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The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views

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App Masters15:14Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Viral UGC comes from the founder's own tested format, which creators then repeat on fresh, warmed-up accounts. Creators are hired to film, so the founder's research and training system decide whether the content spreads.

Key takeaways

  • The founder has to find a viral format before hiring anyone. 4:18
    • Finding formats takes hours and days of research, and that is the founder's job, not the creators'.
    • At Glam App, Nicole and her co-founders made the videos go viral themselves, then started scaling once one worked.
  • A course and a content bank turn that format into something any creator can repeat. 5:36
    • The onboarding course runs 30 minutes to over an hour and assumes the creator knows nothing, down to example usernames and bios.
    • The content bank holds ideas, example videos, scripts, emotions, captions and hashtags, with scripts written like screenplays because watch time drives reach.
  • Creators post from brand new accounts that are warmed up first. 3:01
    • The warm-up lasts 3 days of following and reposting, and it is easier to point a new account at the target audience.
    • Following micro accounts works better than following Messi, because a niche follow lets the algorithm place the account in one niche.
  • Creators come from platforms early on, then from your own network and micro-influencers. 1:58
    • Early on, platforms like SideShift bring many applicants. Later, Nicole uses friends' communities, Discord applications and recommendations.
    • Micro-influencers averaging about 10K views per video often go viral but have no way to earn from it, so they say yes.
  • Pay is a small base rate plus bonuses that shrink per view as views grow. 0:02
    • The base is $10 to $30 per post, with a minimum of about 500 views. Bonuses start at 10K or 50K views.
    • $50 at 50K views is a $1 CPM, and $500 at 1M views is a $0.50 CPM. Experienced creators won't take $10, but a college newcomer with easy content will.

You're hiring them to create content, not to figure out how to go viral for your app. Those are two very different things.

Nicole Cheung

Chapter summaries

0:00 What creators are paid

Pay terms are a flexible template that shifts with the content and the creator.

  • Each company sets its own rules, so treat the structure as a template 0:14
    • The 500-view minimum for the base rate is her own rule.
    • The base rate depends on the content type and where the creator was found.
    • Bonuses shrink per view as views grow, so cost per view falls on big hits.
    • She wrote the pay playbook as a 60-page college thesis.
    • She still stands by most of it.

1:35 Finding creators and setting up accounts

Creators come from outreach and a network built over years, and they post from fresh accounts.

  • Direct outreach works when the network runs dry 2:25
    • Look for micro-influencers whose videos average good views.
    • Ask them outright if they want to be UGC creators.
    • Platforms are built for newcomers and let many creators apply to one campaign.
    • After 2-3 years, her old creators run their own UGC communities.
    • A recommended creator must be able to go viral with the content she wants.
  • A brand new account is easier to steer toward the target audience 3:01
    • Everyone she works with opens a new account and warms it up by her playbook.
    • She has posted the warm-up playbook on her Twitter.
    • Creators then post directly from that account.

3:56 The founder builds the system

Virality is the founder's job, so the creator is handed a complete, systematized program.

  • Paid creators won't work out virality for you 3:56
    • Creators appreciate the clarity, since they were hired to film.
    • Many founders wrongly bet $10K to $20K on the best creators.
    • Doing the research yourself is more stressful than paying someone to try.
    • Platforms are only about 5% of the work.
    • Early on she blocked whole days for interviews and accepted 50% or fewer.
  • The course walks creators through every step in order 5:36
    • It starts with the app and its setup, plus any codes needed for features.
    • Next come account creation and warm-up, then content creation.
    • She systematizes it so she never repeats herself, which wastes a founder's time.
    • Formats include talking head, reaction, B-roll and Snapchat videos.
    • She grew up in entertainment, and her brother is a film director.

7:37 Training creators beyond the filming

The course teaches creators to direct each shot and to run the account after posting, and the examples they copy come from the founder.

  • Each scripted line gets an emotion and a camera angle. 7:37
    • Long, medium and short shots change the angle and keep people watching.
    • A phone held still with a flat voice is boring.
    • Creators learn the "Oh my god" reaction, plus zooming in and out.
    • Nicole says even this level of detail matters in the final video.
  • Creators are taught that the job continues after the post. 8:23
    • A module covers account management: constant warm-up, comment sections and story posts.
    • Nicole's team answers questions within a couple of hours, so creators feel supported.
    • Many creators only want to post once and walk away, so the course sets the expectation up front.
    • Nicole films a new course for each app, though the core ideas end up very similar.
  • The example videos in the content bank are filmed by Nicole. 10:05
    • If a creator's video goes viral, it replaces hers.
    • At Glam App there was no money to spend, so she and her co-founders made the first hits.
    • Only once a video went viral did they start to scale.

10:55 Testing an app idea before posting

A new idea starts with research and a designed viral screen, and posting comes last.

  • Day one is research, not posting. 10:55
    • Nicole studies the niche, the market and competitor apps first.
    • Testing a hundred ideas at once confuses the mind.
    • She rarely understands the industry when she starts building, so she treats it as being a student.
  • Day two is Figma, focused on the screen that can go viral. 11:47
    • She mocks up several versions of that screen, not the onboarding flow.
    • She borrows design ideas from apps in her niche and from apps outside it.
    • Day three is distribution, or simply building.
  • Confidence without cockiness is how she treats competitors. 12:43
    • She doesn't feel threatened by apps making $10K to $20K a month.
    • She often learns from people with far smaller numbers and applies it to her own apps.

In the growth library

Nicole Cheung, Founder building consumer apps (Glam Up, Sprout) that reach 300-400 million monthly social views. A founder lays out her UGC marketing system: how she pays creators, finds them, onboards them and warms up fresh accounts. The result is apps pulling 300-400 million monthly social views, with the founder owning the viral format rather than the creators.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript412 lines
0:00

There's usually a base rate plus bonus structures. The base rate will be anywhere between 10 to $30 per post. >> [music] >> For me, I usually do a minimum of 500 views in order to even get the base rate. Some companies, they do it differently. When it comes to the bonus structures, usually it will start at either 10K views or 50K views. And it's usually a decreasing CPM structure, which means at 10K views, the bonuses might be $50, let's say. And then at 50K views, the bonuses will be $50, which is $1 CPM. And then at a million views, you might pay them $500, which is 0.5 CPM. So, that's usually the structure that you want. The base rate also depends on the type of content you want to do and where you find these creators.

0:55

More experienced creators who are working with five different apps, they probably won't take $10. But, if you find someone who's new to it, a college kid who has never done UGC before, also your content is very easy to film, then you can get it for $10, too. So, it just depends. I actually I wrote this as my college thesis >> Are you serious? >> Yeah, I had to graduate and write a thesis and I had nothing else I was passionate about other than the fact that I was building my app. No, it's a 60-page playbook that I wrote in college that I feel like I still stand by most of the things I said in there. Yeah.

1:32

>> it. I love it. All right. And then this a a CC Okay. How do you reach creators? DM or some site some sort of tool? >> If you're like super early in your journey, you can just do SideShift or other UGC platforms. Those are designed for people who don't really know what they're doing that can have like big numbers of UGC creators apply to your campaign. For me right now, I usually do cuz I've been in the space for like 2-3 years now. A lot of the people that used to do UGC with me, they have their own UGC communities and stuff. So, I'll just reach out to my friends and usually do inbound like applications where creators in like a Discord chat or something like that can just apply to our program. Or if my friends just personally recommend any any creators to us that can go viral with the content that we're looking for.

2:25

Another thing is you can always do your own outreach. So, usually the best way is to find micro-influencers that have a pretty good average view for every video, maybe around like 10K views. And then just ask them if they want to be a UGC creator cuz a lot of these influencers, they go viral on TikTok or Instagram, but they have no way to monetize. They are looking for money and payments. So, that would be good. >> Now, Nicole, once you find an influencer, do you have them create a brand new account or are they posting on the existing account?

2:59

>> Yeah, they post on a brand new account. So, when it comes to most of the UGC now, because it's so easy to change the algorithm to your targeted audiences on a brand new account, that usually is probably better. So, for everyone that we work with, they open up a brand new account. They warm it up according to our playbook. I've posted the warm-up playbook on my Twitter. So, if anyone wants to just take a look at that and then yeah, and then have them create content directly through that.

3:31

>> The other thing that I obviously did some research, you have a real good system. I think a lot of people think, oh, just hire UGCs, tell them about my app and then boom, it goes viral. And you're like, no. I think you have a a really you said in another podcast that like, hey, if you don't understand your product, you have to understand your product better than the creator so that you can train the creators to create the type of content that you know will go viral.

3:56

>> I think don't depend on people on payroll or you paying them in order for them to be smarter to you or to care more about you. So, that's always how I thought and to be honest, I feel like the UGC creators appreciate that as well cuz it's you're hiring them to create content, not to figure out how to go viral for your app. Those are two very different things. So, when it comes to finding the formats that's hours and days of research on the founders and it's the founders' responsibility than the UGC creators. I think a lot of founders fall into this trap where it's like, "Okay, I'm going to spend 10K.

4:33

It's a huge investment for me or 10 20K to get the best UGC creators for them to go viral, but it's less about that. It's more on you as a founder." And that's a lot more stressful than just paying someone to try, but it's pretty important, I would say. >> What kind of What is on that onboarding screen? So, you Do you tell them exactly like the type of content that have gone viral? Do you like to try to go viral yourself first before you even contact UGCs? Tell me about like cuz I think most people just think that they can just hire go to SideShift, put some money in there and then boom, you're done. And I think that's the biggest misconception that I've learned doing this research doing research for this interview.

5:13

>> No, that's probably 5% of it. Usually, when I just started, I would literally have my entire day blocked by interviews with UGC creators. I won't accept all the people that I that I interview. I would say probably 50/50 or even less. Because you want people to take it seriously, you want the the foundation to be good. And when it comes to the onboarding, so I usually make a course for all of my creators. This is for all of my apps. I make a course that's very customized. Usually, it's my face or like video tutorials.

5:48

It can go anywhere. The entire onboarding course can go anywhere from 30 minutes to more than an hour depending on depending on the program and how good we are at it. But usually I will have a course where instead of telling a UGC creator, "Hey, this is our app. This is how to set it up." I just systematize it so I don't ever have to repeat the same sentences again. Cuz it gets really repetitive and it's like not a good use of your a founder's time. So, you know, when it comes to the onboarding from what I can think of right now, first it's introduction of the app, how to set up the app. If they need a code for them to use certain features to create content, you got to figure that out and come up with a tutorial for that. Afterwards, it's how to create an account and warm up. So, I you we usually give them examples of usernames, of bios, of profile pictures. We'll go super specific in there. We are operating with

6:44

an assumption that whoever we hire has no idea what's going on. So, every little small detail I'll try to just include that into the course. After the warming up, it will mostly be about content creation. So, depending on what type of content, if it's talking head, reaction videos, or B-rolls, or Snapchat videos, whatever it is, I usually have a content bank that has the content idea, example videos, scripts, emotions, captions, out of video captions, hashtags, everything laid out for them. And the way I think about it is also from my personal experience, I grew up in the entertainment industry. My brother was a director, went to film school. So, a lot of the times I treat these content scripts as screenwriting scripts where you're not just trying to tell them what to say, you're trying to come up with an emotion for each sentences. You're trying to have different long shots, medium shots,

7:47

short shots for different angles to make the engagement better cuz to make content viral according to the algorithm, watch time is the most important. So, it'll be super boring if let's say I just have my phone, I speak with no content changes when it comes to emotions like, "Oh my god. Oh my god." Zooming in, zooming out, a lot of those. So, I will teach the creators how to do that and that that even matters in the in the videos. So, I can I'm yapping a lot about that, but >> I'm taking notes. Please keep yapping.

8:23

>> next module that we will have and then we'll have account management cuz a lot of people all they care about is, "Oh, I'm just going to post a video and not do anything afterwards." but we'll tell them, "Oh, still constantly warm up. What do you do with the comment section to increase the engagements?" What do you do when it comes to story posts and stuff like that. So, just bring an awareness to the UGC creator that their job is not just film a content, it's to do much more with it.

8:51

But, at the same time, in order for you to do more, we have all the resources there is ready to help you. And if you text us with any questions, we will reply within a couple of hours. So, they feel supported and then we'll do more of what you want them to do, too. Yeah. >> Cool, I want to sign up just so I can go through your course. It sounds amazing. >> Some people have done that. >> [laughter] >> You're like, "Get out."

9:16

Can you repurpose like, I don't know, 60, 70% of that same course for different apps? Is it just, "Hey, this works for any type of app" or like, I guess you have a spidey sense of like which apps this playbook would work on? >> I I do believe it'll work for everyone. It's a general course, but I usually film a different course every single time because I want it to be completely tailored to my app that I'm working on.

9:43

But, the overall idea and what I talk about in those videos sometimes are super super similar. >> The thing I wanted to talk to you, you said you give sample like videos, you have a content bank. Are the in the content bank, is it just other videos that have done well or is it of the Glam Up, of Sprout, of these health apps? Like, yeah, what kind of content bank do you have? >> It's me. All the example videos usually are filmed by me. That if it goes viral with another creator, then I'll replace my video with theirs, but usually I will be the one filming and making those example videos.

10:18

>> Do you always start off the like in the beginning of any maybe of the Glam Up Glam Up you were you the one that was creating getting going viral? >> Yeah, I was the one doing anything because I we didn't have the money to spend, right? So, it's it's usually me or my co-founder, the co-founding team, we'll just try to make things viral and the moment it does go viral, that's when we start of scaling and stuff like that.

10:41

>> Just to repeat that, Nicole said, "Look, I try to go viral first to make sure it's repeatable and then I hand it off to UGCs." Okay, she's not reliant on them to go viral. She knows how to do it herself. All right, got some more questions. How do you test new app ideas on TikTok and Instagram without having a distribution network? I guess you just said it, but then >> You can test ideas out. I wouldn't test like a hundred ideas out at the same time because it's very confusing to your mind. I think instead of looking at distribution, there's so much more to having an app as well. I will usually instead of posting on TikTok or Instagram on day one, my day one is probably more focused on researching the entire niche, the entire market, the competitor apps. It's a lot of work that you need to put in if you don't want to waste time posting about several different app ideas. So, yeah, just a lot of research, a lot of

11:35

understanding the industry. Most of the apps I build, I don't really understand the industry when I just built it. It takes time to to learn about it, to be a student as well. Yeah. >> What's day two, Nicole? >> Day two is probably Figma. I usually go on Figma and jot my ideas down a little bit. And when it comes to Figma, it's not really the onboarding flow. I will talk about the onboarding flow. It's actually very important. I learned a lot from your YouTube channel, too, when it comes to onboarding. But more like the screen that I want go going viral on social media. I will try to make that, maybe different variations, think about how that will be, research other apps in the niche, maybe taking some lessons from them, some design components, or even apps that have nothing to do with my niche. I'll research a lot about it.

12:31

>> I like it. Okay. And is it day three and three four? You want me to stop? >> Probably distribution then, or just start building. >> I like it. >> [laughter] >> Get up, Steve. Next question. Okay. How do you feel about that? >> I'm confident. And that's the only way to deal with it. Like I'm confident, but I'm not cocky. I'm not going to like just because someone is making 10, 20K a month or that doesn't mean I don't feel threatened. I think I don't feel threatened, but I want to learn about them. And a lot of the times I learn a lot from people doing way less numbers than me, implement it to my apps, too.

13:08

>> I love it. Okay, and then we'll get into the onboarding. Great answer. How long does it take for you to warm up the account, and how what is the process? >> Usually for 3 days, there's following, repost certain accounts that you want to follow. You usually want to follow like micro accounts instead of macro accounts. The understanding behind that is that if you follow Messi, guess how many other people follow Messi, right?

13:32

It's like people from all different nationalities with different interests, this and that. Versus if you follow someone that's in such a niche market, the algorithm has a better has an easier experience putting you and categorizing you within one niche of people where your content will go towards. >> Nicole, this was absolutely awesome. I've been looking forward to this since you said yes. I was like, "H, you got to go get Nicole on to come on to the podcast." And when you said yes, I was like, "Okay, when is that date?" And so I'm super excited that we got to do this. Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge. I would hit replay replay on this and just really follow along Nicole's tips and tricks to do all this. And the main thing that I learned is, "Yo, figure out how to go viral first, then hire the UGCs to help you go viral because you understand how to go viral as well." And really be obsessed

14:25

with it. Nicole, if the audience wants to follow up with you and say, "Thank you so much for coming on." Do you want to send them anywhere else besides your Twitter? >> Just DM me on Twitter. I don't have any other social media. >> No? >> [laughter] >> Yeah, well, no. >> Maybe my goal. >> Thank you, Steve. Um, you asked really great questions and I think, you know, I really enjoyed just watching your YouTube channel as well. So, really appreciate this opportunity and thank you for asking all of these amazing questions.

14:53

>> Well, you got a lot of love from the audience as well. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you guys for for chiming in, spending your time with us. >> [music]