How Accolade Achieved 338% More Conversions With a Stellar UGC Strategy

Students entering the accommodation search process were often overwhelmed with choice and uncertainty. Cost, convenience, safety, social life and independence all shaped decision-making at the same time.

Traditional polished advertising struggled to address these emotional considerations. The category was saturated with feature-led messaging, while students were looking for reassurance and relatability.

Together with the Accolade team, we identified that the real barrier was not awareness but credibility. Students needed to see themselves in the experience before they could imagine choosing it.

When researching accommodation, we found that students were not relying heavily on polished brand messaging. Instead, they were consuming creator content, room tours, “day in the life” videos, TikToks and peer recommendations to validate their choices. The decision-making process was highly social and heavily influenced by content that felt personal and unfiltered.

At the same time, private rentals and sharehouses naturally benefited from a sense of familiarity and authenticity that traditional accommodation advertising struggled to replicate.

This created a clear opportunity: if Accolade wanted to build trust earlier in the journey, the brand needed to show up in the same content environments and communication styles students already trusted.

That insight became the foundation for the UGC strategy.

Rather than treating UGC as simply a creative trend, we approached it as a strategic trust-building tool.

Working closely with Accolade, we developed a creator-led content strategy designed around how students discover, evaluate and emotionally connect with accommodation options online.

The partnership was highly collaborative. Accolade brought deep audience understanding and category knowledge, while our creative and media teams translated those insights into content frameworks designed to influence different stages of the funnel.

Together, we focused on:

• Creating content that felt native to student social feeds rather than traditional advertising
• Using creators and relatable student perspectives to reduce hesitation and build familiarity
• Developing funnel-specific messaging tailored to awareness, consideration and conversion stages
• Testing hooks and narratives centred around real student priorities, including affordability, convenience, social connection, and independence

By shifting away from polished brand-led messaging and towards experience-led storytelling, Accolade was able to connect with students in a way that felt more credible, human, and relevant.

UGC quickly became one of Accolade’s strongest-performing creative approaches across the funnel.

By leading with authentic student voices and experience-led storytelling, the campaign generated stronger engagement and significantly higher conversion performance compared to other creative formats.

Key results included:

• 58% higher click-through rate
• 338% more conversions
• 54% lower cost per click
• 27% lower cost per acquisition
• 55% of all conversions driven by UGC

More importantly, the campaign helped reposition Accolade within the student mindset, not just as accommodation but as a trusted and relevant part of the student experience.