Are Your Beauty Campaigns Competitive in Retail Media? Ask Yourself These Questions.

Retail media’s not what it was even a year ago.

In beauty, the pressure’s piling on—more platforms, more spend, more scrutiny. Everyone’s chasing visibility, but the bar for proving ROI keeps getting higher. And just running ads? That’s table stakes.

Retailers are scaling their networks. Consumers expect relevance with every swipe. And the shopper journey is all over the place. If your program hasn’t evolved in the last few quarters, chances are, it’s falling behind.

To keep beauty campaigns competitive in retail media, it’s not about doing more. It’s about getting sharper—on targeting, measurement, creative, and how those pieces actually drive sales.

So here’s a gut check:
Five questions to pressure-test whether your retail media strategy is actually working—or just running.

Are your targeting strategies advanced enough?

Basic demographic targeting no longer cuts it in the beauty industry. Consumers expect hyper-personalized experiences, with 84% of beauty shoppers saying they prefer ads tailored to their interests. Relying on broad audience segments risks wasted ad spend and missed engagement opportunities.

To stay competitive, beauty brands must tap into predictive audience modeling and real-time behavioral insights. Segmenting shoppers by intent, demographics, and purchase behavior allows brands to deliver highly relevant messaging that resonates and converts.

Next-Level Follow-Up Questions:

• Are we leveraging retailer audience data to refine our targeting strategies?
• How well do our current audience segments align with high-intent beauty shoppers?
• Are we balancing broad awareness campaigns with precise, lower-funnel targeting?
• What data signals indicate when a beauty shopper is ready to purchase?
• How can we refine targeting based on product category performance trends?

Is your media mix truly optimized across channels?

Many beauty marketers still over-index on familiar platforms, failing to adapt their retail media mix for full-funnel effectiveness. Research shows that multi-channel beauty shoppers spend 30% more per transaction, highlighting the importance of diversifying retail media investments.

Retail media should be full-funnel, ensuring consistent exposure throughout the purchase journey. Regularly testing new channels, formats, and retailer networks is essential to maintaining a competitive advantage and maximizing returns.

Next-Level Follow-Up Questions:

• How diversified is our retail media mix across retailer networks and off-site platforms?
• Are we allocating spend proportionally across awareness, consideration, and conversion tactics?
• Have we tested new formats like shoppable video, interactive display, or upper-funnel retail media placements?
• How are we measuring performance across different media types?
• Are we using cross-channel insights to refine media mix decisions?

How are you using off-site retail media?

Retail media doesn’t stop at retailer websites. Off-site retail media spending grew 45% year-over-year for beauty brands, showing that brands investing in external placements are significantly expanding their reach. Engaging consumers earlier in their shopping journey helps brands stay top of mind before shoppers visit a retailer.

Expanding into off-site retail media increases brand awareness and strengthens retargeting efforts, ensuring high-intent beauty shoppers see consistent messaging across multiple digital touchpoints. Retailer audience data enables precise off-site activations, helping brands scale reach without sacrificing targeting accuracy.

Next-Level Follow-Up Questions:

• Are we utilizing off-site retail media to reach beauty shoppers before they enter a retailer’s ecosystem?
• What percentage of our retail media budget is dedicated to off-site placements?
• Are we leveraging retailer audience insights for off-site targeting?
• How do our off-site and on-site strategies work together to drive conversions?
• Have we tested off-site strategies across different beauty product categories?

Are you fully leveraging Amazon AMC targeting?

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) provides advanced insights that can transform beauty brand targeting strategies, but many marketers fail to take full advantage of its capabilities. Beauty brands using AMC targeting see up to 22% higher conversion rates, proving its potential to enhance campaign efficiency and drive measurable growth.

By analyzing shopper behavior, beauty brands can refine messaging, optimize bidding strategies, and create more effective audience segments. Maximizing AMC’s full potential can significantly boost campaign efficiency and conversion rates. It can also help you rapidly test new audience segments that you can use as insights to better run your retail media campaigns on other retailers. 

Next-Level Follow-Up Questions:

• Are we using AMC to uncover deeper insights into beauty shopper behaviors?
• How granular are our audience segments based on AMC data?
• Are we testing lookalike audiences and dynamic retargeting through AMC?
• How do AMC insights influence our bidding and budget allocation strategies?
• Have we integrated AMC data into our full-funnel retail media measurement approach?

Is your measurement strategy relying solely on ROAS?

While ROAS has long been a go-to metric, it often provides an incomplete picture of a campaign’s true impact. Incrementality testing increases budget efficiency by 18% in beauty, helping brands separate true lift from baseline sales and ensuring smarter allocation of retail media spend.

Without deeper attribution models, brands risk optimizing for short-term efficiency rather than sustainable growth. Incrementality testing enables beauty brands to separate true lift from baseline sales, ensuring more strategic budget allocation and meaningful results.

Next-Level Follow-Up Questions:

• Are we using iROAS to measure incremental impact rather than relying solely on ROAS?
• How do we determine which campaigns are driving new customers versus existing demand?
• Are we integrating retail media measurement with broader marketing analytics?
• How do we track full-funnel engagement beyond immediate conversions?
• What additional metrics should we incorporate for a more complete performance view?

Conclusion: beauty campaigns competitive in retail media requires constant evolution

So, are your beauty campaigns competitive in retail media? Success requires continuous adaptation and data-driven decision-making to drive sustainable growth.

By asking these tough questions and implementing smarter strategies, beauty brands can refine their approaches, optimize ad spend, and remain competitive in an increasingly crowded landscape.

Take the next step in optimizing your beauty retail media campaigns—schedule a brief demo with our team today to see how Skai can elevate your retail media performance.

Take the next step in optimizing your beauty retail media campaigns—schedule a brief demo with our team today to see how Skai can elevate your retail media performance.