Business

Ulta Beauty Generates 30 Million Product Trials and $6M in Purchases with Snapchat’s New Shopping Lenses

30M

product trials

Less than $0.01

per product trial

+56%

ROAS vs. non-shopping Lens formats

43%

incremental reach vs. Snap Ads alone

The Story

Ulta Beauty uses the power of beauty to bring to life the possibilities that lie within each of us, with a mission to be the most loved beauty destination of their guests. In order to achieve this vision, ULTA is constantly looking for ways to excite and delight their guests - in store and online.

One of the ways they do this is by providing personalized shopping experiences for their customers at scale that drive product engagement and sales where they are already spending time - on social platforms. Specifically, through Augmented Reality (AR).

The Solution

Ulta Beauty partnered with Snapchat and their agency partner Rise Interactive to build a holistic AR shopping strategy with an always-on approach.

Their first goal was to make AR creation as easy as possible. To achieve this they utilized Lens Web Builder, a no-coding necessary tool that makes it easy to create AR Lenses in a matter of minutes with no 3D skills required. 

They then leveraged Snapchat’s new catalog-powered Shopping Lens format to seamlessly transform their product catalog into always-on AR.  These Shopping Lenses included product SKUs and drove Snapchatters directly to each product page to purchase all on one Lens experience. 

Finally, they used Pixel Purchase goal-based bidding to optimize their Shopping Lens delivery towards likely purchasers. 

Ulta Beauty complemented their AR Lens strategy on Snapchat with video Snap Ads and Collection Ads to drive additional reach across the Snapchat platform.

The Result

The results have exceeded Ulta Beauty’s expectations, with Snapchatters using AR to try-on Ulta Beauty products over 30 million times - a cost of less than $0.01 per product trial! 1

The new Shopping Lenses led to 43% incremental reach relative to the audience Ulta Beauty had previously been reaching through their always-on video Snap Ad strategy. 1 The catalog-powered Shopping Lenses also led to strong and efficient sales, driving $6M in attributable revenue 1 and earned a 56% higher ROAS to Ulta beauty’s non-shopping Lenses. 2 

Overall, Ulta Beauty is thrilled with their Snapchat strategy, and excited to continue to leverage catalog-powered Shopping Lenses with goal-based bidding optimizations as a scalable, efficient AR marketing strategy. 

“As a retailer, we’re elated by the performance generated through Snapchat’s Shopping Lens - immersive commerce with AR continues to be a priority within Ulta Beauty’s strategy on the platform. As a brand, the value extends well beyond the revenue. Creating highly personalized and inclusive experiences for our guests on Snapchat brings us a step closer to achieving our vision of becoming their most loved beauty destination.”
Natalie Salim, Paid Social Manager Ulta Beauty

"The ease of using Lens Web Builder to create AR ad units as part of a scalable, always-on strategy to drive virtual product trial and conversions has helped us advance a variety of Ulta's business priorities. We're able to optimize to purchases while also providing a relevant and impactful experience to Ulta's guests while positioning Ulta as a leader in AR-driven commerce." 
Amanda Sykes, Sr. Director Rise Interactive