Top 5 UGC Mistakes to Avoid Making

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Phil Dunphy here to remind you that you’re doing great, and that Father’s Day is two weekends away. Don’t forget your presents!

In this newsletter you’ll find:

🙈 The top 5 UGC mistakes, and how to avoid them.

💬 How Alkaline Herb Shop recovered over 33% of abandoned carts with SMS flows.

👍 A Pilothouse hack to see 1-day and 7-day conversions totalled correctly in Facebook Ads Manager.

🎁 An intro to the custom packaging solution of your dreams.

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Plus, email inspiration you can steal today! 📨🔥

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👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe so you never miss out. And be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

UGC

Top 5 UGC Mistakes to Avoid

We asked the Pilothouse UGC team to list the biggest mistakes brands make when running a UGC campaign.

#1. Not Setting Performance Goals for UGC Campaigns

It’s easy for brands to start collecting UGC, but if you’re not measuring audience response, you’ll have a hard time learning and improving.

Not all UGC is going to perform the same way. It’s important to set clear intentions for this content and measure the results.

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Consider the following: 👇

• Do you need top of funnel or bottom of funnel content? The messages and the way the content is created should reflect where in the customer journey the audience is.
• Are you wanting to attract new customers or increase customer loyalty?
• Which channels will the content be used in?  
• Are you looking for engagement or strictly a revenue focus? Craft your messages and CTA alongside this.  

#2. Not Setting Clear Expectations and Content Direction

Having clear expectations and deliverables for influencers and content creators really ensures you get the best quality content.

Build a creative brief with detailed information about the brand, the direction you want the content to take (i.e. an unboxing video VS. a tutorial) and exactly the format you want the content in.

Make sure the creator understands the type of message and tone you’d like to see. Mention the dos and don'ts, so they have clear expectations.  

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If you’re worried about what the content will look like, ask for a sample! Especially if you haven’t worked with them before.

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They’ve even recovered over 33% of abandoned carts using Yotpo’s advanced SMS flows. 🤯

Click here to learn how Alkaline Herb Shop leveraged SMS to grow their business.

UGC

#3. Not Getting Permission to Use Content

The easiest way to use UGC is to take content directly from your consumer and repost it on your brand’s social media or use it for ads.

However, this is also the biggest pitfall. 🥴

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🚨Just because someone posts a picture or video of themselves using your product/service doesn’t mean you automatically have permission to use it.

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Before using any UGC content make sure you have the contributor’s written permission to use it on the channels you’re wanting.

Set clear terms and conditions so there’s no confusion about how the UGC will be used and for what purpose.

This saves a lot of time and headaches down the line.

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Check out the example below of a brand asking for permission

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#4. Being Disingenuous

The reason UGC resonates with audiences is because of the authenticity and honesty behind it.

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One of the biggest mistakes brands make is faking UGC.

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The audience can easily tell if it’s scripted and it defeats the entire purpose of UGC.

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TIP: Avoid asking for positive reviews or comments from your customers.

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Even if you’re offering a gift card, consumers see right through and know your brand can’t be trusted.

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#5. Underestimating Time and Effort Needed to Source Good UGC

High quality UGC isn’t the cheapest or easiest to source, but if you have a good plan to leverage the content you can make it scalable.

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Your goal shouldn’t be to constantly recruit more creators, but rather build long-term partnerships.  

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Make them part of your team and offer lots of value to them in return for consistently great content.  

If you’re just getting started with UGC and need help, chat with the Pilothouse team!

Podcast

Struggling to view 1-day and 7-day conversions totalled correctly in Facebook Ads Manager?

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Here’s the workaround Pilothouse has been using since the attribution changes in Ads Manager.

With iOS 14.5’s implementation and the removal of the 28-day attribution window, the two primary views remaining are 1-day click 1-day view, and 7-day click 1-day view.

If your ad sets were paused when Facebook made the shift, they automatically defaulted to 1-day click, 1-day view and the rest of your campaigns that were live would have gone down to 7-day click, 1-day view.

Ads Manager can’t tally up the totals between those two attribution windows, so Facebook isn't tallying up metric totals at the bottom.

You have to jump into the ad set or ad level to see those metrics.

But our team implemented a workaround using custom reports.

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It’s a little finicky because custom reports can’t standardize attribution windows in one ad account across campaigns, but here’s the gist.

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1. You have two options for setup.

If you have access to an empty ad account you can use that as your second ad account.

OR if you don’t have access to an empty ad account you can use one with data in it but filter to only display the ad account whose data you want to see.

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2. Select your two ad accounts for custom reports.

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3. Build your custom report with the metrics you need to see.

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4. Standardize the attribution window, time zone, and currency across those ad accounts.

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Then you’ll be able to holistically see all the data in the ad account you’re looking at and it will total at the bottom for you!

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Technical Notes:‍

1) Both ad accounts must be in the same Business Manager.

2) Take note of the time zone settings on your Ad Account and the Facebook User profile you’re using to pull the report. For example, if your User is set up in PST and you’re viewing ad accounts set to GMT, your Custom Report won’t line up precisely with Ads Manager or your store. That’s because the Custom Reports automatically adjust to the timezone of the User, not the Ad Account.

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If you’re still confused, listen to our full All Killer No Filler podcast with Pilothouse’s Senior and Lead Media Buying Team across both Facebook Ads and Google.

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They break down the Facebook hack in detail and discuss changes, challenges, and the workarounds caused by iOS 14.5. 🔥🚀

Sponsor

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What do DTC brands Everlane, Populum, and Knickey have in common?

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They all rely on Packlane, the one-stop shop for making your custom packaging dreams a reality ✨📦

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From concept to prototype to delivery, Packlane’s team of packaging pros helps personalize your order with custom solutions every step of the way.

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You’ll have a dedicated account manager to offer cost-saving solutions for all your unique challenges including:

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👨‍🎨 Conceptual design.

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✨ And everything in between!

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Their team is dedicated to saving you countless hours and money that can be invested back into your business.

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Plus, you only pay for the packaging services you need – no added fees, no monthly payments, no sneaky upsells.

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Custom packaging and boxes can turn your brand into the total package.

👉 Design yours today

Email

Check out this killer email we spotted from Hydrant!

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Why we like it:

• Presented in tabloid style, which is unique.
• The orange helps focus your attention on the product.  
• Strong CTA at the top (Buy Now) and soft CTA a the bottom (Try Now).
• ALSO – the reviews have a motion element that changes every couple seconds. Great idea.

M + A

🤑 Fintech giant Klarna raises $639M at a $45.6B valuation amid ‘massive momentum’ in the US.

🥊 Liteboxer, the Peloton of boxing, raises $20 million Series A.

🏠 Pattern raises $60M to snap up DTC home brands.

🥳 Punchbowl nabs $5M investment, acquires VidHug to add video to party planning platform.

⌛️ Productivity startup Time is Ltd raises $5.6M to be the ‘Google Analytics for company time.’

🧘‍♀️ Lululemon revenue up 88% as athleisure shows 'no signs of slowing.'

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🚙 Autonomous vehicle startup Aurora in final talks to merge with Reid Hoffman’s newest SPAC.

🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts?

🍽 Trifecta Nutrition’s VP of Marketing chats TikTok and E-sports.  

🤩 Three Ships' Lillie Sun on Clean Beauty, Agile Bundling, and Aging Up Your Brand.

🛒 Olipop's Eli Weiss Goes Deep on Customer Experience.

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DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Eric Dyck, and Sadie Evans.

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