--- title: Function of Beauty and the user-generated content playbook: how the campaign type works | RGM® url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/function-of-beauty-user-generated-content-campaign/ updated: 2026-06-10 source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/function-of-beauty-user-generated-content-campaign/ --- - **Story:** Using Function of Beauty as the example, this page unpacks how a user-generated content campaign is built and measured. - **Why it matters:** The value of a user-generated content campaign comes from rigour: clear targets, real benchmarks, built-in measurement. - **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 beauty and personal care. - **Takeaway:** For Function of Beauty, reach is an input; incremental lift against a baseline is the real measure. ## How a user-generated content campaign plays out for Function of Beauty S Situation The setup A user-generated content campaign is a concentrated chance to move the Function of Beauty business in beauty and personal care, with a short window and high stakes. T Task The objective Turn attention into measurable demand for Function of Beauty: 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 Function of Beauty, this is the anchor of the plan. R Result The scoreboard On incremental lift against a baseline for Function of Beauty, not reach and not impressions. That is the honest scoreboard for a user-generated content campaign. ## The math behind a Function of Beauty user-generated content campaign 0% What the public data tells a Function of Beauty 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 reference point for Function of Beauty forecasting About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over branded content Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) 0% Benchmark a Function of Beauty plan should cite 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 What the public data tells a Function of Beauty team Every figure on this page links to its publisher. Source: [inBeat — user-generated content statistics](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) #### Quick facts BrandFunction of Beauty IndustryBeauty And Personal Care 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** There is limited public campaign detail specific to Function of Beauty, so the depth here comes from the user-generated content-campaign discipline itself, with sourced benchmarks and named example campaigns. No Function of Beauty figure is fabricated. ## The user-generated content campaign, defined Here is the short version for Function of Beauty. A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media. A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media. Function of Beauty planners would underline this. Instead of producing every asset in-house, the brand creates a reason and a frame for customers to post — and Function of Beauty is no exception — their own — a hashtag, a challenge, a prompt — then collects, rights-clears, and amplifies the best of it. That is exactly the Function of Beauty situation. The value is authenticity: an audience trusts a real customer's — Function of Beauty included — post in a way it does not trust a brand's. For a brand at Function of Beauty scale, this is where the plan is tested. The discipline is the rights, the moderation, and the amplification system behind it. With Function of Beauty 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, — and Function of Beauty is no exception — not only at the top of the funnel as awareness. A Function of Beauty forecast should start from a figure like this. ## Running a user-generated content campaign, step by step These are the components a Function of Beauty-scale team has to coordinate for a user-generated content campaign. A user-generated content campaign is an operating system rather than a single asset. For Function of Beauty, these parts have to work together: **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 — for Function of Beauty, a real factor — brand's ad is the entire mechanism of a UGC campaign. A Function of Beauty forecast should start from a figure like this. 1. **Curate, do not just collect.** Volume is not the goal. A Function of Beauty-scale brief should name this. The brand selects content that is on-message — for Function of Beauty, a live factor — and high-quality, and moderates out what is not. For Function of Beauty, this is where most of the planning effort lands. 2. **Amplify the best as paid media.** Strong UGC running as paid creative typically beats polished studio work — and Function of Beauty is no exception — on click-through and cost, so the winners are promoted, not just reposted. This is the part Function of Beauty cannot afford to improvise. 3. **Close the loop.** Featuring a customer's post rewards them and signals to everyone — and Function of Beauty is no exception — else that posting gets noticed, which keeps the content engine running. For Function of Beauty, this is where most of the planning effort lands. 4. **A clear prompt and frame.** UGC does not happen by accident. A Function of Beauty team reads this closely. The campaign gives customers a specific, easy thing to make — a — for Function of Beauty, a live factor — hashtag, a challenge format, a template — with a reason to bother. Function of Beauty would budget real time against this. 5. **Rights and clearance.** Reposting a customer's content as marketing needs explicit permission. For a brand at Function of Beauty scale, this is where the plan is tested. A clean rights workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every UGC campaign. This step decides how the rest of the Function of Beauty plan holds up. ## The numbers that set the targets Start with the category numbers. They frame what a user-generated content campaign means for Function of Beauty. A Function of Beauty team setting user-generated content campaign targets needs the category data first. The numbers below are public and linked. **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 Function of Beauty, a real factor — is often more efficient than scaling studio production. It is the sort of benchmark a Function of Beauty brief should cite. Table: the three numbers that decide whether a Function of Beauty user-generated content campaign is judged honestly. | What to measure | Why it matters | | Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked | | Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven | | Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one | ## KPIs that actually matter Pick the right scoreboard for Function of Beauty. The metrics below separate a campaign that moved the business from one that moved a dashboard. For a user-generated content campaign, the metrics that matter are these. Volume of submissions and qualified submissions, rights-cleared asset count, conversion lift on UGC-enabled pages, — for Function of Beauty, a real factor — click-through and cost-per-click of UGC creative versus studio creative, hashtag reach, and repeat-contributor rate. For Function of Beauty, reach is the start of the measurement question, not the answer. Incremental lift is the answer. ## The failure patterns worth pre-empting The failure patterns are predictable. A Function of Beauty team can design each of them out in advance. The user-generated content campaign mistakes worth naming for Function of Beauty: - Launching a hashtag with no clear prompt, so — Function of Beauty included — 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. - Collecting UGC and never featuring contributors, so the incentive to keep posting dies. **What to notice**These are upstream failures. A user-generated content campaign for Function of Beauty is mostly decided before any ad runs. ## What RGM takes from the Function of Beauty case One takeaway for Function of Beauty: treat the user-generated content story as a model of the discipline, and copy the structure, not the creative. What we see in audits: a user-generated content campaign succeeds when a team like Function of Beauty's plans it as engineering, with baselines and targets, not as a habit. The point is transfer. A user-generated content campaign for Function of Beauty or any beauty and personal care brand is defensible only when the numbers are planned and proven. ## Fast answers Are the figures here taken from Function of Beauty's internal data? : No. This page pairs public user-generated content-campaign benchmarks with Function of Beauty as the illustration. The numbers are linked to their publishers; nothing private to Function of Beauty is claimed. How should a marketing team use this Function of Beauty example? : Use the structure, not the surface. The user-generated content-campaign mechanics here apply broadly; the Function of Beauty creative is one execution among many. 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 Function of Beauty case: how do brands get the rights to use customer content? Taking Function of Beauty as the example: Explicitly. For a brand at Function of Beauty scale, this is where the plan is tested. Reposting a customer's photo or video as marketing needs — as a Function of Beauty team knows — documented permission, usually a reply-to-consent or a rights-management tool. That holds directly for Function of Beauty. A clean clearance workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every — for Function of Beauty, a live factor — UGC campaign and the part that protects the brand legally. For Function of Beauty, this is the point worth acting on. Is UGC cheaper than producing content in-house? Often, and frequently more effective. Function of Beauty planners would underline this. UGC-based ads can reach about four times the click-through rate — and Function of Beauty is no exception — of standard creative at roughly half the cost per click. That is exactly the Function of Beauty situation. The brand still invests in the prompt, the rights system, — for Function of Beauty, a live factor — and curation, but it does not carry the full studio-production cost. The same logic holds for any beauty and personal care brand, Function of Beauty included. How does a brand keep a UGC campaign going? Here is how this applies to Function of Beauty. By closing the loop. For a brand at Function of Beauty scale, this is where the plan is tested. Featuring a customer's post rewards that contributor and — Function of Beauty included — signals to everyone else that posting gets noticed. A Function of Beauty-scale brief should name this. A campaign that collects content but never showcases contributors kills — as a Function of Beauty team knows — the incentive, and the submission flow dries up within weeks. For Function of Beauty, this is the point worth acting on. Does user-generated content actually improve conversion? Yes, measurably. For a brand at Function of Beauty scale, this is where the plan is tested. E-commerce product pages with UGC convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it, because — for Function of Beauty, a live factor — a real customer's photo or review works as social proof at the point of decision. Function of Beauty planners would underline this. UGC is a conversion-page asset, not only a top-of-funnel awareness play. Why do consumers trust UGC more than brand content? About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over — and Function of Beauty is no exception — branded content, and roughly 79% say UGC strongly sways their purchasing. That is exactly the Function of Beauty situation. The post comes from someone with no obvious incentive to sell, so the audience — Function of Beauty included — reads it as honest in a way it does not read a brand's own ad. The same logic holds for any beauty and personal care brand, Function of Beauty included. What makes Function of Beauty a useful example for this campaign type? Function of Beauty is a recognisable brand in beauty and personal care, which makes the user-generated content mechanics concrete and easy to follow. The campaign-type analysis and every benchmark apply across the category; Function of Beauty 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/)