Not long ago, I sat in a meeting with the CMO of a $50M+ consumer brand. She was sold on the power of user-generated content. She knew her audience trusted creators more than polished brand ads. She knew UGC could cut through the noise and drive conversions.

But then she paused and said:

“I’m just not ready to bet the whole strategy on it.”

And that hesitation isn’t unique. A lot of CMOs share the same quiet fears.
Here are the 3 biggest reasons they hold back:

1. Fear of losing control over the brand
UGC is messy by design. It’s raw, unpolished, and unpredictable.
For a CMO who has spent years building a carefully curated brand identity, the thought of handing storytelling power to dozens (or hundreds) of creators feels risky.

But here’s the reality: customers don’t expect perfection anymore. They expect authenticity. The brands winning today (look at Gymshark or Liquid Death) learned to let go of total control and instead guide creators with strong briefs and clear values.

2. Fear it won’t scale
One or two UGC videos? Easy.
But 50, 100, 500 pieces of content every month? That feels overwhelming.

CMOs worry that it’s impossible to maintain volume and consistency without burning out teams or blowing through budgets.

The truth: UGC scales when you build a system. Brands that succeed treat creators like an extension of their marketing team, sourcing them through marketplaces, setting up workflows, and refreshing content continuously.

3. Fear of accountability
Here’s the unspoken one.
If a polished ad campaign flops, everyone blames “the market” or “bad timing.”
But if a scrappy UGC video performs 10x better than a six-figure campaign, it raises a hard question:

Why did we spend so much in the first place?

That accountability makes CMOs hesitant to push UGC to the front of their strategy. Because if it works too well, it forces a bigger rethink of the entire budget.

The brands who win aren’t the ones avoiding these fears—they’re the ones working through them.
They create guidelines (not scripts). They set up systems for scale. And they lean into the fact that consumer trust is shifting away from polished ads and toward relatable, authentic creators.

If you’re not already experimenting with UGC at scale, you’re leaving growth on the table.

Pro Tip:
Finding creators doesn’t need to be complicated. Platforms like Fiverr make it insanely easy to test UGC fast—you can connect with vetted creators, get custom videos, and build a pipeline of content without months of recruitment.

Start small. Test often. Scale what works.
That’s how you build a UGC engine without fear.