Beauty content receiving more engagement on social media

Beauty influencer content and viewer engagement have increased from last year, according to the new Beauty State of Influence report from influencer marketing platform Traackr.

The report shared insights on strategies and trends being used by some top brands and influencers across the first three quarters of 2023. 

Other highlights included skincare content proving increasingly popular, and an increased portion of brands’ social performance being driven by sponsored content and macro and mega-tier influencers. 

Increased engagement with beauty content

To understand how influencers and their audiences interacted with each beauty category, Traackr analysed content from 118K+ beauty influencers. 

All four categories (make-up, skincare, haircare, and fragrance) saw year-on-year increases in activated influencers (the number of influencers mentioning the brand), mentions, engagements and video views. 

Fragrance saw the biggest increases in activity and performance metrics, followed by skincare which had regained traction from 2022. 

Influencer content by category across all platforms (Jan-Sep 2023 vs Jan-Sep 2022):

 Top-performing beauty trends from 2023

The following trends were sourced from analysing content from a sample of 66,223 influencers primarily located in the United States, Canada and Europe that produce content and have audiences interested in common lifestyle categories including beauty, fashion, food and beverages. 

Influencers of all tiers were included. The data presented analyses Jan 2022 - Sep 2022 vs Jan 2023 - Sep 2023, in order to get a year-to-date comparison. 

• Skin tint foundations
  Lightweight and breathable while providing a more natural look than commonly seen with full-coverage foundations, skin tint foundations have been one of the biggest beauty trends throughout 2023 with big year-on-year increases in mentions (+43%), engagements (+43%), and video views (+133%). 
  
  
• Brown mascara
  Leaning into the minimalist beauty looks that were trending heading into the autumn season, brown mascara is a less intense and more casual alternative to black mascara that has been surging in popularity amongst beauty influencers.
  
  So far in 2023, mentions are up 278%, engagements up 362%, and video views up 420%. 
• Hygiene shopping
  Beauty shopping hauls have been popular content trend across social media for a long time. Recently, a new variation has emerged – hygiene shopping hauls – where influencers go shopping for self-care essentials like body care products, supplements and feminine care products. 
  Mentions are up 130% in 2023, with even bigger jumps in engagements (+366%) and video views (+288%). 
• Brown lip liner
  Eye makeup isn’t the only area where chocolate hues are trending, with brown lips one of the biggest beauty trends seen at New York Fashion Week. 
  Brown lip liner in particular has seen a surge in chatter across social recently, with a 11% year-on-year increase in mentions, 113% increase in engagements, and 144% in video views. 
• Latte make-up
  One of the biggest beauty trends of 2023, the latte make-up craze took off after Hailey Bieber first mentioned the trend on July 16, posting a short video on TikTok and image carousel post on Instagram. 
  Social activity peaked shortly thereafter and expectedly began to slowly drop in the following months thereafter to moderate levels. However, in September there was a slight bump in activity and social activity has been stable since indicating that perhaps this trend will remain for quite some time rather than disappearing all together. 

Sponsored content boosts brand growth  

Organic content is still where the majority of social chatter about beauty is happening, with a much higher total number of influencers and mentions than sponsored content. 

However, most of the social performance growth seen by brands in 2023 has come from their paid campaigns.  

Engagements and video views from sponsored content have increased by 47% and 102% in 2023, far outpacing the 12% and 41% increases seen on organic content. 

This has led to a 90% year-on-year increase in VIT earned on paid content vs only a 21% increase for organic content. 

VIT is Traackr’s Brand Vitality Score, which measures brand performance based on account visibility, impact and brand trust.  

Influencer content by sponsored vs organic content (Jan-Sep 2023 vs Jan-Sep 2022):

TikTok gets the most video views 

VIT from TikTok grew 78% year on year, the biggest increase across the three main platforms (TikTok, Instagram and Youtube). 

This was primarily due to big increases in total beauty mentions (+90%), engagements (+58%) and video views (+90%). 

While Instagram is still the platform where the most influencers post content and where they post most frequently, it has seen the lowest growth in 2023 with no change in mentions and a slight dip in engagements. 

While YouTube’s impact is still far behind TikTok and Instagram, the platform saw a huge 40% jump in activated influencers, indicating that more creators are expanding to the platform.  

Influencer content by category across all platforms (Jan-Sep 2023 vs Jan-Sep 2022):

Macro and mega influencers driving brand performance 

Macro influencers (250K-1M followers) and mega tier influencers (1M-5M followers) have significantly increased their impact on brands’ influencer marketing performance in 2023. 

VIT earned by macro influencers went up 159% year-on-year and VIT earned by mega influencers went up by 68%. 

Both tiers saw the largest increases in the total number of beauty-related posts and activated influencers, leading to a significant increase in the number of engagements and video views generated by the content from these tiers. 

This uptick in macro/mega influencer partnerships can likely be correlated to the increase in sponsored content this year, as larger influencers typically seek out paid sponsorships. 

Influencer content by tier across all platforms (Jan-Sep 2023 vs Jan-Sep 2022):

Read the full report here. 

Don't miss: Influencer marketing is the best way to generate sales, says new study and top beauty and wellness trends for 2024.

Do you use beauty content on your business's social media? Let us know in the comments...