A UGC script is nothing like an advertising script. No flawless voice over, no solemn closing line: a person speaking the way people speak, getting to the point before the thumb moves.
In Argentina one more force is at work, and it decides half the result: the audience there has a particular allergy to the salesman's tone.
Why enthusiasm backfires there
Elsewhere a rising voice and a wide smile read as energy. There they read as a pitch, and the audience drops the second it senses one.
The consequence is concrete and it plays out in the writing, not on the shoot. A line like "this product changed my routine" sounds recited. The same idea stated in the negative, "I did not expect to keep using it, and yet", holds the viewer because it admits a doubt.
Three registers work particularly well in front of that audience: light irony, a shared complaint about a problem everybody knows, and the deadpan observation delivered without emphasis. What they have in common is that none of them is trying to convince. They tell, and the conviction arrives on its own.
The first three seconds
Do not open with "hi, today I am going to show you". That phrasing has already lost half the audience before the word "show", because it announces an ad.
Come in through the problem, the result or the contradiction:
- "I bought it because I could not stand my hair like that any more."
- "Three months of use, here is where I am."
- "Nobody warns you about this before you buy."
Those three openings share one thing: they start in the middle of a story already under way. The viewer stays to find out the rest.
The structure that holds
Hook, situation, proof, exit. Fifteen to thirty seconds in total.
The situation is one sentence placing you: who you are and why this problem concerns you. Without it the proof is worth nothing, because nobody knows on whose behalf it is offered.
The proof is what can be seen. The product in the hand, the real gesture, the before and after, the texture. A sentence that asserts is worth less than a shot that shows.
The exit is an action, not a goodbye. Saying what you would do in the viewer's place is enough.
Write three hooks, not one
This is what separates a creator from a video supplier. For one product, deliver three openings: one that plays on emotion, one that plays on reason, one that divides opinion a little.
The brand tests them in advertising and keeps the one that holds. On your side it justifies a higher rate and gets you called back for the next campaign, because you delivered something to optimise rather than a file to take or leave.
What to cut before shooting
Adjectives that describe nothing: incredible, spectacular, unique. Sentences longer than two lines, which nobody says out loud. Technical specifications no one asked for. And any promise of a result you could not stand behind, which exposes you and the brand with you.
Subtitles are part of the script
A large share of the audience watches with the sound off, and therefore reads your text before hearing it. Write with the screen in mind: short sentences, one idea per line, and the word carrying the meaning placed at the start rather than the end.
Three hooks for the same product
| Angle | Opening line | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| Problem | "That is the part that always breaks first." | A sceptical audience |
| Number | "Three minutes, and the kitchen is tidy." | A rushed audience |
| Counterpoint | "I did not believe it either." | An over-solicited audience |
What comes after the hook
The proof, in one image, before any explanation: the viewer has to see before hearing.
What kills a hook
A greeting, the brand name as the first word, a question whose answer is no.
How to practise with no equipment
Take three videos that stopped your scrolling this week and transcribe their first five seconds, word for word. Do it for a month.
You will end up with a bank of openings that worked on you, in your language and in front of your audience, which no generic template can give you.
