A UGC deal is a small production with a start and a finish. When you post a brief and a creator accepts, a sequence of things has to happen — money goes in, the shoot happens, files come back, you approve — and each step has a clear owner. Most friction in UGC comes from people not knowing who owns what.
This guide walks the full workflow from the first post to the day after payment: who does what at every stage, how revisions work, how rights transfer, and why the money flow is built the way it is. Once you see the whole cycle, dealing with any creator is just executing each step cleanly.
Where it starts: the brand posts, the creator applies
Every relationship starts with a written brief, not a DM. On ugc.ng, brands post briefs as gigs — product, deliverable, length, ratio, talking points, deadline, budget. That document is the contract before there is a contract, because it becomes the yardstick for everything later: what the creator shoots, what you expect to receive, what counts as a completed job.
Then creators apply. They do not pitch with a follower count — ugc.ng has no follower requirement, and profiles are moderated on portfolio quality. They show you work relevant to your category. You review applicants, ask a question or two, and discuss on-platform. Contact details — phone numbers, WhatsApp — stay private until a deal is signed, which keeps everyone's number out of cold-call lists.
The roles here are simple: you are the client and art director; the creator is the producer, shooter, and editor. You decide what gets made. They decide how to make it. Do not blur those lines by micromanaging shot angles; the reason you hire a creator is their eye.
Funding: escrow is the handshake
This is the step that makes Nigerian brands nervous first and relieved second. You fund the deal before any work starts — but the money does not go to the creator.
- You fund the agreed rate.
- ugc.ng holds it in escrow.
- The creator shoots and delivers.
- You approve, and payment is released to the creator the next day.
Two things make this sustainable. First, the creator is guaranteed to be paid for completed approved work, so they block out your deadline for real. Second, you never wire money on a promise, so a Lagos brand can hire a Port Harcourt creator on trust backed by structure rather than vibes.
The cost is a 15% brand protection fee with a ₦500 minimum. A ₦20,000 brief costs you ₦23,000; a ₦50,000 brief costs ₦57,500. The creator still receives the full rate — they keep 100% — which means there is no fee wedge pushing them to cut corners. The escrow rail is the pricing, and you should read it as trust insurance.
The shoot: who does what while the camera rolls
Once funded, the creator does the craft work and the brand has a smaller, but real, job:
The creator handles: the product handling, location and lighting, shooting on their phone, editing, music, captions, and any on-screen text. Some add voice-over — 54 of the creators on ugc.ng on ugc.ng offer it — or editing as a separate service for brands who shoot their own footage but cannot finish it.
The brand handles: getting the product to the creator fast and in good condition, answering product questions before the shoot, and providing the talking points. If you want a specific feature demoed, say so in writing before the shoot, not after delivery. One good WhatsApp message from you during this window can save a whole revision round.
You can roughly predict the week once you have done one or two of these. Product arrives, creator shoots within a day or two of receiving it, edits, delivers, you review. Repeat creators get faster at every stage because they stop asking the questions you already answered once.
Two common variants are worth knowing about. Some creators work faceless — hands and product only — which suits privacy-minded creators and hygiene or device products. Others deliver a raw plus edited bundle so you get the finished clip and the flexibility of a second cut. If any of this matters to you, brief it up front.
Delivery: the file, and the live link
This is where a UGC brief differs from getting a random video from a freelancer. The creator delivers two things:
- The finished file in the briefed format — usually a 9:16 vertical MP4 for Reels and TikTok, or 1:1 for feed and product pages.
- A live post link — the URL of where the content is, or will be, published on a real account.
That link is not decoration. UGC converts partly because it runs on a real account with a real posting history, and brands run those links in their ad setups. The live link also proves the content was actually made for the platform, not just exported from an editor.
When it lands, check it against the brief immediately: ratio, length, the three talking points, and that your product looks right. Do not wait for the review window to close before looking.
Keep a simple system for the files you accept. Name them by product plus deliverable plus date — serum-review-2026-08.mp4 — store originals and their live links together in one folder, and you will never hunt through a chat history for a clip you already paid for. Two launches in, that folder is a small in-house library no agency bill was needed to build.
Review, revisions, and the 7-day window
You have seven days to review from delivery. Your options inside that window: approve, request revisions, or raise an issue. If you do nothing at all, the deal auto-approves on day seven — the creator gets paid and rights transfer. The deadline exists so a deal cannot hang open forever while a creator's money sits locked.
Revisions work best when they are specific and scoped. "The lighting on the product shot is too yellow — reshoot the third angle" is actionable. "Make it more premium" is a mood, not an instruction. Brands that batch their revision notes into one list get faster delivery than brands that drip-feed changes one per weekday.
If a legitimate problem is beyond simple tweaks — the creator delivered the wrong product, or the audio is unusable — raise it inside the window with the evidence. The seven days exist to resolve these things between the two of you, and escrow means neither side is negotiating from panic about being cheated.
Be fair about scope too. Tweaks to a delivered shoot — an edit, a caption, a retake of one angle — fall inside a normal revision. A complete pivot to a different concept is a new brief, and expecting it free is how you get a defensive creator. A good creator will tell you honestly which is which; listen.
Rights and next-day payment: what approval actually transfers
Approval is the moment two things happen. First, the creator is paid — the next day, keeping 100% of their rate. Second, you take ownership of the content for the agreed use.
That ownership is exactly as wide as you briefed it and no wider. If you want the content on Meta ads, Google display, your site, and WhatsApp — name those in the brief. If you want it for 12 months, say so. If you want exclusive use so the creator cannot run the same clip for a competitor, that is a thing you can agree to. Define usage rights in writing and you will never argue about who can use a clip after a campaign ends. There is a full walkthrough here: what usage rights you actually get from a creator.
One warning most brands miss: approval releases the money. Make sure you have watched the file, requested any changes, and had them addressed before you click approve, because after that the creator is paid and the file is yours as delivered.
Running the workflow again, deliberately
The smoothest brands are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones who run the same flow with the same 3-5 creators until it is boring: brief, fund, shoot, deliver, approve, pay, repeat.
That repeatability is the real product. Each cycle, the creator learns your product and your taste, delivery gets faster, and revisions shrink because the first take is closer to what you want. If you are hiring fresh every single month and re-explaining your brand from zero, the workflow is working — you are just not letting it compound.
The whole cycle exists to make that repeat hiring safe and boring. Post a gig, and the next time your WhatsApp pings with a delivery link, you will already know exactly what to do with it. If you are still assembling your creator list, here is how to find and shortlist the right ones.