Five tips to reach more beauty shoppers this holiday season

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Consumer packaged goods (CPG) shoppers can look very different than other shoppers on the Microsoft Advertising Network. In order to gain a better understanding of the customer journey for these shoppers, we conducted an internal study where we examined the shopping behaviors of 1,010 respondents between 18-65 years old.

With the holiday season around the corner, we’re here to recap our learnings from one of the biggest CPG verticals here at Microsoft: Beauty & Personal Care. Use these top five tips and tricks from our survey to better reach consumers shopping for beauty products this year.

• 1. 53% of consumers use a search engine most of the time prior to making a purchase online for beauty products. Another 16% said they use search engines about half of the time prior to buying beauty products online.
• 2. The most popular beauty items bought online include toiletries, skincare, and cosmetics.Make sure your keywords are set up to include terms related to these three products. Use the Microsoft Keyword Planner tool to find powerful new keywords, set bids just how you want them, and customize your results easily.

• 3. When purchasing beauty products online, customers look for a wide variety, competitive pricing, and multiple delivery options.Make sure to highlight key product details or competitive offerings by using ad extensions to jumpstart your campaign. Dynamic ad extensions can help make your campaign more effective and attract more relevant customers to your business.

• 4. While beauty shoppers may be open to switching brands for tools and pampering products, they’re much less likely to switch brands when it comes to their skincare, toiletries, and cosmetics. Make sure your branded terms are up to date for these categories.
• 5. Regarding online search activity, it seems like most beauty products click-through rate spikes around Thanksgiving each year.We recommend ramping up your budgets starting in November in order to account for the spikes that occur around the holiday.