The 5 Growth Levers That Scale Beauty Brands from $100K to $5M

You’ve launched your beauty brand, picked up some early momentum, and may have crossed your first $100K in revenue. But now? Things feel harder.

Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are rising fast—your Meta ads cost twice what they did last year. Influencers charge more but convert less. Your hero product isn’t performing like it used to. And those happy first-time buyers? Fewer of them are coming back.

Your email open rates are flat. Your repeat purchase rate feels like a mystery. And maybe worst of all, despite the long hours, you're not sure where to focus next.

These aren’t just growing pains—they're signs that you’ve hit the ceiling of hustle-driven growth. What got you through the launch won’t get you to $1M—or $5M. Scaling requires structure. And structure means knowing which numbers to track and which levers to pull.

In this article, I’ll break down the five growth levers I’ve used to scale multiple beauty brands to 8-figure exits. These aren’t theories. They’re battle-tested principles with real-world examples—and they’ll show you how to go from plateaued to profitable.

1. AOV – Average Order Value

Average Order Value (AOV) is the first lever you should examine when trying to scale. It’s the easiest metric to improve quickly, and it has a powerful effect on your profitability—especially when ad costs are rising.

Let’s say your AOV is $45 and your CAC is $25. That leaves just $20 to cover everything else: packaging, fulfillment, samples, influencer costs, customer service—maybe even your own salary. It’s tight.

Now imagine lifting your AOV to $60. That $15 difference can be the difference between surviving and scaling. And you don’t need new customers to make it happen—you just need to help existing buyers spend more per visit.

Tactics to Increase AOV:

• Bundle your bestsellers into curated sets (e.g., ‘Glow Starter Kit’, ‘Daily Rituals Set’).

• Use post-purchase upsells with apps like Rebuy or Zipify to offer add-ons like accessories, refills, or travel sizes.

• Introduce tiered incentives: “Spend $75, get a deluxe sample” or “Free shipping over $90.”

• Promote bundles and higher-value options on product pages, cart pages, and during checkout.

Example: Glossier's “Phase 1 Set” encouraged new customers to commit to multiple SKUs upfront. This didn’t just increase AOV—it reinforced usage patterns that supported higher LTV down the line. It’s smart bundling that also builds habit.

2. CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the amount of money you spend to acquire a new customer. For most beauty brands, it's one of the biggest line items in the budget—and one of the most dangerous if not kept under control.

If your CAC creeps past your AOV and you don’t have strong LTV or retention to back it up, you’re essentially buying customers at a loss. And with CPMs rising across Meta, TikTok, and Google, this trap is more common than ever.

You don’t need to kill your ads—but you do need to get more efficient. Lower CAC unlocks more sustainable scale.

Tactics to Reduce CAC:

• Capture emails and SMS early using quizzes, gated offers, and pop-ups. You want to own the audience before they bounce.

• Retarget engaged users with high-trust creative: UGC, before/afters, founder videos, customer testimonials.

• Continuously test landing pages and PDPs to boost conversion rate—sometimes copy beats creative.

• Lean into influencer seeding: Gift instead of paying, especially if you’re under $1M revenue. Then build paid campaigns around high-performing organic posts.

Example: Drunk Elephant’s CAC efficiency came from building a loyal organic base first. They let clean visuals and bold packaging drive word-of-mouth, then layered on paid behind content that already worked.

3. LTV – Lifetime Value

Lifetime Value (LTV) is the total revenue a customer generates across their full relationship with your brand. It’s what gives you leverage.

When your LTV is strong, you can afford to outbid competitors for customers. You can run deeper funnels, invest in content, and build longer-term marketing plays. When it’s weak? You’re stuck in a cash-burning race to break even.

But here's the nuance: if you're a bootstrapped startup, you can’t rely on a 12-month theoretical LTV model to justify a high CAC. You need near-term cash flow. That means your working LTV is often limited to the first two purchases—perhaps within the first 8–10 weeks.

Established brands with strong engagement and community might see LTV across 3–5 orders in a year. But early-stage founders must be more cautious and cash-conscious. Until you have data to back it up, don’t spend today banking on revenue that may not arrive for months.

LTV should be a growth engine—but also a reality check.

Tactics to Increase LTV:

• Build replenishment flows: Use Klaviyo or Postscript to send reorder reminders just before typical usage runs out.

• Create product ecosystems: Build out rituals (e.g., cleanser + serum + SPF) so one product naturally leads to another.

• Introduce VIP and loyalty tiers: Reward frequent customers with perks, early access, or insider bundles.

• Use SMS for exclusives: Offer limited drops or behind-the-scenes access for your most valuable segment.

Example: Function of Beauty boosted LTV by personalizing refills and automating reminders. Combined with a custom formulation experience, this created strong emotional and habitual bonds—driving more frequent, predictable purchases.

4. Retention Rate

Retention is the percentage of customers who return after their first purchase—and it’s a multiplier on every other growth lever.

When you retain more customers, your LTV increases, your CAC payback window shrinks, and your AOV opportunities compound. Without retention, you’re stuck on the acquisition hamster wheel, constantly feeding the machine with fresh dollars just to stand still.

As a benchmark, the skincare industry average LTV is roughly 1.6x per customer, meaning the typical buyer places around one repeat order. That’s not a lot of margin for error—especially if you’re overspending on CAC. Early retention wins matter.

In the early days, retention may not be glamorous. You might only have 2 or 3 products, minimal brand equity, and basic post-purchase automation. But even simple moves can have outsized impact.

Tactics to Improve Retention:

• Send post-purchase content: Tips, how-to videos, and simple usage guidance to reduce buyer’s remorse and increase satisfaction.

• Introduce community elements: UGC hashtags like #30DayGlow or mini challenges that give customers a reason to come back.

• Launch milestone-based rewards: Offer discounts or gifts on second and third purchases—think habit formation, not hard selling.

• Test early subscription offers: Allow loyal customers to opt in after their second or third purchase, not right out of the gate.

Example: Glow Recipe’s “Glow Gang” loyalty program stacked perks with emotional storytelling. They blended early access, gamification, and branded community to make customers feel like insiders—not just buyers.

5. Contribution Margin

Contribution margin is your true profitability per order—the money left over after subtracting all variable costs like COGS, fulfillment, shipping, discounts, and paid ads. It’s not your top-line revenue. It’s what you actually keep and reinvest.

Many early-stage brands grow revenue but lose money on every order because margin isn’t healthy. You can’t scale unprofitably for long—especially if you're bootstrapped.

If you feel like you’re selling more but still have no money left at the end of the month, this is the lever to investigate.

Tactics to Improve Contribution Margin:

• Audit your COGS and packaging: Reduce SKU complexity, negotiate with suppliers, and use inserts only where necessary.

• Watch discounting behavior: Don’t over-train customers to wait for 30% off. Use price tiers and bonuses instead of slashing prices.

• Raise prices strategically—especially after improving retention and brand loyalty.

• Bundle strategically to increase perceived value without increasing cost per unit.

Example: The Ordinary focused on tight product development and low-cost packaging, allowing them to maintain strong margins despite low price points. The results spoke for themselves—lean but profitable scale.

Scaling your beauty brand means treating your business like a machine with five primary dials. Each lever—AOV, CAC, LTV, retention, and margin—should be reviewed monthly, and optimized quarterly. These numbers won’t lie. They’ll tell you exactly what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus next.

🎯 Want help benchmarking your numbers? Download the Growth Calculator and fill in your current data to see where you’re leaving revenue on the table. Comment 'SCORECARD' and I’ll send it straight to your inbox.