5 UGC tips for small business owners who don't know what they're doing on camera

I've been a content creator since 2020, working with over 35 brands, averaging 5,000 to 8,000 engagements a post and 100,000 monthly views. I've also sat on the other side of it, running brand and UX marketing for Emma Sleep across APAC, where I launched a UGC carousel on the Philippines site and watched what the content did to engagement and sessions. Now I film SecretSauce's social content.

Business owners filming their own product content usually get stuck in the same places, and it's rarely ever the camera quality. I see people film out of order, shoot everything from one distance, then find out in the edit that half the shots they needed were never taken. The gap between a video that looks thrown together and one that holds attention is mostly process, and the right process is completely learnable.

Here are 5 UGC tips I use on every shoot. None of them need gear you don't own.

1. Film the talking head first, even if you're not comfortable on camera yet

Write the script, film yourself speaking, then choose the visuals. In that order, every time.

Most people do it backwards. B-roll is the fun part, so you shoot the product, the hands, the pour, the close-up, and leave the talking for later. But if you do it that way, you'll end up bending the script to fit whatever content you filmed, and then spend hours editing trying to rescue the video.

If you film the talking head first, the footage tells you which visuals it needs. You know where the explanation runs long and needs a cutaway. You know which claim has no image to back it up yet.

Use the same sequence when you generate an AI UGC video instead of shooting one: write the brief, read the script it comes back with, fix it before you approve it, and let the visuals get built off the version you actually want.

2. Choose your b-roll ideas carefully

Every cutaway should show whatever you're talking about at the moment you say it.

It's tempting to film just any b-roll rather than b-roll that follows the script. The product is sitting on the table, so you shoot the product: five angles, the hands, the pour. Then the script says “it ships in 48 hours” and you have no shot for it, so you drop in another pack shot and hope nobody notices. They notice. The viewer has to follow the words and the picture separately, and that's the moment they scroll.

Go through your script line by line and ask yourself what someone would need to see to believe each claim. Write it next to the line. “Ships in 48 hours” needs a box being taped shut, not a pack shot. That list is your b-roll, it takes five minutes to make, and it stops you filming 40 seconds of product beauty shots you never use.

If you're generating an AI UGC video, SecretSauce does this for you when it writes the script. It offers b-roll options for each line so you can see what it's about to generate, and swap in a different idea where you have one.

3. For software, the edit is the demo

If you sell an app, an AI tool, or a SaaS platform, there's nothing to hold up to the camera. So the edit does the work the product would have.

Most people record a screen share, talk over it, and post it. But a flat screen recording with a voiceover doesn't give the eye anywhere to go, so people leave in the first few seconds.

Use one of these edits instead:

Talking head with pop-up text and SFX

You talk, your key points appear on screen as animated text, and sound effects punch the important ones.

Green screen demo

You appear in front of the app interface, so you're inside the walkthrough rather than narrating it from outside.

Phone or laptop demo

You film yourself using the app from a few angles, which reads as someone using a product rather than a product being presented.

Split-screen

Your face on the bottom half, a screen recording of the product on the top.

Pick one per video while you're learning. Stacking all four at once might come out frantic.

If you're generating an AI UGC video, ask the AI for the format by name in your prompt. Say green screen or split-screen and you'll get it, rather than whatever the default would have been.

4. Plan your shot list with these UGC video ideas before you pick up a phone

Decide which angles and distances you're filming before you start, and use a mix.

Without a plan, you'll likely film everything from the same spot, about a metre back, phone at chest height. But one angle the whole way through can make your video seem unplanned, and viewers feel it even when they can't say why. You also finish the shoot without the close-up you needed, and by then the product is back on the shelf and the light has changed.

Write out which shots you're getting before you start. You don't need every type in every video, you just need to choose rather than default. Five minutes of planning saves you an hour of editing, since you won't have to search for a shot you never filmed.

Pull from these five:

• Framing shot: Sets the scene, product in its environment.
• Detail shot: Creates intrigue through texture, packaging, the small details.
• Medium shot: Shows action, the product being used as part of a routine.
• Macro shot: Intense close-up on ingredients, colors, fine detail.
• POV shot: First-person, so the viewer pictures themselves using it.

Brands that use AI to do this still plan the shots first. Borderlessbutter saved six hours a week on product photos by deciding the angles up front and generating them instead of staging each one, and Muscle Munchies got sales from one product photo by varying what that single shot became. If you want to skip the shoot too, here's how to get product shots without a photographer.

5. Keep something changing on screen

Shot angles, editing techniques, formats: all of it exists to give the eye somewhere new to go every few seconds.

It's easy to settle on one look and use it throughout the whole video. But TikTok and Reels train people to expect a change every few seconds, and that expectation doesn't switch off when they land on your content. If you stay on one look for 20 seconds, most people will scroll before you get to your point.

Go back to your last 5 videos and count the distinct visual changes per 15 seconds. If you count fewer than two, that's your next edit: add a cutaway, change the angle, or cut a beat earlier than feels natural.

Across six years and 35-plus brands, my posts that reached 5,000 to 8,000 engagements were never the ones with the best single shot, they were the ones that kept moving.

Put these UGC tips into practice

Here's how to put these to use on your next video:

• Pick one tip and use it on your next video this week. The shot list is the fastest if you're not sure where to begin.
• Open a new SecretSauce chat, paste the tip in, and ask it to apply the principle to a video for your brand and tell you which inputs it needs.
• Check Creative Radar for the UGC formats getting engagement in your niche right now, then clone one for your brand in a click.
• Schedule the finished video straight from SecretSauce with Social Planner.

For the longer version of how AI UGC works end to end, read AI UGC for brands: Everything you need to know. Free to start at trysecretsauce.ai.

People also ask

Do I need expensive gear to film good UGC?

No. A smartphone and a script written in the right order (talking head first, then b-roll) matters more than camera quality.

Can AI generate UGC for my brand?

Yes. Tools like SecretSauce write the script, generate b-roll options line by line, and can produce the video in specific formats like green screen or split-screen on request.

How long should a UGC video be?

Long enough to make one point well. The tips above (visual changes every 15 seconds, one edit format per video) matter more for retention than a specific runtime.