How to harness BeautyTok to grow your beauty brand

It's no secret that TikTok has revolutionised the beauty industry, creating a community where everyone is welcome, rewriting standards and facilitating new ways of storytelling. The latest TikTok trends are regularly featured on magazine pages and #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt is having a real-world impact on the bottom line of beauty brands: 69% of Italian TikTok users are mote likely to buy a new beauty brand after seeing content on TikTok [1].

From #LatteMakeUp and #CherryLips to #FauxFreckles and #GlassSkin, TikTok is where beauty trends start, and the sheer volume of trends on TikTok means no one singular trend can dominate the aesthetic for very long. The beauty trend cycle doesn't stop – it just matures, iterates and remixes itself. Since joining TikTok over half of our European users say they try products more often because they are trendy or popular [2]. This is why 74% of TikTok users agree that content on TikTok has transformed their beauty game [2].

Want to learn how to harness BeautyTok to grow your beauty brand? Keep reading.

TikTok's unique path to purchase

TikTok takes users on a journey across the funnel from discovery and inspiration through decision-making and purchase to advocacy and recommendation, proving unlimited opportunities for CPG and beauty brands to connect with consumers and drive results:

What this means for beauty brands

The TikTok community craves content that entertains, educates and inspires. To stay top of mind, beauty brands should adopt an always-on strategy, posting organic beats and paid peaks to capture both last-minute and long-term planners.

Here are four tips to help you craft the best CPG campaigns to engage this audience.

1. Foster consideration with reviews and recommendations

From #getreadywithme to #makeupreviews and more, authentic reviews are key for discovery and consideration of beauty products for TikTok users: 32% discover new brands and products through reviews, while 26% are inspired to find out more about a brand or product from tutorials [2]. Beauty brands should proudly spotlight the unique nuances of their business to resonate with our diverse audience.

Encourage your users to interact with your brand by responding to comments, asking questions and commenting on other videos. To get started, explore our creative centre – you can utilise our keyword insight tool and review top ads or organic videos to gain inspiration and understand what resonates in the beauty community. What's something specific you wish more consumers knew about your brand?

2. Lean into authentic and entertaining messaging

Entertaining ads on TikTok help to guide users down the funnel; high entertainment ads* are rated 25% higher for brand love, 15% higher for purchase intent and 17% higher for likelihood to recommend [4].

After watching beauty-related content, 29% of Italian users say they clicked save on the post [1]. To create content worth saving, check out our creative codebook or work with creative production experts using the TikTok Creative Exchange (TTCX), our one-stop solution that enables fast, scalable high-performing video production for TikTok. For a little inspiration, check out how many saves this beauty creator's video got.

3. Look to creators

Creators are fundamental in helping TikTok beauty lovers decide on new brands and products, and they are equally important in helping them progress through their buying journeys.

Branded Mission helps brands engage their audiences in a trusted way by crowdsourcing authentic content from TikTok's diverse community of creators. Leverage the TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM) to find the right creators for your brand. As a brand, consider picking creators who are storytellers first, and beauty mavens second. Utilise them to bring interesting new angles to your product story, and exciting new product experiences.

4. Go for gold with a brandformance approach

For beauty businesses planning campaigns with both brand and performance goals, TikTok is a game-changer. We've found that advertisers that adopt a brandformance approach on TikTok, combining brand and performance objectives into single campaigns, see improved campaign performance compared to isolated single-objective campaigns [5].

We've also found that new product launches overperform on TikTok, surpassing the benchmarks of established product campaigns. When launching new products, using more than two branding products boosts results even further, especially with premium formats such as TopView and Top Feed, advertisers have seen:

• 10% higher ad recall (vs benchmark)

• 75% higher awareness (vs benchmark)

• 140% higher brand association (vs benchmark)

• 57% higher purchase intent (vs established product campaigns)[6].

Advertisers can then turn this brand equity into action by leveraging the power of Video Shopping Ads (VSA), our innovative catalog-based solution that supercharges product sales. See how beauty brand La Rosée Cosmétiques used VSA to drive 4.42x higher ROAS.

Take your beauty products from just out to sold out

Our community's desire to discover new beauty products continues to grow day by day. Tap into our platform by leveraging the above insights and guidance to develop an always-on full-funnel strategy that features both organic content and paid media to drive growth and boost conversions. For more on how TikTok works for beauty brands, discover how Sephora tripled their ROAS with a full-funnel TikTok campaign!

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*“High-entertainment” ads are ones that are relatable; make users feel uplifted/inspired; make them smile/laugh; or show them something they personally like