Beauty retail is evolving at record speed. TikTok Shop is now the top eCommerce beauty marketplace in China and the second largest in the United States [1], signaling a major shift in how consumers discover, evaluate, and buy products. Each week, AI assistants like ChatGPT handle more than one billion searches, and beauty-related topics account for about 7.2% of them. Shoppers are asking questions such as “What’s the best mascara for sensitive eyes?” and “How do I build a simple anti-aging routine?” [2]
As the ways consumers discover brands evolves and audience targeting becomes more complex, visibility alone is no longer a growth strategy. Leading Beauty brands are building unified data systems that connect retail media performance, digital shelf visibility, and shopper signals to drive measurable, incremental growth. Success in 2026 will depend on moving beyond surface metrics toward insights that directly influence sales velocity, availability, and profitability.
Retail Media: The New Beauty Counter
Retail media has become the new Beauty counter where shoppers discover and purchase in the same moment. However, visibility alone no longer guarantees conversion.
Recent findings from NielsenIQ [1] and marketplace intelligence sources highlight a category defined by precision, measurable outcomes, and data-driven efficiency. The most competitive Beauty brands are leveraging unified retail media networks that bring together audience targeting, inventory data, and first-party shopper insights to create actionable intelligence across every touchpoint.
Retail media is now at the center of the Beauty path to purchase. The focus has shifted from impressions to connection, as winning brands measure success by how effectively they link media exposure to retail outcomes across Amazon, Ulta, Target, Sephora, TikTok Shop, and more.
1. Discovery Commerce is the New Normal
The rise of TikTok shop demonstrates how social commerce and retail media are converging into a single, shoppable media ecosystem. According to WARC [3], nearly 70 percent of Beauty shoppers now discover brands through retail media placements or creator-led commerce. This shift illustrates how discovery and purchase are merging across platforms, creating a continuous path from inspiration to conversion.
Discovery now extends beyond social platforms. Forty percent of consumers say they are willing to accept product recommendations from AI assistants, reflecting a broader trend toward contextual, data-driven shopping.[4] Discovery happens in-feed, in-scroll, and in-platform, and the most competitive Beauty brands are using unified data systems to meet shoppers wherever their journey begins.
By connecting social signals, marketplace performance data, and audience insights, Beauty brands can identify high-value audiences, improve conversion rates, and optimize engagement across TikTok Shop, Amazon DSP, and other retail media networks.
2. First-Party Data is the New Loyalty Driver
Data ecosystems such as Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) and Amazon DSP are helping Beauty brands build deeper, more relevant connections with their consumers. Personalized ads informed by first-party data convert up to three times better than generic awareness campaigns, proving that precision targeting is now essential to scale effectively in 2025 and well into 2026.[5]
The evolution of wellness-driven Beauty has seen the category grow by more than 60 percent, with consumers seeking brands that fit their evolving lifestyles.[6] Half of Beauty shoppers say self-care matters more today than it did five years ago, while over one-third plan to adjust routines following non-invasive procedures like Botox or laser treatments. These changes are creating new micro-segments with distinct behaviors and triggers that require data-driven marketing to reach.
As these audiences diversify, retailers’ first-party data becomes invaluable. Brands that activate personalized, signal-based campaigns consistently achieve improved conversion rates, demonstrating that precision, not broad reach, drives the strongest performance. Leading Beauty advertisers are using unified data systems to bring these signals together, aligning ad spend with measurable outcomes.
3. Incrementality Drives ROI Accountability
The beauty category grew +10% globally year on year, mirroring the rapid expansion of retail media investment, which is projected to exceed $160B globally by 2028 [7]. While growth opportunities are accelerating, so is the demand for smarter, more accountable measurement. The most competitive Beauty brands are proving incremental impact, not just reporting ROAS.
Incrementality provides evidence that media investment drives new sales rather than recapturing existing demand. Events like Prime Day illustrate why this discipline is essential. U.S. Prime Day data shows that brands with higher out-of-stock rates saw corresponding declines in share of search. Ads can still generate clicks and attributed sales, but without product availability they cannot create genuine incremental demand.
The beauty brands outperforming in 2025 are those that connect retail readiness—inventory, availability, Buy Box ownership—with their media strategy. Incrementality can only be measured when purchase data and media performance exist in a unified system. By integrating retail, media, and commerce data, leading advertisers are gaining a complete view of what truly drives profitable growth.
State of Play: Beauty Proves a Trendsetter as Retail Media Costs Rise Across Categories
Shoppers are discovering Beauty products in more places than ever before, and the number of brands competing for that attention continues to grow. This competition has driven CPCs higher across major retail media networks. Beauty, often a first mover in digital innovation, continues to lead by adapting faster and operating smarter.
Recent marketplace intelligence shows that Beauty advertisers are sustaining growth not through increased spend, but by improving signal alignment, strengthening retail readiness, and refining audience strategies that optimize both ad spend efficiency and profitability.
| Platform | Q3 2025 CTR | Conversion Rate | ROAS | ACoS |
| Amazon US | 0.36% | 24.70% | 3.63 | 28% |
| Amazon EU | 0.44% | 24.80% | 4.42 | 23% |
| Amazon DSP (US) | 0.14% | 31.80% | 3.93 | 25% |
| Walmart Connect (US) | 0.47% | 47.80% | 3.65 | 27% |
Source: Pacvue Q3 Benchmark Report, Beauty Trends(Q3 2025)
Across marketplaces, Beauty advertisers continue to achieve strong CTRs, conversion rates, and ROAS, even as competition intensifies.
- Amazon US: CTR rose to 0.36%, conversion reached 24.7%, and ROAS held at 3.63, even as CPCs climbed 15% QoQ, indicating more advertisers leaning into mid-funnel efficiency.
- Amazon EU: CTR of 0.44% and ROAS of 4.42 highlight consistent discipline among European advertisers who balanced spend and efficiency throughout Q3.
- Amazon DSP (US): DSP continued to be a major driver of upper-funnel growth, with conversion rates at 31.8% and nearly 39% of conversions coming from first-time buyers — a signal that beauty brands are using DSP to expand their base, not just retarget.
- Walmart Connect (US): Walmart delivered the strongest conversion performance at 47.8%, supported by Sponsored Video formats and tentpole event strategies that improved both efficiency and ROAS.
Winning Retail Media Strategies from Leading Beauty Brands
Leading beauty brands and their advertising agencies are moving beyond siloed media tactics to unified commerce strategies that tie awareness, engagement, and sales together.
Publicis Media and L’Oréal Unify Retail Media Execution
L’Oréal and agency Publicis Media achieved a 140% rise in sales, a 53% uplift in new-to-brand orders, a 63% boost in conversion rates, and a 40% improvement in ROAS using Pacvue’s rule-based budget automation and dayparting, and by shifting spend between Sponsored Brand and DSP.
Labelium and Filorga Tap into Amazon Marketing Cloud
Premium beauty brand Filorga and agency Labelium boosted unique monthly impressions by 45%, raised product detail page (PDP) views by 51%. Pacvue’s Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) integration helped them develop a full-funnel strategy on Amazon and justify an incremental monthly ad budget increase of 30%.
Deeploy and Poméol Optimize Black Friday Budget with Automated Day Parting Rules
French beauty brand, Poméol and agency Deeploy achieved a 71% increase in ROAS on Amazon.fr. A dayparting and automation strategy, executed in Pacvue, helped them optimize product, brand and display campaign budgets in a competitive market.
Each of these brands found a competitive advantage when they connected awareness, activation, and profitability measurement using Pacvue, proving that unified intelligence is the new competitive edge in beauty retail media.
Discover how Pacvue powers Beauty brands to optimize retail media, drive profitable growth, and win across every channel.
The Future of Beauty Retail Media is Social
Social commerce continues to blur the line between entertainment and purchase. Platforms like TikTok Shop and TikTok Shop for Business have become vital for Beauty brands seeking new audiences.
Managing TikTok campaigns alongside retailer ad campaigns can be complex. Fragmented workflows, duplicate product catalogs, and inconsistent reporting remain challenges. Leading Beauty advertisers are consolidating social and retail campaign management into unified systems to track, compare, and optimize performance from one place.
How Pacvue Supports TikTok Shop Campaigns
Pacvue streamlines TikTok Shop activation by:
- Guiding structure, creatives and audience targeting so marketing teams can launch on TikTok faster.
- Automatically syncing content from Amazon and other retailers so TikTok and other product feeds are consistent.
- Giving a single view of spend and sales on TikTok alongside DSP, paid search and other channels in one place for comparison and benchmarking.
- Measuring TikTok audience engagement and conversion with AMC data so teams understand which content types, formats and audiences move sales and drive incremental growth.
Cyber 5: Beauty’s Most Competitive Week in Retail
Cyber 5 is the most competitive period in commerce and the ultimate test of retail media performance. Beauty brands drive some of the highest daily ad spend and fastest year-over-year growth across categories during this week. Pacvue’s Cyber 5 Benchmark Report in 2024 shows that beauty had the highest overall average daily ad spend (and the second highest Y-O-Y increase) of all categories.
Winning teams plan early, connecting data across channels to forecast, allocate, and optimize spend in real time. They focus on:
- Automate budget pacing and dayparting across retailers.
- Forecast demand and allocate spend in real time.
- Reallocate budgets instantly across campaigns, formats or channels, based on incrementality insights.
By connecting AMC, DSP, and commerce data, the most agile Beauty brands can pinpoint which campaigns deliver true incremental value and make faster, smarter investment decisions to accelerate growth.
Lead with Intelligence and Act with Precision to Win in Beauty Retail
The future of Beauty retail will belong to brands that move fast, measure what matters, and connect every part of the shopper journey. Winning in 2025 and beyond will mean linking social commerce, retail media, and digital shelf execution into one unified data system that turns insight into action.
To win, beauty brands should prioritize:
- Targeting audiences using first-party data and AMC signals.
- Measuring incrementality to prove true impact.
- Unifying visibility across retail media and social performance.
- Nailing operational efficiency with automation and real-time optimization to forecast demand, media ROI, and mitigate out-os-stock risks.
Leading Beauty brands are already using connected intelligence to translate media performance into measurable business outcomes. For deeper insights and retail media benchmarks, download the 2025 Beauty Retail Media Guide.
References:
[1] Nielsen Consumer LLC, “State of Beauty 2025: Unlocking Growth in a Transforming Industry”, NIQ, December 8, 2025. Available at: https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/commentary/2025/state-of-beauty-2025/
[2] NewBeauty Editors. “ChatGPT Reveals Over 7 Percent of Its Weekly Searches Are Beauty-Related.” NewBeauty, 21 Aug. 2024, https://www.newbeauty.com/chatgpt-beauty-searches/.
[3] WARC. “Unlocking Business Impact Through Personal and Cultural Relevance.” October 2023. Available at: https://www.warc.com/content/paywall/article/warc-exclusive/unlocking-business-impact-through-personal-and-cultural-relevance/en-gb/157596
[4] PwC. (2024). The future of consumer packaged goods: How leading companies are redefining growth. PwC. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/consumer-markets/library/future-of-cpg.html
[5] Via Marketing. (2024). Personalized advertising: The complete guide. Via Marketing. https://viamrkting.com/personalized-advertising-complete-guide/
[6] NielsenIQ. (2025, January 23). The global beauty edit: Finding category growth beyond the mirror. NielsenIQ. https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/commentary/2025/the-global-beauty-edit-finding-category-growth-beyond-the-mirror/
[7] Marketing LTB. “Programmatic Advertising Statistics.” August 2024. Available at: https://marketingltb.com/blog/statistics/programmatic-advertising-statistics/#:~:text=Sponsored%20product%20placements%20remain%20the,by%202028%20(market%20forecast)
