User-generated content (UGC) can strengthen a marketing campaign only when three things are true: the customer’s experience is real, the brand has permission to reuse the specific asset, and any material connection between the brand and the person posting is disclosed. A customer’s public post does not meet any of those conditions automatically. This guide explains how to tell the situations apart, what the U.S. endorsement rules require, how to secure reuse rights, and how to measure results without overstating them.
Start by identifying where the content came from
UGC covers photos, videos, written reviews, and social posts made by customers or other users. Brands end up with it in four different ways, and each one carries different disclosure and rights questions. Treating them as the same thing is the most common planning error.
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| Source type | How it started | Disclosure question | Reuse requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic customer post | The customer posted on their own initiative and the brand found it | Applies only if the brand gave the poster a material connection, such as free goods, payment, or perks | Explicit permission before the brand copies the asset into its own marketing |
| Invited submission | The brand asked customers to share content, for example through a hashtag or contest | Depends on whether an incentive or brand relationship exists, and the request should say so | Explicit permission covering each intended channel and use |
| Incentivized review | The reviewer received a product, payment, or another benefit in exchange for the review | The material connection must be made clear and conspicuous | Permission to reuse the review text or media, with the reviewer’s record kept |
| Commissioned creator asset | The brand paid a creator to make content | The paid relationship must be disclosed in the endorsement itself | Set in the agreement; the sources reviewed do not establish standard contract terms for duration or territory |
The distinction matters because an endorsement is treated differently from an unsolicited post. When a post endorses a product on behalf of a sponsoring advertiser, it has to reflect the endorser’s actual experience and opinion, and a payment or perk may need to be disclosed.
What the U.S. endorsement rules require
The Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides set the baseline for U.S. campaigns. The FTC revised the Guides in 2023. The agency states that the Guides do not themselves have the force of law, but that practices inconsistent with them may contribute to enforcement actions under Section 5 of the FTC Act. These rules apply to U.S. activity. Other countries have their own regimes, covered below.
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Two principles do most of the work. The first is honesty. As FTC staff put it in FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking: “An endorsement must reflect the honest opinion of the endorser and can’t be used to make a claim the marketer of the product couldn’t legally make.” A brand can supply standard creative, but a post that implies an experience the poster never had is misleading.
The second is responsibility. In the same FTC staff document: “The big-picture point is that the ultimate responsibility for clearly and conspicuously disclosing a material connection rests with the influencer and the brand – not the platform.” Brands cannot hand disclosure off to a platform’s built-in labeling tool and consider the matter closed.
Invite content without scripting the experience
A campaign request should state what is wanted, whether it is paid or incentivized, and what the brand will do with the submission. A request that asks for a “honest review of your favorite feature” is different from one that tells a customer what to say. Scripted lines that describe an experience the customer did not have fall outside an honest endorsement, even if every post is technically a customer’s own words.
Set the format around the goal. Customer stories, reviews, photos, short demonstration videos, and community submissions each serve different purposes such as discovery, engagement, product-page usefulness, or conversion. The sources reviewed do not show that any one format wins across brands, so choose based on the outcome you are trying to produce.
Get permission before any reuse
A public post is not a license. Copying a customer’s photo into a paid ad, a product page, or an email campaign requires permission, even if the post is visible to anyone. A usable permission record generally covers:
- The exact asset, with a link or identifier to the original post
- Each channel where the brand plans to use it, such as its own social accounts, a website, email, or paid advertising
- The permitted duration of use
- Whether edits, cropping, captions, or overlays are allowed
- The territory, where relevant
- The date and form of the person’s reply, kept on file
The ShortStack guide argues that a hashtag campaign can imply consent. Treat that as a vendor’s view rather than legal advice. Explicit permission for the specific reuse is the safer and more defensible approach, particularly when content will move away from the platform where it first appeared.
Review and moderate honestly
Preserve honest feedback, including negative reviews. Manipulating which reviews appear, so that the page gives a misleading picture of what customers think, is the practice the FTC’s 2023 update targets. The updated guidance also addresses incentivized reviews, employee reviews, and fake negative reviews. Moderation rules should therefore be written down and applied consistently: remove content that violates your policy or is untrue, but do not suppress critical reviews simply because they are unflattering.
Disclose material connections in the post itself
When a post is an endorsement made on behalf of a marketer and a material connection could affect how people weigh it, that connection has to be clear and conspicuous. FTC staff’s 2019 guidance Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers is direct about the wording: “Don’t use vague or confusing terms like ‘sp,’ ‘spon,’ or ‘collab,’ or stand-alone terms like ‘thanks’ or ‘ambassador,’ and stay away from other abbreviations and shorthand when possible.”
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Concrete examples and what they illustrate
The three cases below come from the ShortStack guide, which is a vendor publication. They illustrate process, not verified current practice at the named companies.
West Elm and #mywestelm
The guide describes West Elm’s hashtag as a historical invitation for customers to share home photos. The point is the workflow: a brand-specific hashtag makes content easy to find. The guide’s claim that hashtag use amounts to implied consent should not be copied as blanket legal advice. Ask for explicit permission for each specific reuse.
PetSmart and a documented permission request
The guide describes PetSmart asking a user for explicit permission before featuring a photo on the brand’s social channels, and keeping a record of both the request and the reply. The process is useful as a template: a written request, a clear yes, and a retained record. The guide does not establish how PetSmart applies this practice today.
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Katherine Heigl and Duane Reade
According to the guide, Duane Reade retweeted a user-posted photo featuring actor Katherine Heigl as part of a promotional effort in 2014, without her permission, and the matter settled out of court. The lesson is that a post being publicly visible does not remove rights or likeness concerns. This applies to people who appear in the content as well as to the person who posted it.
Statistics: use them only with their limits attached
The figures below are reported in the ShortStack guide and attributed to other organizations or to ShortStack’s own customer data. The guide does not state publication years for them, and neither the original publication nor its methodology is identified. Use them as directional claims that the cited party made, not as measured results your campaign will match.
| Figure as reported | Attributed to | Year | Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4x higher click-through rates when stores include UGC in advertising | Shopify, as cited in the ShortStack guide | Not stated | Baseline, sample, and time window not stated |
| 50% cost of acquisition when stores include UGC in advertising | Shopify, as cited in the ShortStack guide | Not stated | The guide’s wording is ambiguous about the comparison; do not read it as a precise causal effect |
| 50% drop in cost-per-click when stores include UGC in advertising | Shopify, as cited in the ShortStack guide | Not stated | Baseline, sample, and time window not stated |
| 73% of consumers say viewing UGC increases purchasing confidence | TurnTo Network, as cited in the ShortStack guide | Not stated | Method and sample not stated; this is a self-reported attitude, not a sales outcome |
| 82% of Instagram and Twitter users had given permission to brands when asked | ShortStack customer data | Not stated | Vendor’s own data; sample, period, and platform split not stated |
None of these figures establishes a general lift for UGC. Set your own baseline before the campaign starts and compare against it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Measure against the campaign objective
Choose measures that match the goal, and state the method and comparison period when you report them:
- Submissions: number of usable entries received over a defined window
- Rights-cleared assets: number of items with a complete permission record, which is a practical operational measure
- Engagement and clicks: measured against the same channel’s pre-campaign baseline
- Conversion: measured against a control period or comparable audience where possible
The sources do not establish that one platform, campaign type, or metric is best for every brand, so avoid universal ROI claims in internal reports or public materials.
Check the rules that apply in your market
The FTC guidance covers U.S. activity only. The UK Government’s collection Reviews and social media endorsements: what businesses and content creators must know, with guidance listed as dated August–September 2025, sets out separate guidance for content creators, businesses and brands, review publishers, and social media platforms. Campaigns that reach other markets need the rules of each one. Because guidance is updated, confirm the current version of any source before you rely on it.
If your site promotes financial products, such as credit, investing, or insurance, the endorsement rules above are the starting point but not the whole picture. Product-specific financial regulations can add requirements for testimonials, performance claims, and risk statements. Those rules are outside the scope of this guide and should be checked separately before any customer story about money is reused.
Consider this checklist before publishing any UGC asset:
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- Did the poster have the experience described, and is the wording theirs?
- Is there a material connection, and is it disclosed in the post in plain words?
- Is there a written permission covering this exact channel and use?
- Does anyone else appear in the content who would need to consent?
- Are the reviews in this batch presented without selective removal?
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