Rekto DigitalInsightsUGC with no followers

How to become a UGC creator with no followers (a step-by-step plan)

Updated October 28, 2026 · By the Rekto Digital team

You do not need an audience to start making UGC. Brands and app makers buy videos that show a product solving a real problem, and many programs, ours included, look at your ideas and your editing, not your follower count. This is the plan we would follow if we were starting from zero today.

What is a UGC creator, exactly?

A UGC (user-generated content) creator makes short videos about a product the way a real user would: unpolished enough to feel honest, clear enough to sell. The videos run on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, either on your own account or on the brand's.

There are two common ways to get paid. Some brands pay a fixed fee per video they use in their own ads. Others, like our creator program, pay on results: per install for our games and a share of each sale for our paid apps, as set out in each campaign's terms.

Step 1: pick one product you would really use

• Start with something you can show in under 30 seconds. A free tool that fixes a file, a puzzle game, a habit app. If it takes two minutes to explain, it is a hard first video.
• Use it for a few days first. Your best line will come from a moment that actually happened to you.
• Free-to-install products are easier. Viewers try them straight away, and installs are what results-based programs pay for. Our games Meow Jar and Plonk and the Kind PDF app are free on Google Play. Our free web tools are great for practice videos, but they bring no installs, so they earn nothing on their own.

Step 2: film the problem, then the fix

• Show the problem in the first second. An error message, a file that is too big, a level you keep failing. The problem is the hook.
• Show the fix happening on screen. Screen recordings are fine. Your face is optional.
• End on the result and one clear line: where to find it, in words people can search.
• Keep it between 15 and 45 seconds. Cut every pause.

Step 3: build a portfolio of three videos

Programs decide in a few seconds, so three strong videos beat twenty average ones. Make three different formats so a reviewer can see your range:

• A tutorial: one problem, one fix, on screen.
• A reaction or story: you trying the product for the first time, or the moment it saved you.
• A trend or format remix: a popular format, applied to the product. For paid or sponsored posts, use sounds the platform clears for commercial use (on TikTok, the Commercial Music Library), not any trending song.

Post them on your own account even if they get few views. A real link with a real upload date counts for more than a private file.

Step 4: apply where follower count does not matter

• Read what the program pays for. Fixed fee per video, per install, per sale, or a mix. Ours is mostly results-based, with fixed partnerships for some creators, and the terms of each campaign are shown before you commit.
• Send your best one to three videos, your main account link (even if it is small), your niche and your languages.
• Check the rules on originality and disclosure. Reposted content is usually refused, and you must label paid partnerships the way the platform and the law ask.

What do beginners get wrong?

• Starting with the product, not the problem. Nobody stops scrolling for a logo.
• Promising things the product does not do. It breaks platform rules and program terms, and it gets your videos removed.
• Posting once and waiting. Results come from a series. Post the same format three or four times with different hooks and keep the one that holds attention.
• Forgetting the disclosure label. Use the platform's paid-partnership tag.

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