---
title: "Winning UGC ad scan by Refs — ads & UGC tutorial and best practices for AI video"
description: "Paste a product link: Refs finds its competitors' winning UGC ads and what wins in the category. Install in Claude Code, Codex and Grok with one command."
url: https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/refs-ugc-scan
updated: 2026-11-01
---

# Winning UGC ad scan by Refs — guide skill for ads & UGC

> **For AI agents:** find the right skill in one call — `curl -s "https://varg.ai/how-to/api/search?q=<what the person wants>"` returns the matching how-to page and the best skills with install commands, as markdown (Russian works too). Full index: https://varg.ai/how-to/llms.txt. Every page has a markdown twin: add `.md` to its path. Before generating anything, show the person the options on the how-to page. From a terminal: `curl -fsSL https://varg.ai/install | sh` installs the vargai CLI (https://varg.ai/how-to/cli.md): `vargai search` and `vargai install <slug>` with no key, every varg model after `vargai login`.

Paste a product link: Refs finds its competitors' winning UGC ads and what wins in the category.

- **Type:** [Guide](https://varg.ai/how-to/guides.md) · [Ads & UGC](https://varg.ai/how-to/browse/skills/ads.md)
- **Slug:** `refs-ugc-scan`
- **Status:** live
- **Publisher:** Refs (vendor)
- **License:** Refs: proprietary hosted service (free search, Pro for the rest)
- **Source:** https://refs.video/connect
- **Works in:** Claude.ai, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Any MCP client
- **Requires:** Refs Pro (3 scans a month), Refs MCP (ugc_scan, get_ugc_scan)
- **Cost:** search_videos is free with no key or account (about 30 searches an hour without one). Everything else needs Refs Pro, $16 a month or $120 a year, with 3,000 credits a month: get_blueprint 5, get_frames 5, get_formula 5, plan_video 10, check_render 2, the rest 0. Library ($6 a month) opens every film on the site. varg credits are only spent on what you generate on varg.

## What it does

ugc_scan is a two-step Refs MCP tool (Pro, 3 scans a month). Step 1: paste the product's page; Refs reads it and suggests competitors. Step 2: confirm or edit the list, and Refs finds their winning UGC ads. get_ugc_scan returns the scan's progress, then the board: competitors' winning UGC ads by signal and what wins in your category, and with film it returns one ad's blueprint, ready for plan_video. Meta ads link to Meta's Ad Library. Make the new ad with varg's UGC skills (AI creators, product shots, captions).

## Use when

- Before making AI UGC ads: what already wins against you
- A creative brief built on the category's winning hooks and formats
- Turning a competitor's winning ad structure into your own original ad

## Not for

- Copying a competitor's ad: transfer the structure into your own footage and script
- Products without a public page

## Install

- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http refs https://refs.video/mcp`
- Claude.ai: `Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector → https://refs.video/mcp`
- Codex: `codex mcp add refs --url https://refs.video/mcp`
- Any MCP client: `https://refs.video/mcp`
- Any agent, with the vargai CLI: `vargai install refs-ugc-scan`

## Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/files/4325c578-378d-4c43-ae53-3cc3218df1ea/file_d4e326ddfc50.mp4 — 5.5 s cut from Refs' film: the archive wall of measured films (Refs' film shows the archive; the scan board is private to each user). (credit: Refs, the Refs film (refs.video/film.mp4), https://refs.video)

## More ads & UGC skills

- [Ecommerce video ad skills for Claude Code and AI agents](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/ecommerce-video-ads.md): Product videos that sell on TikTok, TikTok Shop, Reels and Meta: angle, hook, format, script, rules, variants.
- [Turn a product into scroll-stopping video hooks](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/product-video-hooks.md): The first 3 seconds of a product video: frame, line and text that agree, from a 70-line hook bank.
- [Open-source alternative to Arcads: AI UGC ads](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/ai-ugc-ad-video.md): AI UGC ads with an AI actor holding your real product: face, voice and label locked, labelled.
- [Turn one winning ad into a creative testing plan](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/ad-creative-testing.md): How many ads to test, what to change, when to judge, kill or scale — concepts Meta sees as different.
- [Turn a product into a dropshipping guide reel](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/varg-dropship-reel.md): The faceless "comment GUIDE" reel: product hook, a marker pointing at cost and price on a laptop, a skyline ending.
- [Turn product photos into a viral product hook](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/varg-product-hook.md): Find a hook that already sells, then remake it with your product as phone or security-cam footage on Seedance 2.5.