARD.

I am saying this because I actually edit.

I am not some guy saying you need content but have never used a camera or editing software.

I shoot and edit content. 

So I KNOW this is hard.

If editing is just a part of a job description, it just won’t happen fast enough.

Think of content creation like a software engineer.

You don’t want your software engineer in a bunch of meetings. They need time for deep work to code.

The same is true for creative work.

If you want that feedback loop from data to creative decision-making, you need to invest in having a dedicated person.

I have been impressed with Athletic Greens testing and ad creation.

I think the amount of testing they do is ideal for brands. 

Of course, it is not easy to get there and it didn’t just happen overnight, but they made an effort to hire talent that could help them test fast.

You could waste a lot of money on bad ads that run for weeks.

OR

You could get a creative partner that can help you test and optimize ad creative to run profitable ads faster.

You actually save money by doing the second option.