Beauty brands can increase their reach by partnering with beauty industry professionals, licensed dermatologists, nail artists, fragrance historians, or cosmetics chemists, who can serve as brand ambassadors.

For beauty brands looking to launch their first ambassador program, I asked our PR and growth experts:

What are the essential foundational elements to ensure the program stands out in a market where every brand seems to have influencer partnerships?

Which qualities make ambassadors true brand storytellers that genuinely understand and authentically amplify a brand's unique story in competitive niches?

Which ROI indicators tell you that an ambassador partnership is genuinely moving the needle for brand awareness, and how do you optimize these partnerships for maximum impact?

Here are the experts' insights.

• Make influencers that are already organically using your products your ambassadors
• Work with people who understand their audience and listen to them
• Followers look up to ambassadors as guides, not as models
• Ambassadors guide their audience through genuine insight
• Ambassadors are engaging, educating, and lifting the conversation around a mission
• Ambassadors practice the values of the brand express them with credibility

Make influencers that are already organically using your products your ambassadors

Emily Reynolds-Bergh, Owner at R Public Relations

"1) Set up your ambassador program like an affiliate program. The best way to incentivize your influencer partners to sell product is to pay them for their efforts. Consider returning 6 - 8% of profits to the influencer who made the sale.

2) Look for influencers that are already organically using and sharing your products. Not only will the partnership feel more authentic that way, but you can guarantee that the influencer is actually using–and loing–your products. Your brand story is already part of their personal story. No marketing scripts necessary!

3) There are several key metrics you can track to monitor brand awareness. Branded searches is a great place to start. How many people are searching for “Fenty eyeliner” or “Mikayla Fenty eyeliner” rather than just “eyeliner”? Additionally, you can use UTM tracking links to track click-throughs and conversions related to each influencer partner."

Work with people who understand their audience and listen to them

Deepak Shukla, CEO at Pearl Lemon PR

"Brand awareness isn’t just about Instagram saves or TikTok duets. It’s about what happens off-platform. If no one’s texting their best mate, “Oi have you tried that balm I saw on your Story?”, then it’s not moving the needle. The best metric we ever tracked wasn’t likes but a spike in direct referrals on WhatsApp and Discord. One creator barely hit 1,000 views, but she moved $4.3k in sales because she lived in her audience’s DMs.

The only way to get that kind of ROI is to work with people who understand their own audience better than you ever will. And then actually listen to them. If they say your link isn’t converting? Believe them. If they ghost you for three weeks, drop ‘em. This only works when trust is mutual.

To optimise these partnerships, build in real feedback loops. Don’t just send products — send short surveys. Ask about what resonated. Run tiny experiments: A/B test captions, track different CTA styles, and let them write their own briefs. Stop forcing UGC to look like ads. The more organic the vibe, the more cha-ching on your backend."

Followers look up to ambassadors as guides, not as models

Adam Watson, Founder at Hollywood Mirrors

"When I began our first ambassador program, I knew I didn't want to emphasize numbers. I wanted storytellers, not salespeople. Clarity is the most critical pillar, encompassing who you are as a brand, what you're about, and the kind of transformation your product enables. If your messaging isn't deep, so won't be your ambassadors.

I'm looking for influencers who live the life we represent. That is, people who show you what they do day-to-day, such as bedroom makeovers and real beauty routines, not staged product photos. I don't want someone who will just hold a mirror and smile. I need someone who already has followers who trust them and look up to them as a guide, not a model. When they talk, people listen, and better yet, click.

To determine ROI, I track direct conversions from ambassador posts, as well as brand searches and site time once their post is up. One of the biggest green flags for me is when people start tagging us in their own posts because they discovered us through an ambassador. That's where I see the story being shared beyond the original post and catching hold.

To get the most out of them, I treat them like partners. I give them the freedom to be creative, but also provide them with a clear understanding of how our brand makes them feel—our tone, aesthetic, and values. When they hear that they create content that doesn't simply sell, but inspires, they know they're part of something special."

Ambassadors guide their audience through genuine insight

Lord Robert Newborough, Founder at Rhug Wild Beauty

"True ambassador success begins with shared language. Here we speak through nature and honest luxury. Our ambassadors must reflect that same rhythm in their communication. It is not about rehearsed talking points. It is about having a real connection with our values and products. The best storytellers educate without effort.

They guide their audience toward conscious beauty through genuine insight. We see real results in thoughtful comments, deep product reviews and more people discovering us directly. We keep this program personal. Regular seasonal launches and open briefs help them tell the story in their way. Their honesty builds real trust with their audience. That is what truly matters."

Ambassadors are engaging, educating, and lifting the conversation around a mission

Mimi Nguyen, Founder at Cafely

"When we launched our ambassador program, I knew we did not need the loudest voices: we needed the right voices. Clarity was our main starting point. You need to know your brand story inside and out before you can ask someone to carry it. Our story is all about heritage, bold flavor, and the global hustle, and we searched for creators who already embodied that before we reached out. You cannot teach authenticity; you can only align with it.

The qualities that create a true storyteller do not come from follower count or aesthetic. It comes from emotional fluency. Can they communicate about your product in a way that feels like they are sharing that product with their best friend over coffee? Our best ambassadors are not just posting; they are engaging, educating, and lifting the conversation around our mission.

When it comes to ROI, we are looking for more than conversions. Saves, shares, authentic comments, those are leading indicators of resonance. A “where did you get that” comment is often more valuable than a 1,000 likes. We optimize by co-creating with our ambassadors, rather than passing off assets. Co-creation creates an investment feeling for our ambassadors, who do not just feel contracted."

Ambassadors practice the values of the brand express them with credibility

Hailey Rodaer, Marketing Director at Engrave Ink

"Engrave Ink is about assisting human beings in taking memory with them in the form of meaning, and I have personally also identified the strength of emotional tipping when it comes to making meaningful brand contacts. Some advice worth mentioning when implementing an ambassador program for the first time is to focus on creating a foundation of authenticity and values. Partnership with influencers can be tempting but in reality, it is about having the ambassadors (influencers) who understand and connect with the mission of the brand the most. This will involve the provision of the environment that the ambassadors feel personal to them and no longer remain as a marketing tool.

To make the influencers the real storytellers of the brand, one needs to match and correspond to the inner identity of the brand and they should do it in the way it is natural. The most consistent ambassadors are the ones who really practice the values of the brand they advertise and express them with credibility, not by being sponsored. As an example, an ambassador of a beauty company such as Fenty Beauty would have to provide the brand with the feeling of inclusiveness and diversity in a way that would be obvious through the individual voice and presence. ROI is measured not only by using basic engagement metrics. Personally, I can only say that success is achieved when brand recognition increases organically, meaning that web traffic increases, more people talk about the brand on social media, or the conversion rate goes up in direct relation to the content created by ambassadors. The best way to optimize such relationships is to engage in consistent communication with them, get on the same track with their objectives and also allow the ambassador to receive the latest product innovations and updates of the brand. This keeps the relationship with the partnership as well as helping to add impact to it, as well as helping to enforce the honest relationship with the ambassador on to the story of the brand."

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