Beauty ads are going viral again
The beauty industry has been a magnet for viral videos and posts on YouTube for years.
Now, though, the industry is also seeing a resurgence of its own.
According to a new report from digital marketing research firm Adwords, beauty ads on YouTube are making up an increasing percentage of all videos on the site.
That’s the first time that’s happened since Adwords began tracking ads for the cosmetics industry in 2009.
In fact, the beauty ad industry is up over 5 percent over the last year, according to the study, which was conducted by the marketing consultancy AdWords, and it was the first year that the number of beauty ad views actually surpassed the amount of views from the other ad categories.
“We’re seeing the growth of the beauty industry as an industry in a new way, and we’re seeing that through Adwords and our own data,” said Alex DeMott, the CEO of Adwords.
“It’s not just advertising, it’s a new kind of content.”
DeMett said Adwords has seen a steady uptick in revenue from beauty ads over the years.
“The beauty industry is growing exponentially, and that’s because of a lot of people who want to share beauty with their friends and family,” he said.
The beauty business is growing, too.
Adwords data shows that beauty ads have been the most popular content on YouTube in the past year.
In the first quarter of 2017, YouTube ad revenue increased 18 percent, to $11.6 billion, according the study.
But the increase was even more pronounced in the second quarter of the year, which saw Adwords revenue increase 15 percent to $10.9 billion.
That spike was the result of a combination of new beauty-themed videos on YouTube, the launch of a new Adwords beauty product, and the proliferation of YouTube stars who post their own beauty videos, DeMitt said.
Advertisers that make money from beauty advertisements are increasingly willing to share that content on the platform.
For instance, BeautyBeauty is a new subscription service launched last month by Adwords that gives users access to beauty-focused beauty products, makeup, and other products from a curated list of over 50 makeup brands.
“BeautyBeauty was created by a bunch of friends who wanted to make the beauty space a little more fun and interactive, so we were able to bring in a lot more celebrities, a lot bigger brands, and a lot better content,” said AdWords founder and CEO Kevin Dunn.
The service also features a feature called BeautyPop, where brands can upload their own products and then see their followers share those products on the service.
For those who have not yet joined BeautyBeautys, Dunn said the service allows them to quickly find the best beauty products from around the world, and is also designed to provide customers with a personalized experience.
“With BeautyPop we’re making it really easy to share the best brands and the most amazing products, because we want to show people how great they are,” Dunn said.
“And the best way to do that is by seeing how many people have been watching them.”
Adwords is also a major force in the beauty-advertising space.
AdWords has been the fastest-growing digital marketing platform in the United States over the past four years, and Dunn believes the company is the largest on the planet when it comes to advertising revenue.
Advertisements for beauty products are one of the top-grossing categories in the U.S. today, and Adwords’ growth has been attributed to growing popularity of the YouTube channel beautyporn.com, which features video reviews of products from brands like Clinique, Burt’s Bees, and Dr. Jart+, among others.
Dunn said Adword has been able to grow the number and reach of AdWords-sponsored beauty videos to over 10 million, which is up from about 5,000 videos at the beginning of this year.
“There are a lot fewer people who are watching beauty videos than there were before,” he added.
Adverbs has also seen its share of growth.
According the study from Adwords , Adverbs ad revenue grew from $9.5 million in 2015 to $23.1 million in 2017.
That growth, however, came at a cost.
“Adverbs has seen growth in its ad revenue over the course of the last three years, which has driven it up from $4.7 million in 2016 to $9 million in 2018,” Dunn explained.
“But that growth in the last quarter of 2018 was largely driven by the launch and subsequent popularity of BeautyPop and BeautyPop Plus, which are two different ways of monetizing Adverbs ads.”
Adverbs also has its share as the leader in revenue for beauty ads, according a study from Digital Marketing Insights, a company that tracks online advertising.
“Since Adverbs first launched in 2015, Adverbs revenue has grown from $10 million to $24 million annually,” Digital Marketing Insider said. But it’s