E.L.F. COSMETICS

e.l.f. Cosmetics used a new omnichannel measurement strategy to assess the impact of running Instagram and Facebook video and photo ads to boost brand awareness and purchases, which revealed $1.2 million in incremental online and in-store sales.

THE STORY
Digitally native beauty brand

Since 2004, e.l.f. Cosmetics has made high-quality, affordable cosmetics and skincare products that are 100% vegan and cruelty-free. The brand attracts highly engaged audiences across its digital platforms, and its products are available at leading retailers such as Target, Walmart and Ulta Beauty.

$1.2 million

in incremental sales from brand and direct response strategy

1.8X

incremental return on ad spend from brand and direct response strategy

23-point

lift in ad recall

6.3-point

lift in brand awareness

e.l.f. is built off consumer insights. This omnichannel measurement study gave us the opportunity to better understand the impact of our Instagram and Facebook investment as a full-funnel brand and customer acquisition channel. We learned that consumers discover, explore and purchase across multi-channels—and there is a role for both the digital and in-store experience during their purchase path.
PATRICK O’KEEFE, VP, INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS, E.L.F. BEAUTY
THE GOAL
Boosting brand awareness and sales

The cosmetics brand wanted a way to boost brand awareness and increase sales both online and in-store, and to measure the results across both sales channels.

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THE SOLUTION
Testing omnichannel measurement

e.l.f. Cosmetics had successfully run Instagram ads to boost online sales and wondered whether people who saw the ads also purchased at retail locations. The brand’s Facebook team recommended that e.l.f. try a new omnichannel measurement strategy consisting of a Facebook brand lift study, a Facebook conversion lift study and an NC Solutions in-store sales lift study. Nielsen is a Facebook Measurement Partner, and works with retailers to connect people who saw Instagram and Facebook ads to the actual purchases they make in-store, and then measures the incremental in-store sales lift.

The beauty brand and its performance marketing agency, Tinuiti, used this strategy to measure the ads’ impact on the account level across a large number of simultaneous campaigns. Some campaigns used the brand awareness objective, while other campaigns used the direct response conversions objective. All ads included a Shop Now button that linked to the brand’s website.

Brand awareness: The team built video ads with humorous creative, including one showing dogs whose fur was being blown out in slow motion, with the text overlay: “That feeling when you learn that e.l.f. is vegan and cruelty free.”

Direct response: These photo and video ads were product-focused, including one showing a woman applying a range of e.l.f. products, with the text overlay: “Shop our most iconic products online or at any e.l.f. retailer” and displaying logos for Walmart, Ulta Beauty and Target.

The team showed the ads to US and Canadian millennials and Gen Z audiences—including those with an interest in cosmetics, skincare, or makeup tutorials—and to lookalike audiences of people with characteristics similar to e.l.f.’s high-value customers. The brand delivered the ads across Instagram feed, Facebook News Feed, in-stream video, Audience Network, Instant Articles and Marketplace feed.

The beauty brand then re-engaged with recent website visitors and purchasers, as well as those who clicked on the button in the initial ads, by showing them a new ad with a button that linked to a specific product page of interest.

e.l.f. Cosmetics measured the results of its December 6, 2019–February 27, 2020 campaigns with Facebook brand lift and conversion lift studies, plus an NC Solutions in-store sales lift study, which revealed:

  • $1.2 million in incremental online and in-store sales from brand and direct response strategy

  • 1.8X incremental return on ad spend from brand and direct response strategy

  • 23-point lift in ad recall

  • 6.3-point lift in brand awareness

  • 8.9-point lift in brand favorability

  • 4.3-point lift in consideration

Instagram helps drive net-new customer acquisition and brand awareness. Measuring all sales channels allowed us to better understand the total sales impact driven by our campaigns. We anticipate that Instagram will continue to play a role across both customer acquisition and brand awareness initiatives for our brands.
PATRICK O’KEEFE, VP, INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS, E.L.F. BEAUTY