What is UB Media and how does it work?
UB Media is Ulta Beauty's own retail media network. It uses Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty data to reach beauty shoppers on ulta.com, in the Ulta app and on other sites, and reports results against Ulta sales. Compared with Amazon, there are fewer keywords and a smaller auction, so placement, product page quality and timing matter more than bidding tactics.
Stock decides everything. If a product is out of stock, the media stops working no matter how good the plan is. That is why Ulta media has to be planned with the brand's sales team, replenishment plan and promo calendar, not only the marketing budget.
Why offsite media drives most Ulta growth
Most shoppers discover a beauty product on TikTok, Instagram or Google before they search on ulta.com. Good Moose runs Meta, Google, TikTok and YouTube with Ulta as the destination, using retailer links and store locators, so the demand we build turns into Ulta sales instead of going to another retailer.
We also check that the media lands where the stores are. Our planning tool, Good Moose Hub, maps impressions and clicks against every Ulta location, so spend follows the markets that stock the product. Stores that need more volume get more support, and markets with few stores stop soaking up budget. Read more about our store level retail media planning.
How to plan around Ulta's big events
Ulta's year runs on events: 21 Days of Beauty, typically in March to April with a smaller fall event in September, the Gorgeous Hair Event, holiday gift sets and your own promo slots. Media should be live and stock ready before an event starts, not halfway through it. See our beauty retail event calendar for how we plan the year.
How to measure lift on Ulta sales
Retailer dashboards show what happened after someone saw an ad. They do not show what would have happened anyway. When a brand shares Ulta sell through data, we compare sales with media delivery market by market, then run geo holdout tests: we hold back or increase support in matched markets and measure the difference in sales. The same method shows how Meta, Google and DTC media lift sales at Ulta, Amazon and other retailers.
Seven questions to ask an Ulta retail media agency
- Which beauty brands sold at Ulta have you worked with?
- How do you plan media around 21 Days of Beauty and our promo slots?
- How do you coordinate media with our sales team and stock levels?
- How do you send offsite traffic to Ulta rather than only to our website?
- Can you show where our impressions land compared with our Ulta stores?
- How do you measure in store lift, and have you run geo holdout tests?
- Do you take commissions from platforms or vendors? (Good Moose does not.)
Beauty brands we work with that sell at major retailers
Good Moose clients with strong retail businesses include Orlane, Henry Rose, Summer Fridays, Living Proof, Mario Badescu, Tatcha and Sacheu, along with former client Sol de Janeiro. For a wider view of how we grow beauty brands, see beauty advertising.
