An airbrushed magazine spread can’t show off a bold shade of lipstick quite as accurately and true-to-life as an influencer pairing it with a fashionable outfit during a livestream. A shampoo commercial won’t convey the nutrient benefits in a way you can practically feel—but beauty content Creators? Now we’re onto something, tapping into firsthand experience and emotional value to incite consumer action.

Content Creators are touching every industry vertical, proving to be especially valuable in guiding beauty consumers. LTK’s latest webinar explored this impact, drawing key insights from our Beauty Consumer Study and Brand Decision Maker Study. Discover how beauty content Creators have made their mark so far this year.

Challenges Beauty Brands Are Trying to Solve

With thousands of brands and products for consumers to choose from, your brand needs to stand out to make a lasting impression. Influencer marketing drives full-funnel results, touching consumers across the buyer’s journey and creating recognition, consideration, loyalty, and repeat purchases. LTK’s own research shows that 61 percent of beauty brands are aiming for repeat purchases and 57 percent want to increase brand recognition.

In influencer marketing, top priorities for beauty-Creator partnerships and campaigns span from brand awareness and sentiment to sales and average order. At a granular level, this amounts to:

• 48 percent focusing on boosting sales
• 45 percent focusing on improving sentiment and inventory decisions
• 36 percent focusing on awareness, average order, and lifetime value (LTV)

Upwards of 45 percent of beauty brands said Creator collaborations improved their overall brand perception. As further proof of the impact Creator marketing can have on top-line goals, 91 percent of beauty brands anticipate increasing their Creator budgets this year, while 36 percent of brands already spend at least 50 percent or more of their digital marketing budget on Creators.

Creators Influence Consumer Beauty Routines and Purchases

Think of Creators as the commercials of the 21st century, inspiring consumers to action. Beauty routines reflect this well, as they’ve increased by 1.7 times since 2021. Content like this is ideal for educating consumers about a specific product, how to use it, and its benefits. Although beauty routine content is trending above “get ready with me” (GRWM) and haul videos, these content types are also growing, with beauty GRWM content up 6 times since 2021. Video is driving growth across beauty, with 37 percent of viral content delivered in video form.

Beauty content Creators impact consumers across categories, and LTK lights the way.

LTK is driving beauty content cross-category

Creators are the most trusted voices for beauty recommendations, so it’s no wonder the majority of women shop online for products across categories. One truth: Performance is higher when a beauty post contains products from multiple categories—and Creators are catching on. In fact, most beauty content on LTK includes products across multiple categories, driving 12 percent more sales than posts that feature just one product or category. 

So, which categories complement each other? Makeup and skincare is the top combination in Creator posts; followed by makeup, skincare, and hair; then makeup and hair. This shows that consumers want to see the entirety of Creator recommendations. 

Beauty Content Creators Influence New Shopping Behaviors

A massive 84 percent of beauty consumers are more likely to try a brand or product after seeing it featured in a Creator post on social media—32 percent more than other brand categories. The influence of beauty content Creators is especially striking among the most active consumers: 71 percent of Gen Zers and millennials are more likely to try a new brand or product after seeing Creator posts.

Upon closer inspection, Gen Zers gravitate toward Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, but they are driven most by TikTok and Instagram for purchases. In a similar vein, millennials gravitate toward Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, leaning on all three for purchases—all while YouTube maintains an edge over TikTok for usage.

Beauty intent continues to grow

The numbers don’t lie: Creator beauty mentions are up 14 percent year-over-year. Beauty even converts 2.7 times higher in the LTK App compared to other channels. In large part, all of this is due to the fact that consumer searches are up year-over-year across the three primary beauty categories:

• Skincare: +21 percent
• Hair: +5 percent
• Makeup: +13 percent

Beauty content Creators accelerate trends

Micro trends are constantly emerging, and beauty is taking the lead. Mob wife, Barbiecore, and clean girl aesthetic are a few top examples. In January, LTK “mob wife” searches climbed, leading to a 41 percent traffic boost for lip gloss links and a 37 percent traffic lift in traffic on lipstick links. 

Creators stay on top of what’s hot across social media, leaning into these viral moments in an authentic way. They can create content covering these trends before consumers move on to the next big thing. 

Beauty is the No. 1 top-shopped category among Gen Zers, millennials, and the general population, opening the door to propel additional purchase activities. As evidence, we often see LTK beauty shoppers purchase across other categories such as fashion and home. Of the consumers who purchased beauty products via a Creator, 66 percent also purchased a fashion product and 58 bought a home product.

Don’t think of your marketing efforts as simply working with beauty content Creators—instead, you’re working with lifestyle Creators! Because their content is educational and relatable, consumers engage to learn, to see products on people like them, and to be entertained.

Creators Emotionally Connect with Their Communities

When was the last time you felt like a brand really “got” you? If it’s been a while, you aren’t alone, but beauty content Creators can help change that for your own brand. As beauty consumers themselves, they understand what resonates and what doesn’t.

Creators are inspirational for their audience

Consumers don’t have their eyes on ads the way they used to. In fact, Gen Zers are three times more likely to trust Creators over traditional ads and celebrity endorsements. With this, they become more absorbed in Creator content—finding it to be 59 percent more inspiring than traditional brand content.

What’s the key to getting these consumers invested? Storytelling. Video is the ideal medium to convey emotion that makes an impact:

• 67 percent of consumers prefer video
• 77 percent of Gen Z prefer video
• 89 percent of beauty shoppers watch Creator videos

What stories will you tell for your beauty brand?

Expand Your Reach with Beauty Content Creators

Brand awareness, sales, customer retention—Creators can help you make it a beautiful year by tackling your greatest challenges. Leverage their expertise, authenticity, and storytelling skills to navigate the consumer landscape and emotionally connect with consumers.

Want to set your collaboration up for success? Keep ever-evolving beauty trends in mind and use them to your advantage, following a few key best practices for good measure:

• Offer competitive commission rates so Creators organically link to your brand.
• Balance brand messaging with Creator authenticity.
• Focus on video, offering consumers the interactive content they crave. 
• Make data-driven decisions with LTK as your partner for real-time insights.

Reach beauty consumers on a new level. Explore the on-demand webinar for more insights, and get in touch to begin your LTK journey.