Beauty UGC ads by the numbers
- Winning ads
- 31from 10 brands
- Median run
- 84 daysall winners: 85
- Median copies
- 3all winners: 4
- Proven (90+ days)
- 39%48% still live
31 ads. 0% link to an app store, 100% to a website. Median video length 24 seconds (8 ads with a length). Data as of 9 November 2026: 31 winning ads from 10 brands, first started 3 April 2025.
What the winning beauty ads have in common
- They run for months, not days. The median beauty winner ran 84 days (all 1,922 winners: 85). 39% passed 90 days and 10% passed 180.
- Brands make more than one version. The median winner exists as 3 copies in the Ad Library (all 1,922 winners: 4), and 23% reached 5 or more: new cuts, captions or sizes of the same video.
- Demo leads. 42% are demo videos and 26% talking head. That is above the 19% share across all winners.
- A person is on screen. 97% show at least one person; 74% feature a woman and 23% a man.
- The ad copy is plain. The median caption is 137 characters, 19% mention an offer (free, % off, gift, sale), 16% cite social proof (stars, reviews, "#1", "viral") and 35% use emoji.
- They sell on the brand's own site. 100% link to a website rather than an app store.
- Many run as partnership ads. 26% run with the creator as a partner on the ad (Meta's partnership ads), against 16% across all winners.
- They are not only in English. 16% are in another language, led by Italian, German and French.
- The product is in the frame. 61% are demos, reviews, unboxings or before and afters: the creator holds, applies or uses it. Pure talking heads are rarer here than across all winners (26% against 42%).
- Retail and product names do the talking. Several winners close on where to buy it ("available at Sephora") or name the hero product and what it does in one line, rather than a story.
Beauty UGC on TikTok
9 beauty brand posts on TikTok beat the creator's usual views by 5x or more. These are organic program posts, the kind brands boost as Spark Ads; see all TikTok examples.
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100x+ median
1.7Mviews5.8% engagement0:24
e.l.f. did their big one with this!! The sun has competition now☀️ The Cosmetics Invisi-Stick glitz is back, and I’m ob...
Posted Jul 2026 · Watch on TikTok
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15x median
1.1Mviews1.6% engagement0:24
e.l.f.scape Unglammy Valley with Soft Glam Satin Foundation (I’m wearing shade 10 Fair Cool Cosmetics
Posted Sep 2026 · Watch on TikTok
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64x median
864Kviews2.3% engagement0:24
Soft glam starts with a good base 🤌🏽✨Finding my perfect match with Cosmetics Soft Glam and leaving Unglammy Valley be...
Posted Sep 2026 · Watch on TikTok
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6.2x median
787Kviews2.5% engagement0:37
Another amazing and affordable product from Cosmetics to no one’s surprise 😌
Posted Jul 2026 · Watch on TikTok
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15x median
648Kviews2.8% engagement0:48
[27:11:07] My submission for The $20k Speed Wash Challenge from x Check out speedrunmdm.com for more.
Posted Sep 2026 · Watch on TikTok
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6x median
607Kviews3.3% engagement1:16
A full soft glam beat for under $30?! Say less. The new Soft Glam lineup gave me that hydrated, satin, still-looks-like...
Posted Sep 2026 · Watch on TikTok
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100x+ median
517Kviews7.6% engagement0:54
An e.l.f.ortless beat ✨ Full face for under $30?! Soft glam without the splurge 😍 Cosmetics
Posted Sep 2026 · Watch on TikTok
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24x median
517Kviews3.2% engagement0:24
Found my perfect match with Cosmetics soft glam satin foundation in shade 51 🎯
Posted Sep 2026 · Watch on TikTok
Brands behind these ads
| Brand | Winning ads | Median run | Longest run | Median copies | Top format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medicube | 6 | 83 days | 140 days | 3 | Demo |
| OUAI | 6 | 80 days | 126 days | 2 | Demo |
| Dr. Squatch | 5 | 132 days | 234 days | 5 | Unboxing |
| Glossier | 5 | 84 days | 99 days | 1 | Demo |
| Kosas | 2 | 139 days | 139 days | 1 | Talking head |
| Starface | 2 | 60 days | 72 days | 2 | Talking head |
| Depuff AI | 2 | 58 days | 58 days | 7 | Talking head |
| Tarte | 1 | 309 days | 309 days | 1 | Talking head |
| e.l.f. Cosmetics | 1 | 109 days | 109 days | 4 | POV text |
| Olaplex | 1 | 45 days | 45 days | 8 | Talking head |
Download this table as a CSV file (CC BY 4.0, link to this page). Brands with a linked name have a full UGC Brands page on how they run their creator program.
How we picked these ads
A winning ad here is a UGC-style video ad from the Meta Ad Library (Facebook and Instagram) that the brand ran for at least 45 days, that sits in the top 10% of that brand's video ads by impressions, and that the brand either scaled to 3 or more copies or kept running past 60 days. Proven winners ran 90 days or more. Each ad is checked as the brand's own: run by its verified page and linking to its site or app.
The Ad Library shows no spend, clicks or sales, so the signal is behaviour: a brand that keeps paying to run a video for months, and copies it into new versions, is telling you it works. "Copies" counts the near-identical ads the library groups under the same creative. Format (talking head, demo, POV text and so on), who is on camera and language are labelled from each ad's poster frame and copy by a model, then spot-checked; treat them as approximate.
Data as of 9 November 2026: 31 winning ads from 10 brands, first started 3 April 2025. Run days for live ads are counted to the export date, so they will grow. This page shows a sample picked for variety (the brand's longest-running ads first, a cap per brand and one version per line of copy). We never show the creator's name or handle; each card links to the public Ad Library entry.
These are observations about ads brands kept running, not proof that a format causes results. A brand that runs talking heads will have talking-head winners. Compare shares with the "all winners" figures before drawing conclusions.