If you’re a restaurant owner or marketer, you’ve most definitely been told you should be partnering with local influencers and creators to fill your feed and build buzz around your restaurant.
But it can feel overwhelming to know where to start.
- What’s the difference between UGC and influencer marketing?
- Do influencers always want to be paid?
- How do you manage the process?
We’re here to answer those burning questions: what each route is, which combination makes sense for your business, and the easiest way to get started driving footfall and bookings for your restaurant.
Influencers vs UGC: The Three Routes Explained
In hospitality marketing, influencers are incredibly powerful, especially those with an engaged local audience who trust their recommendations for places to eat, drink, stay and explore. It’s no surprise that 91% of UK hospitality brands now do some form of influencer marketing. Influencers usually have a strong following with high engagement, and they’re skilled at storytelling and creating content specifically for hospitality brands. Working with them means you borrow their reach and their audience’s attention to shine a light on your business.
UGC is slightly different. The content can look very similar, but you’re not working with someone for their following and reach. You’re working with a creator who’s skilled at capturing content that performs well, both organically and in ads. Some influencers are also UGC creators, but not all of them.
TL;DR: with influencers, you’re tapping into an audience. With UGC, you’re paying for the content itself. That gives you three routes to choose from.
Gifted Collaborations = Awareness and Footfall
A gifted collaboration is when you invite an influencer in for a meal, a stay or an experience. In return, they post an authentic review to their own followers, in their own style. You can tell them what you’d love them to focus on, but as it’s gifted, there are no obligations.
It’s brilliant for getting your venue in front of a local audience and reminding past customers you exist. On Instagram, you can also collaborate on the post so it shows up on your page too.
Best for: building local buzz, new openings, menu or offer launches, seasonal moments, and keeping your feed full of real people enjoying your venue.
Paid Influencer Partnerships = Reach and Control
Larger influencers with higher engagement and reach will sometimes work with brands on a paid basis. The content is similar to gifted, but you can also set a clear brief on what the content needs to include, while letting the creator have freedom to create content around their usual style.
So, do influencers always want to be paid? Not always. It depends on their engagement, their audience size, the offer and their relationship with the brand. Smaller creators are often happy to work on a gifted basis. Bigger creators will often do gifted too, if the offer is compelling or it’s a venue they’d love to experience and share with followers who’ll enjoy the content. Many hope that if it does well, the brand will want to work with them again.
Best for: campaigns with a deadline, reaching audiences outside your area, and brands that want a specific calibre of creator.
UGC (Creator Content for Your Ads) = Better-Performing Ad Creative
UGC stands for user-generated content. In practice, you hire a creator to shoot content to your brief, key messaging and creative direction, for you to use on your own channels and in paid ads. It doesn’t need to go on their page at all. You can go back with amends until you’re happy, and you get the usage rights to run it as your own.
This is about making your ads feel less like ads. Real people, filmed on a phone, talking about why they love your place. It blends into the feed rather than screaming “sponsored”.
And the numbers back it up. In research published in October 2026, Meta found that advertisers who made creator-led ads at least 30% of their campaigns saw a 45% lower cost per incremental purchase, across 20 lift studies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Best for: brands running Meta or TikTok ads whose creative feels stale, too polished or simply isn’t converting.
Side by Side
| Gifted collabs | Paid partnerships | UGC for ads | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main job | Awareness and footfall | Reach and guaranteed delivery | Ad performance |
| Where it lives | Creator’s own channels, plus yours via an Instagram collaboration post | Creator’s own channels, plus yours via an Instagram collaboration post | Your brand channels and ads |
| Cost | Cost of the experience | Cost of the experience, creator fee and sometimes spend to boost in ads | Content fee per video |
| Control over content | Low | Medium | High |
| Ideal for | Independents, openings, local reminders | Multi-site or remote brands, big launches | Brands running paid social who need UGC to get better conversion |
Which Mix Is Right for You?
Here are the three combinations we see working, and who they suit.
1. Gifted Only
If you’re an independent, or an established brand people already know and love, gifted influencer content often gives current customers a nudge to come back, and new customers a reason to see what the hype is about.
You need regular reminders that keep you front of mind and get people coming back. A steady drip of local creators visiting and posting does exactly that, without an ad budget.
2. Gifted + UGC Ads
Gifted collabs build buzz on the ground, while UGC gives your ads a refresh with content that feels real. If your venue is somewhere more rural, gifted creator supply can be thinner, so UGC helps fill the gap.
3. Paid + UGC + Gifted
Paid partnerships guarantee the reach and calibre you’re after. UGC keeps your ads stocked with fresh creative. Gifted adds a layer of local, everyday advocacy underneath. This is the full-funnel option.
What the Research and the Experts Say
Creator content isn’t about replacing everything else. Your brand video and polished statics still work for brand-aware customers, but creator content adds the human proof of real people, in your venue, actually enjoying it. That builds awareness, consideration and trust.
The numbers back this up. Deloitte’s 2026 Digital Media Trends survey found that 45% of people say creator-led ads feel more authentic than traditional advertising, and those who trust creator recommendations are 2.5 times more likely to buy because of them.
The same report found that brands still tend to treat creator partnerships as one-off campaigns. When you find creators whose content works for you, keep working with them. Repeat collabs build genuine advocates, not one-off posts.
One word of caution: trust depends on transparency. A survey of 3,700 consumers found that 70% say a brand partnership doesn’t make a creator less trustworthy, as long as it’s disclosed. So make sure gifted and paid posts are always clearly labelled.
We asked Jack Edge, Founder and MD of EDGEY, how creator content performs in hospitality ads.
“It works because it doesn’t look like an ad. It looks like someone you trust telling you where to go tonight, and that’s what gets people to book.”
Jack Edge, Founder and MD, EDGEY
Measured across EDGEY’s own campaigns, creator-led ads delivered:
- 7% higher click-through rate than static creative on the same accounts, for the same spend
- 13% lower cost per click, so the same budget reaches further
- 2.3x longer watch time than brand-polished video
So where does it fit? Jack’s advice:
“Right now we’re pushing hospitality brands hard into short, vertical video built for Reels, Stories and TikTok. Creator-led content does the heavy lifting at top of funnel, and polished brand assets back it up closer to the booking.”
Quick Checklist: Where Do You Start?
Ask yourself:
- Do people already know who we are? If yes, gifted may be enough to keep them coming back. If no, you might consider running gifted and partnering with a select few creators on a paid basis who match your brand personality and have an engaged audience who match your ideal customer.
- Are we running paid social ads? If yes, UGC should be in the mix.
- Are our ads underperforming or looking tired? Bring in UGC.
Not Sure Which Route Is Yours? Let’s Chat
That’s literally what we’re here for. Joli connects 300+ hospitality brands, including Prezzo, Rosa’s Thai and GAIL’s, with a community of 9,500+ vetted creators for gifted collabs and ad-ready creator content.
Tell us what you’re trying to achieve, and we’ll help you build the right mix for your venue. Get in touch with the Joli team
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between UGC and influencer marketing?
With influencer marketing, you're tapping into a creator's audience: they post about your venue to their own followers. With UGC (user-generated content), you're paying for the content itself. A creator shoots to your brief, and you get the usage rights to run it on your own channels and in paid ads. It doesn't need to go on their page at all.
Do influencers always want to be paid?
Not always. It depends on their engagement, their audience size, the offer and their relationship with the brand. Smaller creators are often happy to work on a gifted basis, and bigger creators will often do gifted too if the offer is compelling or it's a venue they'd love to share with their followers.
What is a gifted influencer collaboration?
A gifted collaboration is when you invite an influencer in for a meal, a stay or an experience, and in return they post an authentic review to their own followers, in their own style. You can tell them what you'd love them to focus on, but as it's gifted, there are no obligations. On Instagram, you can also collaborate on the post so it shows up on your page too.
Does UGC work in hospitality ads?
Yes. In research published in October 2026, Meta found that advertisers who made creator-led ads at least 30% of their campaigns saw a 45% lower cost per incremental purchase, across 20 lift studies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Creator content works in ads because it blends into the feed rather than looking like an ad.
Do gifted and paid influencer posts need to be labelled?
Yes. Trust depends on transparency. A survey of 3,700 consumers found that 70% say a brand partnership doesn't make a creator less trustworthy, as long as it's disclosed. Make sure gifted and paid posts are always clearly labelled.
Which creator mix is right for my venue?
If people already know who you are, gifted collabs may be enough to keep them coming back. If you're running paid social ads, UGC should be in the mix, especially if your ads are underperforming or looking tired. Paid partnerships make sense for campaigns with a deadline, reaching audiences outside your area, or when you want a specific calibre of creator.
