Handheld — UGC ads, tested against real spend
Two production slots open for Q32 Q3 slots open / Get a free creative auditFree audit
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Most UGC agencies hand you files. we hand you winners.

We cast the creators, write the briefs, produce the assets, and run them against real spend before they reach your ad account. You get the winners, and the reason they won.

Live from the test queueLast 30 days
2021: 340
2022: 690
2023: 1,120
2024: 1,240
2025: 1,680
2026: 2,140 YTD
7,210
Assets shipped since 2021
Meta: $13.4M
TikTok: $4.1M
Other: $1.1M
$18.6M
Ad spend run behind them
Audit: d1–2
Casting: d3–5
Briefs: d6–9
Delivery: d14
14 days
Brief to first finished ad
Supplements · Beverage
Outdoor · Apparel
Personal care · Pet
Home · Apps · Food
9
Categories we've shipped in
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— The teardown

Two takes. One won by 3×.

Same product, same creator, same week, same budget. One returned $88.02 CPA and one returned $29.14. Drag the timeline and watch where the audience leaves — this is the read you get every month, on your own footage.

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▲ Placeholder — real take footage pending
same product · same week · same spend · cpa
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She says the objection out loud in the first line

"I didn't think another powder would do anything either." The viewer's own doubt, spoken before they can form it. Retention at three seconds is 92% against a 74% account average, and it holds because nothing has been sold yet.

The 2pm crash, filmed at 2pm

Real desk, real light, no set. The problem is shown before it's described, so the claim never has to work alone. This is the segment where the loser take drops 26 points and this one drops 6.

One take, no cut, hands in frame

Scoop, stir, drink — eleven seconds of uninterrupted hands. An unbroken shot is the cheapest proof device there is, because a cut is where viewers assume the lie was inserted.

The price lands as a comparison, not a discount

"Cheaper than the coffee I was buying to fix it." No code, no urgency, no on-screen countdown. Click-through on this offer is 6.2% and post-click conversion holds, which is the tell that the ad and the page agree.

Three seconds of b-roll before anyone speaks

A pour shot, a logo, a smile. Nothing has been said by second three, so the viewer has been given no reason to stay. Twelve points of audience are gone before the first word.

The problem is described, not shown

"I used to feel so tired in the afternoons." Same sentiment as the winner, filmed in a bright kitchen at what is obviously morning. The visual contradicts the copy and the curve falls off a cliff here.

Claims stack up with nothing to look at

Four benefits in six seconds over a static product shot. Each additional claim costs retention rather than earning it — by second ten only a third of the audience is still here to receive the offer.

Discount-led close to an audience that already left

20% off, burned in, at second twelve. The offer is fine; the audience isn't there. This is why we read CPA against retention shape and not against hook rate alone.

Audience retention · 0–14s
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Take 07 retains 92% at three seconds and 63% at fourteen seconds, ending at a $29.14 cost per acquisition. Take 03 retains 74% at three seconds and 25% at fourteen seconds, ending at $88.02.

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— Selected work

Three accounts, run against spend.

Winner
SKEPTIC OPEN
Ad nameSpendCPAROAS
████ SKEPTIC 07$41,208$29.143.42
████ CRASH 02$18,940$33.802.91
Meta ads manager · name redacted{{ flagRedact }}
Account 01 · Daily supplement · $4M/yr
$180K$610K/mo
Meta attributed revenue · 7 months

Nine months of studio-shot ads with no winner. We rebuilt the roster around people who already took the product daily, then ran 22 concepts in six weeks. Three of them carried the account for the rest of the year.

CPA $62 → $29214 assets shippedRead the full case →
Account 02 · Functional beverage · Launch
$0$310K/mo
Revenue · first 5 months

A launch with no customers, and therefore no customer footage. We seeded 40 creators pre-launch and banked 60 assets before day one — enough to test angle, not just hook, from the first dollar of spend.

Hold rate 18% → 44%168 assets shippedRead the full case →
Winner
FIRST UNBOX
Ad nameSpendHoldROAS
████ UNBOX 03$29,71441%4.62
████ ROUTINE 11$12,30644%3.10
Meta ads manager · name redacted{{ flagRedact }}
Winner
ONE-HAND FIX
Ad nameSpendCPAROAS
████ TRUCKBED 04$88,430$46.027.81
████ DEMO 09$34,115$58.775.12
Meta ads manager · name redacted{{ flagRedact }}
Account 03 · Outdoor gear · $12M/yr
4.1×7.8×
Blended ROAS · 4 months

Hard category — the buyers don't do testimonials. We stopped asking and shot demos instead: one problem, one truck bed, one twelve-second fix. Retention doubled on the format change alone, before any hook testing.

Cost / asset $540 → $31096 assets shippedRead the full case →

Accounts run unnamed — most of our work sits under NDA. Named references, the creative itself, and full ad-account screenshots on the call.

— Owned accounts

We'll run the account, not just fill it.

Paid is rented attention. A creator account you own is the other half of the same footage, at no CPM. We build and post partner creator and sub-brand accounts end to end — handle, hooks, cadence, comments, and the link path back into your site. Two brands, four accounts, 9.2 million views a week between them — with one account carrying 5 million of that on its own. Nothing lands on day one: figure six to eight weeks of warm-up before a new handle gets distribution, which is why we run it as a term and not a test.

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If you already have someone posting daily, you don't need this. It's for brands whose organic account has been dead since launch.

The accounts · live nowTop post per account
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▲ Weekly views are real · handles and top-post thumbnails pending
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Head of growth
Daily supplement brand, $4M/yr{{ flagQuote }}
— The first 30 days

Your first ad is delivered on day 14.

Not a philosophy, a schedule. Here's exactly what happens in each window and what lands in your hands at the end of it.

We read the account before we cast anyone

Access to your ad account, your reviews, your refund reasons, your support inbox. We're hunting for the sentences your customers already use, because those become hooks. Most shops start at the shoot; the shoot should be the last thing that happens.

Account auditAngle long-listClaims constraints

We cast from our roster, then from your customers

Every plan starts with our in-house creators — forty people we've already shot with, so we know who holds attention in your category and we can book them this week. We layer your own customers on top wherever the angle needs somebody who actually bought. Somebody with a real opinion outperforms a professional on camera, and it shows up in hold rate inside the first week.

8–12 creators bookedProduct shippedUsage terms signed

One brief, one angle, three seconds written verbatim

Each brief names a single angle, the objection it kills, and the opening line word for word. Where a category has claim rules, the brief names what cannot be said before anyone films. Creators get a script, not a vibe.

One brief per angleShot listsCompliance pass

First finished ads delivered

Captions burned in, clean versions alongside, static pulls included. Every file named by angle and hook so your buyer can read the ad account without a decoder.

8–12 assets deliveredWhitelisting liveLive in market

You get the winners and the reason they won

A written read on what performed, what died, and why — turned straight into next cycle's briefs. This is the loop you're buying. A production shop hands you a folder and wishes you luck.

Performance readNext-cycle briefsTeardown call
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— How we're different

Six things we do that production shops don't.

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If you already have a creative strategist in-house and just need hands on a camera, a production shop is cheaper. Use one.

— Build your scope

Price it yourself. No call required.

Drag to the volume you'd actually test at. Most brands running paid social need 10–15 fresh concepts a month to reliably surface winners — below that you're on an awareness cadence, not a performance one. The per-asset rate drops as volume rises.

White-label rate, well under direct. Unbranded delivery under your file naming, mutual NDA, no client contact. You keep the strategy layer and the margin. Twelve assets a month minimum.

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All tiers · perpetual paid usage · captions burned in · static pulls · monthly written read. Three-month minimum term.

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Start with this scope

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— FAQ

The questions we actually get.

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Two slots open for Q3

We'll audit your creative for free.

Send five of your live ads. You get back a one-page teardown inside 48 hours — retention read on each, where the audience leaves, and the three angles we'd test next. No call required. If it's useful, we'll talk about the rest.

No pitch deck. No discovery process. No follow-up sequence.
Paste up to five live ad links{{ linkCount }} / 5
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One page, per ad: retention read, the second the audience leaves, and the three angles we'd test next. If we can't find anything useful we'll tell you that instead of booking a call.

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© 2026 handheld — creator content, tested against spendSite by okie.design
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