How to brief a UGC creator (with a template)

A bad brief wastes a good creator

You can hire the most talented UGC creator in India and still get back something unusable — if your brief is vague. The brief is where most UGC campaigns are won or lost, and it takes fifteen minutes to get right.

The golden rule: *brief the what, trust them on the how.* Tell the creator the goal, the boundaries and the hooks. Don't hand them a word-for-word script and a shot list — that's how you get stiff, ad-voice content that dies in the feed. The creator knows their audience better than you do.

The five things every brief needs

• The goal. One sentence. "Get cold audiences to click and try the product," not "increase brand awareness and engagement and sales."
• The hooks. Give 2–3 opening-line angles to choose from. The hook is 80% of the video's success.
• Must-says. The non-negotiables: the offer, the key benefit, the call to action.
• Must-not-says. Claims you legally or factually can't make, competitor mentions, anything off-brand.
• The format spec. Vertical 9:16, length, where it'll run (Meta ads, Reels, your website), and whether you need captions burned in.

Copy-paste brief template

PRODUCT: [what it is, in one line]
GOAL: [the one action you want the viewer to take]
AUDIENCE: [who this is for — be specific]
HOOK ANGLES (pick one):
  1. [problem the product solves]
  2. [surprising result / before-after]
  3. [relatable everyday moment]
MUST SAY: [offer, key benefit, CTA]
MUST NOT SAY: [claims/competitors to avoid]
TONE: [e.g. casual Hinglish, friend-to-friend]
FORMAT: vertical 9:16, 20–35s, captions on
DELIVERABLES: [how many videos / hooks]
USAGE: [organic only / paid ads / how long]

Hand a creator this and you'll get back something you can actually run.

The mistakes that ruin briefs

• Over-scripting. If every word is dictated, the creator can't sound natural. Give direction, not a teleprompter.
• Burying the goal. If the creator doesn't know whether you want clicks or saves or trust, they optimise for nothing.
• Forgetting usage. Decide up front if this runs as a paid ad — it affects rights, pricing and how the creator shoots it.
• No reference. One link to a video whose style you like saves a thousand words.

Brief for a batch, not a one-off

The best brands don't brief one video — they brief a set of variations across hooks and creators, then run them as paid and let the data pick the winner. That's the whole test-and-scale loop, and it starts with a brief flexible enough to produce range.

If writing briefs and managing creators isn't how you want to spend your week, that's exactly the part we take off your plate — you approve the angles, we run the rest. Send us your product and we'll handle the briefing.