Static Ads vs UGC in 2026 | What Actually Scales Now

Every day I see the same debate online.

Should you focus on statics or go allin with UGC? And after the Andromeda

with UGC? And after the Andromeda updates, the confusion just got worse.

Simple hook changes or headline swaps simply don't count as creative testing in Meta's eyes anymore. The platform now wants clear creative division instead of surface level changes. If you're new to this channel, my name is Fraser. I'm one

of the co-founders at Fraggle. We're a

performance ad creative agency here in the UK that work with some of the US and Europe's biggest DTOC brands. Brands

like Aloha, Nathan and Suns, and Portland Leather, just to name a few.

So, in today's video, I'm going to show you exactly how at Fraggle we decide what we are going to make for a brand depending on the size and scale of their budget. So, let's jump into it. So, just

budget. So, let's jump into it. So, just

to be clear, this is not a static or UGC debate. The matter of the fact is you

debate. The matter of the fact is you need both of them. Instead, it comes down to more of a sequencing and scaling issue. What do you need at what part of

issue. What do you need at what part of the funnel and how many of those do you need depending on your budget? Look on

any ad account and I can almost guarantee that you will see a mix of static ads and video ads. It's just a must. And particularly with the

must. And particularly with the Andromeda updates, Meta wants more ads instead of small changes to current ads.

It wants bigger swings instead of small hook changes. It wants completely

hook changes. It wants completely different statics instead of one static with 50 different headlines. the more

different and the clearer that your ads are, the better those tests will do. I

actually discussed this in my Andromeda update video that you can watch. And so

it becomes less of a do I run this ad or this ad and more of a I need to run all of these ads. How many of them do I need to run? And that's one question that

to run? And that's one question that brands ask me quite a lot. I have this budget. How many creatives should I be

budget. How many creatives should I be running? For me, I think every single

running? For me, I think every single brand should scale up. There's no point putting 50 brand new ads into an ad account where you're spending $100 a day because they simply aren't going to get

enough spend to even deem a proper test.

So, let's say that your budget is relatively small. Let's say you're at

relatively small. Let's say you're at $50 a day. At that point, I'd probably be launching maybe one or two brand new ads every [music] week. That should give you enough to keep the tests rolling,

but should also give them enough spend.

And out of those, they can be whatever your ad account needs, whether that's statics or whether it's video. At the

end of the day, format distribution unlocks diversity within your ad account. Statics and UGC play completely

account. Statics and UGC play completely different parts in the ecosystem of your ad account. Usually what I see is that

ad account. Usually what I see is that statics are for retargeting. A lot of the time this is because the people are product aware, they're problem aare, they are in a purchasing mood. And so a

static is just there to remind them that you exist. And then UGC and other video

you exist. And then UGC and other video formats play more of a top of the funnel role. So often enough when a brand comes

role. So often enough when a brand comes to me and they say, "Stantic ads are performing really well, but we just can't get video to work." To me, that tells me that they've probably got another top of the funnel source, usually that's Google Ads. And you can

tell that because people are already visiting the website, they already know of the brand, and they're just converting through static ads. So that

normally means they have a top of the funnel problem that needs to be fixed with better video ads. So at that point, it isn't a case of static ads or UGC ads. It's a case of we need better top

ads. It's a case of we need better top of the funnel ads. testing formats is now the same as testing angles at this point. But static ads are great. I've

point. But static ads are great. I've

discussed this in many videos, one of them being my statics masterass that you can watch. But essentially, the reason

can watch. But essentially, the reason why static ads are so fantastic is because of how easy they are to create.

Literally, all you need is a good copywriter and a good designer and you can be off to the races and churn out 50, 60 or 100 of them in a day depending on how hard you want to work. They're

also very cheap and easy to iterate. If

you see a messaging working very well on one static, you could roll out that messaging with a different static. And

you notice how there I said a different static and not just alter your current static. Because with Andromeda, as we

static. Because with Andromeda, as we know, we can't do that anymore. So

instead, you take that messaging and you implement it in a completely new static.

I've actually seen a massive rise in brands coming to us and saying, "Okay, we don't want static variations anymore.

We just want loads more new static angles." The other reason why statics

angles." The other reason why statics are really fantastic in your account is that they open you to be able to rapidly test new messaging and new offers.

Instead of cobbling together a whole new video, exporting it, going through all the QAing, instead you can just make a static ad with your messaging, with your offer, get it up and test it and see if it works. If it does, then you can roll

it works. If it does, then you can roll that out into your videos. So, they're

really fantastic in the early stages of a brand where budget for production is fairly low. I've worked with some very

fairly low. I've worked with some very very startup brands and they go pretty heavy on static ads because they're cheap to produce and because usually if you have a good top of the funnel source like Google ads or maybe word of mouth

then they can just sit in the background and just churn in sales. Guys, before we go any further, I want to give a big thank you to Omnisend for sponsoring this portion of the video. All the ecom brands that I see scaling with serious

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automations running. Sure. However,

usually the segmentation is pretty weak and there's no real automation behind it. And what's even worse is most

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Now, back to the video. But when does UGC when does video make more sense?

Well, often that's when you have a bit more money to spend on production. I've

mentioned this in a couple of videos, but we pay our UGC generators pretty fairly, I'd say. But I've spoken to agencies and brands that do not pay them very fairly and then of course they complain about the results that they

get. So in order to do video you need to

get. So in order to do video you need to be in a position where to get good results you can spend a bit of money to get there. So using UGC casting websites

get there. So using UGC casting websites for example is a great start. But one

issue with video in general is it's much slower to iterate. Usually results take a little bit longer to get in and then if you want to make any changes to it you're going to have to go back to the editing and basically start all over

again. But of course they are incredibly

again. But of course they are incredibly incredibly good for storytelling which is becoming more and more important in this world of Andromeda because storytelling is the thing that separates you from all the other brands. Your

founder story, your team story is completely different to your closest competitor because even though you might have relatively the same product, you don't have the same story. And UGC video in general is the best format to tell

that story. And so usually what I'd say

that story. And so usually what I'd say is determine what messaging is working, what offers are working with your very simple scrappy static ads and then roll that into videos and UGC because then

you're a bit more secure in the decisions that you're making. How we do it at Fraggle really differs depending on the brand that we work with. If

you're familiar with my videos, then you know that we usually only work with brands that are spending over 70,000 on paid ads. By the way, if you are one of

paid ads. By the way, if you are one of them, you can click down there to apply.

So that means when a brand comes to us, they often have quite a lot of data.

They've normally done a lot of the brunt work. And so usually we just go straight

work. And so usually we just go straight in for video. We might do some supporting statics as well. But when I'm consulting with smaller e-commerce brands where they're just starting out, the usual process that I tell them to do

is this. The first thing you need to do

is this. The first thing you need to do is start with some very simple statics.

You want to see what resonates with people. What messaging actually makes

people. What messaging actually makes people click. They might not make a

people click. They might not make a purchase yet, but they will probably click. Once you have that messaging

click. Once you have that messaging dialed and you know why people want to buy your product, then you have those early signals that you need to then build out into video concepts. So you

can move those to UGC, for example, or a mashup format. Both fantastic, easy,

mashup format. Both fantastic, easy, loweffort videos to make. And with the rise of AI, you can also do this without even hiring a creator sometimes. But the

most important thing here is you need to maintain both of those formats continuously forever in order to have a diverse ad account. So that means making regular statics in order to test new messaging and build on the winning

messaging. But then you also need to

messaging. But then you also need to roll them out into UGC. Again, if you have a great video foundation, your top of the funnel is going to be sorted. But

not just these two formats. You need

lots of different formats and different angles and different messaging to make a diverse ad account. I've lost track of how many times I said diverse in this video. If we pick an incredibly

video. If we pick an incredibly successful DC brand, Happy Mammoth is one that comes to mind. And you have a look through their ad account, you're going to notice a couple of things. They

have a ton of statics. And they have a load of video in different formats. I

can see some UGC. I can see uh some like UGC statics. I can see some VSSLs. They

UGC statics. I can see some VSSLs. They

have everything covered. And the reason for that is because they know how important it is. You no longer see what you used to see, which was like a sea of headline testing. That just doesn't work

headline testing. That just doesn't work anymore. But what you do see is images

anymore. But what you do see is images and you see UGC. So it's not a battle for which one you need to use in order to scale your brand. It's how many of each you need. And like I said, that

totally depends on your budget and where you are as a brand. The key takeaway here is that ads scale faster when they're structured for iteration and they are built for distribution from day one. And that's exactly what we do at

one. And that's exactly what we do at Fraggle. We help brands scale profitably

Fraggle. We help brands scale profitably with lots of different ad formats that we make all inhouse. And if that sounds like something that interests you and you happen to be spending over 70,000 on ads, then please do think about scanning

the QR code to apply that's on the screen or clicking the link in the description down there. You'll also find a link for my free newsletter that gives you inspiration every single Monday for

ads that you need to test. Anyway, until

next time, I'll see you soon. Bye-bye.