Cortex
Scaling a luxury beauty brand 12x while improving ROAS to 7.9x
ROAS Achieved
7.9x
Overview
The
Story
Cortex is a premium beauty brand specializing in professional-grade skincare and makeup. They were spending $19K/month on Meta with a 2.1x ROAS and couldn't find creative angles that resonated with their high-intent audience. We rebuilt their entire paid strategy from creative to conversion.
The Challenge
Luxury beauty is one of the most competitive verticals in paid social. Cortex's product imagery looked beautiful but performed terribly as ads. Their CPA had climbed to $67, making customer acquisition unprofitable on first purchase. They needed a way to scale without sacrificing brand equity.
Our Strategy
- 1Developed a 'clinical proof' creative framework -- before/after results, dermatologist endorsements, and ingredient deep-dives
- 2Built an AI-powered creative testing system producing 40+ ad variations weekly across static, video, and carousel formats
- 3Launched a micro-influencer program with 25 beauty creators posting authentic 'get ready with me' content
- 4Restructured campaigns around product categories with dedicated budgets and audience segmentation
- 5Implemented server-side tracking via Conversions API for accurate attribution in the post-iOS14 landscape
Results
By the Numbers
ROAS
7.9x
Monthly Revenue
$1.8M/mo
Ad Spend Scaled
12x
CPA Reduction
-71%
Creative Win Rate
31%
New Customers
+24.6K
Transformation
Before & After
Monthly Ad Spend
$230K
ROAS
7.9x
Monthly Revenue
$1.8M
CPA
$11
Creative Win Rate
31%
Journey
The
Timeline
A step-by-step look at how we achieved these results -- from initial audit to full-scale performance.
“We thought our brand was too premium for aggressive paid social. Ionix proved that with the right creative, luxury beauty can scale just as fast as mass-market brands -- without discounting.”
Alessandra Voss
CMO, Cortex Beauty
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$47M+
Ad Spend Managed
7.2x
Avg. ROAS
120+
Brands Scaled
93%
Client Retention