A decade ago, there were barely 30 skincare brands advertising online in India. Today? Over 1,200 registered brands are competing for the same scroll space, from legacy players like Himalaya and Biotique to D2C disruptors like Minimalist, Dot & Key, and Mamaearth.
The market has exploded from ₹20,000 crore in 2015 to over ₹70,000+ crore now, and with 80% of Indian shoppers discovering beauty brands on social media, everyone’s advertising to everyone.
The Indian skincare market has gone from a quiet space to one of the most crowded digital advertising battlegrounds in the country. The result? Ad costs are up, attention spans are down, and ROAS is falling, even when engagement looks good. This isn’t because ads don’t work anymore.
It’s happening because the market has matured. Customers now compare brands, read ingredient lists, check reviews, and take longer to make decisions. In this environment, performance depends on more than just targeting or budgets, it depends on how clearly the brand builds trust and guides users from interest to purchase.
To understand why this is happening, you need to look beyond just ad metrics, and look at what’s happening across the entire landscape.
Contents
- 1 The Minimalist’s Challenge: Too Many Brands, Same Audience
- 2 How Mamaearth Adapted: Customers Take Longer To Buy
- 3 Dot & Key’s Discount Dilemma: Pricing Pressure
- 4 Sugar Cosmetic’s Solution: Creative Fatigue Hits Faster
- 5 The Derma Co’s Approach: Trust Matters More Than Ever
- 6 What’s Working Now?
- 7 Frequently Asked Questions
The Minimalist’s Challenge: Too Many Brands, Same Audience
If you were advertising a vitamin C serum or a Korean skincare dupe three years ago, your brand still had some breathing space. But today the landscape is very different. Ad costs on Facebook and Instagram have risen noticeably for skincare brands. The reason is simple: everyone is advertising to the same people.
Take Minimalist, for example. When they launched with ingredient-focused products like niacinamide and retinol, they were among the first to do it at scale in India. But now they’re competing with The Derma Co, Plum, Pilgrim, Foxtale, and dozens of others, all targeting the same ingredient-conscious audience.
Every new D2C brand, established company, and small reseller are bidding for the same audience with similar-looking products, so ad costs naturally go up. Interest-based targeting (like “skincare,” “beauty,” or “Korean skincare”) now reaches the same users across dozens of brands. Even with good creatives and smart targeting, you’re paying more because the competition has exploded.
How Mamaearth Adapted: Customers Take Longer To Buy
Skincare is not an impulse purchase for most Indian consumers, especially online. Unlike apparel or accessories, people want to understand ingredients, read reviews, watch creator content, and sometimes even check with a dermatologist before purchasing a ₹1,200 night cream.
Mamaearth recognized this early. Their target audience, mothers and expecting parents, are naturally cautious buyers who research extensively before purchasing. This naturally creates a longer customer journey. A customer may see your beauty product ads across platforms multiple times and convert weeks later.
The problem? Most brands measure results on a 7-day click window, so a large part of the impact is being overlooked.
Mamaearth addressed this by building an entire content ecosystem around safety, toxin-free formulations, and ingredient education, not just pushing products. They understood that their audience wouldn’t convert on first touch, so they focused on building trust through multiple touchpoints before expecting a sale.
Dot & Key’s Discount Dilemma: Pricing Pressure
Indian consumers are highly value conscious, and the market has conditioned them to wait for discounts. Between festive sales, flash offers, and aggressive competitor pricing, many buyers stay waiting until they see a 20-30% price drop.
Dot & Key experienced this firsthand during their growth phase. Running ads at full price often means lower conversions because people know they can get significant discounts if they wait. To stay competitive, brands often rely on frequent promotions.
During the pandemic boom, Dot & Key (along with brands like Plum and WOW Skin Science) used promotional pricing heavily to acquire customers quickly. While this drove volume, it also trained customers to expect deals, making it harder to sustain margins and sell at full price later.
Sugar Cosmetic’s Solution: Creative Fatigue Hits Faster
On Meta platforms, beauty product ads often tend to burn out quickly. An ad that performs well in week one can see a significant drop in engagement by week three. People scroll fast, and once they’ve seen your before-after shots or “glowing skin” promise a few times, they move on.
Sugar Cosmetics has handled this challenge better than most. Instead of relying on the same polished product shots, they constantly test creator-led content, trend-driven formats, and user-generated content. From a performance standpoint, this means brands need far more creative volume than before. Winning brands are refreshing hooks every 10-14 days, not every month.
Those relying on 3-4 static creatives often see ROAS decline simply due to fatigue, not targeting or budget issues. Brands still running the same studio videos from months ago are seeing engagement drop, regardless of product quality.
The Derma Co’s Approach: Trust Matters More Than Ever
The biggest shift in skincare marketing isn’t about reach or frequency anymore. It’s about trust. When every brand claims to be dermatologist tested, cruelty free, and results driven, those words start to mean less. Customers need proof, not just promises.
The Derma Co built their entire brand strategy around credibility. Instead of just claiming to be “dermatologist approved,” they consistently feature dermatologists in their content, explaining why specific ingredients work, not just endorsing products. That proof comes from user-generated content, influencer reviews, ingredient transparency, and consistent messaging across touchpoints.
Brands that skip this part and push straight for conversions often see decent traffic but weak sales. In contrast, brands like Foxtale have also grown by using founder-led content and transparent before-after timelines that feel more authentic than typical ad copy. Brands relying only on influencer shoutouts often see awareness spikes but struggle with repeat purchases.
What’s Working Now?
The brands that are still growing aren’t spending more, they’re spending smarter.
They’ve stopped treating every campaign like a direct sale and started thinking in stages:
- Educational content and relatable problem-led hooks at the top
- Creator reviews, routines, and ingredient breakdowns in the middle
- Retargeting with urgency, social proof, and timely offers at the bottom
They’re also creating content that doesn’t feel like an ad. Tutorials, AM/PM routines, ingredient myth-busting, and skin-type explainers consistently outperform polished product shots because people actually want to watch them.
As competition rises and consumers become more informed, performance is no longer about pushing harder at the bottom of the funnel. It’s about building trust earlier, telling clearer stories, and measuring success across the full customer journey, not just the last click.
At Brandshark, a digital marketing agency in Bangalore, we help brands bring structure to performance marketing, from audience strategy and creative testing to conversion-focused optimisation, so marketing efforts translate into steady, measurable growth instead of short-term spikes.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why are my skincare ads getting clicks but not sales?
This usually happens when there’s a trust gap between your ad and your landing page. Your ad might promise results, but if your product page doesn’t show proof, like ingredient details, reviews, or before-after comparisons, people leave. Also, skincare isn’t an impulse buy. Most customers need to see your brand multiple times before they purchase, so weak retargeting or a 7-day attribution window often misses conversions that happen later.
2. How often should I refresh my skincare ad creatives?
On Meta platforms, skincare ads typically burn out within 2-3 weeks. To avoid creative fatigue, successful brands refresh their hooks and angles every 10-14 days. This doesn’t mean creating entirely new ads; sometimes just changing the opening line, the visual, or the format (from static to video) is enough to keep performance steady.
3. What is a good ROAS for skincare brands in India?
A good ROAS depends on your margins, but most skincare brands aim for 3 to 4 (meaning ₹3-4 revenue for every ₹1 spent on ads). However, if you’re running awareness campaigns or have high repeat purchase rates, a lower initial ROAS might still be profitable in the long run. The key is knowing your break-even point and tracking customer lifetime value, not just first-purchase ROAS.
