UGC video specs: length, shape, captions and sound

Shape: fill the phone

Short-form feeds are watched on a phone held upright, so film vertically and fill the screen. A horizontal clip shrunk into a vertical frame looks like something made for another place, and it wastes most of the display. If footage arrives in the wrong shape, ask for a reshoot before you ask for a crop, because cropping usually cuts off the hands or the product.

Length: one point per video

No single length is right, and platform limits change, so check them where you publish. The useful rule is editorial: a video should be as long as one point takes to make. A demonstration of a single feature can be over in a quarter of a minute. A routine or a comparison may need longer. If a video is making two points, it is two videos.

Linkme's own example of a generated clip is a 15-second POV Reel. That is a fair picture of how short a format-led piece can be. When a creator's video runs long, the first cut to try is everything before the hook.

Captions: assume the sound is off

Many viewers meet a video muted. On-screen text is what carries it until they turn the sound on.

• Put the hook on screen as text in the opening shot.
• Caption speech in short lines, large enough to read on a small phone.
• Keep text away from the top and bottom edges.
• Check spelling of the product name and any price or date.
• Leave the text up long enough to read twice.

Safe zones: keep clear of the buttons

Every short-video app lays its own interface over the picture: the account name, the caption, like and share buttons, sometimes a call-to-action bar on ads. Those areas differ between apps and between organic posts and ads. Anything important placed there will be covered.

The practical answer is to keep the product, faces and text in the middle of the frame, with generous margins at the bottom and on the right. Then preview the video in each app before it goes out.

Sound: voice, music and rights

Clear speech matters more than a good microphone. A quiet room and a phone held close are usually enough. Music is the part that needs care. A trending sound can help an organic post, but music that is available for an ordinary post is not always licensed for a paid ad. Before a video with music goes behind budget, confirm the audio is cleared for advertising, or use a version without it.

Link AI and getting the video out

Link AI by Linkme is our pick for the step after the specs are right, which is getting the video out. Linkme describes it making a short Reel on a trending format with trending audio attached, and its Post to All queue sends one post to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, then shows 'Published to all'. Those five are the platforms Linkme lists. Confirm any other network in a demo.

This reference cannot confirm whether captions can be edited per platform or whether trending audio carries into a paid ad. Ask both when you see Link AI on your own accounts in a demo. For what the video should contain, go back to UGC video ad structure.

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