The Superwall Podcast · 2026-06-04
Drew Levin - I Studied 1,000,000 UGC Ads, This Is What Will Grow Your App
SideShift co-founder/CTO Drew Levin describes what he sees across UGC programs on the creator marketplace: viral-by-design features and controversy angles, 1:10 campaign-manager-to-creator ratios, standardized creator onboarding, engagement-rate thresholds for Spark and partnership ads, cross-post pay-the-best-platform deals, non-stacked capped view bonuses (e.g. $800/month for 60 videos) and sub-$1 all-in CPMs for top programs. Also covers how SideShift built creator supply with a 6-hour training course and by fronting unpaid brand payouts.
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Numbers mentioned
| Subject | Metric | Value | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| SideShift | customers new brand accounts created per month | 5,000 brands/month approximate | “we have 5,000 new brands create accounts on side shift a month” |
| SideShift | users registered creators | 850K creators approximate | “So we have 850,000 creators, which like we have about 150,000 of them monthly active.” |
| SideShift | users monthly active creators | 150K creators/month approximate | “So we have 850,000 creators, which like we have about 150,000 of them monthly active.” |
| SideShift | count vetted campaign managers available for hire on the platform | 100 campaign managers approximate | “We have about 100 right now who are actively being hired.” |
| SideShift | cost operating cost; creator payouts SideShift fronts when brands fail to pay | thousands, almost six figures a month approximate | “We spend thousands and thousands of dollars, if not multiple, almost six figures a month on this, paying creators what they're owed.” |
| SideShift | creator pay what creators earn after 1-2 months on SideShift; period not stated, likely monthly | USD 10K–15Kper creator approximate | “After a month or two on Sideshift, we see that they're earning like $10,000, $12,000, $15,000.” |
| SideShift | count length of Duolingo-style creator training course; more money/time spent on it than on the product | 6 hours approximate | “we built out a Duolingo style training course that's like six hours long.” |
| SideShift | views campaign manager's talking-head evolution of the 'master's degree, can't find a job' format | 9.6M viewsper video | “nine million 9.6 million views and you can see the engagement rates 16” |
| SideShift | engagement rate same 9.6M-view video | 16%per video | “nine million 9.6 million views and you can see the engagement rates 16” |
| SideShift | views 6-7 of ~15 creator videos using the co-founder's cracked format | 150K–300K viewsper video approximate | “six or seven videos out of like 15 after generated more than 150 to 300,000 views.” |
| benchmarkTikTok/UGC video engagement rate ((likes+comments+saves+shares)/views) considered good | engagement rate 'anything above 7.5-8%' is good | 7.5–8% approximate | “anything above seven and a half to eight but if you get it above 12 it'll start to go very very viral generally” |
| benchmarkEngagement rate above which a UGC video tends to go very viral | engagement rate | 12% approximate | “anything above seven and a half to eight but if you get it above 12 it'll start to go very very viral generally” |
| benchmarkEngagement rate at which to kill a Spark ad (CPMs start rising) | engagement rate | 5% approximate | “if the engagement drops below five percent we kill the spark” |
| benchmarkInitial Spark ad test budget per video | ad spend first test; elsewhere $50-100/day per video for a week | USD 20per video approximate | “We usually put a $20 budget into it at first.” |
| benchmarkDaily Spark budget per video, run for a week at a time | ad spend | USD 50–100per video /day approximate | “we usually start with 50 to 100 a day on a video we let the spark run for a week at a time” |
| aggregateSpark ads on high-engagement UGC videos across SideShift programs | cpm | USD 1 approximate | “we generally see like way below dollar CPMs on Spark.” |
| aggregateSideShift programs: organic UGC ROAS vs Spark ROAS | roas organic returns ~15-20% better than Spark, whose ROAS correlates with organic | +15–20% estimate | “Generally, it's actually a little bit better than that on organic. Call it like 15, 20% better.” |
| benchmarkCampaign managers to creators ratio in UGC programs | count 1:10 is the winning ratio; up to 15; under 5 wastes money | 10–15 creatorsper campaign manager approximate | “one to ten is the winning ratio they can go up to 15” |
| benchmarkUGC program CPM at which founders can step back from day-to-day | cpm consistently sub $4-5 | USD 4–5 approximate | “But after you start generating like sub four to five dollar cpms like pretty consistently” |
| benchmarkAll-in UGC program CPM, month 1 (retainers + bonuses) | cpm | USD 5–8 approximate | “you should be expecting anywhere from five to eight dollars your first one” |
| benchmarkAll-in UGC program CPM by month 3 | cpm | USD 2–3 approximate | “but then by month three it should drop into the sub two sub three and then after like there it's just like pretty much should go sub one” |
| aggregateAll-in CPM (retainers + bonuses) of SideShift programs spending >$100K/month | cpm | USD 0.8–0.9 approximate | “all programs spending more than a hundred thousand dollars a month we have a lot of them and they're all driving sub dollar cpms typically sub 80 to 90 cents” |
| benchmarkUGC program monthly spend above which 'free views' (post-cap views) become significant | marketing spend | USD 30K–50K/month approximate | “at anything above 30 to 50k a month to spend you feel those free views” |
| aggregateBest-paying UGC programs on SideShift: retainer for experienced creators | creator pay for 60 unique videos (2/day), each cross-posted to 4 platforms, plus non-stacked view bonuses; creators with 1-2 prior campaigns | USD 800per creator /month approximate | “the best you see programs on side shift are paying 800 a month for 60 videos plus not stacked view bonuses” |
| aggregateUGC programs on SideShift: retainer for new creators | creator pay same 60-video package, or CPM-only | USD 200–300per creator /month approximate | “for a new creator a lot of times we'll start with like just a cpm or like call like two to three hundred dollars for that same package” |
| aggregatePopular UGC creator deal ~4 months earlier: base retainer | creator pay '$400 base, $2 CPM' deal; period not stated | USD 400per creator approximate | “four months ago it was the 400 base two dollar cpm it was like the biggest alpha ever” |
| aggregatePopular UGC creator deal ~4 months earlier: view bonus rate | cpm creator view bonus paid per 1,000 views | USD 2 approximate | “four months ago it was the 400 base two dollar cpm it was like the biggest alpha ever” |
| aggregateHost's guess at typical UGC retainer per video | creator pay | USD 10–30per video estimate | “retainer is like anywhere between 10 to 20 30 dollars per video is that about right” |
| SideShift customer program shown on dashboard | count | 10K posts approximate | “in over 10 000 posts they've generated 500 million views when 14 million engagements” |
| SideShift customer program shown on dashboard | views | 500M views approximate | “in over 10 000 posts they've generated 500 million views when 14 million engagements” |
| SideShift customer program shown on dashboard | count | 14M engagements approximate | “in over 10 000 posts they've generated 500 million views when 14 million engagements” |
| SideShift customer program shown on dashboard | rank | 1 rank | “this brought them number one on the app store” |
| Suno | rank App Store music category | 1 rank | “suno hit number one app store for the music category” |
| Suno | team size | 8 creator managers estimate | “they probably have eight creator managers i would assume” |
| GoWish | rank almost entirely from Spark ads | 1 rank | “one on the app store. that was almost entirely from spark” |
| startup that capped a viral creator's monthly CPM payout | views one creator's Instagram account in ~2 weeks, including a 45M-view video | 180M views approximate | “this guy got like one one account one instagram account like 180 million views in like two weeks” |
| startup that capped a viral creator's monthly CPM payout | creator pay actual capped monthly payout | USD 4,000per creator /month approximate | “his monthly cpm was capped and kid you not like 4k” |
| startup that capped a viral creator's monthly CPM payout | creator pay what he would have earned without the cap | USD 75Kper creator /month estimate | “if there was no cap he would have made like 75 000 in a month” |
| study tool app (host's example) | mrr attributed to a single video by a creator with ~100K followers on a fresh account | USD 20K estimate | “and it was like 20K MRR from the one video.” |
| e-commerce brand with performance-only creator deals | count videos one creator made before earning a dollar on a performance-only deal | 35 videos approximate | “he made 35 different unique videos before he made a dollar” |
| personA top SideShift creator's multi-brand account | followers account grown for one brand, then reused for other brands | 10K followers approximate | “he grew that account to 10 000 followers and then he started using the same account for a new brand” |
| personA top SideShift creator's multi-brand account | count 'average watch time' of his 10-minute videos; unit not stated (seconds or %) | 16 approximate | “the average watch time of one of his videos was 16” |