Viewers have a trained reflex: the moment something registers as an ad, the thumb moves. Polished production triggers that reflex in the first frames; UGC slips past it, because it looks like what people opened the app to watch.
That earned first-second attention compounds into everything downstream: more of the hook seen, more of the story heard, cheaper clicks, and creative the algorithm reads as fresh. UGC out-performs polished ads consistently, which is why it anchors the creative mix, not the leftovers of it.
