Connected TV: The Ultimate Performance Glow-Up for Beauty and Cosmetics Brands

The cosmetics and beauty sector was the fastest-growing US retail category in 2023. Unlike other industry verticals, this sector has remained steadfast, with the term “affordable luxury” being  the beauty biz’s latest buzzword. “Consumers are continuing to spend on beauty even while they cut back on other areas,” said eMarketer analyst Sky Canaves. The pandemic fueled a prioritization of self-care and wellness, which in turn has influenced how consumers approach their overall health and wellbeing in the long run.

McKinsey forecasts the beauty market is estimated to top $580 billion in retail sales by 2027 and grow 6% yearly. “Today, it’s way less about price and more about performance. Efficacy is key,” said Lauren Leibrandt, Director of Baird’s Beauty and Wellness Investment Banking practice. “It can’t be overstated just what an important driver that is for consumers, whatever the price point.” Much can be said about how performance applies to beauty and cosmetics brands marketing on Connected TV, but we’ll just explore some of it here, with the help of advertiser stats straight from our platform. 

Beauty and Cosmetics Brands See Compounded Performance Over Time

We looked at how beauty and cosmetics advertisers on MNTN performed from January 1, 2024 through April 2024. These advertisers represented all kinds of products and services, from makeup to skincare to haircare to fragrance, with even a beauty subscription company thrown into the mix. In the below charts, it’s clear how effective Connected TV can be as a performance booster, especially over time.

In the first four months of 2024, both ROAS and site visits increased across the board, and their cost per visit declined.

From the beginning January through the end of April, we saw an overall 25% increase in ROAS.

Meanwhile, average visit rate increased by 21% since the start of the year.

Meanwhile, cost per visit saw an overall 27% decrease.

This demonstrates the performance payoffs of Connected TV as not only a seasonal, one-off performance play, but a valuable, ongoing, evergreen presence in an advertiser’s marketing strategy. 

Who Needs To Turn Back the Clock With Results This Good?

You might be wondering though how Connected TV platforms like MNTN fared over a longer period of time, so we compared performance between 2022 and 2023. 

Meanwhile, the number of campaigns running on Connected TV increased by 45% during this time, with advertisers seeing performance gains across the board.

Connected TV Advertising Makes Brands Look Good

What were these beauty and cosmetics brands doing to generate this performance? This time, we also ranked creative by ROAS year-to-date, and spotted some commonalities in the top 5 creatives that helped these brands stand out both on- and off-screen. 

The top two most effective ads were 30-second spots built deployed as retargeting campaigns. The brands that produced them also followed the creative best practices we recommend, including:

That said, we also noticed that the other three creatives — all 15-second spots — that didn’t have a discount code, made it to the top five anyway. What else did they have in common?

When examining a beauty brand that leveraged MNTN’s Creative-as-a-Subscription, we found they generated higher performance than those who didn’t, including, on average, a 56% higher ROAS, 38% lower cost per visit, and 64% lower cost per acquisition.

The key takeaway? Make sure that you plan for a larger volume of creative to test and iterate, and factor in how you can communicate your product benefits in a clear and memorable way.   

Beauty Is Always-On. Why Should Your Campaigns Be Any Different?

The U.S. beauty industry is expecting dollar sales to grow 14% year over year, with body care and Generation Alpha driving much of that growth. According to leading consumer behavior insights consultancy Circana, skincare was one of two mass sectors that grew based on unit sales. And since market share is growing among 45-54 year olds with children under 18, beauty companies should ready  themselves to market to tween and teen audiences, too. 

In an industry like beauty and cosmetics that impacts multiple generations and is experiencing uncommon boon times, brands need an evergreen presence on Connected TV to compete and generate those performance gains. And as we’ve explored above, incorporating creative best practices has a big part to play in this. Whether you’re well-versed in the streaming space or just now dipping your toes in,  Connected TV advertising offers beauty and cosmetics advertisers a playground to experiment and test multiple creative variations, assess, and iterate — for the ultimate performance glow up.