A/B Testing Ads for my Cosmetic Business

Recently I thought it would be a pretty cool endeavor to start my own lip gloss line. I have always loved makeup and anything having to do with beauty, so it made sense to start a business in a field that I found interest in and loved.

With my huge idea in tow, I quickly ordered all the supplies I would need and set out to make my perfect concoction for lips. Through trial and error, I perfected a likable consistency, smell, and flavor. The journey does continue to create creative lip solutions that are both functional and beautiful.

The next step in my journey was to advertise the wonderful products that I made. I was a step ahead and had already created my Instagram page posting two “coming soon posts” hoping to gain traction and interest.

Creative Tools In the Ad process

Canva has always been my go-to for any graphics that I may need to create. It is simple, and easy to use and they offer a variety of templates to get you started in the creative process. Because I’ve been using Canva for going on four years now, I’ve learned how to remix their templates through practice to create my own work of art.

For my A/B testing I created two contrasting ads- both representing my business and giving a glimpse of what I am about. My first advertisement was a simple picture with my logo, clearly stating that I was a cosmetic business. The second advertisement was a descriptive summary of a few glosses that my business would be dropping, as well as a “coming soon” header along the top to emphasize that I am an upcoming business.

Ad 1:

“Your destination for all things shiny, shimmery, and glossy.”

Ad 2:

“The goods coming to you! Long-lasting and fashionable shine!

A/B Testing Through Facebook Ads

For my advertisements, I budgeted $100, which was an even $50 split to run my two ads. Because I have never A/B tested before, nevertheless ran an advertisement before, there was a lot of learning curves and lessons to be learned.

Lesson 1: Always Include Actual Images Of A Product You Intend To Sell

I cannot stress this enough. Going into this project I was worried about image quality using my Samsung S10 to take pictures of my product. So I decided to skip the photos and just give a detailed description of the product. Then I changed my mind and ended up posting a picture of one of my lip gloss colors on Instagram. The picture did not turn out as horribly as I thought it would but had I taken pictures of my advertised glosses in the tubes, I believe my advertisements would have done a lot better and received more clicks.

Lesson 2: Do Market Research

I did some pre-research about the cosmetic industry and even watched Youtube videos of girl bosses/professionals that started their own cosmetics brand. I immediately knew that I was not going to be able to compete with huge brand names like Sephora, Fenty Beauty, NYX, etc. So my competition was every other young professional starting their own brand. As I researched I found many young women starting their own cosmetics brand over Instagram. I needed to be able to stand out and offer something that no one else was offering. Since this was a hard task to figure out how I stood out, I decided to be as unique as I can and let my creativity guide how my business will be. I wrote out a little plan for making my glosses unique and will be following that guide as I grow my business.

Lesson 3: Know Where You Want To Market

Because I was not active Facebook in the making of my business, I would not have chosen Facebook Ads Manager that advertises on Facebook and Instagram. I was mainly active on Instagram and think that my money would have done best if I had solely advertised on Instagram

Lesson 4: Be Active On The Platforms Where You Advertise

Because I did not plan ahead of time what I was going to post on my Instagram each day I found it hard to stay on top of producing some form of content every day. On the days that I’d make glosses, I would post a story to gain excitement, but I soon learned that my stories were not gaining as much engagement as my actual posts were. When I do my next round of advertisements I will definitely plan a posting schedule so that I can be as active as possible.

Data Compiled From My A/B Testing