Beauty is one of the most expensive categories to buy media in. The same shopper sees a prestige house, a Sephora exclusive and a TikTok Shop start-up in the same scroll. Paid social still works here, but it stopped rewarding the brands that simply spend more a long time ago.
What separates the accounts that scale from the ones that plateau is almost always the creative and the thinking behind it. Getting that right, and testing it properly, is a different skill from setting up campaigns.
So the question is not "who can run our Meta ads". It is "who understands how beauty sells on Meta and TikTok, and which part of the work do we need help with". This list covers ten U.S. options. Every claim below comes from the agency's own website or a public announcement we read. Where a site does not publish something, we say so.
The short version
- HYLN Hub is our own studio and sits at number one for that reason. Best for beauty brands that have editors, designers and creators, and need senior creative strategy to direct them on Meta and TikTok.
- Good Moose and Iced Media, both in New York, are the most explicitly beauty-focused full-service performance options on this list.
- Common Thread Collective and MuteSix are the larger performance agencies for brands that want media buying and creative production under one roof.
- Amie is the pick if TikTok and TikTok Shop are the whole brief and you sell through Sephora or Ulta.
- Pennock, Brenton Way, Blue Wheel and Helen + Gertrude cover the rest: beauty-only and remote, AI-led growth, marketplace plus social, integrated creative and media.
Quick comparison
| Agency | Based in | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| HYLN Hub | Barcelona | Beauty brands with creators that need someone senior to direct them |
| Good Moose | New York, NY | Established beauty brands wanting a full performance partner with a real testing cadence |
| Common Thread Collective | Costa Mesa, California | Beauty brands whose leadership thinks in contribution margin and plans to a number |
| Iced Media | New York City | Beauty brands wanting paid social and TikTok Shop run as one system |
| Pennock | Fully remote, across U.S. cities | Indie and mid sized beauty brands wanting a beauty only team with broader services |
| MuteSix | Los Angeles | Beauty brands at scale wanting a large, network backed team across channels |
| Brenton Way | Woodland Hills, with offices also in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago | Beauty brands wanting a growth partner across channels, not a specialist |
| Blue Wheel | Metro Detroit | Beauty brands selling on Amazon, retail and their own site |
| Amie | Los Angeles | Beauty brands where TikTok drives growth and retail is Sephora or Ulta |
| Helen + Gertrude | Rochester, New York | Beauty brands wanting creative, production and media planned by one team |
Details, sources and the honest note on fit are in each entry below.
How we chose
We looked for agencies based in the United States that run paid social on Meta and TikTok and can show beauty, skincare or cosmetics work on their own site. We read each agency's homepage and, where it existed, its services or about page, and did not take facts from directories.
For each entry we recorded what the agency says it does, who it names as clients, where it is based, and whether it publishes pricing. None of the nine third-party agencies publishes a rate card, so we quote no prices.
Two caveats. This is our list and we are on it. And a logo on a homepage says an agency worked with a brand, not how it went. Treat client names as a starting point for reference calls.
The list
1. HYLN Hub
HYLN Hub is a creative strategy studio for DTC brands, based in Barcelona and working with brands in Europe and the U.S. It is our own studio, so weigh this entry accordingly.
HYLN is two senior creative strategists, a husband and wife: Eda Burcu Senel, strategy lead, a decade in marketing, and Santiago Correal Mantilla, client and growth lead, from AI research and engineering. Fractional, senior, a limited number of brands at a time.
There is no production team. HYLN does the thinking and the direction: research, concepts, briefs, creative testing, performance analysis and creative team management. Briefs go to the brand's editors, designers and creators; HYLN approves and hands to the media buyer. Industries are DTC wellness, supplements, beauty and skincare, and lifestyle. Published results include a 7-figure DTC beauty brand, under NDA, from $0 to $2.4M in 12 months with 3.3x Q4 ROAS. Best for beauty brands that have people who can make ads and need someone senior to decide what those ads should be.
2. Good Moose
Good Moose is a growth marketing agency in New York, NY. It runs Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat, Amazon Ads and retail media, and describes its work as "strategy and execution across media, creative, analytics, and retention."
Its beauty page is specific: "We help skincare, fragrance, cosmetics and DTC beauty brands scale profitably through paid media, creative testing, analytics, retention and omnichannel growth strategy." Named beauty clients include Sol de Janeiro, Tatcha, Summer Fridays, Henry Rose, The Inkey List, Living Proof and OneSkin.
The process is six steps, from audit and a test framework for audiences and creatives through to weekly reporting and monthly creative reviews. Pricing is on request. Best for established beauty brands that want a full performance partner with a real testing cadence. Fit note: the client list skews toward brands with retail presence and budget, so a pre-launch brand should ask about minimums.
3. Common Thread Collective
Common Thread Collective is based in Costa Mesa, California, and calls itself "your ecommerce profit partner." Channels are Meta, TikTok Shop and Google. Services cover growth strategy, ad buying, ad creative production, incrementality measurement, and forecasting and modelling.
The core offer is the "Prophit Engine," which pairs software with a dedicated "Prophit Engineer" who owns the forecast and execution and tracks progress daily. Client logos on the site include ColourPop, ILIA Beauty and Love Wellness alongside Liquid Death and Theragun.
Pricing is not published. Best for beauty brands whose leadership thinks in contribution margin and wants a partner that plans to a number. Fit note: the model is built around forecasting and daily operating discipline, a strength if you want it and a lot of structure if you do not.
4. Iced Media
Iced Media is in New York City and calls itself "The Beauty Industry's Growth Partner," offering "performance media, social commerce and AI shopping systems." It was founded by Leslie Ann Hall and describes its team as "beauty specialists."
Its services page lists three areas: paid media across Meta, Google, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat and Reddit; AI shopping and search; and social commerce covering TikTok Shop, creator commerce and affiliate strategy. It says it was "among the first TikTok Shop U.S.-badged partners."
The homepage shows a wall of client logos but the text we read does not name them, so we will not either. No pricing is published. Best for beauty brands that want paid social and TikTok Shop run as one system by a team that only does beauty. Fit note: the emphasis on AI shopping and social commerce suggests a partner for brands already selling at some scale.
5. Pennock
Pennock describes itself as "a beauty social media agency and beauty ad agency," working with brands "from indie launches to global retail rollouts." It is female-owned, "100% independent and owner-managed," and founded by Nikki Lindgren. The team is fully remote, spread across U.S. cities from Seattle to Atlanta.
Channels are Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Amazon and Walmart Connect. Services span paid media, SEO, AI search and affiliate management. Named clients include Dedcool, Kinship, Face Reality Skincare, Juvia's Place and Green Envee. Onboarding runs in three phases: site conversion evaluation, acquisition audit, growth strategy.
Pricing is not published. Best for indie and mid-sized beauty brands that want a beauty-only team and a broader mix than paid social alone. Fit note: the service list is wide, so be clear on the first call about how much of the retainer goes to Meta and TikTok versus search and affiliates.
6. MuteSix
MuteSix is a performance marketing agency headquartered in Los Angeles, founded in 2015 by Steve Weiss and Daniel Rutberg and acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network in 2019, where it became "MuteSix, an iProspect Company."
It offers "End-to-End Performance Marketing": paid social on Instagram, Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Pinterest; retail media on Amazon, Walmart and Target; paid search; programmatic; and lifecycle marketing, paired with "Award-Winning Creative Production" and an approach it calls "Integrated Media and Creative."
The homepage case studies we read are not beauty brands, so ask for category work directly. No pricing is published. Best for beauty brands at scale that want a large, network-backed team across social, search and retail media. Fit note: a holding-company agency brings resources and process; a small brand team should ask who will actually be on the account.
7. Brenton Way
Brenton Way calls itself an "AI-native growth agency" that "aligns your acquisition, retention, creative, and measurements into one growth system." It lists offices in Woodland Hills, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
Channels named include Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X. Services run from paid media and creative to SEO, influencer, email and CRO. Beauty names on the site include FOREO, Peace Out Skincare and L'Oréal Paris. Its method starts by identifying "the constraint in your growth system."
Engagements are "scoped as custom monthly retainers," and the site says: "if the budget is too thin to generate useful signal, we will say that before building a proposal." Best for beauty brands that want a growth partner across channels rather than a paid social specialist. Fit note: the site leans on AI and headline multipliers; ask to see the beauty case work in detail before you weigh those.
8. Blue Wheel
Blue Wheel is a digital ecommerce marketing agency headquartered in metro Detroit, founded in 2011. It merged with marketplace agency Retail Bloom in 2023 and describes its job as helping brands "navigate modern commerce" across "marketplaces, retail media, social commerce, and owned channels."
Platforms include Meta, TikTok, Amazon Ads, Amazon DSP, Google Ads, Walmart and Target. Services cover retail media, marketplace optimisation, DTC growth, social commerce and performance creative. Beauty is a featured industry, with Jack Black, Oribe, Blistex, Kao and Moroccanoil named.
No pricing is published. Best for beauty brands that sell on Amazon and in retail as well as on their own site, and want one team reading all of it. Fit note: paid social is one channel among many here, so it suits a brand whose main problem is fragmentation, less so one that wants a Meta and TikTok creative specialist.
9. Amie
Amie is a full-service social media agency headquartered in Los Angeles that works only with beauty brands sold at Sephora and Ulta Beauty. It positions itself as a "TikTok Marketing Partner and TikTok Shop Partner" and says it has partnered with 45 such brands, naming KIKO Milano, Hanni and Violette_FR.
Services are content creation, paid social, shop operations, affiliate marketing, live shopping, influencer activation and community engagement. The philosophy is that "creative always comes first," with the TikTok feed as "a virtual storefront" and TikTok Shop as "the retail floor."
Pricing is not published. Best for beauty brands where TikTok is the growth channel and the retail partner is Sephora or Ulta. Fit note: this is a TikTok house. If most of your budget is on Meta, or you sell only DTC, it is the wrong shape.
10. Helen + Gertrude
Helen + Gertrude is an integrated marketing and advertising agency in Rochester, New York, and a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise. Its line is "Part creative. Part media. 100% backed by data."
Services span brand strategy, creative and content, a production studio, web and UX, media planning and buying, and measurement. Beauty and skincare is one of its listed industries, alongside women's health, medical technology and food and grocery. Named clients on the homepage include Hologic, CooperVision and J. Lohr Vineyards.
No pricing is published. Best for beauty brands that want creative, production and media planned by one team rather than a paid-social-only shop. Fit note: the homepage we read does not name Meta or TikTok as platforms and does not name a beauty client, so confirm the category depth and the paid social team before you shortlist it.
Which type of partner fits your stage
These are three kinds of partner, and most fit problems come from picking the wrong kind.
Full-service performance agencies (Good Moose, Common Thread Collective, MuteSix, Brenton Way, Blue Wheel) buy the media, make the assets and report the numbers. They fit brands with meaningful spend and no in-house team. The cost is distance: the people writing your hooks are not in your Slack.
Beauty specialists (Iced Media, Pennock, Amie) trade breadth for category depth. They have seen the ingredient claims and the Sephora launch calendar before. Check that the specialism extends to the channel you actually need.
Strategy-only partners (HYLN Hub) direct the work without making the assets. They fit brands that have editors, designers, creators and a media buyer, but lack someone senior to decide what to test and what the results mean. If nobody can make the ads, this is the wrong kind of partner, and we will say so.
What to ask on the first call
The deck is the least useful part of the call. Ask these instead.
- Who will be on our account, by name, and what else are they on? Senior people sell, junior people execute. Find out which you are getting.
- Show us a beauty account where the first three months did not work. Anyone can show a winner. The recovery is the tell.
- How do you decide what to test next? You want a structure: concepts, then variations, then a read of the result that produces the next test. If the answer is "we test lots of creative," push harder.
- What does a bad fit look like for you? The best answer names a stage, a budget or a category they turn down. Brenton Way puts a version of this on its own site. It should be normal.
What good creative strategy looks like in beauty
Beauty ads fail in predictable ways. The claim is too big for the platform. The demo is beautiful but shows nothing. The hook is the product name.
Good creative strategy here starts from the customer's language, not the brand's. It knows the difference between a buyer who is problem-aware and one who is already comparing actives. It treats ingredient stories, before-and-afters, objections and creator formats as distinct things to test, and it reads hook rate and hold rate together so a "winner" is not just a cheap click.
Whichever agency you pick, ask to see the brief they would write for your product. If it reads like a shot list, you are buying production. If it reads like an argument for why a specific person should care, you are buying strategy. Know which one you paid for.
Working with HYLN Hub
HYLN Hub is a fractional creative strategy studio of two senior people, working with a limited number of DTC beauty, skincare, wellness and lifestyle brands at a time. We do the research, concepts, briefs, creative testing and performance analysis, and we direct your editors, designers and creators. We do not make the assets and we do not buy the media. If you have the team and need the thinking, tell us about the brand at hylnhub.com/apply. Recent work is at hylnhub.com/portfolio.
FAQ
Do beauty brands need a beauty-specialist agency?
Not always, but it helps more here than in most categories. Beauty carries claim restrictions, retail calendars and an audience that has seen every format. A generalist with strong process can learn it; a specialist already has.
What do these agencies cost?
None of the nine third-party agencies on this list publishes pricing, so we quote none. Expect a monthly retainer scoped to your spend and services, and expect the larger agencies to have minimum budgets. Ask what happens to the fee if spend changes.
How long before we know if the agency is working?
Give it one full testing cycle, usually two to three months. Judge the first month on process: did they audit, brief clearly and launch a structured test. Judge the third month on whether the results explain what to do next.
Sources
- https://hylnhub.com
- https://goodmoose.co/
- https://goodmoose.co/expertise/beauty-advertising
- https://commonthreadco.com/
- https://www.icedmedia.com/
- https://www.icedmedia.com/about
- https://www.icedmedia.com/services
- https://www.pennock.co/
- https://www.pennock.co/about-pennock-agency
- https://www.mutesix.com/
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dentsu-aegis-network-acquires-top-direct-to-consumer-marketing-agency-mutesix-300908009.html
- https://brentonway.com/
- https://www.bluewheelmedia.com/
- https://www.bluewheelmedia.com/about-us
- https://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/two-metro-detroit-digital-agencies-merge-to-form-blue-wheel/
- https://www.amiesocial.com/
- https://www.hg.agency/
