The UGC glossary

Six or seven words in a brand brief decide how much money changes hands, and every one of them gets used loosely. These are the definitions we work from, written so that knowing one changes what you do about it.

Brief
Also called creative brief, campaign brief
A brief is the document a brand sends describing what they want made: the concept, the talking points, the format, the deliverables and the deadline.
Buyout
Also called full buyout, content buyout
A buyout is a single payment that transfers broad or unlimited rights in the content to the brand, usually covering every channel with no end date.
CPM bonus
Also called performance bonus, views bonus
A CPM bonus pays a creator a set amount per thousand views a video earns, on top of the flat fee, so a video that performs keeps paying after delivery.
Deliverable
Also called deliverables, assets
A deliverable is one finished thing you owe the brand, counted precisely, so three videos and their vertical cutdowns is six deliverables rather than three.
Exclusivity
Also called category exclusivity, non-compete
Exclusivity is a clause stopping you from working with competing brands in the same category for an agreed period, so it is paid time you cannot sell to anyone else.
Flat fee
Also called base rate, per video rate
The flat fee is the fixed amount a brand pays for producing and delivering the videos, before any performance bonus and before any usage rights are priced in.
Hook
Also called opener, first three seconds
The hook is the opening of a UGC video, usually the first one to three seconds, whose only job is to stop the scroll before the viewer's thumb moves.
Net terms
Also called net 30, payment terms
Net terms are how many days after invoicing a brand has agreed to pay, so net 30 means payment is due thirty days from the invoice date.
Organic post
Also called organic use, organic only
An organic post is one published without ad spend behind it, so it reaches only the accounts a platform shows it to for free.
Perpetuity
Also called in perpetuity, unlimited usage, buyout
Perpetuity means the brand's licence to use your video has no end date, so they can keep running it, including as a paid ad, forever and without paying again.
Rate card
Also called pricing sheet, packages
A rate card is a published list of what a creator charges, and it is worth less than it looks because it fixes a price before the usage rights are known.
Raw footage
Also called raws, source files, unedited files
Raw footage is the unedited source clips from a shoot, and handing it to a brand lets them recut it into videos you never agreed to and never see.
Spark Ads
Also called TikTok Spark Ads, spark code
Spark Ads are TikTok's format for putting paid spend behind an existing organic post, either the brand's own or a creator's, using an authorisation code the account holder generates.
UGC creator
Also called user generated content creator, content creator for brands
A UGC creator makes advertising videos that look like a real person's own post, for brands to run on their own channels or as paid ads, and is paid for the content rather than for an audience.
UGC portfolio
Also called creator portfolio, media kit
A UGC portfolio is one link holding three to five finished vertical videos that plays on a phone with no login, and it is the only evidence a brand gets before deciding to reply.
Usage rights
Also called licensing, content licence, media rights
Usage rights are what a brand is allowed to do with a video after you deliver it: which channels it can appear on, whether they can put ad spend behind it, and for how long.
Whitelisting
Also called allowlisting, creator licensing, partnership ads
Whitelisting is when a brand runs paid ad spend through your social handle rather than their own, so the ad appears in feeds as a post from you.

Now put a number on it

The rate calculator turns these terms into a figure: pick the deliverable, the batch size and the licence, and it gives you a price, a range and a sentence to send back. Free, no account.

Open the rate calculator