Getting your first UGC client

The most common version of this problem is not "nobody will hire me." It is two hundred pitches sent, almost none answered, and no way to tell which part was wrong.

Last updated 7 September 2026

Usually it is one of three things: there is nothing to look at, the pitch is about you, or it went to somebody with no budget and no authority. All three are fixable in a weekend.

1. Make three pieces before you pitch anything

You do not need a client to have a portfolio. Pick three products you already own, and make the ad you would have made if they had hired you.

Make them look like ads, not like posts. A hook in the first three seconds, a problem, the product doing something, a reason to act. Aesthetic lifestyle footage is not the same product.
Pick categories you want more of. Brands hire from evidence. Three skincare pieces get you skincare briefs; three of everything gets you nothing in particular.
Two hooks per piece. It shows you understand that hooks get tested, which is most of what separates a creator from someone with a camera.

Spec work is completely normal here and nobody minds that it was unpaid. What matters is whether it looks like something that could run.

2. Fix who you are pitching

The generic info@ inbox is where pitches go to die. It is monitored by somebody with no budget and no reason to care.

Aim for whoever owns performance: growth, paid social, ecommerce, brand marketing. At a small brand that is often the founder. At a mid-size one it is a paid social manager who is personally short of creative and will be glad you exist.

Smaller brands are also simply better first clients. They decide faster, they need volume, and they are not running an approved-vendor process you cannot enter.

3. Fix the pitch itself

Most pitches open with the sender's story. Nobody is reading for that. Lead with what they get, keep it to about four lines, and attach or link the work.

Copy this

Hi [name], I make short-form ad creative for [category] brands. I put together three pieces for [their product] on spec so you can see the fit rather than take my word for it: [link]

If it is useful, I can turn around two variations with different hooks in about a week. Rates start at $325 per video with usage priced separately.

Happy to send more examples if it is not quite the angle you need.

Four things are doing work there. It is specific to them. It shows rather than claims. It names a price, which filters out anyone without budget before you invest another hour. And it makes the next step small.

The numbers, honestly

Cold outreach converts in low single digits even when it is good. Two hundred pitches with no portfolio and a generic opener can reasonably return nothing, and that is not evidence you cannot do this.

Fifty well-targeted pitches with three spec pieces attached will usually produce a handful of conversations. The variable that moves most is whether there is something to look at, not volume.

Platforms: useful, with a caveat

Marketplaces get you early reps and a first paid credit, which is genuinely worth something. Just go in knowing they compete on price, take a cut, and rarely pay separately for usage rights. Treat them as a way to build evidence, not as the business.

Run every listing through one question before applying: do they want the files, or do they want you to post it? If a listing mentions follower count, it is influencer work wearing a UGC label and should be priced on reach instead.

Pricing the first few without anchoring low forever

Charge from the start, even if it is the bottom of the range. Free work does not convert to paid work with the same brand; it establishes a price, and that price is zero.

If you want to be flexible early, be flexible on scope rather than rate. An extra hook, a vertical crop, a faster turnaround. Those cost you an hour. A discount costs you every future quote to that brand and to anyone they refer.

The order that works: make three real pieces, target people who own performance, lead with the work, name a price. Most people who are stuck have done the fourth step two hundred times without the first.

Price it before you reply

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Written for UGC creators in the US. Market-informed starting points, not fixed prices, and not legal or financial advice. Your market, niche and results should move them.