SideShift · B2B · UGC creator marketplace
Tie videos to job-market anger: 'I have a master's and can't find a job'
Talking-head version got 9.6M views; 6-7 of ~15 early videos hit 150-300K
Workedugc-creatorsorganic-short-video
What they did
To recruit creators, SideShift's co-founder Nick posted his own non-talking video (April of the prior year): big on-screen text 'I have a master's degree / PhD and couldn't find a job' at the bottom, pointing at a screen with facial expressions (hook + demo), riding job-market anger. Once cracked, the format was given to all creators; variants like 'I graduated from Yale and can't even get an interview'. A year later a campaign manager turned it into a one-minute talking-head story ('denied from a cashier's job, I have a master's degree') ending with 'but I'm making money with SideShift'.
What happened
6-7 of ~15 creator videos got 150-300K views; talking-head version got 9.6M views at 16% engagement.
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Drew Levin - I Studied 1,000,000 UGC Ads, This Is What Will Grow Your App“we're just trying to relate what's going on in the world to our platform and product that was like the initial strategy”
“I have a master's degree. So that was like, you have to put that or like a PhD. I have a PhD with like a big piece of text.”
“And now a year later, we gave that to one of our campaign managers and they turned that into a”
Related topics
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More from SideShift
All 12 SideShift tactics- Have 5 creators post twice a day on new TikTok accounts; copy the first hit10K to 150K+ users in 3-4 months on ~$10K; 16-20M views in one campaign
- Visit 25 college campuses in person to sign up the first usersFirst 10-20K users; strong word of mouth among college students
- Once a video format wins, put 90% of creators on it and keep 10% testingWorks well for them; keeps a backup format ready if the winner saturates
- Run organic videos with 5%+ engagement as Meta ads, starting at $100 a dayGreat results at $100/day, then scaled up; no numbers given
- Manage all creators in one group chat and share what's workingKeeps creators bought in; one-on-one management called very hard
- Build a warm-up video format from real posts about job-hunt painStill used a year later; warms accounts well but converts poorly
More from this episode
- Suno: Lean into people hating your category to drive commentsCalled the easiest way to go viral; no numbers
- Hand creators viral videos to copy; review every post for the first 3 daysCommon to every successful creator campaign he sees
- Hire one manager for every 10 creators to keep them postingEvery long-running successful program has many managers
- Turn the TikToks that already did well into adsCPMs well under $1; also lifts the account's later organic views
- GoWish: Grow an app mainly by running creator TikToks as adsHit #1 on the App Store, secondhand; cheapest acquisition
- Run creator posts as Meta partnership ads with targetingConverts better than TikTok's boosted creator ads in general
- Clue: Have creators post to four platforms; pay for views only on the best oneSpreading among brands; adds reach while hedging pay; no numbers
- Pay creators $800/month for 60 videos, plus view bonuses capped by viewsCPMs fall from $5-8 in month 1 to ~$0.80-0.90 at $100K+/month
- Cap a viral creator's monthly payPaid ~$4K instead of ~$75K for 180M views; creator left
- Pay creators only a share of ad spend or sales, nothing up frontOne creator made 35 videos before earning; hurts loyalty
- Brex: Run creator videos as TikTok ads to win B2B customers'Really good results', secondhand; very cheap CPMs
- Post daily 10-minute story videos with the call to action at minute nine'Somehow this is working'; no conversion numbers
- SideShift: Train your own creators with a 6-hour course on making app videosCreators earn ~$10-15K after 1-2 months; early quality complaints
- SideShift: Pay creators yourself when a brand fails to pay themExtreme creator loyalty and referrals; costs up to ~six figures/month
- Suno: Have creator managers also coach the creators#1 in the App Store music category, secondhand