Paid media that sells serum on repeat

First-order ROAS typically sits at 2.5x to 3.5x for new acquisition campaigns and 4x to 6x for branded and retargeting. Those numbers feel low to a founder used to apparel benchmarks, but skincare has a 60% twelve-month repeat rate, so a 3x first order maps to roughly 4.5x to 5x once cohort revenue catches up. We back into your target from real cohort data, not a benchmark slide.

Every claim, ingredient mention, and influencer disclosure goes through compliance before creative briefs ship. Drugs and cosmetics rules limit what you can say about active ingredients like retinol, hydroquinone, and SPF. We write copy that hits the same emotional notes without making structural claims the FDA reserves for OTC drugs. Influencer FTC disclosures are baked into every Spark Ad and Partnership Ad we run.

Meta restricts most before-and-after photo formats under its beauty and health ad policy. The workaround is texture shots, application demos, ingredient education, and customer testimonials that focus on how the product fits a routine rather than visible result claims. Honest customer videos talking about texture, scent, and skin feel consistently outperform restricted before-and-after content anyway, in our experience.

Yes, once Google and Meta are profitable. TikTok is where Gen Z and millennial skincare buying decisions get made now. Spark Ads from real creator videos consistently beat polished brand content, and TikTok Shop integration removes friction for impulse purchases. Start small, prove out the platform with one Spark Ad partnership, then scale as creator content compounds.

It's one of the highest-impact tactics in the category right now. Beauty buyers trust faces over brand logos. A whitelisted creator handle running paid ads usually beats brand-handle creative by 40 to 70% on hook rate and cost per acquisition. We handle the partnership flow, FTC disclosure language, and content licensing so legal and creative do not become bottlenecks.

Most new skincare brands start at $4,000 to $7,000 in monthly ad spend across Google and Meta. That is the threshold where Meta's learning phase clears in a reasonable window and Google Shopping has enough impression share to learn. Below $3,000 the data is too thin to optimize on. Above $10,000 you should be scaling more channels and creators, not just one platform.

We pull your historical order data, calculate true 90 day and 12 month repeat revenue per first purchase, then divide by your gross margin and target payback period. A brand with $70 AOV, 60% margin, and $42 12-month LTV multiplier can run new-customer campaigns at 2.5x first-order ROAS profitably. A brand without that retention data should start tighter and loosen as cohort numbers come in.

Pre-launch waitlist ads build a warm audience that converts at low CPA on launch day. We run waitlist signup creative for 2 to 3 weeks before launch, then retarget the list with launch-week ads at higher budget. Layer in influencer content and PR photography across Meta and TikTok. By week three of launch we usually have enough data to identify the two or three creative angles worth scaling.

Yes. Sample size or travel offers work as a lower-commitment first conversion for cold cart abandoners and high-intent visitors who did not buy. We build a dedicated lander for the sample, run retargeting from product-view audiences, and pass converters into a subscribe-and-save email flow. Sample funnels typically run at 2x ROAS on the first conversion but compound into much stronger LTV once the full-size repurchase lands.

Not by outbidding them, which you cannot do. By winning on relevance. Quality Score and Meta relevance score reward ads that match search and audience intent better than your competitors. A clean feed with the right concern, ingredient, and skin type attributes drops your beauty Shopping CPCs by 20 to 40% inside two months. Niche concern angles often beat broad category bids on CPA.

Pinterest works well for clean beauty, fragrance, and bridal segments where buyers plan months ahead. TikTok is essential for anything targeting under 35. YouTube pre-roll can work for higher AOV brands with strong founder or expert content. We layer these in once the Google plus Meta base is profitable. Trying to run five channels before two are working usually means none of them get attention.