UGC paid ads

Creators make the ad creative; we run it as paid social. This is a different motion from influencers, where a creator posts to their own audience. Here a small, managed group of creators produces a high volume of short person-to-camera ads, and Intempt runs the winners on Meta and other paid channels. The creators are paid on the ad spend their videos drive, not a flat fee per post. It is the fastest way to feed the paid-acquisition side of the growth flywheel with fresh creative without burning out one in-house editor.

This is a plan, not a live program. We run no UGC ad program today. This page is how we stand one up.

How it differs from the influencer program

A creator can do both. A placement on their channel and ad creative we run are separate deliverables under separate pay.

Where the model comes from

The fastest-growing consumer and prosumer AI apps have converged on the same performance creator model, and we are standing ours up by learning from it. Named generically because we do not publish anyone else's terms, the pattern is:

• Pay creators a percent of ad spend their videos drive, not a flat fee. Upside is uncapped and tied to performance.
• Keep the group small and managed (tens of creators, not hundreds), coached like a sales team.
• Ship a high volume of net-new concepts every month, because paid social burns creative fast.
• Let the platform's own creative-clustering rules, not taste, decide how much variety you need.
• Make culture, not cash, the retention mechanism: coaches, perks, a retreat for the top few.

We copy the operating model. We differ in one structural way: we already run an affiliate and recipe rail (the Intempt Collective), so a UGC creator can also carry a ?via link and earn rev-share on the customers their ads bring, and publish a recipe for the Build-track royalty. The ad-spend pay and the Collective earnings are separate and stack.

The pay model

Worked example of the floor, illustrative only: a creator on a 25-video monthly quota with a four-figure floor. In a slow month their ad-spend commissions come in under the floor, so we top them up to it. In a strong month commissions clear the floor and there is no top-up. The floor de-risks the early months so good creators join before there is a track record; the percent is what pays them once the account is working.

Set the percent from our own CAC. Too high blows up the ad account, too low loses the creator. Do not copy an outside program's rate; derive ours.

Volume and team

• Target a high monthly volume of net-new concepts. Paid social suppresses stale creative, so the program's job is a steady supply of fresh ideas, not reruns.
• Run it lean: creator coaches, one media buyer, and a program owner. The pay model, not headcount, is what scales output.
• The benchmarked programs run tens of creators producing hundreds of net-new ads a month with a single media buyer. Treat that as the shape to grow into, not a day-one target.

Recruiting and vetting

• Start with four or five creators, each chosen to fill a specific gap in the ad library: a new format, a new ICP seat, a new region, or a new funnel stage. Not by follower count.
• Source on the platforms creators already work. Search for UGC, creator, tech, and SaaS content, then mine the followers, comments, and likes of creators who already make ads. Send a focused batch of direct messages over a few days.
• Warm sources first: the Intempt Collective applicant pool, our own network, and referrals from creators we already work with.
• Vet on the work, not the audience. Review a portfolio or a reel and rule out beginners. Inbound application volume is a weak signal; accept only a handful.

Scaling

Grow the roster in steps, roughly doubling, and hold it there rather than flooding the account:

• 4-5, then 10, then 20, then 40-60 and hold. The benchmarked programs top out around 40-60 and say that is the sweet spot.
• A bigger faceless roster is not better. A small, well-run, well-paid group out-recruits a large one and is easier to coach.

The creative rule that matters most

• Diversity of concept beats copying the winner. Paid-social platforms cluster near-identical videos (roughly 60% similarity and up) and suppress their reach, so a roster that all reskins the current top ad quietly kills its own distribution.
• Brief creators to keep testing new concepts, not iterating one that already won. New concepts open new audiences.
• Give creators real creative freedom on about half their output. Autonomy is both where the breakout ideas come from and the main reason good creators stay.
• Formats that travel on paid social: plain person-to-camera, a concrete before-and-after ("how I stopped stitching eight tools"), a screen-recorded product moment where Blu actually runs a play. Give the frame, not a script.
• Nomenclature is Intempt and Blu Agent, never "GrowthOS" or "Intempt AI", and nothing we hand a creator contains an em-dash.

Operating cadence

• A weekly call between the program owner and the media buyer: what the account is rewarding, which concepts are fatiguing, new ICP seats to target, next week's experiments.
• Creators get the frame and the proof pillars from our positioning, record against the free plan with no time limit and a seeded demo project, and ship on a quota.
• Every winning concept feeds the next brief. Every fatigued concept is retired, not rerun.

Retention is culture, not cash

The pay keeps creators honest; the culture keeps them. Cheap to run and worth more than any single bonus:

• Dedicated creator coaches who run regular calls and keep the group engaged.
• An open line to the program owner for strategy.
• Giveaways and gear (cameras, mics, hardware) and the ambassador perks we already have: a free plan, extra credits, early access to new Blu agents, a private community.
• An in-person retreat for the top few creators once the program is running.

Channels

• Meta is the primary buy. Person-to-camera UGC is what the account is built on.
• YouTube and Google carry the more considered, education-heavy creative for a product that needs explaining.
• Founder-led posting on LinkedIn and X is a free amplifier that runs independent of the ad account: the founder as a distribution channel in their own right.

Attribution and coupons

• Ad creative carries the same rails as any placement: a ?via handle and, where it fits, a public offer code, with utm set per concept. See campaigns-and-coupons for the code taxonomy and influencers for the ?via attribution and payout rules.
• The ad-spend pay is measured off the media buyer's account data (spend by creative), not off a coupon. Coupons and ?via attribute the Collective rev-share leg, which stacks on top.
• Rails recommendation is the same as the creator program: Dub for links and codes, Intempt's own ledger for recipe royalty.

What we judge it on

• Blended CAC and the share of spend on fresh creative. The program exists to lower CAC with a steady supply of new concepts.
• Net-new concepts shipped per month, and the rate at which a concept becomes a winner.
• Creator-attributed signups from the ?via leg, queried in Intempt's own analytics.
• Put a source and a pull date beside every number. Views are not revenue: a view count is a reach signal, not a result. Do not report a view total as a win.

What is a gap today

Related: influencers (channel placements and rev-share) · creator-operations (the operating routine) · campaigns-and-coupons (the code taxonomy) · growth-flywheel (how paid acquisition feeds the loop) · who-we-build-for (the ICP and the audience).