Guide
Five supplies of first-person video, four already in the building
A creator sells you three properties. A first-person voice, a real room, and specifics only somebody who has used the product can supply. Four sources inside your own business hand you all three for nothing. This page prices all five against each other. It also covers the one step that turns any of them into a finished vertical ad. You will finish knowing which source to use this week.
- Properties you are actually paying a creator for
- 3
- One minute of avatar render, the expensive door
- 320 CR
- One minute of a normal export, the cheap one
- 20 CR
Three properties decide it, and a face is not one of them
Teams paying for user-generated content are rarely buying a face. They are buying a first-person voice, a real room, and the specificity of somebody who has used the thing.
Any source that supplies all three works. Any source that misses one produces an ad that looks like user content and performs like a brand film.
Keep that test in your head as you read the five options. It decides which shortcut is safe and which wastes a week.
One thing is true of all five. A raw phone recording is not an ad. Every route on this page ends at the same step. A take becomes a finished 9:16 file with cuts, captions and footage on it.
Which sources supply all three properties
A source that misses a column produces an ad that looks like user content and performs like a brand film.
| Supplies all three? | What it actually costs you | |
|---|---|---|
| You, on your phone | Yes. Voice, room and specifics are free | A recurring hour in the calendar, and your nerve |
| Someone on the team | Yes, and support staff are usually best | An hour of their week, and one honest ask |
| A customer | Yes, and the specifics are the strongest | Coordination, plus a written licence before you run it |
| Your inbox and reviews | Words only. You still need a speaker | One afternoon of reading, and nothing else |
| A synthetic presenter | No. It cannot supply lived specifics | 320 credits a minute, plus 70 for the voice-over |
Source one is you, because the specificity is free and nobody can fake it
Founder on camera is the least glamorous option. It is often the best performing one. You know why the second version changed. You know what customers complain about. You know what it costs to make.
That detail is exactly what a hired reader cannot invent. It is the property you were paying most for.
The practical constraints are small. Shoot near a window with the light on your face. Phone at eye height, vertical, under three minutes so the take stays workable.
Do not memorise. Talk the way you would explain it to a friend who asked at dinner.
The real barrier is repetition rather than skill. One take is easy. Twelve across a month is a habit. The habit is where the results are. Book it like a meeting or it will not happen.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Sources two and three: the person who answers support, and the customer who wrote in
Somebody in your company is naturally watchable on camera. It is rarely the person with marketing in their title. Support staff are often best. They have said the same reassuring sentence a thousand times. It comes out smooth.
Customers are harder to organise and worth more when it works. The ask has to be small and specific.
Not 'would you make us a video', which sounds like homework. Try 'could you record thirty seconds answering one question: what nearly stopped you buying'.
Get the permission in writing and get it specific. Paid advertising use, which platforms, how long, which markets. A cheerful reply saying yes of course is not a licence.
Discovering that after an ad has run for five weeks is an expensive conversation. Both routes deliver all three properties. Neither needs a marketplace. Neither takes eleven days.
The customer ask that actually gets answered
Thirty seconds, one question, one written permission. Broad requests to a whole list convert far worse than ten personal messages.
Pick the moment
Days after a good delivery, not months
Ask one question
What nearly stopped you buying
Cap it at thirty seconds
A video request sounds like homework
Get the licence in writing
Paid use, platforms, markets, term
Source four: your support inbox already contains the script
Almost nobody mines this one. Your support inbox, your reviews, your cancellation surveys and your sales-call notes are full of your customers' own phrasing.
Their phrasing beats your copywriting because it was not written to sell.
Pull the recurring sentences. The objection that appears in a third of pre-purchase emails is your hook. The relieved line that appears in reviews is your close.
Rank them by frequency. An objection raised in one email a month is a curiosity. One raised in a third of them is the sentence your funnel is losing to.
Then have a real person say those words on camera. One afternoon of reading gives most brands a quarter of material. It is the highest-return hour in this guide.
Source five is here too, and it costs sixteen export minutes a minute
A generated presenter is a real option. It fails predictably, which makes it easy to place. It works when the script is specific and the claim is modest. It collapses when asked to carry emotional testimony.
Viewers are unusually good at spotting a face performing a feeling it does not have. Use it for explaining how something works, walking through a comparison, reading a list.
Cutroom ships this as a module, so you never leave for it. A photo plus a voice-over becomes a lip-synced presenter video. The render is 320 credits a minute. Generated voice-over is 70 credits a minute.
Compare that against 20 credits per output minute for a normal export. An avatar minute costs the same as sixteen export minutes. That is the whole argument for pointing a camera at yourself first.
Whichever of the five you use, the finish is the same. It is also the part nobody else hands you. One take of up to three minutes batches for 100 credits. Back comes a finished 9:16 MP4, cut, captioned, with footage on the words that needed it.
The facts to plan around. Somebody has to be on camera for sources one to four. Three minutes is the upload ceiling. Every export is a 9:16 MP4.
What a minute of each costs in credits
An avatar minute costs sixteen export minutes. That is the whole case for pointing a camera at yourself.
- Export, per output minute20 CR
- Voice-over, per minute70 CR
- Avatar render, per minute320 CR
Questions people ask
- Do these ads need a disclosure?
- If it is a paid ad the platform labels it as one. If a customer received anything in exchange for their video, say so on screen. Rules vary by market, so check your local advertising standards. Disclosure costs little in performance and protects the account.
- Is my phone camera good enough?
- Yes. Modern phone video exceeds what a vertical feed displays. Sound is the part that decides it. Record somewhere soft and quiet, get close to the microphone, and avoid rooms with hard walls and an echo.
- How do I get customers to actually record something?
- Ask soon after a good moment, ask one specific question rather than for a video, keep the ask to thirty seconds, and give a concrete reason to say yes. Broad requests to a whole list convert far worse than a personal message to ten happy customers.
- Will self-shot video underperform creator content?
- Sometimes, and sometimes the reverse. Polish is not the variable that decides it. Specificity, a strong first sentence and a credible speaker decide it, and all three are available without a marketplace.
- When should I hire the creator instead?
- When you need a face your audience does not associate with you, a setting you do not have, or a demonstration needing a second pair of hands. Also when nobody internally will film after four honest attempts. Pay the fee, then batch their take here for 100 credits like any other source.
The voice you need is already in the building. One take of it becomes a finished vertical ad for 100 credits. That last step is the one nothing else does for you.