UGC creative brief template you can send to creators today

Copy the template below, fill in the blanks, and send it to your creator. It is built for Meta ads, where one brief should test one idea and give you a clear answer a week later.

What a UGC brief has to do

A UGC brief has two readers. The creator needs to know what to film, in what order, and what to avoid. You need to know, a week later, which idea you actually tested.

Most briefs fail the second reader. They say "talk about how much you love it" and give a vague mood. The video comes back fine, and nobody can say whether the desire, the angle or the hook is what worked or flopped.

So keep one rule. One brief, one concept. One desire, one angle, one awareness stage, one format. You can vary the first three seconds, but the idea stays the same. That is the whole difference between a template that fills a folder and one that teaches you something.

The template at the bottom of this page is a creative brief template for Facebook ads and Instagram placements alike. It has three parts: strategy, creative, production. The creator mostly needs the last two. You need all three, and writing the first one is what makes the other two sharp.

Part 1, strategy: fill this in before you write to anyone

This part is for you and your editor. You can paste a short version into the creator's brief, but do not skip writing it down. If you cannot fill these lines, the shoot is not ready.

• Core desire: the one thing the buyer wants, in plain words. Not a feature. "Wake up without the 3 p.m. crash" beats "improved energy support."
• Who has it: the specific person. Age is the weakest detail. Situation is the strongest: new parent, night-shift nurse, someone who tried three brands already.
• Awareness stage: does the viewer know they have the problem, know solutions exist, or know your product? The hook changes completely at each stage.
• Angle: the way into the desire. Same desire, different angle: fear of wasting money, a surprising ingredient, a before-and-after routine.
• Mechanism: why it works, in one sentence a creator can say out loud.
• Proof: what backs the claim. A test result, a photo, a doctor quote, what customers wrote. Mark each line as proven, likely or assumption, so nobody films an assumption as a fact.
• Claim limits: what the creator cannot say. Medical promises, guaranteed results, anything your platform policies or lawyer would reject.

Part 2, creative: what the creator actually sees

Keep this to one page. Creators do their best work with a clear job and room to sound like themselves. Over-scripting makes the video feel like an ad, and viewers scroll past ads.

Give them the structure, not the words. A reliable order for Meta video is hook, problem in their own life, the moment they tried it, what changed, one clear call to action. Each beat gets one line of direction.

Hooks are where you spend your effort. Ask for three different openings of about three seconds each, all leading into the same body. That gives you a clean hook test without three separate shoots.

• The one-sentence idea: what this video is about and who it is for.
• Three hook options: spoken line, on-screen text, or action. Write them as examples the creator can reword.
• Beats: five lines, one per scene, with what must be shown (product in hand, texture, the app screen, the result).
• Words to use: real customer phrases, if you have them. Pull them from reviews and support tickets rather than inventing them.
• Words to avoid: competitor names, banned claims, anything that sounds like a press release.
• Tone: one reference, such as "a friend texting you a recommendation." One is enough.
• Call to action: what the creator says at the end, and nothing more.

Part 3, production: the boring part that saves a reshoot

Production details are where good briefs quietly fall apart. A creator who has to message you four times to learn the aspect ratio will do the job slower and worse.

Put every logistics line in one block at the end. Make it so a creator who skims still gets the essentials.

• Deliverables: number of videos, number of hook variants, raw files or edited, with or without captions.
• Format: vertical 9:16 for Reels and Stories. Ask for the safe area to stay clear of the top and bottom, where the interface covers the picture.
• Length: a target and a hard maximum, for example 25 to 35 seconds, never over 45.
• Light and sound: natural light facing a window, no background music, phone held steady, quiet room.
• Product: what ships, when it arrives, and what happens if it is late.
• Deadline: the first draft date and one round of changes.
• Usage rights: where and how long you can run the video, including paid ads, stated in plain terms.
• Payment: amount and when it is paid.

A worked example (illustrative only)

Here is how the strategy lines look for an invented product, a magnesium sleep powder. The details are an example, not real data.

Core desire: fall asleep without lying awake replaying the day. Who has it: people with a busy job who are tired and wired at night. Awareness: they know the problem and have tried tea and melatonin. Angle: "I stopped chasing sleep hacks and changed one thing at 9 p.m." Mechanism: a calming mineral in a drink that takes the place of the evening scroll. Proof: customers write that they fall asleep faster (marked likely until you have checked how many actually say it).

Creative: hook one is "I tried everything for sleep before this." Hook two is a shot of the clock at 2 a.m. with the text "again." Hook three is the creator stirring the drink with "my nine o'clock rule." The body is the same in all three. Production: one 30-second vertical video, three openings, raw files by Friday.

Notice what is missing: no claim that it cures insomnia, and no script. The creator has a job, a boundary and room to talk like a person.

Mistakes that waste a shoot

Run through these before you hit send. Each one has cost someone a batch of videos that could not be judged.

• Two ideas in one brief. If a video mixes a price angle and a story angle, a win teaches you nothing.
• Hooks that make the same promise in different words. That is one hook, not three.
• A claim with no proof behind it. You find out at ad review, after you paid for the shoot.
• A landing page that does not continue the ad. The video promises one thing, the page opens on another.
• No product details for the creator. They guess, and the guess shows on camera.
• A full script. It reads as an ad and the creator stops sounding like a customer.
• Asking for "authentic" without showing an example. Send one reference video and say what you like about it.
• No name or number on the brief, so nobody can tell later which video belonged to which idea.

After the shoot: name it, run it, read it

The brief is only half the work. Give each brief a batch number, put the whole concept in one ad set, and name every ad so the name carries the desire, angle, awareness stage, format and creator. Without that, a month of results is a pile of unlabeled videos.

Then judge each batch after 7 days against one written rule, not a feeling on Friday. Compare it with the campaign's own ROAS, or with a target CPA, and keep the label. Over time you see which desires and angles hit most often, not just which single video got lucky.

Hitrate does these steps for you. It writes briefs in three parts, runs a pre-flight of up to 18 checks before anyone films (a claim without proof, hooks that make the same promise, a landing page that does not continue the ad), and gives editors and creators one share link with no login. It writes the ad names so results map back to the batch, then labels it Scaler, Spender, Efficient or Miss after 7 days.

Related guides

• Facebook ads naming convention: a copyable template
• Creative brief template for Facebook ads (with a worked example)
• Creative Testing Roadmap Template for Meta Ads
• Ad Creative Analysis Template for Meta Ads

Updated 2026-10-02