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The average person in the United States sees anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 marketing messages a day.
This makes it incredibly difficult to stand out against the competition, no matter what you sell.
The second problem is that due to so much marketing, customers have stopped believing brands with their messaging. Consumers live in a world that throws buckets of information over their heads daily, and a lot of that info is fake or exaggerated.
Instead of ads and marketing copy, consumers often use social proof in the form of content such as reviews - but collecting and showing those takes time.
Luckily, there's another major marketing tool that you can use in 2022 - user generated content or UGC. Consumers are more likely to trust other people than brands, and you need to use this in your marketing strategies.
If you're not convinced about the power of UGC, we're going to show you 40 important UGC statistics to consider in 2022 and beyond. You'll learn why UGC is your next best marketing tactic and how you can get started today.
UGC Stats About Revenue
User-generated content brings you more revenues and at a lower cost, according to Shopify:
1. Ads based on UGC have a click-through rate that’s 400% higher than traditional ads.
2. UGC ads cost 50% less than average ads.
You can also use your ownemployees to generate more helpful content, according to a study at Kredible:
3. The average amount that an employee advocacy program can generate is $1.9 million in advertising value with 1,000 active participants.
UGC Stats About Content Sharing
So what motivates people to share your online content? A research by New York Times can help us get some insights on this topic.
4. People share because they believe they’re distributing valuable content that entertains others. 49% of responders want to inform their friends about the products they like. Ultimately, their goal is to change opinions and to determine a specific behaviour.
5. Most responders share UGC to define themselves. 68% of people perceive themselves in relation to the brands they purchase because they represent their values.
6. People share information that helps them connect to their peers. 78% of responders will convey your brand’s content if it helps them nourish important relationships in their lives.
7. Self-fulfillment is vital for sharing UGC. 69% of people share content related to your brand because they believe doing so counts for something in the world.
8. People believe in their values and want more people to get involved. 84% of people will share a cause they’re passionate about.
How much user-generated content can you expect?
Wondering if your customers and audiences would create any UGC for you? The latest numbers from Statista 2021 has all the information you need.
9. 39% of US internet users have shared posts made by other people on social media since 2020.
10. 45% of US internet users have posted pictures and videos on their social media since 2020.
11. There are 347,222 new stories posted each minute on Instagram.
12. The cumulative total of Tumblr posts is 171.5 billion.
13. 4.79 million Goodreads members take part in the annual reading challenge on Goodreads.
14. There have been 90 million user-generated book reviews on Goodreads.com.
UGC Stats About Purchase Decisions
Turn to Networks published an interesting study that shows how user-generated content triggers purchase decisions. Here are some learnings.
15. 90% of people will make a purchase decision based on UGC. The other two critical channels are search engines (87%) and promotional emails (79%)
16. 81% of customers are willing to pay more and wait for extended periods for brands advertised through user-generated content.
17. 24% of female shoppers believe that user-generated content has the most influence on people’s purchase decisions.
18. People younger than 30 years old believe that UGC has more influence compared to older respondents.
19. 97% of people in the 18-29 category state that user-generated content enormously influences purchase decisions.
20. 73% of people have more confidence in their purchases if a particular brand employs user-generated content.
21. 61% of shoppers find themselves encouraged to engage more with certain brands thanks to the user-generated content surrounding them.
UGC Stats About Customer Reviews
Statista published a study about customers' habits before purchasing in 2019, and it yielded some interesting results.
22. 93.4% of people will read customer reviews before buying products from an online shop they don’t know.
As a result, UGC is vital if you're reaching out to a new market, or if you're a startup with modest market presence.
But here’s something exciting about how people find out about these retailers in the first place.
23. 50% of people say they find out about new products from friends and acquaintances.
The more UGC you’ll encourage people to produce and disseminate, the more new customers you’ll attract.
However, your product’s price range is significant, too.
24. 77.5% of people will compare different prices for similar products before making a buying decision.
Where do people find these customer reviews and information? The answer is obvious: search engines.
25. Statista shows that 62% of people search for specific information regarding the products they want to buy using search engines like Google.
UGC Stats About Email Marketing
Venture Beat’s study researched the role of personalization in email marketing and the overall impact on email metrics. Here's what they found.
26. 95% of marketers said that personalized content improved their open rates and that their unsubscribe rates decreased:
- 17.8 had an increase of 0-5%
- 21.3% had an increase of 5-10%
- 20.8% had an increase of 15-20%
- 9.1% had an increase of 20-30%
- 7% had an increase of 30-40%
- 4.5% has a total increase of 50-70%
Another research shows other data about the personalization of email marketing:
27. 75% of respondents in North America believe that brands didn’t customize the promotional email content enough for them. By comparison, 60% of people in Europe and 77% of people in Asia are satisfied with content personalization.
28. 60% of people in North America, 80% of people in Europe, and 88% of people in Asia want to receive email marketing tailored to suit their interests.
29. 55% of the interviewed customers want to receive emails with targeted promotions and discounts. These objective incentives can influence people’s purchase decisions only if they’re personalized.
30. 37% of people say they want to read personalized recommendations in their promotional emails. Thus, it’s essential for customers that brands genuinely understand their needs and interests.
UGC Stats About Connecting With Consumers
An essential thing about connecting with your customers—and, in fact, anyone in your life—is being explicit about what you desire. Brands don’t want to appear pushy, so:
31. Just 16% of brands offer clear guidelines for their customers who want to create user-generated content. By comparison, 53% of people wish to be told what to do, and 42% of them also like to receive explicit examples of photos and videos.
But what motivates people to post user-generated content about your brand? Is it prizes, money, or discounts?
Here’s what studies say:
32. 32% of customers agree that prizes and other objective incentives will motivate them to post brand-related content, but...
33. 60% of people are motivated to post if many people feature or like their content. Customers are more interested in receiving recognition and achieving a certain status than tangible rewards.
It’s also essential to publish the right content to connect and engage more customers.
34. 85% of consumers believe that visual user-generated content is more influential than photos and videos published by the brand.
And you also have to choose the correct channels:
35. 30-61% of people base their purchase decisions on user-generated images on Instagram compared to brand images. This broad interval shows you that Instagram, albeit a reliable medium for user-generated content, has limitations. If the content’s not good, it doesn’t matter whether it’s UG or posted on Instagram.
36. 71% of responders preferred branded YouTube videos from subscription box FabFitFun than a user-generated video about unboxing. So, sometimes, branded content wins.
People will respond better to UGC on YouTube if those videos compare various brands offering similar products.
37. On average, businesses see a 26% traffic increase from Twitter after sharing their reviews and 6% from Facebook. If you want to increase your Twitter traffic and you can't do it by yourself, you should look for a agency that will provide you with twitter marketing service.
UGC Stats Conclusion (And 3 More Figures to Convince You)
If you read all these stats, you now understand that user-generated content can work to your brand’s advantage. It can propel you to new markets, more people will find out about your message, and you can create an active brand community.
But more importantly, you can reap all those advantages at a much more reduced cost compared to traditional advertising.
Here are some other stats that can inspire you to make a move towards user-generated content.
38. User-generated content determines:
- 88% increased social media activity.
- 29% more web conversions
- 25% higher ad performance.
39. 93% of consumers find UGC helpful when making purchase decisions.
40. Millennials are a significant audience for UGC because they spend 30% of their media time interacting with UGC content (a whopping 5.4 hours/day).
Although you have little control over UGC compared to a campaign using influencers or brand ambassadors, you still have to enforce a well-thought strategy.
That sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it?
But there’s an art to planning for the unplanned.
A user-generated content marketplace can help you create efficient, hassle-free UGC campaigns.
Get started with Showcase by inBeat today and use our platforms to find the right influencers for your brand.
Don't shoot in the dark - choose the content creators that deliver results.