<b>Q: What's the difference between paying for UGC and doing an affiliate creator deal?</b>

<b>Q: What's the difference between paying for UGC and doing an affiliate creator deal?</b>

A: They solve different problems and people mix them up constantly.

— UGC (user-generated content) is content you commission and own. You pay a flat fee, get the video file, and run it yourself as an ad or post. The creator may not even post it on their own account.
— Affiliate creator deals mean the creator posts on their own audience and earns commission on sales they drive. You don't own the content; you rent their reach and pay on performance.

Use UGC when you need authentic-looking ad creative at scale and have ad budget to amplify it. Use affiliate when you want to tap a creator's existing trust with their followers and only pay when it works.

Also worth knowing: the strongest play is both — license a creator's affiliate video as UGC so a winning organic post becomes a paid ad. Negotiate those usage rights up front, not after it goes viral.

Got a question? Drop it in the comments.