How to Find UGC Brand Deals: Where the Work Actually Comes From

You’ve built a solid portfolio, learned how to hook viewers, and know your way around a camera. So where are the brand deals?

For many UGC creators, making good content is only half the challenge. The other half is building a steady pipeline of brands willing to pay for it. And relying on one creator marketplace usually won’t get you there.

A stronger strategy combines three sources of work: creator marketplaces, direct outreach, and inbound offers. Here’s how to make each one work for you.

Key Takeaways

• A good strategy for steady income combines creator marketplaces, cold outreach and inbound offers.
• Creator marketplaces are the easiest way to begin building a portfolio, especially if you focus on 2-3 that are a good fit.
• A strong profile on two platforms beats a weak one on six.
• Most creators make more money from direct outreach than marketplaces, but you must target the right brands and send a compelling pitch.
• Optimize your public profiles so you get inbound work. 
• Keep pitching after you start getting inbound offers so you’ll have a backup plan if you lose a gig.
• Maintaining a good relationship with your current clients is a smart way to turn one deal into many. 

Where UGC Work Comes From: Marketplaces, Outreach and Inbound

If you were looking for a full-time job, you’d post your resume on LinkedIn, send thoughtful messages to prospective employers and reply to any offers that come your way. 

Think of UGC work in the same manner. You can’t just sit back and hope a one-pronged approach to job-hunting will work.

A smart strategy combines the three main ways to find work, below: 

Creator Marketplaces 

What it is: Digital platforms that connect content creators and influencers with brands for paid partnerships. 

Time to first deal: It typically takes a new creator 2-4 weeks of actively applying to open campaigns before they land their first low-paying gig on a creator marketplace. 

Cold Outreach (Pitching)

What it is: Proactively contacting brands via email or direct message to offer video and photo creation services 

Time to first deal: New UGC creators often spend weeks or even months on cold outreach before they land their first deal. Patience is key. You can expect to get approximately one brand deal for every 100 emails you send. 

Inbound

What it is: A brand or agency reaches out to you first via social media DMs or email to offer a paid deal. 

Time to first deal: It takes most UGC creators about 3-4 months to start getting their first inbound offers, and about 5-6 months to get steady requests.

Why You Need All Three Sources of Work as a New UGC Creator

Landing your first UGC brand deal is usually the hardest part for most creators. Brands are reluctant to spend their marketing dollars on unproven creators, when there are plenty of proven options on the market.

That’s where digital marketplaces geared towards beginners can be a boon. Brands are willing to take a chance on new creators when they’re only paying $10. 

Once you’ve started to build a steady portfolio via marketplaces, your cold outreach is much more likely to pay off. 

Eventually, with a growing list of brands under your belt, you’ll start getting steady inbound offers. Congrats!

But don’t neglect the marketplaces and direct pitching. Advertising budgets are ever-shifting, and inevitably you’ll lose a reliable client. 

You still need to pitch brands directly to maintain a steady income, and the marketplaces are a great source of quick jobs during lean months. 

Think of the three methods as complementary and overlapping income streams, especially since each approach comes with its own upsides and downsides.   

The Pros and Cons of Creator Marketplaces, Cold Outreach and Inbound Work for New UGC Creators

Marketplaces: The Easiest Way to Begin Building a Portfolio 

Marketplaces are a great way to get started in UGC work for a number of reasons: 

• You can post your portfolio, set clear rates, and showcase your success metrics (engagement rate, total reach, video views, watch time, and click-through rates), all in one place. 
• Brands post active campaigns, so at least you know you’re applying for an employer that’s hiring, so to speak.
• All of the communication and payments takes place within the marketplace, saving you the work of managing multiple platforms.
• You can quickly look for jobs that match your niche and skillset.

Finding the Right Creator Marketplace for You

How to Get Picked on a Crowded Platform

A strong profile on two platforms beats a weak one on six. To up your success rate, be sure to:

• Put your exact niche and skills in your headline and bio so brands find you in search results
• Write targeted pitches that explain how your specific content style will help the brand sell more products
• Showcase three to five of your highest-quality, most relevant videos at the top of your portfolio
• List clear pricing 
• Reply quickly (ideally within an hour) to boost your response rate and show you are reliable
• Deliver every project on time or early to earn positive reviews 
• If you’re an influencer, link your real social media accounts with up-to-date engagement rates and audience demographics

Direct Outreach: Where the Better Rates Are

Plenty of creators make good money on marketplaces, but direct relationships leave room to negotiate the scope and price of a deal that a bid-based brief doesn't. 

Negotiation can be especially beneficial if you’re an influencer, since you can charge more for sharing the video with your audience.

How to Tell if a Brand Is Worth Pitching

Save yourself time and effort (and hundreds of emails) by vetting before reaching out to prospective partners.

Green flags: 

• They are running Meta or TikTok ads
• They have recent product launches
• They are already posting creator-style content
• They have a real e-commerce store. 

Red flags: 

• You can’t find any recent paid ads
• Their social media is dormant 
• There’s no way to buy their products online 
• The brand doesn’t match your style or niche, making it hard to create a natural-feeling ad

How to Use the Meta Ad Library and TikTok Creative Center to Find Brands to Pitch

Social tools are a great way to find likely clients. 

Meta Ad Library:

1. Open the Meta Ad Library in any browser without needing an account. 
2. Select your target country and change the ad category to “All Ads.” 
3. Type in niche keywords (like “skincare” or “protein powder”) instead of just brand names to find all active advertisers in that category. 
4. Look for brands running multiple video ads or ads that have been active for a long time. Longevity means the ad is profitable, and they will need fresh UGC creators to make new iterations.

TikTok Creative Center:

1. Open TikTok Creative Center and navigate to the Top Ads Dashboard under the Inspiration tab. 
2. Select your region and industry, and sort by "Most Liked" or best performance over the last 30 days. 
3. Click on the top-performing videos to see the exact brand handle running them. If they are running successful TikTok ads, they are ideal targets for cold pitching your UGC portfolio.

How to Pitch a Brand in Five Steps

1. Research brands in your niche. Marketers are looking for a good fit.
2. Confirm they buy creator content. Use the Meta Ad Library or TikTok Creative Center, as outlined above.
3. Find the marketing contact. For most brands, that will be the social media manager, paid social lead, or brand manager. Look on LinkedIn or the company website.
4. Write a targeted pitch, led by a link to your portfolio or a media kit. Sending an email from a custom domain, rather than gmail, looks more professional and polished.
5. Follow up once at 3 to 5 days. Studies by B2B marketing platforms show that the average reply rate to cold outreach ranges from about 3%-6%. A bit of persistence increases those odds. 

For a more detailed version of these steps, with templates, check out this guide on how to pitch brands. If you’re not sure how much to charge for your work, this practical pricing information will help.

Agencies: One Pitch, Many Brands

This is the method that most creators skip, but they shouldn’t. Paid social and creative agencies keep creator rosters and source content for every client they run ads for, so one relationship can mean recurring work across a dozen brands. 

You can find them by:

• checking who runs ads for the brands you already target 
• searching keywords like “UGC agency,” “influencer marketing agency,” or “creative agency” on LinkedIn
• searching Google for top performance or social media agencies. Visit their websites to see if they have a “Join Our Creator Network” or application page
• Combing through Reddit, according to UGC creator Britt Drake (@sunnybdrake on TikTok)

The pitch is different: You're selling your reliability and turnaround, not one video.

Don’t Limit Your Search to Social

Opportunities also get posted on forums outside of Instagram and TikTok. Try Facebook groups, Discord servers, LinkedIn, and X by performing searches for "looking for UGC creators." 

These gigs fill fast, so when you spot one, reply quickly rather than waiting until your pitch is perfect.

Local Businesses Are an Easy First Yes

Unlike global brands that get thousands of messages a day, local restaurants, gyms, salons, and retail shops rarely get pitched. Your request won’t get buried in an email inbox.

You can simply walk in, talk directly to the owner or manager, and begin building a personal relationship.  

Yes, a local running boutique will have a much smaller budget than Nike or Hoka, but it’s much faster to get a yes and you’ll have real portfolio material to show the big players in your niche. 

Inbound: Getting Brands to Come to You

After months of sending hundreds of pitches and creating several successful videos, a wonderful thing happens: Brands start emailing you.

As a creator, inbound offers are never guaranteed, but there are ways you can make them much more likely to happen:

• Post your UGC-style work publicly, on your social media handles, a personal website, or on a publicly available profile on a creator marketplace (or all three).
• State your exact niche and the categories you cover directly in your bio.
• Put a direct business email or contact link front and center.
• Pin your three best videos at the top of your profile.
• Highlight one or two stand-out metrics that prove your previous videos were a success, such as high conversion rates, click-through rates, hook rates or hold rates.
• For influencers: UGC creator Noelle Gingras (@nowyounoelle on TikTok) suggests creating organic content featuring the brands you love, and tagging them. If they like your work and can easily see you create UGC work, they may reach out. 

Inbound offers are typically the highest-paying of the three channels, and as UGC creator and coach Salha Aziz (@sociallyaziz on Instagram) says, “shoot high,” because if they’re reaching out to you, brands are frequently willing to negotiate. She recently made $2,500 on one 90-second video for a tech company.

Once you’ve got a steady stream of inbound offers, don’t assume your pitching days are done. 

Keep in touch with your previous clients, keep looking for work on creator marketplaces, and keep pitching your dream brands. If you lose a gig, you’ll need a back-up plan to make up any lost income for the month. And a ‘yes’ from the right brand could be life-changing.

How to Turn One UGC Deal Into Five

A client who already paid you is the easiest next deal you'll ever get. This is what most creators miss. If you can turn one UGC job into another, you’ll save yourself hundreds of hours on cold outreach.  

In addition to turning in high-quality work on time, foster a relationship with your current clients that will lead to more work down the road. Ask them about upcoming launches before you deliver, request a spot on their creator roster, check in every 60 to 90 days, and ask for referrals in adjacent categories.

Mistakes That Keep Creators Stuck

If you feel like your UGC efforts aren’t paying off, perform a quick diagnosis. You may be making one of these common errors:

• Bad pitch strategy. Are you pitching brands that don't run ads? Sending generic emails that say little more than “let’s collab?” Targeting brands outside of your niche?
• Poor platform strategy. Are you spread too thin on too many marketplaces, instead of optimizing the 2-3 that are a good fit for you? 
• Giving up too soon. Did you send 10 emails and declare outreach dead? Did you  never follow up on your initial pitches? 
• Underpricing your work. Don’t get stuck making an entry-level rate. Once you have a decent portfolio, ask for a competitive rate, or you’ll never be able to truly monetize your efforts. And never quote a price before you understand the full scope of the job.

Building a Pipeline You Don't Rebuild Every Month

The learning curve for UGC success is steep, but climbable.

If you optimize your profile on 2-3 digital marketplaces, send targeted daily direct outreach to brands, and nurture your inbound relationships, you’ll create a cycle of continuous work you can count on every month. 

That’s one of the biggest signals of success for any creator.