Becoming a UGC creator in Morocco: a beginner's guide
Producing content that brands publish themselves, with no audience of your own. How to start, what to show, how to invoice.
UGC means "user-generated content", but the term now describes a precise trade: producing photos and videos that a brand will publish on its own accounts, or as advertising. You are not paid for your audience — you do not need one — but for your production work.
Why brands buy it
A studio photo looks like one, and gets treated with suspicion. Content that looks like what a customer would post converts better as advertising, simply because it does not look like advertising. Brands know this, and many have neither the time nor the team to produce it continuously.
That is why creators with three hundred followers invoice for content: what is bought is a file, not an audience.
What you need to start
- A recent phone. The camera is more than enough; light makes the difference, not the sensor.
- Daylight. Near a window, out of direct sun. It is free, and it is what separates sellable content from amateur content.
- Three to five samples. Made for brands you like, unasked. That is your starting portfolio.
- A way to be paid. A bank account, and the means to issue an invoice when asked.
What you do not need: a camera, lighting, paid editing software. All of that is bought later, with the money the trade brings in.
Your first samples
This is the step everyone skips, and the one that decides. Pick three Moroccan brands whose products you already use, and produce for each what you would sell them.
- A thirty-second unboxing, in one take, without complicated editing.
- Three photos of the product in situation: worn, laid out, in detail.
- A "before / after" or "how I wear it" video, the format brands reuse most in advertising.
You do not need their permission to produce these samples, only to claim they were commissioned — which you will not do.
Read also Shooting your outfits on a phone: eight rulesHow to approach a brand
The message that gets a reply is short, names a specific product, and attaches two samples. It asks for nothing: it offers. The message templates page on this site gives you one ready to send.
Aim at mid-sized brands: the very small have no budget, the very large go through agencies. Between the two are brands that post a lot and run short of content.
Invoicing
Do not give a price before you are asked, and never work for a gifted product alone — unless the product is genuinely worth the time you will put in, which is rare.
What is charged on top of the content itself:
- Advertising usage rights. Content used in advertising works far longer than content posted once.
- Exclusivity. If the brand bars you from working for a competitor, that is paid for.
- Revisions beyond one round. One revision is normal, five are not.
A clear invoice sets you apart immediately: many creators do not issue one, and that closes the door at brands with an accounts department.
Read also How to set your rate when a brand asks for itUGC and affiliate together
The two go well together. Affiliate makes you produce content regularly and teaches you what triggers a purchase — exactly what a brand then wants to buy. And a brand that has seen your affiliate posts already has a sample of your work.
In UGC what is sold is a file. The follower count appears on no invoice.Join the programme