UGC script template, UGC brief template and UGC creator brief generator

Four beats, in a fixed order, with the timings attached. The order is not a stylistic preference. It matches how a viewer decides whether to keep watching, and reordering it is the most common reason a well-produced video underperforms.

The demonstration row is the one worth defending in every internal review. This format lives or dies on showing rather than telling, and the single most valuable line in any brief is the one that names the exact physical thing the camera has to capture: the seal breaking, the stain lifting, the drawer closing without the wobble. A creator who is told to show the product will make something generic. A creator who is told which second of using the product is convincing will make the ad.

If you want the frameworks pulled apart with hook formulas and a fill-in version to copy, the UGC ad script guide does that at length. This page is the shorter operational version plus the generator. The hook beat on its own, with the six opener shapes, the failure mode attached to each and the ad disclosure rule that lands on those same three seconds, is on TikTok hooks.

The script is what gets said and shown. The brief is everything a creator needs that is not dialogue. They are frequently confused, and briefs that are really just scripts are the reason usable footage arrives in the wrong format.

The practical test is whether the document answers a question the creator will otherwise have to guess at. Can they say the product cures anything? Is a competitor allowed in frame? Do you need vertical only, or vertical and square? Are you buying paid usage, and for how long? None of that belongs in a script, all of it belongs in a brief, and every item left out becomes either a revision round or an asset you cannot run.

The generator above produces both in one pass, which is mostly a sequencing benefit. Writing the brief first tends to change the script, because deciding the objection you are attacking usually changes the hook you would have written.

One document this page is deliberately not about: if the creator is posting to their own audience rather than handing you footage to run as ads, you need different fields again, including disclosure wording and exclusivity. That version is on the influencer brief template page.

Aim for 60 to 110 words of spoken content for a 30 to 45 second video, and count the words rather than trusting the page. Creators speak at roughly 130 to 160 words a minute in this format, slower than a voiceover artist because they are handling a product while talking.

The reason to count is that scripts get written by people reading them silently, which is about twice as fast as anyone can say them naturally while doing something with their hands. A script that looks brisk on the page turns into a rushed read, and a rushed read is the single most reliable way to make creator content sound like an advertisement.

Shorter is usually safer. If a beat can go, let it go, because the beat you cut is almost always exposition the demonstration was already handling. Where you genuinely need length, spend it on the demonstration rather than on more talking. Leave deliberate room for the creator to improvise a line or two in their own words as well. A script performed word for word reads as a corporate script performed in a kitchen, which converts worse than either a real ad or a real person.

Seven fields carry almost all of the value. Anything beyond them tends to be reassurance for the person writing the brief rather than information for the person filming.

The last row is the expensive one. Renegotiating usage after a video performs is always dearer than agreeing it beforehand, because you are now negotiating with someone who knows it worked. Put the license ask in the brief, in writing, before the first message goes out. The clause-level detail is on UGC usage rights, and the copy-and-paste version of the brief itself is in the UGC brief template guide.

One field deliberately not on that list is a word-for-word shooting script. Specify what has to happen and let the creator choose how to say it. That balance is worked through properly in how to work with UGC creators.

Own the what, let the creator own the how. That single rule resolves most of the argument, and it is more specific than it sounds.

The what is yours because you have information the creator does not: which objection is killing conversion, which feature buyers misunderstand, what your category is not allowed to claim, and which channel the asset has to run on. Handing that over and hoping for the best is how brands end up reviewing five videos that are all pleasant and none of which address the reason people are not buying.

The how belongs to the creator because that is the entire product you are paying for. Their words, their pace, their room, their phrasing. A creator who has built an audience knows what sounds like a person in their format better than a brand team does, and overriding that is self-defeating: you are paying a premium for authenticity and then removing it in review.

In practice this means a script that reads as direction rather than dialogue. Give the hook as two or three options and let them pick or adapt. Give the beats with what each must accomplish. Name the demonstration precisely. Then say, in the brief, that they should put it in their own words. Brands that add that one sentence get noticeably more usable first cuts.

More than one, and the number is set by how fast your audience sees the same thing twice rather than by your production budget. Creative fatigue, not production quality, is what ends most UGC ad accounts.

A reasonable starting shape is three to five hooks against one body. The hook is the cheapest thing to vary and the highest-leverage: the opening three seconds do more to change performance than anything after them, so testing five openings on the same demonstration gives you most of the learning at a fraction of the cost of five separate videos.

Once a hook wins, vary the next layer: the format (testimonial, unboxing, problem-solution, before and after), then the creator. Keep the demonstration fixed while you do it, because changing two things at once tells you nothing. If you want the format options laid out with examples, UGC content examples covers twelve of them, and how many UGC videos do I need works through the volume question with real arithmetic.

This is also the strongest argument for generating briefs rather than writing them one at a time. Writing one careful brief is an afternoon and produces one bet. Writing five variations of it is the same afternoon again, four more times, which is exactly the point at which most teams quietly stop testing.