10 Beauty Brands Who Won at Influencer Marketing In January

From ASMR content to TikTok challenges to internet-breaking influencer trips, brands are harnessing myriad strategies to grow their social media audiences and, hopefully, consumer bases.

According to influencer marketing platform, Traackr, which measures the reach, engagement and quality of a brand’s influencer content through its proprietary metric, Brand Vitality Score (VIT), the road to social media success is anything but linear.

“There are many paths to success, and our leaderboard often reflects that,” said Holly Jackson, global services director, influencer strategy and measurement at Traackr. While companies like Sephora and Charlotte Tilbury tend to be mainstays on the list thanks to their respective long-term influencer programs, said Jackson, the ranking varies greatly month by month.

Tarte Cosmetics emerged thanks to its viral Dubai influencer trip, while E.l.f. Beauty generated momentum with its #ExpressYourElf challenge, which garnered more than 69 million hashtag views and encouraged creators to showcase their authentic selves.

L’Oréal Paris has been a steady winner on social media, but saw an uptick in momentum in part due to what users are playfully calling “mascara-gate,” referring to TikTok star Mikayla Nogueira’s apparent use of false eyelashes to promote the brand’s Telescopic Lift Mascara. The brand is one of many on the leaderboard looking beyond the beauty community for content, tapping popular ASMR creators like @dajaasmr for partnerships.

“One of the things we’re consistently seeing is fewer influencers generating more VIT; it’s not just a volume game, you don’t need every creator in the space talking about you, but what you need to focus on are who are the creators who are making an impact and creating really engaging content within their audiences,” said Jackson.

Here, Traackr’s top U.S. beauty companies in January by VIT scores: