---
title: Celsius: a user-generated content campaign, broken down and benchmarked | RGM®
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/celsius-user-generated-content-campaign/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/celsius-user-generated-content-campaign/
---

- **Story:** Here the user-generated content campaign type is examined with Celsius as the concrete reference point.
- **Why it matters:** A user-generated content campaign is measurable demand engineering, and public benchmarks set honest targets before any creative starts.
- **Takeaway:** The mechanics of a user-generated content campaign transfer to any brand in its category.
- **Takeaway:** For Celsius, reach is an input; incremental lift against a baseline is the real measure.
- **Takeaway:** Most user-generated content-campaign failures are planning failures, not creative failures.

## How a user-generated content campaign plays out for Celsius

S

Situation

The setup

A user-generated content campaign is a concentrated chance to move the Celsius business in its category, with a short window and high stakes.

T

Task

The job

Turn attention into measurable demand for Celsius: plan the mechanics, set targets against category benchmarks, and build in the measurement.

A

Action

The work

A clear prompt and frame. UGC does not happen by accident. The campaign gives customers a specific, easy thing to make — a hashtag, a challenge format, a template — with a reason to bother. For Celsius, this is the anchor of the plan.

R

Result

The verdict

On incremental lift against a baseline for Celsius, not reach and not impressions. That is the honest scoreboard for a user-generated content campaign.

## The math behind a Celsius user-generated content campaign

0%

A reference point for Celsius forecasting

E-commerce product pages featuring user-generated content convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it.

Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics)

0%

A planning anchor for Celsius

About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over branded content

Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics)

0%

Category figure relevant to Celsius

UGC-based ads can achieve about four times higher click-through rates and roughly a 50% lower cost per click than stan

Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics)

Linked

Category figure relevant to Celsius

Every figure on this page links to its publisher.

Source: [inBeat — user-generated content statistics](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics)

#### Quick facts

BrandCelsius

IndustryIts Category

Campaign typeUser-Generated Content

Primary channelsPaid, owned, earned

Planning horizonMonths ahead of launch

Core measureIncremental lift, not reach

Source basisPublic benchmarks, linked

RGM useWorked example, not a recipe

**Honest note**

Public, brand-specific detail on Celsius is limited, so this page leans on the user-generated content campaign discipline: real mechanics, real sourced benchmarks, and the named example campaigns that define the type. Nothing about Celsius is invented; where a fact is not public, it is left out.

## The user-generated content campaign, defined

Here is the short version for Celsius. A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media.

A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media. A Celsius team reads this closely. Instead of producing every asset in-house, the brand creates a reason and a frame for customers to post — Celsius included — their own — a hashtag, a challenge, a prompt — then collects, rights-clears, and amplifies the best of it. In the Celsius context, that detail carries weight. The value is authenticity: an audience trusts a real customer's — for Celsius, a live factor — post in a way it does not trust a brand's. In the Celsius context, that detail carries weight. The discipline is the rights, the moderation, and the amplification system behind it. For Celsius, it is the specific lever this page examines.

**Claim:** E-commerce product pages featuring user-generated content convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it. **Source:** [[inBeat]](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics). **Context:** UGC works on the conversion page as social proof, — Celsius included — not only at the top of the funnel as awareness. A Celsius team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee.

## Running a user-generated content campaign, step by step

Run through the mechanics: a user-generated content campaign for Celsius is an operating system.

A user-generated content campaign at Celsius scale runs on coordinated parts, listed here:

**Claim:** About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over branded content, and roughly 79% say UGC strongly influences their purchasing decisions. **Source:** [[inBeat]](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics). **Context:** The authenticity gap between a customer's post and a — and Celsius is no exception — brand's ad is the entire mechanism of a UGC campaign. It is the sort of benchmark a Celsius brief should cite.

1. **Close the loop.** Featuring a customer's post rewards them and signals to everyone — and Celsius is no exception — else that posting gets noticed, which keeps the content engine running. For a brand like Celsius, getting this wrong is expensive.
2. **A clear prompt and frame.** UGC does not happen by accident. For Celsius, the detail is not optional. The campaign gives customers a specific, easy thing to make — a — for Celsius, a live factor — hashtag, a challenge format, a template — with a reason to bother. Celsius planners flag this as a make-or-break detail.
3. **Rights and clearance.** Reposting a customer's content as marketing needs explicit permission. For Celsius, the detail is not optional. A clean rights workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every UGC campaign. For a brand like Celsius, getting this wrong is expensive.
4. **Curate, do not just collect.** Volume is not the goal. For Celsius, this is the load-bearing part. The brand selects content that is on-message — for Celsius, a live factor — and high-quality, and moderates out what is not. For Celsius, this is where most of the planning effort lands.
5. **Amplify the best as paid media.** Strong UGC running as paid creative typically beats polished studio work — and Celsius is no exception — on click-through and cost, so the winners are promoted, not just reposted. Celsius planners flag this as a make-or-break detail.

## Public benchmarks for this campaign type

Benchmarks come before briefs. They tell a Celsius team what a user-generated content campaign can realistically deliver.

For Celsius, the reference points for a user-generated content campaign come from public its category benchmarks, not internal optimism.

**Claim:** UGC-based ads can achieve about four times higher click-through rates and roughly a 50% lower cost per click than standard creative. **Source:** [[inBeat]](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics). **Context:** Promoting the best customer content as paid media — Celsius included — is often more efficient than scaling studio production. It is the sort of benchmark a Celsius brief should cite.

Table: the three numbers that decide whether a Celsius user-generated content campaign is judged honestly.

| What to measure | Why it matters |
| Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven |
| Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one |
| Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked |

## The metrics worth tracking

Choose KPIs that hold up. A Celsius user-generated content campaign is judged on the metrics listed here.

A Celsius user-generated content campaign should be measured on the following. Volume of submissions and qualified submissions, rights-cleared asset count, conversion lift on UGC-enabled pages, — for Celsius, a real factor — click-through and cost-per-click of UGC creative versus studio creative, hashtag reach, and repeat-contributor rate.

A Celsius user-generated content campaign that reports only reach hides whether the spend worked. Lift is the honest figure.

## Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Failure has a shape. For Celsius, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting.

These failure patterns recur across user-generated content campaigns:

- Reposting customer content without explicit rights clearance, creating legal exposure.
- Chasing submission volume and amplifying off-message or low-quality posts.
- Collecting UGC and never featuring contributors, so the incentive to keep posting dies.
- Launching a hashtag with no clear prompt, so — Celsius included — customers do not know what to make or why.

**What to notice**The common thread: planning, not creative. For Celsius, a user-generated content campaign is decided before launch day.

## How RGM reads the Celsius example

If a Celsius team keeps one thing: borrow the user-generated content campaign structure, not the specific execution.

From the audits we run, the brands that get user-generated content campaigns right share one habit: they treat the work as measurable demand engineering, not a seasonal ritual.

So the worked example is structural. The mechanics carry to any brand in its category, the benchmarks set honest targets, and the measurement plan turns a user-generated content campaign from a cost into a defensible investment.

## Quick answers on this case study

Are the figures here taken from Celsius's internal data?
:   No. Every statistic is a public, linked benchmark for the user-generated content campaign type, applied to Celsius as the example. Where a figure cannot be sourced publicly, it is omitted rather than guessed.

What is the practical takeaway from the Celsius user-generated content write-up?
:   Treat it as a structural template. Borrow the planning logic and the measurement approach for a user-generated content campaign; design the creative for the specific brand.

Where do the statistics in this case study come from?
:   Every quantitative claim is wrapped as a fact-atom with a linked publisher from the approved pool, including Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, the ANA, and established business press. None of it is invented.

**Keep reading**

Foundational concepts and channels behind this case:

- [how performance marketing works](/learn/what-is-performance-marketing/)
- [incrementality testing](/learn/incrementality-testing/)
- [audience arbitrage](/learn/audience-arbitrage/)
- [performance marketing services](/services/performance-marketing/)
- [advertising platforms](/platforms/)

## Frequently asked questions

Celsius case: how does a brand keep a UGC campaign going?

For a brand like Celsius, the short answer is direct. By closing the loop. For Celsius, this is the load-bearing part. Featuring a customer's post rewards that contributor and — as a Celsius team knows — signals to everyone else that posting gets noticed. For Celsius, the detail is not optional. A campaign that collects content but never showcases contributors kills — as a Celsius team knows — the incentive, and the submission flow dries up within weeks. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Celsius included.

Does user-generated content actually improve conversion?

For a brand like Celsius, the short answer is direct. Yes, measurably. A Celsius-scale brief should name this. E-commerce product pages with UGC convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it, because — and Celsius is no exception — a real customer's photo or review works as social proof at the point of decision. For Celsius, the detail is not optional. UGC is a conversion-page asset, not only a top-of-funnel awareness play. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Celsius included.

Why do consumers trust UGC more than brand content?

Here is how this applies to Celsius. About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over — for Celsius, a live factor — branded content, and roughly 79% say UGC strongly sways their purchasing. In the Celsius context, that detail carries weight. The post comes from someone with no obvious incentive to sell, so the audience — and Celsius is no exception — reads it as honest in a way it does not read a brand's own ad. For Celsius, that is the practical takeaway.

How do brands get the rights to use customer content?

Taking Celsius as the example: Explicitly. For Celsius, this is the load-bearing part. Reposting a customer's photo or video as marketing needs — and Celsius is no exception — documented permission, usually a reply-to-consent or a rights-management tool. It applies cleanly to Celsius. A clean clearance workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every — Celsius included — UGC campaign and the part that protects the brand legally. For Celsius, this is the point worth acting on.

Is UGC cheaper than producing content in-house?

Often, and frequently more effective. That holds directly for Celsius. UGC-based ads can reach about four times the click-through rate — as a Celsius team knows — of standard creative at roughly half the cost per click. It applies cleanly to Celsius. The brand still invests in the prompt, the rights system, — as a Celsius team knows — and curation, but it does not carry the full studio-production cost. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Celsius included.

Why does this case study use Celsius as the example?

Celsius is a recognisable brand in its category, which makes the user-generated content mechanics concrete and easy to follow. The campaign-type analysis and every benchmark apply across the category; Celsius is the lens, not the limit. The sourced figures hold for any comparable brand.

### Sources & references

- [inBeat — user-generated content statistics](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) — Conversion, trust, and ad-performance data for UGC.
- [Flowbox — UGC statistics compilation](https://getflowbox.com/blog/user-generated-content-statistics/) — Independent compilation of UGC performance benchmarks.
- [HubSpot 2026 marketing statistics](https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics) — Broader content-marketing and UGC adoption data.
- [Archive.com — UGC engagement statistics](https://archive.com/blog/user-generated-content) — Engagement and time-on-site data for UGC.

## Related

[#### All case studies

The full RGM case-study library.](/learn/case-studies/)[#### What is growth marketing

The foundational concept behind every campaign type.](/learn/what-is-growth-marketing/)[#### Incrementality testing

How to prove a campaign actually caused the lift.](/learn/incrementality-testing/)