Beauty Brands Refine Paid Social Media Advertising To Maximize Precision And Community Growth

Over the last year or so, we’ve heard from many emerging beauty brands that they’ve turned off or significantly cut back on paid social media advertising. To find out more about paid social media ad strategies, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 17 beauty entrepreneurs and one consultant the following questions: What’s your budget for paid social media advertising compared to last year? What are the results of any changes you’ve made? What did you learn from those changes, and how will they inform your advertising going forward?

We have adjusted our paid media budget this year, but we haven’t pulled back completely. Instead, we’ve optimized our spend, focusing on high-intent channels and diversifying into new acquisition methods, including TV streaming.

The biggest shift we’ve made is refining our audience targeting and creative strategy. Rather than casting a wide net, we’ve focused on:

Better creative performance—We leaned into “Main Character Energy” as a creative concept for The Black Lip Balm and that resonated well, improving engagement and conversion.
Higher AOV and smarter incentives—Instead of discounting heavily, we structured promotions around thresholds ($50-plus for free shipping, $65-plus for a Mirror Charm), which increased overall order values.
Testing new channels—We introduced TV streaming as a test for brand awareness, which has potential for long-term impact.

Our CAC goal is between $13 to $20, and by refining our strategy, we’ve been able to stay within that range while driving higher AOV.

The biggest takeaway is that paid social can still work, but only when combined with strong brand storytelling and a clear strategy. We’ve seen that customers need multiple touchpoints before converting, so we’re doubling down on content that nurtures brand interest beyond just an ad click. Going forward, we’ll continue testing new placements, refining our messaging, and balancing paid with organic brand-building.

Cece Meadows Founder and CEO, Prados Beauty

Regarding the changes in paid social media advertising, we’ve seen a significant shift in our approach over the past year. Last year, we made the decision to pull back from some of our paid social campaigns. We initially thought of it as a way to better allocate resources and reassess what was truly driving the most value for us.

As a result, our budget for paid social media advertising decreased by about 50%, which allowed us to invest more heavily in organic content and influencer partnerships. The results have been interesting. While we didn’t see the immediate increase in traffic that we had with traditional paid ads, we did notice a more engaged and loyal audience, with a 47% improvement in organic reach.

Looking ahead, we’ve learned a lot from this experiment. The key takeaway for us has been that the landscape is shifting, and relying solely on paid social ads may not be as effective as it once was. We're now focusing on creating more authentic, value-driven content that resonates with our audience, and experimenting with new ways to engage through partnerships and community building. Our future approach will likely blend paid social with more organic, content-driven strategies.

Karina Moises Founder, Beautology Lab

Despite the rising costs of paid social and the complexities of profitability when running ads, we're still investing in paid media and focusing on becoming more efficient. Our ad budgets always fluctuate depending on our ad efficiency, but have decreased about 10% to 20% compared to last year due to customers pulling back on spending and costs rising across the board.

We've also seen changes in how customers engage and convert much more with organic ad content, so we're adapting our content creation to meet these behaviors. Our team is constantly looking at data and monitoring our CAC, ROAS, conversion and retention rates, and most importantly our efficiency metrics based on our COGS in order to remain as profitable as possible.

I anticipate our ad spend continuing to fluctuate throughout the year as we see what the market does. In the meantime, we continue investing in growing our DTC channel, building engaging content and connecting with customers. As a growing omnichannel brand, paid media affords us exposure to more customers to help us continue growing our DTC channel while also continuing to expand our retail distribution.

Melodie Reynolds

Founder, Elate Beauty

We have reduced our advertising in the U.S. to half of 2024 and increasing our advertising in Europe with this excess budget. We are essentially moving $250,000 from the U.S.—half—Europe (50% increase), where we see ROI’s of 4X, CAC of $19 to $41 and conversion rates of 4% to 6% compared to the U.S., where ROI’s are <1, CAC is over $150 and conversion rates are around 1%. We will be focusing on Europe on social media and professional channels in the U.S.

KAPUA BROWNING Founder, Honua Hawaiian Skincare

For ad spending, we have cut down quite a bit. We had an agency we were paying around $2,000 plus a percentage of ad spend and spending $5,000 to $7,000-plus a month for a while. We are now running it ourselves and only showing very few ads with an average monthly spend of $1,000 now.

We are actually growing a little more this year despite the decrease in ad spend and talent and have much less debt. We are playing with some new ad creative and will increase it some, but not go back to the budget we had. We have put more effort in to our newsletters, website conversions rather than spending on ads.

MEERIKA KHANNA Founder, Rthvi

Over the past year, we’ve seen our CAC reach its highest levels, while ROI has decreased. Relying solely on conversion ads hasn’t been effective, so we’ve shifted our strategy.

In 2025, our focus is on investing in awareness ads to educate our customers and build brand loyalty. Instead of heavily investing in paid social for customer acquisition, we’re concentrating on increasing our ACV and nurturing long-term relationships.

This new approach is about building trust, providing value and fostering loyalty rather than relying purely on paid ads to drive immediate conversions.

Barbara Paldus Founder and CEO, Codex Labs

JAMILA POWELL Founder, Naturally Drenched

Our budget for paid social media advertising has decreased this year compared to last. In 2024, we were heavily focused on brand awareness and customer acquisition through platforms like Instagram and Meta Ads, but we found that our ROI didn’t justify the spend, especially for a self-funded brand. The return on ad spend (ROAS) was under 1.5X, and our customer acquisition cost (CAC) was significantly higher than ideal for a sustainable business model.

The primary reason for scaling back was to allocate our limited resources more strategically. We shifted our focus toward organic growth, community building, email/SMS marketing, and partnerships with stylists and salons. We also began investing in more educational content and nurturing existing customers through bundle offers instead of spending heavily on cold traffic.

Since reallocating our budget, we’ve seen positive shifts across several key areas. Engagement on organic social media content has grown, particularly when incorporating user-generated content and educational posts. Our email marketing performance has remained strong, and we've noticed an increase in returning customers. Additionally, customer acquisition has become more cost-effective, especially among those acquired through organic or referral-based efforts, who also tend to have a higher lifetime value compared to those acquired through paid ads.

The biggest lesson is that performance marketing doesn’t work in a vacuum, especially for smaller, mission-driven brands. Paid ads need to be part of a larger ecosystem that includes education, community and authentic storytelling. In the future, we'll approach paid advertising with more intentionality: focusing on retargeting warm audiences, supporting specific campaigns (like product launches or retail expansions), and A/B testing creative that’s rooted in real customer pain points and transformations.

We’re also prioritizing data collection on our end to better track ROI and optimize future ad spend rather than simply increasing spend for scale without a clear path to profitability.

SYDNEY DAKE Founder, Gntl

Our approach to paid advertising has always been intentionally minimal. We've prioritized organic growth through community building and word of mouth rather than allocating significant budget to paid channels.

This year marks our first careful exploration into paid marketing, not primarily as a direct sales driver, but as a strategic tool for audience research and customer insights. The high cost of customer acquisition and fragmented consumer journeys across multiple platforms make it hard to justify the significant investment.

Instead, our response has been to focus on our direct channels and doubling down on creating meaningful connections through in-person events and high-touch, personal experiences like hand-written notes, local activations, and we've even started to explore direct mail.

These engagement strategies have proven more aligned with our brand ethos and more effective for sustainable growth than competing in the crowded paid social space.

SOPHIA CHABBOTT Founder, Testament Beauty

Our budget is about the same as last year for social spend, but this year we’re more focused on our top-performing cities and regions and cities where we host events and just generally have more of a cult following.

KENISHA RUFF Founder and Creative Director, Marie Hunter Beauty

Last year, we experimented with a small budget for paid social media ads to see if we could still generate meaningful results with limited spend. While we did see an increase in visibility, it didn’t translate into the level of conversions we needed to justify the cost. Because of that, we’ve decided to shift our focus this year to engaging with our existing community rather than allocating funds to paid advertising.

Right now, we don’t have any ad spend because we’re prioritizing organic growth strategies like email marketing, word of mouth and community engagement that have delivered stronger long-term value. Rather than relying on paid ads, we’re investing in deepening our relationships with current customers and leveraging them as brand advocates.

One positive outcome from our previous ad spend was the growth of our email list. While the ads themselves didn’t drive as many direct sales as we’d hoped, they did help us capture new leads. Email has proven to be a more effective channel for us when it comes to conversions, so we’re doubling down on that by focusing on personalized content, exclusive offers and nurturing relationships with our audience.

This experience has reinforced that simply getting eyes on our brand isn’t enough. We need to reach the right people in ways that feel meaningful. Moving forward, we’re focused on strategies that create stronger customer connections rather than just visibility. Whether that’s through loyalty initiatives, referral programs or targeted organic content, we want to invest in efforts that build a community around our brand, not just one-time transactions.

Karess Roseme Co-Founder, Rose Neal Collective

At Rose Neal Collective, we haven’t advised our clients to pull back entirely from paid social. For many of the emerging and growth-stage brands we work with, it’s still a key part of their marketing strategy. While every brand’s budget looks different, we often see a starting point around a few thousand dollars a month, with some spending significantly more depending on the size of their DTC business and overall goals.

We’re seeing more intentionality around the spend rather than brands just turning things off. We help our clients get clearer about the purpose of each campaign, whether it’s for awareness, driving trial of a hero SKU or retargeting to close the sale. The brands that perform well are the ones that pair paid with strong storytelling and community engagement so the ads feel like an extension of a conversation, not a cold sales pitch.

What’s shifted most isn’t the presence of paid, but the strategy. We’re encouraging clients to test smarter creative, build campaigns around their brand DNA, and layer in organic and live selling efforts to support conversion. It’s not about spending more or less. It’s about spending with purpose.

KATE ASSARAF Founder, Dip

Dip has never spent a dollar on Meta or TikTok ads. We've built a seven-figure, plastic-free haircare brand entirely on word of mouth, community support and real customer obsession, not hype machines or algorithm roulette.

That said, we might finally be ready to dip our toes into paid advertising for the very first time. Why now? Because while the rest of the industry is scaling back Meta spend like it’s going out of style, we see a counterintuitive opportunity. Our return rate is well below 1%, which means we can advertise with total confidence that once someone tries Dip, they’re going to love it and stay. That’s a chef’s kiss conversion cocktail.

We've noticed that many of our competitors are burned out, overspent and suffering from ad fatigue, while we’ve been quietly building up a highly engaged, high-retention customer base with zero ad pressure. It feels like the perfect storm to finally start investing in selective, strategic paid content, especially now that we know exactly who our customer is and what makes them stay.

So, our paid social budget is going from zero to “OK, fine, we’ll test it,” not because we have to, but because we’re doing it on our own terms. We’ll be testing smartly: measuring CAC, LTV and ROAS like hawks, keeping creative authentic and leaning on data, not desperation or undercutting our retailers with deep discounts online. We still believe that bought hype < real hype, but we’ve also earned the right to scale the story, now that we know it resonates.

Sandra Velasquez Founder and CEO, Nopalera

We measure the CAC, AOV and MER on a daily and weekly basis as a team. Since we produce all of our own content, we are able to quickly make new creative to test.

Through intentional creative testing, our CAC is the lowest it’s ever been and CTRs are high. We’ve seen strong engagement and conversion from campaigns that center our brand ethos and storytelling, affirming that mission-led content outperforms generic shop now ads for our audience.

Dillon Pena Founder, Leland Francis

I’ve never paid for social media advertising. Instead, I’ve focused on growing the brand through organic reach, editorial coverage, and authentic community connection. It’s certainly not the standard approach, but it’s allowed me to build a more personal relationship with customers and maintain a strong, consistent brand voice.

Ruth-Ann Thorn Founder, N8iV Beauty

At N8iV Beauty, we have never engaged in paid social media advertising. While it is tempting, our approach focuses on authenticity. Most of our outreach comes from giving away free products and garnering candid responses from our customers.

This strategy resonates with our Native American culture, where transparency and genuine engagement are paramount. We find that it cultivates natural engagement and fosters loyalty to our brand.

Chris Bustamante Founder, Lushful Aesthetics

Our paid media campaigns at Lushful Aesthetics have experienced substantial year-over-year growth, with a 46.93% increase in paid social spend, an 80% rise in paid search and flat programmatic spend.

Key performance metrics show a 252% increase in Google conversions, a 49% reduction in CPA, and a 792% growth in social media impressions, reflecting significant improvements in efficiency, engagement and overall campaign performance. The 792% increase in impressions on social media and the 252% YoY conversion growth on Google further highlight the campaigns' success.

In 2024, we acquired 392 new patients with a CAC of $2,143. Average profit per customer (APPC) was $5,672 across all categories. Specifically for our Male Enhancement procedures that we spend the bulk of our marketing and ad spend on, we had an APPC of $12,362. YoY Male Enhancement APPC is up 31% $11,201 versus $8,535.

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