Advertising foundation shades that are sold out, or showing ads for products that don't match the searcher's skin type. Clicks cost money but can't convert.
Example: Ads showing for 'fair skin foundation' landing on pages with only medium/dark shades in stock
Bidding on trending ingredients (retinol, vitamin C, niacinamide) without conversion intent. Searchers want information, not products.
Example: Paying $2.50 CPC for 'niacinamide benefits' with 0.3% conversion rate
Traffic spikes from influencer mentions search your brand, click paid ads, but don't convert because they're researching, not buying. You pay for organic traffic.
Example: TikTok viral moment drives 5,000 brand clicks at $0.80, 12 sales
Beauty customers often want samples before full-size purchases. Ads for full-size products attract sample seekers who bounce or buy $5 samples.
Example: Full-size product clicks converting to $5 sample purchases at negative margin
Customers research individual products but buy routines. Your ads target single products while competitors capture bundle searches with higher AOV.
Example: Bidding on 'vitamin c serum' while 'vitamin c skincare routine' converts 3x better
With a single asset group, Google optimizes for aggregate ROAS by heavily favoring your top 5-10 products. The rest of your catalog gets almost no impressions. Worse, low-margin products drag down profitability while appearing successful in aggregate.
Fix: Segment products by performance tier: Winners (scale), Potentials (test), Underperformers (cut or fix). Create separate asset groups for each.
PMax claims credit for brand searches that would've cost $0.30 through a dedicated brand campaign. Without exclusions, you're paying 3-5x more for customers already looking for you.
Fix: Add brand exclusions to PMax and run a separate Brand Search campaign with exact match keywords.
Missing GTINs, generic titles, no custom labels, and missing sale prices hurt your Shopping ad performance. Shade names not in titles
Fix: Include shade range and skin type fit in product titles
Your 5x ROAS might look great until you realize 70% of sales are repeat customers who would've bought anyway. You're paying to acquire customers you already have.
Fix: Segment reporting by new vs returning customers. Set up customer match lists and analyze true CAC.
Not all campaign types work for beauty & cosmetics stores. Here's what to skip:
Information intent, not purchase
Wastes budget on research traffic
Negative margin unless tracking to full-size conversion
Follow these best practices to maximize your Beauty & Cosmetics Google Ads performance:
Budget: 35-45% • Target ROAS: 4-7x
Budget: 15-20% • Target ROAS: 8-15x
Budget: 20-30% • Target ROAS: 3-5x
Budget: 15-20% • Target ROAS: 5-10x