Running our business on Google tools lets us reach a broad audience without leaving anyone out, which is important to the inclusivity of our brand and ethos.
Cece Meadows
Founder & CEO
As a Xicana/Indigenous woman raised in the rural Southwest, Cece Meadows is the first in her family to attend college. But a cancer diagnosis and her subsequent care at the age of 27 robbed Cece of her successful finance career and savings, leaving her family unhoused. It also led Cece down an entirely new path to success. “I fell in love with how makeup could make you look when you felt like death… the way [it] could tell a different story than what you were living,” Cece says. In remission, Cece became the first Native-American makeup artist to head a show for New York Fashion Week. There, her traditional regalia often sparked questions, inspiring her to launch Prados Beauty in 2019. “I wanted to create a beauty brand that would tell the story of my people through our eyes,” explains Cece. “There is so much false information, appropriation, and misgivings about Indigenous people, and I wanted to change that.” With a full range of inclusive cosmetics, Cece turned to Google Ads in 2020 to amplify her brand.
Prados Beauty noticed a return on ad spend within two months, seeing a 500 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase in web traffic and a 700 percent jump in sales. In 2021, sales increased by another 336 percent. “We realized the importance of having Google Ads running daily,” Cece says. Overall, she attributes 68 percent of their web traffic and 43 percent of revenue to Google Ads. The company also experienced the power of YouTube when drag queen Trixie Mattel posted a video using Prados Beauty products in 2021, turning the brand into a viral sensation. Right now, Cece is focused on meeting demand now that Prados Beauty is sold in one of the country’s major department stores. “I am being called the first Indigenous Xicana woman to be in a retailer of this size” says Cece, “and it's great to be the first, but what's more important to me is who comes after me.”