I'm going to say something that everyone else in DTC is too scared to say: Buying UGC by the video is a giant ripoff. It's absurd to me that brands still spend a big part of their creative budget on creators holding the product up to the camera in this day and age. It's a super boomer offering: - post a brief, wait for creators to apply, hope the good ones say yes - get back 20 videos of different people holding the same product the same way - pay for every single one, including the ones you'll never run - Meta groups ads with the same setup and the same shot into one entity, so you paid 20 times for a single test Was UGC worth it a few years ago, when it was new and a real person on camera stopped the scroll? Yes. Is it worth your WHOLE creative budget in 2026, when every brand in your niche runs the same creator holding the same product? No.