The short answer
- Under 1,000 followers
- 0.78x2.3% reached 10x
- 1,000 to 10,000
- 1.15x9.4% reached 10x
- 10,000 to 100,000
- 1.55x19.4% reached 10x
- 100,000 and over
- 12.18x53.3% reached 10x
- Every step up in followers helps. The median video rises from 0.78x under 1,000 followers to 1.15x at 1,000 to 10,000, 1.55x at 10,000 to 100,000 and 12.18x over 100,000.
- It holds inside every program we can check. Creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers beat those under 1,000 in 14 of 14 programs with at least 10 videos from both.
- Small accounts still post most UGC. 55.2% of program videos come from accounts under 1,000 followers.
- Apps hire small, consumer brands hire bigger. 46.1% of app program accounts are under 1,000 followers, against 11.8% for consumer brands.
Views by creator size
- Under 1,000 followers6,542 videos0.78x
- 1,000 to 10,0003,024 videos1.15x
- 10,000 to 100,0001,621 videos1.55x
Accounts of 100,000 followers and over (662 videos) reach 12.18x, off the scale of this chart.
| Segment | Videos | Programs | Median vs program median | Reached 10x | Median views |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1,000 followers | 6,542 | 44 | 0.78x | 2.3% | 502 |
| 1,000 to 10,000 | 3,024 | 46 | 1.15x | 9.4% | 1,000 |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | 1,621 | 36 | 1.55x | 19.4% | 1,680 |
| 100,000 and over | 662 | 18 | 12.18x | 53.3% | 39,650 |
Each video is compared with its own program's median, so this is not big brands hiring big creators: it is the same brands' videos, split by who posted them.
Why brands still hire creators with no followers
Accounts under 1,000 followers are cheap and plentiful, and they add volume. In the creator index, 29.5% of 33,094 UGC creators are under 1,000 followers. In brand programs, 30.0% of attributed accounts are, rising to 46.1% in app programs, many of them accounts made to post one app.
If you buy footage to run as ads from your own account, the creator's audience is not what you are paying for, and a small creator with strong on-camera skills can be the better deal. The numbers above measure videos the creator posts.
Size and length together
Bigger creators also gain more from longer videos: 60 seconds to 2 minutes beats 15 to 30 seconds by 1.38x for accounts under 1,000 followers and 2.78x for 10,000 to 100,000. See how long a UGC video should be.
How to build the roster
- For organic reach, put some budget on creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers; they are a small share of supply (12.1% of the index).
- For volume and ad footage, small creators are fine; judge them on their videos, not their follower count.
- Check what each size costs in nano and micro creator rates, and see how many followers UGC creators have.
Method
Videos: 11,849 brand videos from 46 fully scanned programs, 1 August 2026 to 30 October 2026, each compared with its own program's median; follower counts are the posting account's on the measured date (UGC video benchmarks 2026). Program account bands: 5,245 confirmed and likely accounts in 121 published programs. Index bands: 33,094 UGC creators, snapshot 31 October 2026.
Download the numbers on this page as a CSV file. Free to reuse with a link to this page under CC BY 4.0.
Cite this answer: UGC Agent, "Do UGC creators need followers?", UGC Agent answers, published 1 November 2026, https://ugcagent.app/answers/do-ugc-creators-need-followers/
Limitations
- Correlations, not tests. Bigger creators may also make better videos; that is part of what you pay for.
- Organic posts only. The data does not cover footage run as ads from a brand's own account.
- Most programs in the sample are apps.