It is crucial to remain on top of the latest trends and innovations in the haircare industry and this applies to creating your ads, too.
To be able to successfully launch, promote, and do marketing for your haircare brand, you need brand consistency, brand reach, topical authority (where a solid content strategy helps), and a way to bring it all together.
To attract their target audience and remove any doubts about buying, haircare brands use paid advertisements incorporating social media trends and collaborations with customers and haircare experts.
They also use ads to emphasize their custom product offer to reach a wider audience with different preferences, hair types, and concerns.
The following are tips and inspiration you can use today.
1. Use popular social media trends to spark interest
Many haircare brands are taking advantage of social media trends by creating viral marketing campaigns around these trends in order to promote their products.
Going with the “hype” ensures a bigger audience who are mostly intrigued by the craze and want to be part of it. This can fuel major sales of products perceived as trending.
This video advertisement from Briogeo uses the TikTok trend #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt which allows users to show off the most recent finds they bought because of the platform. This hashtag has millions of views, which makes it a great avenue to promote products.
Since people are more likely to buy things they see in action, this strategy is a great one to use in your social media ads. These ads can influence the purchasing decisions of potential customers who are active on TikTok.
2. Discuss your product’s benefits using effective ad hooks
Like the social media trending hashtag we discussed earlier, the use of effective ad hooks also works wonders when done properly in terms of timing and content. It’s a surefire way to captivate your audience.
Ad hooks can be anything from a catchy tagline to a unique value proposition. As long as it helps engage your audience, you’re on the right track (and the right hook).
Let’s take a close look at this ad from Function of Beauty. Here, you’ll notice their use of the “3 Reasons ____” hook in the first few seconds of the video. This serves as a teaser for the actual offer.
Effective marketing hooks entice potential customers to take the next step, such as making a purchase or taking a personalized quiz. In the case of Function of Beauty, they’re able to utilize a hook that is appropriate for what they want to impart to their audience.
Here, they also point to a problem that their product can address. Then that’s where they segue their custom offering in the video.
3. Highlight the transformative result of your product using before & after visuals
Showing “before and after” content of customers using your product gives you credibility. This advertisement strategy is commonly used by personal care products like hair treatments to prove the effectiveness of their product lineups.
It’s a solution-focused approach that shows what it was like before using a product and how things improved after using it.
Take a look at this video ad from Briogeo, wherein a satisfied customer discusses how her hair became fuller and thicker after using their product. In the video, she also shows images and video clips of her hair months before and then after using the product.
The use of authentic videos can entice your audience to try your product. It takes time for a personal care product to have a visible effect so it’s especially important to show videos like this showing proof.
4. Leverage social proof from reputable bodies
Magazines are also an important advertising platform because not only do they boost your brand credibility but they also give you access to a targeted audience. If your brand or product has been mentioned in the press, show it off, just like what the brand Gussi does in this video ad.
This ad may seem simple but it has big impact, thanks to the string of texts showing social proof from reputable magazines. Having reviews by popular publications puts their brand in front of interested customers.
This is a strong form of social proof so use it wisely on your ads as Gussi does below.
Pro tip: you can also split up press mentions into separate ads and create content using each testimonial to give more emphasis, because why not?
5. Show real customer experiences and testimonials
Another form of social proof that you can take advantage of are testimonials from satisfied customers. These people have experienced your products firsthand so their words can attract potential buyers and it works effectively because it looks authentic.
Gussi does an excellent job of using a customer testimonial in this ad.
The first part of the ad displays a text that says “Results from the Gussi At-Home Keratin Treatment”. It is powerful in catching audiences’ attention since people are generally interested in seeing real results.
In the video, the user/model shows the process of how she uses the product. Showing the product in action instills confidence in potential buyers as they can already visualize how easy and simple it is to use your product.
6. Choose the right ad networks
Haircare brands fall under the B2C (business to consumer) or DTC (direct to consumer) categories. The perfect ad networks to start launching your promotional campaigns are where your target audiences are likely to spend most of their time.
Examples include:
- Instagram (includes regular posts, reels, and stories)
- Meta (Facebook)
- TikTok
- YouTube (especially YouTube Shorts Format)
- Google (search didn’t die yet)
- Google Display and Google Shopping
Pro Tip: Too many platforms on the list? Start with Instagram and Pinterest. Test results between the two of them. Move on and experiment with other ad traffic sources when you start seeing positive results.
7. Refine your proposition, USP, and positioning
Before you go launching campaigns and putting in the relentless (often back-breaking) work of promoting your haircare brand, take your time and think about:
- What is the main value proposition of your brand? some text
- All organic? Vegan only? Chemical-free ingredients?
- How are you positioning your products? (anything but “cheapest in the market” will do).
8. Identify the objectives of your ad campaign, use landing pages, and retarget your audiences
Rule 1: Start with Your Objectives
- Are you creating campaigns for reach to let the world know you arrived, and that your audiences should consider your brand? This is the “reach and/or branding” objective.
- Traffic to your ecommerce store? Ad networks will emphasize “more clicks to your website” if this is your objective.
- Sales? That’s the sales objective.
If your budget permits, experiment with more than one objective at a time.
However, the rule is that each campaign driven by a specific objective will have creatives, copy (content), angles, and offers related to that objective.
Rule 2: Create Campaigns for Each Objective
You can mix and match a few objectives that are close to one another. For instance, clicks to a website (traffic objective) can easily be mixed with a call-to-action that says “Buy now” (which is essentially a sales objective campaign type).
Depending on your campaign objectives though, start creating ads and copy (content) of various types depending on the platform you are using for advertising.
Each platform comes with its own creative aspects, types of ads you can run, sizes of images or videos, and more.
Rule 3: Send Traffic to Landing Pages
Most businesses make the mistake of sending traffic from ads to complete websites or ecommerce stores.
Don’t.
Thanks to dwindling attention spans, you’d want to use landing pages built to reflect your brand logo, colors, etc., but without any distractions or extra links to click.
Rule 4: Track and Grow Audiences for Retargeting
The audiences you’ve managed to bring to your website are more valuable and primed than completely new audiences you’ll target with your ads.
That’s where “retargeting” kicks in.
Growing tracked audiences (accomplished with a script on your ecommerce site) allows you to build captive audiences that you could run retargeting ads for.
Most networks allow you to do retargeting (as separate campaigns) or alternatively, you could use platforms such as Adroll.
Pro tip: Use 1/4th of your total campaign budget for retargeting campaigns alone.
9. Build your email list and test campaigns
To promote your haircare brand efficiently and at the lowest cost of advertising, primarily you should aim to build your email list.
As you grow your list (by advertising, giving away discount coupons, and other methods), your dependency on ads is going to lower over time (good for you!).
While the initial campaigns are running, however, focus on controlling your bids and testing your campaigns.
Spend a little less than your budget while testing, finding the optimum campaign pace, and more
10. Get inspiration from your competitors
What kind of ads should you run? How do you design creatives? How should your ad copy be written?
We advised that you should build your email list while running ads on ad networks, but what happens after your potential or existing customers sign up?
What kind of email campaigns should you send after someone signs up?
Instead of thinking, musing, and ruminating you could learn from what your competitors are doing.
Panoramata helps you get complete information on the actual advertisements, landing pages, email campaigns, websites (and eCommerce stores), and even the marketing tools that your competitors are using.
Track your competitors and top haircare brands
Advertising a haircare brand successfully requires tapping into what resonates most with your audience.
Use popular social media trends and engaging ad hooks to grab attention, and highlight transformations with striking before-and-after visuals.
Leverage the power of social proof by showcasing authentic customer reviews and testimonials.
With these strategies, you can create impactful campaigns that build trust and drive results.
To stay ahead, consider tools like Panoramata to monitor competitor campaigns and refine your own strategies effectively.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the key elements of a successful haircare ad campaign?
A successful haircare ad campaign highlights the product's benefits, uses eye-catching visuals, and connects emotionally with the target audience. Incorporating user-generated content, testimonials, and clear calls to action can also boost engagement and trust.
2. How can I stand out in a crowded haircare market?
Focus on your unique selling points, such as innovative ingredients or sustainability practices, and ensure your branding resonates with your audience. Analyzing competitors' strategies can help you identify gaps and opportunities to differentiate your product.
3. Why is Panoramata a useful tool for advertising a haircare brand?
Panoramata provides real-time insights into competitors’ ads, emails, websites, and more, helping you stay ahead of trends. It allows you to benchmark your campaigns and discover what works in your niche by tracking leading brands.
