Salon advertising and marketing guide

Salon advertising and marketing are the strategic promotion of beauty services and products to attract new clients and retain existing ones. It is crucial for visibility in a competitive market, enabling salons to showcase their unique offerings, build brand loyalty, and drive business growth.

TikTok has emerged as the game-changer for beauty businesses. For salon owners, this means focusing on activities like paid advertising, social media engagement, and local community outreach to fill appointment books and enhance brand reputation. Your goal is simple: turn viewers into clients who book services and recommend you to friends.

Core strategies for salon advertising and marketing

• Build a strong online presence: Your digital foundation starts with a professional website, active social media profiles, and online booking platforms that make your salon discoverable and accessible. TikTok is not just another video platform, it is where people actively search for beauty inspiration and services. Leverage TikTok's Lead Generation with easy-to-fill inquiry forms that appear right in your TikTok ads.

• Find your audience with local search optimization: Optimize your online listings and content for around your specific neighborhood to attract nearby customers actively searching for services. Ensuring consistent and up-to-date information about your salon signals across platforms who you are and the areas you serve.

• Implement loyalty programs and referral incentives: Encourage repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals by rewarding loyal clients and those who bring in new ones. The beauty of TikTok is that it amplifies these programs naturally. When clients share their transformations or tag friends, they become your marketing team.

• Promote services with high-quality visual content: Use captivating photos and TikTok videos to highlight before-and-after transformations, unique treatments, and your salon's inviting atmosphere. This strategy is crucial because beauty products rely heavily on visual aesthetics. TikTok's video-centric platform allows for detailed demonstrations and before-and-after transformations.

• Offer compelling promotions and seasonal packages: Attract new clients and encourage bookings during slower periods with exclusive discounts or bundled service offerings. TikTok Promote can boost your existing videos and help drive traffic to these offers with just a few taps, making it perfect for salon owners who want quick results without complex campaign setup.

How to build a salon advertising campaign

• Set clear objectives: Define what specific outcomes you want to achieve with your salon marketing initiatives. For TikTok specifically, focus on metrics that matter to your bottom line, such as appointment bookings or retail sales that convert to actual clients. Successful campaigns on TikTok have clear, measurable goals. Mariano Balato's hair salon achieved remarkable results with their TikTok strategy by using catalog ads to show ever-popular before and after shots that helped sell their branded hair care products with a 10x ROI.

• Identify your target audience: Research and understand your ideal clientele's interests, online behaviors, and preferred services to tailor your messaging effectively. Think of them as "communities" or "audiences" rather than just demographics. For beauty salons, your TikTok audience includes beauty enthusiasts who follow hair and makeup trends, local clients searching for "salon near me" type content, DIY beauty learners looking for professional tips and tutorials and trend followers who want to try the latest viral beauty looks.

• Develop a creative approach: Plan engaging content that visually demonstrates your salon's expertise, showcases client transformations, highlights your staff, and features behind-the-scenes glimpses. Remember, TikTok videos perform best if your content feels authentic and entertaining.

Your creative strategy might include:

• Transformation videos to show the journey from consultation to final result.

• Educational content that demonstrates techniques and product applications.

• Behind-the-scenes content that humanizes your brand and staff.

• Client testimonials to feature tangible results and experiences.

Need hints on what’s trending? Check out the Creative Center for best performing ads, creation tools, and trending hashtags.

Establish measurement methods

Determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) you will track, such as website traffic, online booking conversions, social media engagement, and return on ad spend (ROAS).

For TikTok advertising, you might focus on:

• Client acquisition cost (CAC): How much does it cost to get a new client through TikTok?

• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Revenue generated vs. advertising costs.

• Online bookings: Direct appointments scheduled through TikTok traffic.

• Video views and engagement: Leading indicators of brand awareness

• Follower growth: Building your audience for long-term marketing.

Where TikTok Ads fit into your salon advertising strategy

Here are four key solutions that work exceptionally well for salons:

TikTok Lead Generation campaigns

Lead Generation ads allow you to capture interest directly on the platform by collecting inquiries for consultations, service bookings, or product information through easy-to-fill forms. This is perfect for salons because potential clients can express interest without leaving the app.

Smart+ campaigns tap into AI-powered ad solutions to help your campaign find more potential customers with less effort on your part. The system learns from successful interactions and automatically optimizes your ads to reach people most likely to book appointments. For salons, this means you can set up a campaign once and let TikTok's AI find your ideal clients based on their behavior, interests, and conversion likelihood.

TikTok Messaging Ads

Messaging Ads spark real-time conversations and connect with new customers directly. This feature is particularly valuable for salon marketing because beauty services often require consultation and personalized recommendations. When someone sees your hair transformation video and wants to know if you can achieve a similar look for their hair type, Messaging Ads make it easy for them to start that conversation immediately.

TikTok Promote

TikTok Promote helps drive traffic and reach a wider audience with just a few taps. You can promote organic videos, photo posts, and live streams right in the TikTok perfect for busy salon owners who do not have time for complex campaign management. The Pink Shop by MasterBrows used Promote to achieve impressive results. Their success came from promoting videos that already performed well organically, ensuring maximum impact from their advertising spend.

How to measure salon marketing campaign success

Understanding your campaign performance is crucial for optimizing your marketing budget and improving results.

Here is what to track:

• Client acquisition cost (CAC): Calculate the average cost to acquire a new salon client through your salon TikTok marketing efforts. If you spend $500 on TikTok ads and gain 25 new clients, your CAC is $20. Compare this to your average client lifetime value to ensure profitability.

• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Focus on the revenue generated from your salon advertising campaigns relative to your ad spend. Salon Hagel achieved an impressive return with their TikTok campaigns.

• Online bookings and appointments: Track the number of appointments or service inquiries made directly through your website or online booking system after TikTok interactions.

• Website traffic channel conversion rate: Monitor how many visitors come to your salon's website from TikTok and what percentage complete desired actions like booking services or signing up for newsletters.

• Social media engagement rate: Measure the level of interaction your content receives on TikTok. Track likes, comments, shares, and saves as indicators of audience interest and brand affinity.

TikTok Ads content ideas & tips

Before and after videos: Showcase the transformative power of your services, from haircuts and color to nail art and skincare. These videos consistently perform well because they provide instant visual satisfaction and demonstrate your expertise clearly.

Pro tip: Videos with captions generate more likes on average than those without. So always include text overlays explaining the process or highlighting key transformation points.

"Day in the Life" videos: Give your audience an authentic, casual, and real glimpse into your salon's operations and the personalities of your stylists. These behind-the-scenes videos help potential clients feel comfortable and familiar with your team before they book.

Client testimonials & spotlights: Real testimonials build trust and social proof, which are crucial for service-based businesses like salons. Feature happy clients sharing their experiences, or showcase popular services being performed.

Quick tips & tutorials: Offer short, engaging TikTok videos with beauty tips, styling hacks, or product recommendations that your audience can easily try. This positions you as an expert and keeps viewers coming back for more advice.

Behind-the-scenes & bloopers: Humanize your brand by showing the fun, playful side of your salon team. These authentic moments help build emotional connections with potential clients and make your salon feel approachable.

Advanced TikTok Ads strategies for salon growth

Leverage TikTok Shop integration: Set up your TikTok Shop to sell professional hair care products, styling tools, and beauty accessories directly through the platform. The integration between content and commerce on TikTok is seamless. Clients can watch your transformation video and immediately purchase the products that you use to achieve that look.

Understand TikTok's algorithm for maximum reach: TikTok videos tend to gain most of their traction in the first days after posting, so timing and consistency are crucial. The algorithm favors content that generates immediate engagement, so focus on creating videos that encourage comments, shares, and saves.

For salons, this means:

• Posting consistently during peak engagement hours.

• Using trending sounds that are popular in the beauty community.

• Encouraging interaction through questions, polls, and calls-to-action.

• Responding quickly to comments to boost engagement signals.

Micro-influencer partnerships: While celebrity partnerships work for large salon chains, smaller salons can achieve excellent results with micro-influencers. Partner with local beauty influencers, loyal clients with strong social media presence, or other small business owners in complementary industries. These partnerships feel more authentic and often deliver better ROI for small salon budgets.

Common TikTok salon advertising mistakes to avoid

Treating TikTok like traditional advertising

The biggest mistake salon owners make is approaching TikTok with a traditional advertising mindset. Instead of creating polished, commercial-style content, focus on posting authentic, entertaining videos that provide value to viewers. Your content should feel native to the platform, not like obvious advertising.

Ignoring trending audio and hashtags

Failing to use popular sounds and relevant hashtags can limit your content's reach and discoverability. Check out the Commercial Music Library for royalty-free trending sounds to use in your branded videos.

Focusing only on self-promotion

Pure promotional content does not perform well on TikTok. Mix educational content, entertainment, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and client features with promotional posts. The 80/20 rule works well: 80% value-added content, 20% direct promotion.

Get salon advertising started with TikTok Ads: your first 30 days

Week 1: Setup and planning

• Create your TikTok Business account.

• Optimize your profile with clear salon information and booking links.

• Research competitors and trending hashtags in your local market.

• Plan your first month of content themes.

Week 2: Content creation

• Film 10-15 videos showcasing different services and team members.

• Create a mix of transformations, tutorials, and behind-the-scenes content.

• Start posting daily to establish consistency.

Week 3: Engagement and community building

• Respond to all comments and engage with other local businesses.

• Follow and interact with potential clients and industry accounts.

• Join trending challenges with your own salon twist

Week 4: First paid campaign

• Promote your best-performing organic video using TikTok Promote

• Set up a Lead Generation campaign targeting local audiences.

• Monitor results and adjust targeting based on performance.