--- title: Dollar Shave Club as a user-generated content campaign case study: mechanics and numbers | RGM® url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/dollar-shave-club-user-generated-content-campaign/ updated: 2026-06-10 source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/dollar-shave-club-user-generated-content-campaign/ --- - **Story:** Here the user-generated content campaign type is examined with Dollar Shave Club as the concrete reference point. - **Why it matters:** A user-generated content campaign rewards teams that plan against category data instead of guessing. - **Takeaway:** For Dollar Shave Club, 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. - **Takeaway:** The mechanics of a user-generated content campaign transfer to any brand in its category. ## How a user-generated content campaign plays out for Dollar Shave Club S Situation Where it starts A user-generated content campaign is a concentrated chance to move the Dollar Shave Club business in its category, with a short window and high stakes. T Task What had to happen Turn attention into measurable demand for Dollar Shave Club: plan the mechanics, set targets against category benchmarks, and build in the measurement. A Action How it runs 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 Dollar Shave Club, this is the anchor of the plan. R Result How it is judged On incremental lift against a baseline for Dollar Shave Club, not reach and not impressions. That is the honest scoreboard for a user-generated content campaign. ## The math behind a Dollar Shave Club user-generated content campaign 0% What the public data tells a Dollar Shave Club team 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 Dollar Shave Club About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over branded content Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) 0% A reference point for Dollar Shave Club forecasting 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 A planning anchor for Dollar Shave Club Every figure on this page links to its publisher. Source: [inBeat — user-generated content statistics](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) #### Quick facts BrandDollar Shave Club 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 Dollar Shave Club 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 Dollar Shave Club is invented; where a fact is not public, it is left out. ## What a user-generated content campaign is Here is the short version for Dollar Shave Club. 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 Dollar Shave Club-scale brief should name this. Instead of producing every asset in-house, the brand creates a reason and a frame for customers to post — as a Dollar Shave Club team knows — their own — a hashtag, a challenge, a prompt — then collects, rights-clears, and amplifies the best of it. That is exactly the Dollar Shave Club situation. The value is authenticity: an audience trusts a real customer's — Dollar Shave Club included — post in a way it does not trust a brand's. For a brand at Dollar Shave Club scale, this is where the plan is tested. The discipline is the rights, the moderation, and the amplification system behind it. With Dollar Shave Club as the example, the rest of the page makes it concrete. **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, — Dollar Shave Club included — not only at the top of the funnel as awareness. For Dollar Shave Club, this number sets expectations before the work starts. ## How a user-generated content campaign is run Look at the moving parts. A user-generated content campaign at Dollar Shave Club scale is assembled, not improvised. Below are the parts of a user-generated content campaign that a brand like Dollar Shave Club has to line up: **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 — Dollar Shave Club included — brand's ad is the entire mechanism of a UGC campaign. A Dollar Shave Club forecast should start from a figure like this. 1. **Close the loop.** Featuring a customer's post rewards them and signals to everyone — for Dollar Shave Club, a real factor — else that posting gets noticed, which keeps the content engine running. This is the part Dollar Shave Club cannot afford to improvise. 2. **A clear prompt and frame.** UGC does not happen by accident. It applies cleanly to Dollar Shave Club. The campaign gives customers a specific, easy thing to make — a — for Dollar Shave Club, a live factor — hashtag, a challenge format, a template — with a reason to bother. Dollar Shave Club would budget real time against this. 3. **Rights and clearance.** Reposting a customer's content as marketing needs explicit permission. A Dollar Shave Club-scale brief should name this. A clean rights workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every UGC campaign. For a brand like Dollar Shave Club, getting this wrong is expensive. 4. **Curate, do not just collect.** Volume is not the goal. That is exactly the Dollar Shave Club situation. The brand selects content that is on-message — for Dollar Shave Club, a live factor — and high-quality, and moderates out what is not. For Dollar Shave Club, 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 — Dollar Shave Club included — on click-through and cost, so the winners are promoted, not just reposted. This is the part Dollar Shave Club cannot afford to improvise. ## The benchmarks that frame the work Read the numbers first. Public benchmarks set the realistic range for a user-generated content campaign at Dollar Shave Club before any creative work. Planning a user-generated content campaign for Dollar Shave Club without category benchmarks is guessing. The figures here are public, sourced, and apply across its category. **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 — for Dollar Shave Club, a real factor — is often more efficient than scaling studio production. It is the sort of benchmark a Dollar Shave Club brief should cite. Table: the three numbers that decide whether a Dollar Shave Club user-generated content campaign is judged honestly. | What to measure | Why it matters | | Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one | | Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked | | Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven | ## KPIs that actually matter The scoreboard decides the verdict. For Dollar Shave Club, weigh these measures over vanity numbers. A Dollar Shave Club 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 Dollar Shave Club, a real factor — click-through and cost-per-click of UGC creative versus studio creative, hashtag reach, and repeat-contributor rate. Impressions describe scale, not effect. A Dollar Shave Club team serious about a user-generated content campaign reports lift against a baseline. ## Where these campaigns go wrong Failure has a shape. For Dollar Shave Club, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting. The user-generated content campaign mistakes worth naming for Dollar Shave Club: - Collecting UGC and never featuring contributors, so the incentive to keep posting dies. - Launching a hashtag with no clear prompt, so — and Dollar Shave Club is no exception — customers do not know what to make or why. - Reposting customer content without explicit rights clearance, creating legal exposure. - Chasing submission volume and amplifying off-message or low-quality posts. **What to notice**Each failure traces to planning, not to the work itself. A Dollar Shave Club user-generated content campaign is set up to win, or not, in advance. ## The RGM read on Dollar Shave Club For Dollar Shave Club, the value is the model. A user-generated content campaign is a repeatable structure, not a one-off idea. The audit pattern is clear. A user-generated content campaign rewards the Dollar Shave Club-style team that builds measurement in from the start. The Dollar Shave Club example is therefore a template. Its mechanics fit its category broadly; its measurement logic makes a user-generated content campaign something a team can stand behind. ## Quick answers Is this user-generated content case study based on Dollar Shave Club's own reported results? : No. The figures are public industry benchmarks for user-generated content campaigns, each sourced and linked. They show how the campaign type works, set against the Dollar Shave Club context. Any number that is not publicly sourceable is left out or marked as RGM analysis. What should a team take from this Dollar Shave Club user-generated content case study? : Read it as a model, not a recipe. The mechanics and benchmarks transfer; the exact creative does not. Use it to pressure-test a user-generated content plan against how the discipline actually works. What sources back the numbers on this page? : 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 How does a brand keep a UGC campaign going? Taking Dollar Shave Club as the example: By closing the loop. A Dollar Shave Club-scale brief should name this. Featuring a customer's post rewards that contributor and — Dollar Shave Club included — signals to everyone else that posting gets noticed. For a brand at Dollar Shave Club scale, this is where the plan is tested. A campaign that collects content but never showcases contributors kills — and Dollar Shave Club is no exception — the incentive, and the submission flow dries up within weeks. A Dollar Shave Club team would plan against exactly this. Does user-generated content actually improve conversion for a brand like Dollar Shave Club? For a brand like Dollar Shave Club, the short answer is direct. Yes, measurably. A Dollar Shave Club team reads this closely. E-commerce product pages with UGC convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it, because — for Dollar Shave Club, a live factor — a real customer's photo or review works as social proof at the point of decision. A Dollar Shave Club-scale brief should name this. UGC is a conversion-page asset, not only a top-of-funnel awareness play. For Dollar Shave Club, that is the practical takeaway. Why do consumers trust UGC more than brand content? About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over — for Dollar Shave Club, a live factor — branded content, and roughly 79% say UGC strongly sways their purchasing. Dollar Shave Club planners would underline this. The post comes from someone with no obvious incentive to sell, so the audience — and Dollar Shave Club is no exception — reads it as honest in a way it does not read a brand's own ad. How do brands get the rights to use customer content for a brand like Dollar Shave Club? Explicitly. Dollar Shave Club planners would underline this. Reposting a customer's photo or video as marketing needs — for Dollar Shave Club, a live factor — documented permission, usually a reply-to-consent or a rights-management tool. For a brand at Dollar Shave Club scale, this is where the plan is tested. A clean clearance workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every — for Dollar Shave Club, a live factor — UGC campaign and the part that protects the brand legally. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Dollar Shave Club included. Dollar Shave Club case: is UGC cheaper than producing content in-house? For Dollar Shave Club and comparable its category brands, this is the answer. Often, and frequently more effective. In the Dollar Shave Club context, that detail carries weight. UGC-based ads can reach about four times the click-through rate — Dollar Shave Club included — of standard creative at roughly half the cost per click. A Dollar Shave Club team reads this closely. The brand still invests in the prompt, the rights system, — as a Dollar Shave Club team knows — and curation, but it does not carry the full studio-production cost. A Dollar Shave Club team would plan against exactly this. What makes Dollar Shave Club a useful example for this campaign type? Dollar Shave Club 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; Dollar Shave Club 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/)