How to Create a UGC Campaign?

This guide walks you through creating and publishing a UGC campaign, reviewing submissions, viewing results, and notifying and rewarding winners.

Step 1: Create a Campaign

1. On the home page, click Create your first activity in the Quick guide. Alternatively, go to Activities in the left navigation and click Create activity.

2. On the campaign editor page, complete the following four sections:

Basic information: Enter the campaign name, subtitle, description, submission type (image, video, or image and video), and campaign start and end times. You can also upload a campaign banner, choose a page template, set your brand accent color, and customize the activity page header, navigation, and footer.

Rules settings: Enter the submission instructions and content authorization statement, then set the number of votes each user can cast per day.

Prize settings: Set the prize name, eligible ranking range, and prize details. For example, the first-place winner may receive a brand gift box and a $100 gift card.

Email notifications: Set the subject line and body of the winner notification email. Use variables such as {{participantName}}, {{campaignTitle}}, {{prizeName}}, {{prizeDescription}}, and {{rank}} to insert winner information automatically.

3. While editing, use the Live preview on the right to preview the campaign block, campaign page, submission page, leaderboard, and winner notification email.

4. When you have finished configuring the campaign, click Save to save it as a draft.

Before saving, make sure you have entered the campaign name, start and end times, submission instructions, authorization statement, daily voting limit, at least one complete prize, and the winner notification email. The campaign end time must be later than the start time.

Step 2: Publish the Campaign

1. Return to the Activities list and find the draft campaign you just created.

2. Click Publish to publish it.

Once published, the campaign will accept submissions and votes according to the schedule you configured. Before publishing, confirm that the campaign page, rules, prizes, and email template are correct. Voting rules and prize settings cannot be changed after a campaign is published.

To temporarily stop a campaign, click Pause. A paused campaign is no longer active; click Resume when you are ready to continue it.

Each store can have only one published campaign at a time. Only campaigns in Draft status can be deleted. Published, paused, and ended campaigns cannot be deleted directly.

Step 3: Enable the Contest Theme Extension

1. Return to the app home page. In the Quick guide, under Step 3: Enable the contest theme extension, click Open theme editor.

2. You will be redirected to the Shopify theme editor. Add the Pify UGC Photo Contest app block to the page where customers should discover and join your contest.

3. Save the theme changes. Return to the UGC app and refresh the theme extension status if needed.

Once the block has been added, customers can see your contest and access the campaign page from your storefront.

You can manage the block later from the home page under Theme app sections status by clicking Manage block.

Step 4: Review Submissions

1. Go to Reviews from the left navigation, or click Manage in the submission overview on the campaign details page.

2. Filter submissions by campaign, review status, date, or keyword.

3. Click a submission to view its image or video, title, description, submitter name, email address, submission time, and current vote count.

4. Take the appropriate action on pending submissions:

Approve: Approve the submission. Approved submissions are displayed on the storefront and can receive votes and rankings.

Reject: Reject the submission. Enter a rejection reason for your records and future communication.

Remove: Remove an approved submission from the storefront.

Restore / Resume: Restore a removed or rejected submission.

To review many submissions at once, select multiple entries and approve them in bulk.

Step 5: View Campaign Results

While the campaign is running, the campaign details page shows submission counts, pending reviews, votes, shares, recent submissions, and the top five leaderboard entries. You can also export campaign data.

When the campaign ends, submissions and voting stop, and the system generates the final leaderboard and winner list. On the Results page:

1. Select the relevant campaign.

2. Use Leaderboard to view the live ranking or the final ranking after the campaign ends.

3. Switch to Winners to see the winner list generated from your prize and ranking settings.

4. Click an entry to view the submitter information, vote count, final ranking, and assigned prize.

The final leaderboard is frozen when the campaign ends. Before notifying winners, review the winning entries, rankings, and prizes carefully.

Step 6: Notify Winners and Fulfill Prizes

1. In Results > Winners, select one or more winners.

2. Click Send email to notify them using the winner email template configured for the campaign.

3. To resend a notification, select the relevant winner again and send the email.

4. Use the additional actions for a winner record to add internal notes, such as whether the winner has been contacted, provided a delivery address, received a discount code, or had a prize shipped.

5. Fulfill the prize according to its type:

Physical prizes: Contact the winner to confirm shipping details, then arrange delivery.

Gift cards, discount codes, or digital rewards: Create and send the relevant reward from your store administration.

Other rewards: Redeem or deliver the reward according to your campaign rules.

After fulfillment, record the outcome in the winner's internal note so your team can track follow-up work.

If any problem, feel free to contact us for support directly.