RMS Beauty Brings Their Performance Media Strategy In-House and Achieves 7–9X ROI with AdRoll

That was the case for clean beauty brand RMS Beauty. Founded in 2009 by master makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift, RMS Beauty is a cosmetics and skincare brand committed to using only the safest ingredients for our high-performance products. We are known for our quality and transparency, disclosing every one of our raw, organic, and food-grade natural ingredients. We manufacture responsibly, package sustainably, and stand strong against animal testing. Known for our health-first mindset, we help customers feel beautiful inside and out.

When I joined the company in 2022 as Senior Director of Digital Marketing and Ecommerce, my role was to spearhead growth in direct-to-consumer ecommerce and everything touching the dot com experience. We faced a big challenge that many younger brands will recognize: limited control over our performance media strategies. We outsourced the creation and execution of our marketing campaigns to various agencies and consultants, which made it difficult to develop a cohesive approach.

If we wanted to cut through the noise and get people to fall in love with products we know are phenomenal, we knew we had to take full ownership of how customers perceive us at every touchpoint in the customer journey.

AdRoll's platform and white-glove service expands the capacity of a small team

The first step was bringing our paid media management and execution in-house. Doing so would allow us to have full control of strategic execution while staying on top of social media’s ever-revolving trends and working closer with our paid partners.

Prior to late 2022, we didn't do much of any direct marketing outside of Facebook. At that point, I partnered with our VP of Marketing, Miranda Ellingsen, and we decided late 2022 was the perfect time to try more direct marketing. We knew that in order to meet our customers and prospective customers where they were, we had to diversify our marketing mix. In particular, we wanted to explore the possibilities of display marketing.

There were many marketing platforms claiming to meet our direct marketing needs, and with a combined 15 years of industry experience, we were both familiar with AdRoll and its competitors. AdRoll was the only platform that had the retargeting and display marketing capabilities to help us achieve our goals. It was exciting to finally be in a place where we could onboard the platform.

Since our team of two is responsible for the entire ecommerce and dot com experience, any potential partner needs to work as an extension of our team. AdRoll did just that, offering a level of strategic guidance we hadn’t experienced before. We quickly developed a strong relationship with our account strategists, a benefit that truly sets AdRoll apart from other platforms. They provide white-glove service both on strategy and execution, in addition to day-to-day account management and platform hygiene.

The timing was critical, too. We started using AdRoll as our display platform right before the holiday season so we could take full advantage of the additional traffic. It was a gamble, but we were confident it would work.

A robust retargeting strategy delivers 7–9X ROI with the AdRoll Display

Display marketing wasn’t part of our strategy before using AdRoll, but it turned out to be a critical piece of our marketing puzzle. Miranda agrees that display ads became essential to cutting through the noise and adopting a true omni-channel strategy. The AdRoll team's guidance and robust retargeting technology generated a 7–9X return on investment (ROI), revenue attributed to the last click on a 30/30 attribution window.

Our newfound ability to directly position the products that were most top-of-mind to our customers and guide them down the purchase funnel played a key role in these results. Using AdRoll’s retargeting capabilities, we began capturing a missing piece of our funnel.

Let’s say someone sees one of our ads on Facebook or Instagram, clicks through to our site, but then abandons their shopping cart for one reason or another. Previously, we were unable to reach those customers again. With AdRoll, RMS Beauty can now find them again with targeted display ads while they’re browsing online. Whether they’re back on the same platform or somewhere else, the ads remind them about the products they left in their cart, nudging them to complete the purchase. Beyond bringing customers back to our site to complete a purchase, retargeting offers a seamless, consistent experience that reinforces our branding and messaging.

Building on the momentum of successful campaigns

We continue to modify and tweak campaigns after they launch, and it’s easy to make changes through AdRoll. The platform is intuitive, and we’re able to monitor campaign performance and adjust strategies quickly based on the metrics we see. This, combined with personalized support from the AdRoll team, allows us to quickly scale our efforts and prepare for busy seasons.

Other platforms offer display advertising but lack the retargeting capability and the strategic partnership AdRoll delivers. We are able to work closely with AdRoll's team to ensure we are meeting business goals and objectives, and the AdRoll team is great about staying proactive in our execution. For that reason, I’d recommend AdRoll to anyone looking to diversify their paid media strategies or optimize their display strategies, regardless of industry.

Partnering with AdRoll gave RMS Beauty the tools to own our marketing story. It provides the support needed to bring our performance media strategy in-house, take control of our customer journey, and receive an exceptional ROI. We’re excited to build on that momentum as we continue to push forward on our growth goals, and we expect our coming holiday season to be our most successful yet.

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