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When e.l.f. Cosmetics launched its new Soft Glam Satin Concealer, the team faced a classic hurdle. It needed to get a brand-new product on everyone’s radar while making sure it actually flew off the shelves.
To pull it off, e.l.f. Cosmetics tossed out the traditional playbook that treats getting noticed and making a sale as two completely separate steps. Instead, the brand shifted its strategy to use YouTube as a dual engine, tapping into the deep trust and undivided attention that creators have spent years building with their audiences.
“We like to say ‘e.l.f. the rules’ or ‘e.l.f. the status quo,’” says Micah Jesse Koffler, director of influencer and creator marketing at e.l.f. Cosmetics. “We don’t do cookie-cutter at e.l.f. We listen to what the signals are saying to stay 10 steps ahead.” By treating high-performing creator content as direct proof of what resonates with its audience, the brand found a way to bridge the gap between a moment of discovery and the checkout counter.
Scale trust with a community-first strategy
Rather than relying on traditional advertising scripts or repurposing assets from other channels, e.l.f. and its influencer marketing agency, Viral Nation, built a dedicated community-first strategy for YouTube that listens closely to the platform’s unique trends. By partnering with creators to lean into what is already working organically, the brand aimed to build genuine relevance with their audience.
From its campaign, e.l.f. understood that building an audience has as much value as short-term sales.
To make it work, the agency leaned into a mix of fast-paced Shorts and deep, long-form video. It brought together a variety of creators to share everything from raw, entertaining videos and daily vlogs to detailed tutorials and polished reviews. This allowed the campaign to meet shoppers naturally, wherever they were in their journey.
“What I really liked about this campaign was that e.l.f. understood that building an audience has as much value as short-term sales,” says Nicholas Spiro, CCO of Viral Nation. By measuring leading indicators like brand recall and sentiment alongside immediate sales, the brand leaned into the organic way people actually consume content and tracked signals of longer-term brand lift.
Show up where your audience is most active
Once e.l.f. identified the creator voices and stories that the community loved, it boosted them with paid media to amplify that proven success. The campaign met people right where they were, using Demand Gen to turn organic YouTube Shorts into paid ads. Powered by Gemini, Demand Gen analyzed audience signals to find high-intent viewers, placing the ads directly within the YouTube Shorts feed where those fans were actively looking for inspiration.
This Shorts-focused approach meant creator videos popped up naturally while users swiped through ideas and tutorials. Because the audience was already curious and looking to learn, the ads matched their intent. By scaling content that had already proven its worth organically, the creator-led ads felt like a lucky find rather than an interruption.
Finding high-intent audiences at scale
The brand was able to find entirely new groups of high-intent shoppers with similar interests and behaviors by using creators’ organic video audiences as a blueprint.
By running these ads with a cobranded format, the brand immediately tapped into equity with its existing customers.
The brand e.l.f. also used creator partnerships boost on YouTube by linking directly to the creators’ specific videos via brand partner access. By running these ads with a cobranded format, featuring both the creator and brand logos rather than just standard brand assets, the brand immediately tapped into equity with its existing customers and built equity with new audiences.
Democratizing beauty through creator voices
This approach required a willingness to rethink creator marketing, treating creators as true partners rather than just talent. For e.l.f., that collaboration process starts by partnering with creators who mirror the brand’s democratic ethos.
As Koffler explains, “e.l.f. stands for every single eye, lip, and face, regardless of race, age, or gender. Because our prices are disruptive, we look for creators who make thumb-stopping content to show that a product this good is accessible to anyone for only $5.”
Creator Manny MUA shows his YouTube followers how to wear the e.l.f. Cosmetics Soft Glam Satin Concealer.
YouTube beauty creator Manny MUA was a perfect example. His Shorts focused on application, wearability, and the $5 price tag, making the story feel like a natural product review rather than a pitch. “The magic happens when the brand lets you do what you want, so it doesn’t feel sponsored,” Manny noted. “Viewers were commenting on my video about how amazing it looked and that the $5 price point was crazy. No one even said anything about the fact that it was sponsored.”
Turning engagement into measurable action
By leading with creator signals and scaling them with smart targeting, the campaign delivered significant results1:
- 46% higher click-through rate on Creator Seed Audiences
- 23% more conversions
- 10% more view-through conversions
According to Spiro, e.l.f. unlocked these results by looking past the immediate transaction. “Their main goal was actually earned media value,” he says, “because e.l.f. understood that building long-term credibility drives sustained brand lift far longer than a single campaign.” Ultimately, focusing on that authentic community trust didn’t slow down conversions. It supercharged them.
Challenging the standard marketing playbook
This success only happened because the team was willing to stay flexible and question the old way of doing things. By treating creators as partners and using AI-powered ad solutions to amplify their unique voices, e.l.f. Cosmetics aligned its marketing with the way people actually browse, watch, and shop today. In the end, the brand did more than just launch a concealer. It proved that when brands stop dictating the conversation and start listening to the community, real growth follows.
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