beauty dtc running 30 ads/week, what's the right ugc-to-polished ratio?
running paid social for a beauty dtc, around 30-40 ads in rotation at any time across meta and tiktok. trying to figure out the right mix between ugc and polished studio creative and i can't find a clear answer from anyone i ask.
context: we used to be 80% studio, 20% ugc. studio was higher production but cost us around $1,800-2,200 per finished spot all-in. ugc was running around $300-500 per video. studio outperformed on hero/brand campaigns but ugc was winning on cold acquisition by a wide margin.
current state: we flipped to about 60% ugc and 40% studio. cac on cold prospecting dropped roughly 22% and we're spinning up new tests way faster (3-4 day brief-to-live vs the 2-week studio cycle). but our top-of-funnel "brand-feel" content quietly lost some retention on warmer audiences.
what i'm trying to understand: is there a real ratio that's working for other beauty/skincare brands at similar scale? i've seen people say 70/30 ugc-to-polished for tiktok specifically, and the inverse for meta. but i haven't seen anyone share data behind it.
specifically curious:
- whether the ratio shifts by funnel stage (cold vs warm vs retargeting)
- whether anyone tried 90/10 ugc-heavy and what broke
- if you scaled past 100 ads/month, did the answer change
not after vendor recommendations, looking for actual operator data. running about $80k/mo paid spend if that context matters.