How Glossier's Meta ads actually work.

Glossier's top-impression ads link to Sephora, not glossier.com. This is counterintuitive, why pay for ads that send people to someone else's store? Because Sephora.com converts better for certain audiences than glossier.com does. The Sephora buyer already has an account, a saved payment method, and a trust relationship with the retailer. Glossier is removing friction by meeting the buyer where they already shop. The ad doesn't need to build trust from scratch, Sephora has already done that. They also run ads to their own DTC site via Fermat landing pages for retargeting. Two funnels, two audiences, one product.

Any DTC brand with retail distribution should test retailer links in ads. If your product is on Amazon, Target, or a vertical retailer, run a split test: your site vs. the retailer. Often the retailer converts 20-40% better for cold audiences because the trust is pre-built. The tradeoff: lower margins on retail sales vs. higher conversion rate. For products where LTV matters (subscriptions, repurchase cycles), send new customers to retail and retarget purchasers back to DTC for the second order. That's likely what Glossier is doing with their dual-funnel setup.