How Function of Beauty sells custom hair care
Function of Beauty sells the same idea two ways. Its ads point at only one of them.
The paid side sells a shelf. On Meta, each campaign pairs a hair type with a retailer: wavy at Target, curly at Walmart. The copy is one template with the hair type swapped in. “Shop now” opens a where-to-buy page. It shows only the campaign’s retailer, down to the nearest Target stores.
On TikTok, the brand boosts its own posts. In 2026, 89 of its 135 videos ran as ads. One of the biggest says “now 15% off on @Amazon”. A bottle costs about $10. At Target, “custom” means a base for your hair type plus booster shots you pour in yourself.
The quiz sells a subscription. It starts with your first name, for the bottle. Then hair type, thickness, scalp, colour, heat, goals and hold. It takes about two minutes.
The email gate waits at 100%. The marketing box is already ticked. The result is a cart, not an explanation: four bottles named “Sandra’s Custom…”. The subscription price comes first, $26.39 for a shampoo against $32.99 one-time. A fragrance is required. Every two months is preselected.
That comes to about $110 every two months, against $10 once at Target. Ten minutes later, the first email offers 20% off. It is for subscribing.
What the quiz knows that the shelf doesn’t
The shelf has one fixed lineup per hair type. So the ads need only four messages: straight, wavy, curly, coily.
The quiz goes further. A colour-treated, heat-styled wavy head gets a “recovery” regimen, with a repair leave-in and a heat primer. The result’s address records why: chemical damage, mechanical damage, no heat damage.
The quiz is also the only place Function of Beauty learns who its customer is. The where-to-buy page sends the ad’s audience to Target without asking anything. The quiz ends with a name, an email address and a hair profile.
