In 2023, social media advertising spend stood at $270 billion, with this figure estimated to increase to $300 billion by the end of 2024. When putting such a copious amount of money into a marketing venue, it is only natural to want to ensure that each investment is as effective as can be. However, as social media continues to rise with a wide range of different platforms, sometimes it can be puzzling to decipher which app is best to help a brand thrive and engage its audience. Recently, Dash Hudson unveiled its 2024 Cross-Channel Social Media Benchmark Report, outlining the behaviors of brands on social media and the success this brings. BeautyMatter summarizes the key findings.
Cross-Channel Comparisons
Among today's popular social media platforms, TikTok is considered the most engaging app for beauty brands. TikTok holds a 4.6% engagement rate, followed by YouTube at 3.9%, and Instagram at 3.5%. Instragram offers the greatest reach, connecting with 75% more new users than TikTok.
Each platform provides distinct opportunities for different industries. Fashion and luxury achieve the highest video views on TikTok (145K average), whereas media and publishing entities see greater views on Instagram (227K average). Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all formula for beauty brands on social media, instead it is up to each individual brand to find where it best aligns with its target audience in the social sphere.
Trending on TikTok
Although TikTok became a playground for beauty brands over five years ago, the app is still a strong platform for high brand growth. On TikTok, brands are exhibiting robust growth rates at an average of 8% per month.
However, as the beauty industry continues to become more saturated every day, engagement rates on TikTok have dropped in the past six months. Despite this, beauty still remains one of the most engaged categories across the platform. The beauty scene on TikTok holds the highest entertainment score from Dash Hudson’s data (3.7/5), with retention rates of 32%. The average beauty brand gains around 103K views per post, with an average reach of 86K.
According to the report, because TikTok is an algorithm-based platform, brands with higher engaging rates attract more new followers. This trend is named “the circle of engagement” and follows the formula of: create good content, drive engagement, gain followers, and in turn, these followers contribute to even more engagement. As a result of this formula, large brands' engagement rates average at 4.6% and outperform established brands with an average engagement rate of 3.4%, followed closely behind by growing brands with a 3.4% engagement rate.
The beauty brands leading the way on TikTok are:
Each of the brands tailor their content to their target market. Take Florence by Mills for example, which often integrates its founder, Gen Z star Millie Bobbi Brown, into its content. Doing so not only pushes the brand to a new audience by showing them a familiar public figure, but also helps the brand to truly connect with its Gen Z audience, as Brown herself is part of the generation and as such gives her input about what she believes will best connect her brand with her audience.
Insight from Instagram
Instagram further affirms that the beauty industry thrives off of video content. Despite the platform offering multiple ways to post and connect with audiences, Instagram Reels are leading the way. The average beauty brand posts more reels (seven posts) than static content (five posts) in the average week. This pivot strategy has led to the industry having some of the highest video views and search, and unlike TikTok, the past six months has seen a rise in entertainment value for beauty brands on Instagram compared to six months ago. Dash Hudson rates Instagram's entertainment score at a 4.2 compared to 3.9 half a year ago.
However, although content on Instagram is deemed to be more entertaining than TikTok, engagement rates are significantly lower. On average, beauty brands receive a 0.2% engagement rate on Instagram, growing brands and established brands both have a 0.3% engagement rate, and large brands have a 0.2% engagement rate.
The beauty brands leading the way on Instagram are:
Hailey Bieber’s Rhode is noted as a successful case study within the report. The brand currently stands out on Instagram due to its minimalistic, “clean” aesthetic, which drives a lot of traction on the platform. Product drops from the brand such as the Lip Peptide phone case has helped cement the brand's social media presence further, becoming the “it girl” product that consumers want to be seen sporting on their own Instagram pages, organically pushing reach to new consumers. The brand's three engagement rates outperform the beauty industry’s overall engagement rates by 1,000%.
Yielding a YouTube Strategy
Sticking to the theme of video content, data from YouTube shows that brands with the highest subscriber count are those which post much more regularly than smaller brands, emphasizing that consumers reward brands that engage with them regularly.
YouTube offers the opportunity to post long videos as well as Shorts, which take a similar format to Instagram Reels and TikTok videos. The report outlined that long-form content receives higher video views by 48%, while Shorts receive a higher cross-channel engagement rate by 8% and a higher number of likes by 89%. Brands should invest time into creating shorts to increase their engagement, while focusing on long-form videos to maintain consumer loyalty and increase brand visibility.
The top beauty industry performers on YouTube are:
Ulta Beauty is highlighted as a successful beauty contributor on YouTube. The retailer caters to a broad audience with diverse content including makeup tutorials, interviews, and beauty tips from industry experts. Ulta Beauty outperformers the average video views for beauty brands by 1,294%.
The top beauty industry performers on YouTube Shorts are:
Laneige US outperformed the average YouTube Shorts video views for beauty brands by 1,187%. The brand regularly posts captivating videos that result in high engagement such as quick and visually appealing content focused on the benefits of its skincare products, aligning with many platform users go-to content types.
Coming to a Conclusion
It is clear that regardless of the platform being used, video-based content is what consumers are longing for and interacting with most. To thrive on social media, brands must stand out by sharing content that is synonymous with their brand ethos; it's all about embracing a niche. Simple strategies have the power to go a long way, as well as partnerships with creators that contribute to building a strong and authentic identity across social media. The best way to engage a loyal audience across all social media is to start meaningful conversations among brand communities by sharing thought-provoking content that turns consumers' feeds into an exciting space for engagement and interaction.
