Rather than relying on creative instinct alone, today’s beauty marketers have access to more advertising data than ever before. But what separates the campaigns that build brands from the advertisements quickly forgotten? Drawing on an analysis of 500 beauty advertisements from 50 brands across 17 countries and six continents, Zsolt Farkas, founder of lifestyle marketing agency Evolut, explored the characteristics shared by the industry’s highest-performing campaigns. The study spanned skincare, makeup, haircare, bodycare, and suncare brands advertising across multiple international markets. It analyzed everything from creative format and messaging to offers, landing pages, and localization strategies.
Rather than identifying the most eye-catching campaigns, the research examined what separates beauty advertisements that create lasting impact from those that are quickly forgotten.
The presentation opened by examining Meta’s Andromeda algorithm update, which fundamentally changes how advertisers reach consumers. "The creative signals are way, way more important now than the targeting," Farkas said. Rather than relying on increasingly granular audience targeting, brands now need creative that clearly communicates to the consumer they are designed to reach.
"The creative is giving the signals to the Meta AI what kind of audience we want to reach," Farkas said. As Meta’s AI takes greater control of audience selection, creative has effectively become the targeting mechanism itself, making creative strategy increasingly central to media performance.
Across the 500 ads analyzed, the median lifespan of top-performing beauty advertisements was just 21 days. “Most beauty ads die fast,” Farkas said. Unlike the supplements industry, where advertising campaigns typically remain effective for much longer, beauty brands face significantly faster creative fatigue.
The short lifespan means many brands are effectively investing advertising budgets to discover what works rather than generating long-term returns. With campaigns lasting only a few weeks, much of the media spend is funding creative testing before a scalable winner eventually emerges.
To identify genuinely successful campaigns, the research isolated advertisements that had remained active for more than 90 days, arguing that longevity, not just clicks or engagement, is one of the strongest indicators of sustained commercial performance.
Despite the growing sophistication of digital advertising, the research found that relatively simple creative formats continue to outperform. Single-image direct-response creatives led the dataset, followed by product videos and carousel formats. User-generated content (UGC) also performed strongly, but not throughout the customer journey.”
"UGC demonstration videos are best at the top of the funnel," he explained. While these videos often achieve click-through rates between 5% and 10%, he suggested they are significantly less effective once consumers are already familiar with the brand.
Instead, single-image creative and direct product-focused advertising proved better at converting engaged audiences, highlighting the importance of matching creative formats to different stages of the purchase journey.
Across almost half of the advertisements analyzed, brands opened with bold performance claims. However, Farkas stressed that longevity depends on supporting those claims with evidence. "There is a big difference between evidence-based and evidence-informed messaging," he said; ads rooted in evidence-based marketing are far more successful.
Clinical trials, ingredient research, and consumer studies all help transform marketing claims into credible commercial propositions. He also noted that brands expanding internationally must navigate different advertising regulations, with markets including the UK, Switzerland, Sweden, and Canada each applying different standards around beauty claims.
Eighty percent of the beauty advertisements contained no promotional offer whatsoever. Unlike supplements, which rely heavily on discounts and introductory offers, beauty brands primarily persuade consumers through aspiration, product benefits, and scientific proof.
Beauty ads that ran for more than 90 days revealed a different picture. Long-running campaigns were more likely to feature discounts, bundles, or introductory offers, suggesting promotions may not launch campaigns successfully, but they can help extend creative lifespan once a winning concept has been identified.
Rather than relying on a single creative tactic, the industry’s most enduring campaigns consistently combined a hero product, an introductory offer or bundle, clinically supported messaging, founder or celebrity storytelling, and proven creator content.
Founder-led campaigns from brands such as Haus Labs and Kylie Cosmetics were highlighted as examples of how founder credibility can strengthen advertising performance.
Farkas also encouraged brands to continue using high-performing creators once an effective angle has been identified, rather than constantly replacing creative simply for the sake of freshness.
Rather than guiding consumers through lengthy educational funnels, beauty brands increasingly must move shoppers directly from an advertisement to a product page. "The product detail page (PDP) has to serve as the hook, the proof, handle objections, and also convert," Farkas said. Long-form PDPs are becoming increasingly important.
The research challenged the assumption that successful campaigns need rebuilding for every market. Instead, Farkas argued localization should focus primarily on language rather than reinventing the creative concept itself.
“When you have a winner … just use it in a new country.”
According to Farkas, localization itself becomes another way of extending creative longevity once audience fatigue begins to emerge in an existing market.
Meta’s AI has fundamentally changed what drives advertising success. Targeting has become automated, and brands are placing greater pressure on creative to communicate audience intent, product benefits, and commercial credibility.
Rather than producing endless volumes of new content, the research suggests beauty brands should focus on developing brand assets capable of surviving creative fatigue, scaling internationally, and delivering sustained commercial performance.
In an AI-driven advertising ecosystem, the most valuable campaigns continue converting months after launch.
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