The skin care industry is large and always growing. As of 2019, it was estimated to be a $7 billion dollar business. However, with the onset of the pandemic, there are several businesses pulling out of skin care and various distribution channels. For instance, while it used to be easy to find skin care products at the local mall, these retail outlets are now all but extinct. For this reason, a lot of new skin care brands are heading online and selling products directly to consumers.

Of all the various types of marketing available, these are the top 3 ways beauty brands are selling products through digital mediums.

Facebook Ads

Because skin care products are such a commodity, it’s easy to place them on Facebook directly in front of their most likely users. While it takes time to build up a Facebook page and following organically, creating a demand can quickly be achieved through Facebook’s advertising platform. Here you can select the ideal audience, the location you want to target, the age group (i.e., if you are selling beauty products to a younger demographic) and more. With a refined set of targeting, you’ll start seeing sells in no time.

Product Listing Ads

Product listing ads are a feature of Google Ads and often referred to as Google Shopping campaigns. These ads display at the top or right-hand side of the search engine result page and show users a product, its price and its reviews. Like Google’s text ads, these shopping ads are part of an auction system where the company with the highest bid for their products will show up first. Product listing ads are easy to maintain and only require an XML sheet of product data. If pricing, product titles or any other core data changes, the advertiser simply needs to update their XML sheet.

An up and coming skincare line Solgesic tells us that, “sales through Google’s product listing ads have skyrocketed since the onset of the pandemic. With so many salons and beauty stores closed in California, we’ve had to turn online to sell our products. We tested a few different things, but found that Google shopping campaigns worked the best and provided the best return for us.”

Search Engine Optimization

Also within the Google search engine results page are organic listings. This are the links that display outside of any advertising section on Google. These results don’t necessarily cost an advertiser, but they do take time to show up in results. If you are a beauty brand, think about how you can create great content about your product line to have it show up naturally in these results. Additionally, you may want to try some online PR to create a buzz about your products. When Google discovers the press information, they’ll give your website and its products credit, thus giving them better positioning in results.

Be Sure to Start with a Website

Before you can employ any of the online marketing strategies outline above, you first need to start with an e-commerce website. Many shopping platforms are easy to get up and running, and you’ll only need a developer to get started. Look for a developer for Shopify, BigCommerce or Woocommerce to get your store started and begin selling products in no time.

If you recently took your beauty products online, let us know how things are going in the comments!