Identify Winning Paid Media Creative Combinations for Beauty Brands

We know a thing or two about the beauty industry, and for that reason, we attract a lot of beauty brands. Given how visual the industry is, we dedicate a lot of our time to developing winning creative strategies that will generate the highest possible ROAS for our clients.

Each quarter, as part of our QBR, we review creative performance. We code each ad with dimensions so that we have statistical data to back our creative strategies.

What are the dimensions we use for our beauty ads?

  1. The asset type: video, gif, static image, carousel

  2. If video, what is the length? Under 10 seconds, 11-20 seconds, 20-30 seconds

  3. Does it have callouts as text overlay?

  4. The featured product grouping: eyes, cheeks, lips, face

  5. Does the asset contain a model?

  6. Does the asset contain influencers?

  7. Are there swatches?

  8. Does the asset/ad copy contain a promo?

  9. Does the asset/ad copy contain UGC?

Once we’ve established the dimensions, we export performance reporting data from the ads platform. In Google Sheets, we add a column for every dimension listed above. Then, ad by ad, we input details about each dimension.
Next, we pivot (tutorial on pivots)! The result enables us to see the statistics against main business KPIs around each dimension. Note: for this particular client, they were running a liquidation event during the analysis which is why there are so many promo dimensions!

The results

Our findings indicate, for this particular client:

  • Video ads continue to perform well and carousels continue to be our lowest-performing ad format

  • Gift w/Purchase Promo 2 had a high ROAS but resulted in just 12 purchases

  • Promo Face performed well—5x ROAS

  • Influencer picks did not perform well — we created a new LAL audience where we will place influencer ads to help increase performance


Pro tip

Once you establish your reporting dimensions, start adding them to your ad names. This will make the coding phase much faster.

ie: a 25% Off Face Promo Video with a model and a UGC testimonial that is 12 seconds in length would be named
”25%OffPromo_Face_12secVideo_Model_UGC”

Looking for a team to manage your paid media campaigns? Get in touch!

Pennock Team