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How to find, vet and pay UGC creators for an app

Nicole Cheung's UGC creator program economics — $10–30 base per post (min 500 views) plus decreasing-CPM view bonuses — and where to recruit creators (SideShift, Discord inbound, micro-influencer outreach).

Updated 2026-10-23·1 source·user-acquisitionugccreatorsinfluencer-marketingorganic-socialcompensation

How to find, vet and pay UGC creators for an app

TL;DR

  • Pay base rate $10–30 per post + view-based bonuses.1
  • Nicole requires ≥500 views before a post earns the base rate.1
  • Bonuses start at 10K or 50K views on a decreasing CPM curve (e.g. $50 at 50K = $1 CPM; $500 at 1M = $0.50 CPM).1
  • Recruit via SideShift/UGC platforms early on; later via inbound applications (Discord communities, referrals) and DMs to micro-influencers averaging ~10K views.23
  • Interview everyone; Nicole accepts ≤50%.4

Details

Who is this from. Nicole Cheung, whose apps (e.g. Glam Up) pull 300–400M social views a month, on an App Masters podcast (Aug 2026).

Pay structure.15

  • Base $10–30/post, gated at 500 views (other companies gate differently).
  • Bonus tiers with falling CPM — illustrative: 10K views → ~$50, 50K → $50 ($1 CPM), 1M → $500 ($0.50 CPM). (Her tier numbers are examples, not a fixed table.)
  • Base depends on format difficulty and source: experienced creators juggling ~5 apps won’t take $10; a college student new to UGC, filming easy content, will.

Where to find creators.23

  • SideShift or other UGC marketplaces — built for beginners, many applicants per campaign.
  • Inbound: after 2–3 years Nicole recruits through creator friends who run UGC communities (Discord) and personal referrals.
  • Outreach: DM micro-influencers with good average views (~10K/video) — many go viral but have no way to monetize and want paid work.

Vetting. Early on she blocked whole days for creator interviews and accepted roughly half or fewer — the program needs creators who take it seriously.4

Accounts. Creators post from brand-new accounts warmed to your niche, not their personal ones — see New TikTok/Instagram accounts for UGC and the 3-day warm-up.6

Disagreements / caveats

  • Hiring is “maybe 5%” of the work; most of the outcome depends on the founder’s format research and training — see Go viral yourself before hiring UGC creators.4
  • Pay levels are one operator’s 2026 practice; rates vary by market and format.

See also

Footnotes

  1. The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views @ 00:00 — Nicole Cheung ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views @ 00:55 — Nicole Cheung ↩ ↩2

  3. The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views @ 02:25 — Nicole Cheung ↩ ↩2

  4. The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views @ 04:33 — Nicole Cheung ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views @ 00:55 — Nicole Cheung ↩

  6. The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views @ 02:25 — Nicole Cheung ↩