Your teenage nephew’s homemade videos may not win an award for creativity, or even clarity, but don’t dismiss the power of these amateur auteurs. A new ad effectiveness study shows that user-generated videos more than pull their weight when compared to the pros. They even drive sales.

That’s the findings of a new study by comScore and EXPO, which helps brands tap into the creativeness of undiscovered film producers for their marketing needs. But don’t go cutting the ties with your creative agency just yet. The study found that professionally produced and user-generated video “are highly synergistic, driving higher levels of sales effectiveness when used in tandem.” The results propose something deemed unthinkable just a few years ago: “that even greater returns can be had by combining their use with authentic, user-generated content.” This is no doubt due to the advancement in consumer technologies and super-cheap editing software that can make even handheld video production shot on a mobile look professional.

As the chart below shows, user-generated video actually scores higher than the pros in three of these four categorical benchmarks. The message being that used together, the effectiveness scores even higher.

The findings shouldn’t be that surprising. We’ve known for some time that teens and twenty-somethings prefer viewing (and of course creating) user-generated video about as much as they do the slick, professional stuff. And of course, most of the viral hits on YouTube are from, you guessed it, amateurs.