L'Oreal Strategizes with Amazon Ads
Beauty giant L’Oreal this year worked with Amazon Ads to create a “holistic, full-funnel media approach” leveraging a multi-brand advertising strategy, sponsored ads and Amazon digital storefronts.
Going into 2021, L’Oreal sought a way to inform shoppers about the four products that make up its consumer product division – aka Garnier, L’Oreal Paris, Maybelline New York and NYX Professional Makeup – using a multi-brand advertising strategy with Amazon Ads.
“The common objective across all of these brands in the region was to increase our level of awareness for the brand, leading to a full-funnel journey that ends in engagement and conversion,” Racha Assi, L'Oreal's digital manager for the consumer products division in the Middle East, said in a Jan. 24 blog post to Amazon’s advertising website, detailing the duo’s collaboration.
For this year, L’Oreal teamed up with Amazon Ads to develop a media approach for its most relevant brands that also leveraged single-brand and multi-brand storefronts, in addition to a multi-brand strategy.
L'Oreal worked with the Boston Consultancy Group Matrix to better understand its brand product positioning by classifying products based on performance. For example, L'Oreal used Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs) that already had above average sales and above average traffic to inform new-to-brand customers about these products — since they were already performing well and could grow by reaching new customers, according to the blog. On the other hand, for ASINs with below average sales and below average traffic, L'Oreal would try to reconnect with audiences who were loyal to the brand and might be interested in trying a new product from a brand they already like.
L'Oreal then developed a two-tiered strategy with Amazon Ads to inform customers about its selected products using Amazon’s first-party audience insights. According to the blog, L’Oreal understood that new-to-beauty category shoppers tend to start their path to purchase by searching for “eye” and “lip” related products. Many shoppers also browse for products to enhance the brightness and glow of their skin.
With these insights in mind, L’Oreal leveraged the Amazon DSP full-funnel proposition to deliver on upper-funnel brand building objectives, reaching audiences browsing across categories to drive mass awareness. This ultimately helped customers reach a multi-brand Store (i.e. an Amazon virtual storefront) designed with a “customer-first experience that allows shoppers to easily discover and select the most ideal products,” according to the blog.
L’Oreal and Amazon also used an “always-on” approach to maintain a consistent presence with consumers on and off Amazon.com. In the past, L'Oreal opted for a more tactical advertising approach, according to Assi, until they realized they can't just sometimes be available to consumers.
This strategy helped L'Oreal see 59% growth in its overall Amazon sales and an increase in return on ad spend, according to the blog.
"Amazon DSP coupled with sponsored ads was the secret recipe for our success," Assi said. “What we did, and what I would advise, is to always put the customer first.”