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Do you still bet on the “review of Irina from Kharkiv” that every third grandmother saw on the Internet?
The bad news is that in 2025, this won’t work anymore. The audience is tired of fakes, screaming “minus 14 kg in a week” and landing pages that look like artifacts from 2016.
Users are no longer led by triggers – they are led by trust. And that’s why the winner is not the one who drives more traffic, but the one whose creative evokes the feeling of “this is real.”
UGC 2.0 is entering the arena – a new format of user-generated content that sells through empathy, recognition, and a “one of a kind” format. It can be:
In this article, we’ll show you why the old school of “social proof” is already dead, what trust formats work here and now, and how you can build your UGC creatives today, even without a production budget.
Open any 2018 landing page and you’ll be greeted by a familiar repertoire: “I thought it was a scam, but I decided to try it – and I didn’t regret it!”
And under the text is a photo of a woman from the exchange, which has already circulated five offers: from eye drops to capsules from loans.
Such “reviews” are still found on prelends, but there is a nuance: they no longer work. In 2025, users have become much more cautious. And most importantly, he has become distrustful. Even paranoid.
It’s simple: trust in standard, “copywriter” reviews is at ground level. And here’s why:
Real people don’t write so smoothly. They do not insert three exclamations of “thank you!!!” in one paragraph. And they definitely do not write phrases in style:
“My self-esteem grew, and I finally felt like a woman.”
It sounds like a bad script for advertising, not a real experience.
The average user, having visited several landing pages, can easily recognize it:
The user opens the landing page and subconsciously distrusts it.
Template reviews have become such a mass phenomenon that the very format of “review on the landing page” is already causing skepticism. “Yeah, Irina from Kharkiv again – this time she lost weight in 5 days.”
What used to work as social proof has now become a fake marker.
UGC (user-generated content) – yes, but not in the old sense.
Because a fake review on a landing page is also UGC. It’s just dead, insincere, and unusable.
Today, what works is something that looks as natural as possible, “like a real chat” or “like a story from a friend.”
This is UGC 2.0 – a new level of social proof that does not ask for trust, but simply creates the illusion of real experience. In 2025, we are no longer “selling” a product. We sell a context, an atmosphere that the viewer will believe in.
Your task is not to convince, but to let the user recognize themselves: in their voice, in their facial expressions, in their words, in a screenshot from a messenger.
And the closer to reality you are, the more likely it is that the creative will not only sell, but will do so on autopilot.
Everything we used to call UGC a few years ago should be called UGC 1.0 today. These are template “reviews” on landing pages, fake comments on Facebook, articles with fake success stories. They seem to be created by “users” but look like a theater performance for the first grade.
UGC 1.0 is not just yesterday’s news. It is an element that kills trust, not creates it.
UGC 2.0 is a completely different beast. It’s not just “user-generated content”. It’s content that looks like it was created by a real user with no intention of selling anything.
Its power is not in copywriting, production, or triggers. Its power lies in its maximum authenticity, in the fact that it is read as real.
This is what UGC 2.0 is:
This is raw, honest, intuitively familiar content that looks not like an advertisement but like a fragment of a user’s usual life.
Classical marketing has always tried to convince: through logic, triggers, building trust. UGC 2.0 does not do this. It just turns on the peek, triggers the “it’s like me” effect – and that’s why it works.
People don’t trust copywriters. But they trust people who look imperfect. People don’t want to hear: “This is the best tool on the market”. They want to see: “Wow, I didn’t think it would really work. See for yourself.”
Arbitration creatives work on fast emotional contact. The user has 2-3 seconds to decide whether to scroll further or interact.
UGC 2.0 solves this problem quickly and painlessly:
This is a key difference. The user does not think that they trust the company. He recognizes himself in the experience of another person, and this is enough to click or buy.
And if you are still pouring in classic creatives without this layer of “reality”, you are working with a cold audience that does not trust even their own reflection in the mirror.
The next step is to figure out which UGC 2.0 formats are currently working and how to adapt them to gut, beauty, and financial offers.
UGC 2.0 is not just a style, but a form of trust. The formula is simple: the closer the content is to the user’s real life, the more likely it is to catch, retain, and convert. Today, it is important not to “stand out” but to “merge with the environment” in creative – to look like a part of the usual info noise that the brain does not block.
Below are the formats that really fly in the gut, beauty, finance, and white-offers. This is not a theory – it is the result of hundreds of tests and dozens of working connections.
What it is: A screen recording of someone scrolling through a chat – with a client, support, friend, or “satisfied mom”.
What it looks like: familiar Telegram/WhatsApp interface, minimum movement, maximum context.
Why it works:
Example:
Screenshot of the correspondence: “I ordered it and it actually arrived in 2 days,” “Don’t tell anyone, but I was in the red. And now look at the screen!”
The format works great in the gut (diet, care, pain) and in white offers with a “personal story.”
What it is:short voice responses in the format “friend recorded”, “friend sent”, “sent from support.”
Duration: 7-20 seconds.
Voice: not an announcer’s voice, but a regular one – even a little “low-quality”, a little “nervous”.
Why it works:
Where it flies in:
What it is: a photo/video with a social media interface, made in the style of “taken on the way to work”. It can be with subtitles, emojis, reactions, voiceover.
Why it works:
Key: Show the “moment”, not the product. Reaction, not advertising.
Example:
What it is: A screenshot or screenshot where a user communicates with a bot or operator.
Why it works:
Essentially effective in:
What it is: short (up to 30 seconds) videos where an ordinary person:
Format: vertical video, without editing, a little “clumsy” – and this is its strength.
Why it works:
This video is not about “wow, super”, but about “I tried it and something really changed for me.”
UGC 2.0 works not because it tells a story – but because it looks like a piece of reality that the user can identify with.
The best formats are those that can be confused with the personal content of a friend, acquaintance, or blogger with 300 followers.
That’s why they work better than glossy creatives with perfect light and a template “success story.”