CeraVe: how dermatologists and skinfluencers grew #cerave to 33 billion views

November 8, 2026

CeraVe was a pharmacy moisturizer that TikTok skincare creators made famous in 2020. It never needed a huge account of its own. The community did the work.

Background

L'Oréal bought CeraVe in 2017. In 2020 creators such as Hyram and dermatologists including Dr. Dray, Dr. Shah and Dr. Dustin Portela made it a staple, and #cerave had 303.4 million views source. In the first nine months of 2020 sales grew 82% like for like, with more than 2,300 influencers posting about the brand source. Its 2024 Super Bowl stunt, "Michael CeraVe", used 450 influencers to seed a rumor and reported 30 billion earned impressions source.

Then and now

That is about 110 times the 2020 figure. With 847,000 videos, #cerave is the largest brand hashtag of the ten we compared, from the second smallest TikTok following.

Strategy now

• Experts as the face. The brand line is #DevelopedWithDerms, and recent posts tag dermatologists such as Dr. Andrew and Dr. Chloe.
• Big swings, then quiet. The median TikTok gets 31K views, but the top three drew 72.0M (Super Boost Serum launch), 35.2M (a moisturizer ASMR clip) and 30.7M (a PM routine). The account runs on a few very large hits.
• Sports and celebrity tie-ins. Tags include the NBA and Tyler Cameron.

Lessons

1. Credibility travels. A dermatologist recommending a product is content people save and share.
2. You do not need the biggest account. CeraVe's community posts far more about it than it posts itself.
3. Watch the median and the top decile separately. A 31K median and an 8M top 10% describe two different jobs: everyday presence and launches.

How we pulled the numbers

About 9 credits of ScrapeIO calls, the same ones any script or AI agent can make:

curl "https://scrapeio.com/v1/tiktok/profile?handle=cerave" -H "x-api-key: $SCRAPEIO_API_KEY"
curl "https://scrapeio.com/v3/tiktok/profile/videos?handle=cerave" -H "x-api-key: $SCRAPEIO_API_KEY"   # 3 pages
curl "https://scrapeio.com/v2/instagram/user/posts?handle=cerave" -H "x-api-key: $SCRAPEIO_API_KEY"  # 2 pages
curl "https://scrapeio.com/v1/tiktok/search/hashtag?hashtag=cerave" -H "x-api-key: $SCRAPEIO_API_KEY"

Engagement rate is (likes + comments + shares) / views for each video, and we report the median so one viral post does not skew it. To run the same audit on any brand from Claude Code, Cursor or Codex, install the skills with npx skills add xhoantran/scrapeio-agent and ask for a competitor social audit.

Sources

Social numbers pulled through the ScrapeIO API on 8 November 2026 (UTC); they change daily. Everything else is from the sources below. This is an independent analysis of public data, not affiliated with or endorsed by the brand.

• https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/cerave-ruled-internet-050153744.html
• https://www.insidehook.com/article/grooming/tiktok-cerave-skincare-sold-out
• https://www.loreal-finance.com/eng/news-release/2021-annual-results
• https://www.oneclub.org/awards/theoneshow/-award/52399/michael-cerave/