Choosing a UGC agency in the Netherlands: what to look for

There are dozens of UGC agencies in the Netherlands and the quality gap is enormous. Here is how to recognize creator quality, performance thinking and the questions that expose weak agencies.

You recognize a good UGC agency in the Netherlands by three things: creators who are credible to your specific audience, a team that thinks in performance rather than content, and a process that feeds learnings from your ad account back into the next batch. Everything else, the showreel, the wall of client logos, the price per video, is secondary. This article walks through what to look for and which questions expose a weak agency immediately.

Why has choosing a UGC agency become so hard?

UGC has exploded in recent years, and supply has grown along with demand. Anyone with a list of creators and a Notion page calls themselves a UGC agency these days. The problem: from the outside, all those agencies look identical. They all show slick videos, all name big brands and all promise fast delivery. The difference only shows after two months: do the videos perform in your ad account, or do you own a folder full of content that sells nothing?

For B2C companies spending serious budget, that difference is significant. If you are putting €15K or more per month into ads, you do not need content. You need creatives that carry the account. Your agency selection decides whether your testing budget returns anything.

How do you recognize real creator quality?

Not by production quality. A UGC video should specifically not look like a commercial; the format works because it feels like content from a real person. Creator quality is about credibility: does this person match your buyer? A supplement for women over 45 does not sell through a 22-year-old creator, however well she presents. So do not ask an agency for their best videos, ask how they cast. A strong agency starts from your audience and finds creators to match. A weak agency has a fixed pool and pushes every client through the same faces.

Pay attention to the briefing as well. A creator who only receives a product and a loose script delivers a monologue you swipe away within three seconds. A creator who knows, per video, which angle, which hook and which proof the video needs to carry delivers usable material. So ask: can I see an example of your brief? An agency that does not write a brief per video leaves conversion to chance.

What does performance thinking mean in UGC?

The distinction sits in the question the agency asks itself. A content agency asks: did the video turn out nice? A performance agency asks: did the video sell, and why or why not? That second question requires access to your ad account, or at minimum structural feedback on results. In practice, you recognize performance thinking by:

• Videos are built around an angle and a hypothesis, not around a script that happened to sound fun.
• Every video comes with multiple hooks, so you can test the opening shot separately.
• The agency asks for your numbers before producing anything, and wants to know what worked before.
• Every batch is followed by an analysis: which angles won, which creators performed, what the next iteration will be.
• The agency talks about hit rate and iterations, not about the number of clips delivered.

We have produced 15,000+ creatives for 65+ brands over the past years, and the pattern is the same every time: the difference between a UGC video that wins and one that loses rarely sits in the production and almost always in the angle and the hook. An agency that does not talk about those cannot make the difference.

You do not buy videos from a UGC agency. You buy the odds of finding a winner, and that process can be engineered.

Which questions expose a weak agency?

Ask these questions in the first conversation and listen closely. How do you decide whether a video worked? The right answer involves data from the ad account. What happens after the first batch? The right answer describes an iteration process. How do you cast creators? The right answer starts from your audience. Can we get multiple hooks per video? The right answer is yes, as standard. And finally: what do you need from us? An agency that only asks for product and logo will produce blindly. An agency that asks for your customer reviews, your bestsellers and your current results will build on a foundation.

Red flags you should not ignore

Be careful with agencies that only talk in packages, ten videos for a fixed price, without asking what those videos need to achieve. Be careful with agencies that ask nothing about your numbers. And be especially careful with agencies that deflect ownership of results: if the videos do not perform, it was your account, your offer or your website. Sometimes that is true, but a strong agency digs in with you instead of pointing away.

Conclusion

The UGC market in the Netherlands is crowded, but the top end is thin. Select on casting, briefing and the process after the first batch, and you filter out ninety percent of the market immediately. At AdSplicit, UGC is not a standalone product but part of a creative system that optimizes for revenue, with creators matched to your audience and briefs built on winning angles. Curious what that looks like for your brand? Book a call and we will gladly take a look with you.