How to partner with brands and make money through sponsored content

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Hey everyone, I’m Udi from Meta Creative Shop. As part of my role as a creative strategist, I work closely with companies just like Artlist and help them strategize their creative content on our platforms.

But before we start, what is user generated content? UGC is any piece of content that was generated by real users, real customers and has a native look and feel to it. It is in most cases more authentic and very, very common on social media.

And what is direct response? VR is a marketing approach that aims to drive immediate actions from users. This action could be a purchase or a lead generation or an app install.

Now, you know how to create content. That’s what you do. We want to help you help other businesses transform by sharing a simple methodology. We call it storyselling. After seeing a lot of UGC ads, I would like to share with you a simple way to start with. Let’s see the Motion Array example together and then let’s break it down.

Let’s start with the thumb-stopping element. Here is something you should know about the first second of any video on our platform. People thumb through around 90 meters of content every day on our platform, which is as high as the Statue of Liberty. This means you need to find any possible way to make people stop and stay interested.

You can do it using camera movement, just like in the Motion Array example, or with a face reaction or with a strong statement. It’s up to you to figure out what’s the best way to make people stop and watch your content. Okay, you stopped me from scrolling. What’s now? Highlight the main problem your product or service may resolve to people.

On Meta’s platform, people are in discovery mode and staying relevant is key for success. How do you do that? Once you get people’s attention, try to focus on a specific common problem your product resolves. 

You can come up with different intros with your client and then decide what’s the best way to grab people’s attention. After establishing the need in the previous section, now you can celebrate your solution. In this section, you can just use the frequently asked questions from people and showcase a product demo that will help people understand what is the service and what is the solution.

For example, you can create a professional opener just like this.

A little tip that works like a charm is to overview the comment section of past ads. There you may find all kinds of questions people already raised about the service or the product. The last bit is call-to-action. In this stage, we highly encourage you to build a sense of urgency by inviting people to swipe up or to click a button.

You can also use a strong offering from the brand.

So to recap, we talked about four main pillars. The first one is the thumb-stopping element. The second pillar is highlighting the problem your product resolves. The third pillar is all about showcasing the solution through a product demo. And the fourth one is building a sense of urgency with a call-to-action. Does this resonate with you? If the answer is yes, feel free to download the brief template we created, especially for you, so that the next time we work with the client, you get all the details right. Stay creative.

Hi, I’m Liran, the Head of Creative at Artlist and I want to talk to you about how to utilize Artlist’s assets and tools in order to create amazing ads so that brands will want to work with you guys. So let’s start with the music. Music is 50% of what the audience experiences when watching your videos. Music can break or make your ad.

If the music is bad, it will distract the audience from the message you want to deliver. You can start with the music and that will help you understand what is the mood your video should convey. At the end of the day, it’s all about the context. Who is your target audience? What is the brand that you’re working with all about? And what are they trying to say through the ad you will create?

All of that will help you understand what is the perfect song for your video. Using the different filters on Artlist will help you find the song that you’re looking for and the song that you’ll choose can be a character in your video, or it can be complementary.

This is where lyrics come into place. You can filter the songs by a male or female singer and also see the lyrics of those songs by hovering over the microphone icon. Artlist has even more features to help you find the style of songs you’re looking for. You can use the similar songs or similar albums located within the album page.

The BPM tool will help you find the songs with the right pace for your video. And if you don’t know what you’re looking for and looking to get inspired, the For You page and spotlight sections are great places to get started with curated lists of songs. Using sound effects can really take your videos to the next level. Most of the sounds you hear on videos are usually prerecorded sounds created within a studio.

Let’s take this drone shot, for example. Adding a few layers of sound effects to it can really bring it to life. You can also take this B-roll sequence and add sound effects in between shots to add intensity and depth to your editing transitions. You don’t always have to use the obvious sound effects with your visuals. Getting creative with sound design is all part of the fun.

Let’s take these sound effects and let’s see how that impacts this specific visual. Artlist also offers Artgrid, a stock footage platform, as part of the assets that you can use when creating UGC. The most common way to use stock footage is to have it complementary to the footage that you already shot.

For example, you were shooting in the jungle, but you forgot your drone at home. You can use Artgrid to get that aerial shot. Or you’re creating a travel video, but you didn’t have a waterproof case for your camera. You can find amazing underwater shots to add depth to your video.

With Artgrid, you have story-driven footage, which means you can actually edit an entire ad using only stock footage. Another way to utilize Artgrid stock footage when creating a UGC ad for a physical product is compositing that product with a beautiful shot from Artgrid, and that will create a powerful product shot. Finding all these videos is simple and intuitive with the easy search filters and free search bar. And if you’re working on a vertical video, you can see what the shot will look like when searching for it.

The most important thing is to understand what is the message brands you’re working with are trying to convey and to use your creativity together with Artlist’s high-quality assets to create powerful UGC ads that brands will love.

Hi everyone, I’m Nastasia, a Creative Strategist at Meta. Today we’re going to talk about Reels for DR and how to turn trends into Reels ads. One of the favorite parts of my job is that I watch a lot of Reels.

You know Reels, the entertaining short-form video taking over Instagram and Facebook. So today we’re going to talk about Reels and more specifically, how to turn some of the most popular trends into direct response ads, the ones that drive an immediate action from viewers. Before we deep dive, let’s go over some basic considerations to keep in mind when you create an add on Reels.

First, be unique and keep your authentic self. This is why the brand reached out to you to start with. Second, nail the hook upfront. Make sure you grab attention with a strong visual hook. Third, show the product in a native way, such as part of your morning routine maybe. Fourth, make it entertaining. And finally, don’t forget the CTA.

Now let’s talk about trends.

1. Before and after. With before and after, you can sell a product in the most visual way possible. What did life look like before the product you’re selling? What does it look like now? Show a problem and the solution.

Remember the breakdown of a good direct response ad? First you have the intro, which is the what and why. Then you have the breaking resistance. And finally, the call-to-action.

2. Listicle. What’s a listicle? It’s a way to present your product through a list of benefits and unique selling points. Write down a short list of the top features of the product you’re selling and turn this Reel into an educational asset.

The hook of this video could be: “3 things you didn’t know”. “5 reasons to use this product”. Or even “5 ways to wear this item”. Let’s take a look at how we did it with Planty.

3. Tutorial. The best way to provide value is to show your product in action. Bonus points if you turn it into an attention grabbing intro such as a “hack you didn’t know” or “let me tell you a secret about this product”. Let’s take a look at how we did it here with Planty.

Okay. So we saw a few thought starters and now you know how to create an ad for Reels. Here are some of the things for you to remember. Keep your voice and your uniqueness. Create for direct response. Remember to use a strong hook, show the product and have a CTA. Finally, start from a creative theme such as before & after, listicle or tutorial.

And there are still a lot of themes waiting to be discovered by you guys. So what will you create?

– Hi, Karen. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Hi, it’s good to meet you.

– Would you like to introduce yourself?

Hi, I’m Karen and I’m a director and I like to make fun videos on social media. Most recently, I’ve been really interested in AI and augmented reality.

– Great, so let’s get started on the questions that we have for you. First of all, you’ve worked with some of the most recognizable brands like Apple, Instagram, Beats by Dre and others. How did you come to build a working relationship with them?

Yeah, you know, I definitely remember what it was like to be a creator looking at these brands, being like, how could I possibly get their attention? And I honestly spent years trying to get the attention of large brands. And there was really one thing that kind of unlocked it for me, and that was that I realized that when a brand comes out with a new product or a new feature, if you can be one of the first people to use it and start making cool stuff with it, it’s so much easier to get their attention than if you are just one of like a billion Instagram users, for example.

So whenever a tech company came up with something new, I would really hop on it. And that was actually how I started getting the attention of a lot of these brands.

– When you’re working with smaller brands versus a global mega brand, what are the biggest differences?

You know, small brands… I think there are some advantages of working with small brands. A lot of times they can be more flexible with what kind of work you can do with them. It really depends. You know, sometimes big brands, they move very, very slowly and they have very specific creative. And so sometimes you’re able to get more creative control with smaller brands, especially when you’re starting out and when you’re starting out, it’s really good to use small brands to build your portfolio.

– Have you ever had any major creative differences with the brand you’re working with, and if so, how did you come to a solution?

Yeah, I definitely have had creative differences with brands I’m working with, and I feel like my approach or strategy for this has changed throughout my career. So early on, you know, I think when you’re establishing yourself, it really helps to be known as someone who can work with clients and be easy to work with. And so if you’re a smaller creator, it does help to just put your ego aside and kind of do what the client needs, especially when you’re working with brands.

I think sometimes people get in the mindset that like everything needs to fit in your creative vision just perfectly. And the fact is, when you’re doing paid client work, you’re really being…your job is to fulfill that creative, that client’s vision and their marketing goals. And so what I learned early on in my career was when I do client work, I’m doing it for that client.

And if I have creative differences, I’ll make recommendations and I’ll give them reasons why. But ultimately they do have final say and I do try to be easy to work with. Then I would also do personal projects. And so personal projects were things that I had complete, complete creative control over. And so by doing both, I wouldn’t mind so much that like, hey, maybe the client didn’t take my exact creative direction. Over the course of my career, I’ve done more and more personal projects as I became more and more established.

Now I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose clients where I’ll be able to say, hey, here’s the creative direction and we’re only going to sign the contract if we agree on the creative direction. But that is really something that has taken me like a decade to work up to, and that wouldn’t have been a great strategy, you know, early on in my career.

– Also, how do you balance between the client’s needs and your creative integrity and style?

Yeah, I mean I do keep up with my personal projects, but now I actually only take on projects if we are already aligned on the creative direction. But you know, that wouldn’t have been a good approach me to take early on in my career because I wouldn’t have been in the position to be able to, like, be selective about my clients.

– What’s your creative process like when you first approach a project?

Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of things I do to sort of come up with ideas for clients. I actually get the best inspiration for my ideas from other ideas. So I’m constantly looking on like Instagram or Vimeo and just seeing what other creators are doing and bookmarking like, ooh, I like that, I like that, like that. And I always try to not, you know, do something exactly like someone else, I’ll always try to put at least an original twist on it or try to change at least one thing.

And these days I actually…I have like a backlog of ideas. So I have like all these personal projects that I’ve been wanting to do. And I have all these ideas that are kind of like looking for clients to match-make. And so when a new client comes in, I go, okay, is there first any of my existing ideas that I could use and modify to make it work for this client?

That’s the first thing I’ll try. And then if that doesn’t work, then I’ll go to, like, literally my saved folder, my Instagram, and just scroll and just start scrolling and just be like, could any of these work? And then if any of them do, I do try to modify, make it my own because I don’t want to, you know, take or rip from another creator.

– Now, as a creator, do you have any golden rules or any most valuable pieces of advice?

So as a creator, I think there’s a few tips for working with brands. One, you do want to be easy to work with, but two, you don’t want to be taken advantage of. And so it is important to communicate clear expectations of what you can do and communicate clearly the scope of work, figure out, you know, get clear on how many rounds of revisions there’s going to be before you sign a contract.

Do read your contracts carefully. Oftentimes, brands will put in exclusivity clauses that say you can’t work with all these brands for a year. That used to stress me out a lot. Please know that that can always be negotiated.

– Final question. How does Artlist fit into your workflow?

You know, I would spend like just hours and hours in stock music hell trying to find good tracks. I spent so much of my time doing that. And then actually someone told me about Artlist. I think it was actually Insta360. They’re like, oh, we use Artlist. And I was like, oh, what’s that? And I’m like, okay, I’ll see if I can find some tracks.

I started playing. I was like, oh, these are actually pretty good. Like, they actually sound like real artists. They don’t sound like stock music. I think that was the biggest thing for me, was like, oh, this actually sounds like something I could hear on the radio. And so then I started like, I started getting a little obsessed. I went through all the Artlist library,

I went through all the different collections. I like favorited stuff, starred stuff, downloaded all my favorites. And now I have a folder of like, like 20 favorite songs. I think actually I have a collection of Artlist’s that you could go look up what my favorite songs are. Well, I have a collection of like 20 songs, and I just always go back to those 20 songs.

So whenever I have a new video, I’m just like, which of these 20 songs will work? Occasionally if none of them work, then I’ll have to go into Artlist and find more songs. But like, it has saved me so much time because normally now I could just find a music track in minutes because it’s just like, it’s my 20 favorites and they’re good, they’re good options.

And I think, you know, what I really appreciate is just the full licensing. Like, I don’t have to worry about commercial use, how many seats, how big is the corporation? Is it running on web, for a year? How long? I don’t have to worry about any of that. And before there was always like all this fine print and then sometimes the music track would cost like $500 if you wanted certain rights.

It was honestly a pain. And as a creator, the last thing you want to worry about is all of those details. You just want to find a great track to pair with your video. So, yeah, I’m a big Artlist fan.

Hey, everyone, it’s good to have you with us. My name is Dikla and I’m a Partnerships Team Leader at Artlist.

My name is Sharon. I’m a Creative Director at Artlist and today I’m going to speak with you about what brands look for when working with creators. In today’s world, we see a consistent trend, especially on vertical videos – to be real, to be yourself, to be authentic. Users are seeking authentic materials, less scripted and commercial. They look for videos in order to get more knowledge, to be inspired, to be entertained. Any creative choice in your UGC video should be aligned with that.

So the first thing brands look at is authenticity and credibility. Speak naturally at eye-level, use an authentic set-up, your comfort zone. It can be your room next to your desk or even your video set-up. Let the viewers be inside your creative work area.

It’s true. We’re here to sell, but try to stick to a more honest review and less the traditional selling strategy. Share with your audience your experience with the product. Show them how it elevates your creative process.

Let’s talk about the first 2 or 3 seconds of the video. You want to create a frame that clearly speaks to them. If it’s on a film set operating a camera or your editing station in your room, those two frames are targeting the right audience. So we want them to look at it for the first time and say, hey, that might be relevant to me.

And what about best practices? You know your audience the best. But you should always assume when writing the script that they have never heard about the product before. Stay focused on one solution that the product solves and showcase one or two values that help to solve it. Be a good listener to the brand’s needs, be open minded and see how you combine your unique storytelling to the brand’s messages.

Even though this is a promoted brand campaign, take ownership of the script in the production. You’re associated with the campaign. See the UGC video as part of your videos. Make it yours.

One of the most important tips that we can give you today is don’t talk about the product, use the product.

Demonstrate the product by showing how it is essential, how it elevates your creative process. Show them how the product helps to level up your production value.

And take your videos from good to great.

Hey guys, my name is Alon. I’m a Product Marketing Manager, supporting creators and businesses at Meta. Today, I’d like to walk you through the different opportunities that creators have for making a living from the content that they produce and share over our platforms. So to start off with a little bit of a background, I think it’s worth mentioning that we’re experiencing a creator’s renaissance these days.

In recent years, we’re clearly seeing a power shift from organizations to individuals. And this change is happening consistently. It’s happening across the world and across industries. For example, we’re seeing Instagram creators, direct music videos, fashion shoots become movie stars and creative directors at global scale. As a matter of fact, Instagram and Facebook have been taking a dominant part in this renaissance for quite some time now.

That’s because our tools and global scale set the stage for creators to develop and share their creativity and build fanbases and communities across the world. So whether you’re just getting started as creator or if you’ve been doing this for a while now, we want to support you for making the content that your communities love.

That’s exactly why by the end of 2022, Meta will complete a $1 billion investment in creators across Facebook and Instagram. And our goal is to help as many creators as possible find sustainable and long term success over our apps. So for the first part, I’ll share more information about the various ways that creators can earn money on Facebook and Instagram.

We at Meta want to reward creators for creating the content that their communities love and to make this as easy as possible. We’re launching Bonuses. That’s a new destination in the Instagram app where you can get paid as you hit certain milestones using our creative or monetization tools. We launch new opportunities from time to time as short term and seasonal programs. Now let’s talk about more ways that creators can earn money off of their content, but this time, by direct support that you can get from your followers and fans.

With Instagram subscriptions, creators can develop a deeper connection with their followers by giving subscribers access to exclusive content and benefits such as Live and Stories that are available for paying subscribers only. And as we build for the metaverse, investing in web3 technologies and digital collectibles like NFTs is a crucial part of our long term commitment to creators.

We’re beginning to test digital collectibles with a handful of US creators and collectors. This feature includes connecting a digital wallet to Instagram, sharing digital collectibles, and automatically tagging both the creator and the collector.

Now let’s move to Badges in Instagram Live. With Badges and Live, fans have another way to show their love to creators and viewers can purchase during the live video. This is currently only available in a select number of countries, but we really look forward to getting this expanded to additional countries soon.

So for creators who want to sell their own merch, we’re making it easier to add an existing shop or open a new shop on your Instagram profile. This allows you to display and sell your products directly to fans. I’d like to mention Instagram’s Creators Marketplace. So this marketplace is built to help connect creators and brands and have them easily partner and do business together.

So once you join, you can add your favorite brands to your list of preferred brands so that brands can know that you’re interested in working with them. You can also help brands discover you by sharing the topics you care about or interest you the most. So this would be it for today’s recap. But there is more, much more.

If you want to stay updated and keep learning, just visit our website or follow us on Instagram.