Tira’s AI Search Pilot Lifts Orders by 35%

Festive beauty spending will peak on the big sale days. But the decisions behind those purchases have usually been forming for weeks. Episode 3 of Taiyaar For Tyohaar, the Campaign India and Google series on festive-season marketing, brings together Prakash Subramanian, Head of Growth & Marketing at Tira, and Priya Choudhary, Director of Business Solutions & Insights at Google India, to unpack how beauty brands can win before the discount.

Beauty is deeply personal: Which shade suits me? Will this work for my skin? Is it worth the price? Winning the festive season means showing up with answers at each of those moments, not just at the final checkout.

01 · The decision happens before the sale

Google’s Festive Playbook 2026 finds that 9 in 10 shoppers researched before buying. Cultural moments on YouTube can peak three to four months before the festive period, Priya notes, so consumers are exploring routines, ingredients and products long before sale days.

“A discount is a trigger, not a decision,” says Prakash. In beauty, the brand shortlist is often set while shoppers research. Brands that show up consistently through search, creators and content are more likely to make that shortlist.

02 · Five moves for festive beauty marketing

• Start building before the shopper starts searching.
• Answer the questions shoppers are actually asking.
• Use celebrities for aspiration and creators for conversion.
• Give shoppers a reason to choose beyond the discount.
• Connect touchpoints in a non-linear journey.

03 · Be the answer, not just a catalogue

Tira’s shade finders, skin analysers and fragrance finders bring parts of the beauty counter online. Search, too, has moved from isolated keywords to conversational, natural-language consultations. The practical advice is to look for the pattern behind queries: a concern, an ingredient, a price point. Build product information and landing pages around those connections.

In pilot testing at Tira, Google AI Max bridged unstructured, conversational queries with the product catalogue. The result: a 35% lift in total order volume and an 8% lift in new customer acquisition by closing gaps across long-tail queries.

04 · Celebrities, creators and the work of attention

Celebrity campaigns build aspiration and tone; creators bring brands into specific, relevant conversations. For Tira, associations with Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ahaan Pandey set positioning, while creators show how products fit into real routines.

Priya notes that around one in three beauty brand discoveries now happen through creators. That favours micro and niche creators who speak credibly to distinct communities.

05 · Move from moments to journeys

Around 70% of shoppers still make last-minute impulse purchases, so the final two-week window matters. The guidance is to pivot to high-velocity formats such as YouTube Demand Gen linked to quick-fulfillment channels. But the media approach should differ by brand: direct-to-consumer businesses may lean on focused audiences and micro-influencers, while larger brands prioritise reach through YouTube Masthead, Shorts and non-skippable ads.

Shopper journeys are no longer linear; consumers scroll, stream, search and shop at once. AI can connect the right message to the right moment, but Prakash cautions against treating technology as the answer in itself. The better test is whether it improves the consumer’s experience or makes the marketing more effective.

For marketers looking to go further, Google’s Festive Playbook 2026 offers more on putting these ideas into practice.

Source: Campaign India

Mad About Marketing Desk The strategists and writers at Mad About Marketing, writing up what we see in the work every week.