What CLIO Learned After a 1,500% ROAS on Olive Young Co-op Ads — Judge Creatives by Cost per Add-to-Cart

Korean color cosmetics brand CLIO shared results from two seasons of retail media co-op ads on Olive Young, Korea's largest health and beauty retailer, run through ad platform Buzzvil. The first season delivered big numbers. The second, weaker season taught the brand what to measure.

Why co-op ads for color cosmetics

Skincare earns repeat purchases once it works. Color cosmetics must be rediscovered every season as shade and finish trends shift. On Olive Young, similar tones and textures sit side by side, so a new launch easily becomes one of many.

CLIO already drove awareness through Meta and search, but wanted a sharper way to reach shoppers considering a specific shade right now. Co-op ads target using Olive Young's first-party shopping data — what shoppers viewed and added to cart — rather than inferred interests.

Two sales, two very different results

March sale

• CTR of about 46% (partly reflecting the rewards-based format)
• Average ROAS of about 1,500%
• Achieved on a smaller budget than other channels

June sale

• Similar budget and clicks, but nearly double the impressions
• ROAS fell to the 960% range
• The assisted conversion ratio — ad clicks that helped before the final click, relative to direct last-click conversions — rose from 72% to 150%, meaning the ads assisted more purchases than they directly closed

Creative rankings flipped

In March, recommendation banners and coupon alerts led. In June, an O/X quiz format ranked first at a ROAS in the 1,600% range, followed by shorts and review formats. CLIO then compared creatives by cost per add-to-cart:

Creative format	Cost per add-to-cart
O/X quiz	~400 KRW range
Shorts	~400 KRW range
Review	~500 KRW range
Recommendation banner	700+ KRW

Cart-to-purchase conversion held at roughly three in ten in both seasons. So the ad's job narrowed to one thing: generating add-to-carts as cheaply and as often as possible. The "just for fun" quiz turned out to create purchase intent most efficiently.

Front-load the sale

On the first day of the March sale, budget was heavier yet cost per add-to-cart was lower. Early shoppers had already decided. CLIO now weights spend toward the start of each sale.

Takeaways for retail media creative testing

1. Look beyond ROAS. Pair it with cost per add-to-cart and assisted conversions.
2. Don't prune too early. Dropping creatives after March would have eliminated June's top performer.
3. Match the channel to your rhythm. Brands with recurring sales events or seasonal launches benefit most.
4. Judge after two seasons. The first shows results; the second explains them.

To read co-op ad reports past the click, see How to Read Retail Media Co-op Ad Reports. For predicting creative performance before launch, read Kroger Predicted E-Commerce Conversions With 81% Accuracy.