The beauty industry has never been more popular than in 2023. The development of Instagram has put beauty content creators on the map, giving the entire industry a jolt of refreshment.
In this guide, I’ll be looking at how content in the beauty industry performs on Facebook and Instagram in Q2 2023.
You’ll see which platform is better suited for beauty-related content and why. Emplifi will help us with the raw data and I’ll provide the interpretations.
Keep reading!
Sections
I. Total Interactions Distribution of Beauty Brand Pages/Profiles on Facebook & Instagram
II. Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Beauty Posts
III. Relative Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Beauty Posts
IV. Median Post Engagement Rate for Facebook & Instagram on Beauty Posts
V. Distribution of Post Types on Facebook for Beauty Posts
VI. Distribution of Post Types on Instagram for Beauty Posts
VII. Organic Performance of Post Types on Facebook for Beauty Posts
VIII. Organic Performance of Post Types on Instagram for Beauty Posts
IX. Top Performing Beauty Pages on Facebook
X. Top Performing Beauty Profiles on Instagram
XI. Relative Expenditure by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Beauty Posts
XII. Click-Through Rate by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Beauty Posts
XIII. Cost per Click for Beauty Posts on Facebook & Instagram
XIV. Click Through Rate for Beauty Posts on Facebook & Instagram
XV. Expenditure for Beauty Posts on Facebook & Instagram
Below, I’ll include the main highlights that you should keep in mind. For a more detailed explanation, go through every section individually.
Highlights
- Beauty posts get 2.1% of the total interactions on Facebook and 6.1% on Instagram
- Instagram receives around 5-6 times more medial post interactions for Beauty posts than Facebook
- Facebook provides more stable Beauty post interactions, while Instagram is less stable in its engagement
- Instagram is considerably more engaging than Facebook for Beauty posts
- Photo posts account for 67-70% of the total number of Beauty posts on Facebook, followed by 20% of video posts
- Image posts are the most popular type of posts on Instagram for the Beauty niche
- Reel posts are exploding in usage on Instagram for the Beauty niche
- On average, Facebook live video posts have the most median post interactions in the Beauty niche – a whopping 50 interactions
- On average, Instagram Carousel posts have the most median post interactions in the Beauty niche, at 126 interactions
- Herbalife Nutrition was the top-performing page on Facebook with over 1.1 million interactions
- Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez was the top-performing profile on Instagram with over 5.9 million followers and 15 million interactions
- The Facebook Feed attracts the most investments from Beauty brands (almost half). That’s likely because Facebook is the most versatile platform and reaches the widest audience spectrum
- The Instagram Feed also attracts a substantial share of the investment (18%) from Beauty brands. This shows the platform’s growing importance in marketing. Instagram seamlessly integrates its feed with the users’ content, which leads to more authentic target audience acquisition for brands
- Instagram Stories get 17% investments largely due to the immersive and unique way of engaging users. I’m thinking that the feature instills a sense of urgency and leads to more personal interactions due to its 24-hour limit
- Video content on Facebook and Instagram isn’t as attractive for Beauty brands. It likely doesn’t convey ideas as quickly or as impactfully as brands would like. Still, they do have their role in marketing campaigns
- The Facebook Feed has a 1.54% click-through rate for Beauty posts, which is the highest click-through rate among other communication channels, including the Instagram feed
- The cost per click of Beauty posts has increased from 0.12% to 0.15% from May 2022 to May 2023
- The Click Through Rate of Beauty Posts has decreased from 1.05% to 0.93% from May 2022 to May 2023
- The Expenditure of Beauty Posts has decreased from $3,000 to $2,200 from May 2022 to May 2023
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Section I: Total Interactions Distribution of Beauty Brand Pages/Profiles on Facebook & Instagram
First, I’ll show you the overall distribution of interactions on Facebook profiles and Instagram pages across multiple industries, including the beauty sector.
This will give us a better view of how engaging beauty content is on the two platforms.
Here’s the data:
| Industry | Instagram Profiles / Share of Interactions | Facebook Pages / Share of Interactions |
| eCommerce | 25.4% | 25.2% |
| Retail | 8.1% | 15.5% |
| Services | 8.4% | 9.6% |
| Beauty | 6.1% | 2.1% |
| Sporting Goods | 4.9% | Not Applicable |
| Finance | Not Applicable | 5.6% |
| Fashion | 19.4% | 5.5% |
| Electronics | 3.1% | 4.1% |
| Fmcg Food | Not Applicable | 4% |
| Auto | 7.4% | Not Applicable |
| Telecom | Not Applicable | 4% |
| Others | 17.1% | 26.5% |
On average, Beauty posts get 3x more interactions on Instagram than on Facebook (6.1% vs. 2.1%). Already, Instagram comes out as the clear winner in this category.
Remember, this chart shows the share of interactions per industry out of the total share for all industries. So, Beauty content gets a share of 6.1% of all the interactions on Instagram, for instance.
There is one more thing you should notice – Beauty is one of the most unpopular industries on Facebook, based on the share of interactions it gets.
On Instagram, Beauty is the 5th most popular industry, after Services, Retail, Fashion, and eCommerce. It’s a decently popular industry that’s represented by many content creators.
Either way, the conclusion is clear – Instagram is the obvious choice for Beauty content in terms of interactions.
Section II: Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Beauty Posts
Next, I’ll show you the median post interactions for Beauty content on the two platforms per month. This is calculated by ordering the daily number of interactions from low to high and then picking the middle number.
Here’s the table:
| Period | Facebook Median Post Interactions | Instagram Median Post Interactions |
| May 2022 | 15 interactions | 84 interactions |
| July 2022 | 15 interactions | 76 interactions |
| September 2022 | 14 interactions | 79 interactions |
| November 2022 | 14 interactions | 82 interactions |
| January 2023 | 13 interactions | 81 interactions |
| March 2023 | 14 interactions | 80 interactions |
| May 2023 | 14 interactions | 73 interactions |
Again, it’s pretty clear that Instagram is the winner yet again. Beauty content gets, on average, 5-6 times more monthly interactions on Instagram than on Facebook.
Even though Instagram is less stable, the magnitudes of extra interactions per month more than makeup for this. Plus, if the content is engaging, you won’t have to worry about it.
Facebook, on the other hand, remains almost unchanged throughout the year, hovering around 13-15 monthly interactions at all times.
It looks to me as though Facebook is not exactly ideal for Beauty content based on its engagement. You should rather go with Instagram and optimize your content for peak engagement.
Section III: Relative Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Beauty Posts
This measurement shows how the median post-interactions have changed over from 100% to 0% (100% is the starting point).
We’ll start with the measurement in May 2022, which is the starting point (100%). Here’s the data:
| Period | Facebook Relative Median Post Interactions | Instagram Relative Median Post Interactions |
| May 2022 | 100% | 100% |
| July 2022 | 85% | 83% |
| September 2022 | 85% | 84% |
| November 2022 | 85% | 87% |
| January 2023 | 83% | 86% |
| March 2023 | 85% | 86% |
| May 2023 | 85% | 84% |
In terms of the pace of the decrease in median post interactions per month, both Facebook and Instagram are relatively on the same level.
Even though Instagram has 5x more median post interactions per month, the decrease is just as large as Facebook’s, when it does occur.
This gives a more nuanced view of Instagram’s instability I mentioned in the previous section. It seems that Facebook is almost equally unstable.
This further strengthens the idea that Instagram is better suited for Beauty content. It’s only downside is not really a downside when comparing it to Facebook.
Section IV: Median Post Engagement Rate for Facebook & Instagram on Beauty Posts
Now, we’ll be looking at how engaging Beauty posts are on Facebook and Instagram. To make you understand how this metric works, 1 median post interaction refers to the middle point of interactions within a given month.
Calculating the median value is easy. Place all the numbers in ascending order and choose the middle value. That’s the median value.
Here’s the data on Facebook’s and Instagram’s median post engagement rates:
| Period | Facebook Median Post Engagement Rate | Instagram Median Post Engagement Rate |
| May 2022 | 0.6 | 2.98 |
| July 2022 | 0.6 | 2.8 |
| September 2022 | 0.7 | 2.75 |
| November 2022 | 0.7 | 3 |
| January 2023 | 0.7 | 2.8 |
| March 2023 | 0.7 | 2.7 |
| May 2023 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
Instagram’s median post engagement rate is, on average, 4.5 times higher than Facebook’s. People interact much more with Beauty posts on Instagram vs. Facebook.
As a whole, Instagram seems to be a more engaging platform, likely due to the different core audiences and different content focus.
One difference between the two platform’s median engagement rates is that Facebook’s engagement rate is increasing. Instagram, on the other hand, fluctuates between 2.7-3 over the months.
Despite this fluctuation, Instagram is still the best choice for Beauty posts.
Section V: Distribution of Post Types on Facebook for Beauty Posts
For this section, I’ll show you what types of posts are favored on Facebook in the Beauty industry. This will help you optimize your marketing campaign by focusing on the best post types.
| Period | Share of Video Posts | Share of Status Posts | Share of Link Posts | Share of Photo Posts | Share of Live Video Posts |
| May 2022 | 20% | 2% | 5% | 73 % | 2% |
| July 2022 | 20% | 2% | 5% | 73% | 2% |
| September 2022 | 18% | 1% | 5% | 75% | 1% |
| November 2022 | 20% | 1% | 4% | 74% | 1% |
| January 2023 | 17% | 1% | 4% | 75% | 1% |
| March 2023 | 17% | 1% | 4% | 77% | 1% |
| May 2023 | 19% | 1% | 4% | 75% | 1% |
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – there’s no point in using anything other than photos and videos on Facebook for any type of content.
These two types of content account for 90-93% of all the post types used for Beauty content on Facebook. Link Posts are also somewhat popular, with status and live video posts being almost non-existent.
I would say that in the Beauty industry, photos are even more important because the core idea behind beauty products is to enhance the visual appeal. What better way to showcase their effectiveness than with images?
Anything related to beauty will benefit the most from visual content (photos and video). That much is clear.
Think of it this way. How will you convince clients that a certain product is good? By showing its effects in action. And you achieve this through pictures.
Section VI: Distribution of Post Types on Instagram for Beauty Posts
The same thing as above, only for Instagram. Let’s take a look at which types of posts are most used for the Beauty industry on the platform:
| Period | Share of Video Posts | Share of Carousel Posts | Share of Image Posts | Share of Reel Posts |
| May 2022 | 15% | 15% | 56% | 11% |
| July 2022 | 13% | 14% | 52% | 17% |
| September 2022 | 8% | 12% | 48% | 28% |
| November 2022 | 6% | 15% | 46% | 32% |
| January 2023 | 3% | 15% | 46% | 35% |
| March 2023 | 2% | 16% | 43% | 37% |
| May 2023 | 3% | 17% | 41% | 38% |
In the case of Instagram, here are a few conclusions based on the data presented above:
- There’s a clear shift toward Reel posts, as they rose from 11% to 38% usage in the course of a year. This shows that Beauty brands and content creators are leveraging this feature for more engagement with their audience
- Image and Carousel posts remained relatively stable in usage. This shows that static visual content is still a key element in the social media presence of beauty brands
- Video posts have become underutilized from 15% to 3% during the May 2022 – May 2023 period. This may be because Reels are steadily replacing videos as the new dynamic format for beauty posts
- Seasonal variations during the year show that beauty brands engage more on social media platforms when there are trends, events, or other reasons for marketing campaigns
All in all, the Beauty industry is thriving on Instagram, especially through Reels posts. By the looks of things, this is the up-and-coming type of content you should focus on.
Images and Carousels are just as good as before and they should form the foundation of your social media campaigns. Leverage this information intelligently and you should find success.
Section VII: Organic Performance of Post Types on Facebook for Beauty Posts
In this next section, I’ll show you how well Facebook post types are performing in the Beauty industry. We’ll see the organic performance in this data:
| Post Type | Median Post Interactions |
| Live Video | 50 |
| Video | 8 |
| Link | 7 |
| Photo | 7 |
| Status | 7 |
Live videos appear to perform the best, scoring an average of 50 median post interactions per every live video posted in the Beauty niche.
All the other post types are far away in performance compared to live videos. Overall, the most dynamic forms of content are also the best-performing ones.
I’ve noticed that before-after videos perform really well in this industry, as well as tutorials on how to use certain products.
There’s essentially no difference in median post interactions for link, photo and status posts but this doesn’t show us the entire picture. Photo posts are still the most used content type on Facebook for the Beauty industry.
This could be because the format is more suitable to the Beauty industry or to the vast majority of content posted by brands and content creators.
Section VIII: Organic Performance of Post Types on Instagram for Beauty Posts
Let’s do the same for Instagram and see how its different content types are performing based on their median post interactions per month:
| Post Type | Median Post Interactions |
| Reel | 81 |
| Carousel | 80 |
| Video | 79 |
| Image | 54 |
Reels, Carousel and Video posts get the highest performance out of all 4 post types on Instagram, with Image posts trailing a bit behind.
These numbers look a lot better than what we see on Facebook, right? Not only that but on Instagram we can see that the top three post types are more equalized in terms of median post interactions.
Even Image posts receive around 6-7 times more interactions per month than most of the post types on Facebook. An average of 54 interactions per image post on Instagram is extremely good.
Reels are the most performant type of content for Beauty content on Instagram at the moment. And judging by an earlier table, Reels should continue to grow in usage and popularity over time.
Section IX: Top Performing Beauty Pages on Facebook
Alright, now that I’ve shown you the overall data on the content types on Facebook and Instagram, let’s see which Beauty pages perform the best on Facebook.
I’ll show you their number of followers, posts, and total interactions for the page. Take a look at the data below:
| Brand Name | Fans | Posts | Interactions |
| Herbalife Nutrition | No Information | 136 | 1,180,350 |
| Jula’s Herb Thailand | 1,729,123 | 288 | 1,013,612 |
| Bella | No Information | 186 | 1,008,407 |
| Sociolla Viet Nam | 61,849 | 197 | 698,469 |
| Hearty Heart | 1,171,379 | 174 | 663,670 |
| Todecacho | 2,054,772 | 143 | 518,831 |
Herbalife Nutrition is the best-performing page on Facebook, with 1,180,350 interactions for 136 posts. This is equal to 8,679 interactions per post, which is more than excellent.
As of 28 July 2023, their page has 7 million likes in total, though I don’t know how old their account is. Either way, that’s impressive and a testament to their performance.
The other pages are impressive in their own right, including Jula’s Herb Thailand and Bella. Both have over a million interactions on their page.
Section X: Top Performing Beauty Profiles on Instagram
Next, I’ll show you the top-performing Beauty profiles on Instagram and see if they show better results than those on Facebook.
Spoiler – they do.
Here’s what I found:
| Brand Name | Followers | Posts | Interactions |
| Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez | 5,963,854 | 167 | 15,047,697 |
| Dior Beauty Official | 11,728,886 | 240 | 13,601,759 |
| FENTY BEAUTY BY RIHANNA | 12,499,907 | 261 | 10,725,426 |
| Kylie Cosmetics | 25,603,980 | 244 | 8,872,424 |
| Pleasing | 1,448,297 | 86 | 5,697,986 |
| florence by mills | 3,397 | 88 | 5,657,763 |
The Beauty Instagram profile with the most interactions is Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez, with a whopping 15 million total interactions for 167-lifetime posts. This comes around to 89,820 interactions per post.
You might notice that the list takes into consideration the number of interactions and not the number of followers as a criterion.
Kylie Cosmetics, for instance, has over 25 million followers but only 8.8 million interactions on her 244 posts. This comes around to 36,065 interactions per post. Worse results than Selena Gomez’s profile.
Dior Beauty Official and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna are also performing very well, with over 10 million interactions for each one.
Section XI: Relative Expenditure by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Beauty Posts
Now we’ll get into more financial details and show you the relative expenses for Beauty posts on Facebook and Instagram.
We’ll see which post formats attract the most investments from Beauty brands. Here’s the data:
| Communication Channel | Relative Spend (in %) |
| Facebook Feed | 45% |
| Instagram Feed | 18% |
| Instagram Stories | 17% |
| Facebook Video Feeds | 4% |
| Facebook Instream Video | 4% |
Here are some of the conclusions I arrived at based on this data:
- The Facebook Feed attracts the most investments from Beauty brands (almost half). That’s likely because Facebook is the most versatile platform and reaches the widest audience spectrum
- The Instagram Feed also attracts a substantial share of the investment (18%) from Beauty brands. This shows the platform’s growing importance in marketing. Instagram seamlessly integrates its feed with the users’ content, which leads to more authentic target audience acquisition for brands
- Instagram Stories get 17% investments largely due to the immersive and unique way of engaging users. I’m thinking that the feature instills a sense of urgency and leads to more personal interactions due to its 24-hour limit
- Video content on Facebook and Instagram isn’t as attractive for Beauty brands. It likely doesn’t convey ideas as quickly or as impactfully as brands would like. Still, they do have their role in marketing campaigns
All in all, Facebook is still the leading platform for Beauty brands in terms of expenditure on marketing. However, Instagram is closing in fast and might take the lead sometime in the future.
Section XII: Click-Through Rate by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Beauty Posts
Now that we’ve seen the average expenditure per platform for Beauty posts, we’ll take a look at the Click-Through Rate of each platform’s feature and see which is better.
Here’s the data from Emplifi:
| Communication Channel | Click-Through Rate (in %) |
| Facebook Feed | 1.28% |
| Instagram Feed | 0.55% |
| Instagram Stories | 0.4% |
| Instagram Reels | 0.18% |
| Facebook Instream Video | 0% |
Again, we see that the Facebook Feed is leading in terms of Click-Through Rate at 1.28%. This means that Facebook users are more likely to click on a Beauty CTA or link.
Instagram’s 0.55% CTR is not too shabby either, even though it’s considerably smaller than Facebook’s. Remember that Instagram’s engagement and median post interactions are substantially better than Facebook’s’ too.
Instagram seems to have a higher CTR in terms of Stories and Reels compared to Facebook’s Instream Videos. This might mean that Instagram is more attractive and engaging, or does a better job at serving content through these mediums.
Of course, Beauty brands shouldn’t solely focus on Facebook. Instead, they should diversify their social media presence and build a following on Instagram, too.
Section XIII: Cost per Click for Beauty Posts on Facebook & Instagram
Next, I will show you the cost per click for Beauty posts on Facebook and Instagram. This metric measures the average costs of ads based on how many clicks they receive.
Let’s see the data:
| Period | Worldwide CPC | Beauty CPC |
| May 2022 | $0.19 | $0.26 |
| July 2022 | $0.17 | $0.25 |
| September 2022 | $0.17 | $0.25 |
| November 2022 | $0.2 | $0.25 |
| January 2023 | $0.16 | $0.25 |
| March 2023 | $0.18 | $0.27 |
| May 2023 | $0.2 | $0.26 |
Based on this table, we can see that the CPC for both Beauty and Worldwide brands remains relatively consistent throughout the year.
Beauty ads do cost a bit more than the worldwide average but it’s still more than affordable for most advertisers. The cost fluctuations are also minimal, with smaller bumps compared to the worldwide average.
We can also see that there are seasonal trends affecting the fluctuation of CPC for worldwide and beauty ads. Marketing campaigns and changes in user behavior may also lead to these fluctuations.
This goes to show that Facebook and Instagram are still effective for Beauty marketing campaigns, both in terms of CTR and CPC.
Section XIV: Monthly Click-Through Rate for Beauty Posts on Facebook & Instagram
This time, I’ll show you the monthly Click-Through Rate on Facebook and Instagram, both for the Beauty industry and the worldwide average for the rest of the industries.
Here’s what I found:
| Period | Worldwide CTR | Beauty CTR |
| May 2022 | 1.1% | 0.99% |
| July 2022 | 1% | 1.01% |
| September 2022 | 0.96% | 0.87% |
| November 2022 | 0.94% | 0.95% |
| January 2023 | 0.98% | 1.1% |
| March 2023 | 0.9% | 0.9% |
| May 2023 | 0.86% | 0.86% |
The worldwide CTR is more stable than the Beauty CTR, that much is clear. But it’s to be expected when you compare a single industry to the average results of all other industries.
Still, the Beauty industry is extremely competitive and even surpasses the worldwide CTR in many months. This means that Beauty is more successful on Facebook and Instagram than many other industries.
Ongoing optimization should be a key focus of Beauty brands promoting their products on Facebook and Instagram. Increasing the CTR is tough, especially since the results will become visible later on, in the monthly or quarterly statistics.
But it is something that should be done to increase your brand metrics and attract more customers to your products.
Section XV: Expenditure for Beauty Posts on Facebook & Instagram
Last but not least, I’ll show you how much Beauty brands are spending for ads on Facebook and Instagram per month, from May 2022 to May 2023.
Here’s what Emplifi says:
| Period | Worldwide Expenditure (in USD) | Beauty Expenditure (in USD) |
| May 2022 | $3,000 | $4,250 |
| July 2022 | $2,900 | $4,200 |
| September 2022 | $3,000 | $4,100 |
| November 2022 | $3,900 | $6,200 |
| January 2022 | $3,800 | $4,800 |
| March 2022 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| May 2023 | $3,800 | $4,900 |
The first thing you notice is that Beauty brands are spending more than the worldwide average for all industries.
In fact, Beauty brands are spending a lot more than many other industries, which isn’t at all surprising. It’s a booming industry that has always been popular.
Again, we see the seasonal growth in expenditure as the winter holidays are nearing (November – January). And this time, the Beauty expenditure doesn’t fluctuate a lot outside of seasonal growths.
While I don’t have exact data for Facebook and Instagram in particular, I would assume that brands are spending more on Facebook due to its larger ad reach.
But that’s all I have for you today. Stay tuned to Whizcase for more industry analyses on social media!
Sources
- Emplifi – Beauty Worldwide
