Bare Bones · Executive Paid-Media Scorecard

Instant Bone Broth vs Collagen Drink Mix

Side-by-side efficiency of the two products across Amazon Sponsored Products (search/keyword demand) and Meta (audience/persona demand). Trailing 30 days — May 3 to Jun 2, 2026.

Instant Bone Broth (IBB) Collagen Drink Mix (CDM)

Executive Summary

1 · IBB is the efficient engine. Lower cost per purchase on both platforms ($8.71 Amazon / $57.46 Meta) and 11k+ Amazon orders. Demand is mature and keyword-led — protect share on "bone broth" terms.
2 · CDM is click-cheap but conversion-thin. Cheapest Amazon CPC ($1.35) yet highest CPP ($12.41), and its branded "collagen" keyword costs $30+ per order. The funnel leaks at conversion, not traffic.
3 · Amazon vastly out-converts Meta. CPP is 6–7× cheaper on Amazon for both products. Meta is the prospecting/audience-building layer; Amazon is the harvest layer.
4 · Different buyers, untapped levers. CDM converts a younger, near-exclusively female, Feed-only buyer on a single Meta persona — vs IBB's older, format-diverse, three-persona audience. Testing IBB's "Mother" angle and Reels on Collagen are the clearest growth levers.

The Headline CPC · Cost / Purchase · Conversion Rate, by platform

Amazon · Sponsored Products
Cost per Click
$2.07IBB
$1.35CDM
CDM clicks are 35% cheaper — a less competitive search auction.
Amazon · Sponsored Products
Cost per Purchase
$8.71IBB
$12.41CDM
IBB converts clicks ~30% more efficiently into orders on Amazon.
Amazon · Sponsored Products
Conversion Rate (click → order)
23.7%IBB
10.9%CDM
IBB converts shoppers at 2.2× CDM's rate on Amazon search.
Meta · FB + IG
Cost per Click
$2.35IBB
$2.16CDM
Click costs are nearly level on Meta — within ~8% of each other.
Meta · FB + IG
Cost per Purchase
$57.46IBB
$63.16CDM
IBB is ~9% cheaper per purchase; both run far above Amazon CPP.
Meta · FB + IG
Conversion Rate (click → website purchase)
4.1%IBB
3.4%CDM
IBB edges CDM, but both convert ~5–6× lower than on Amazon.

Efficiency at a Glance CPP bars · CPC lines

Cost per Purchase vs Cost per Click

Bars = Cost per Purchase (left axis). Lines = Cost per Click (right axis). Amazon converts far cheaper than Meta even though click costs are similar.

Scale Context where the money & orders are

30-Day Ad Spend

IBB is the dominant investment on both platforms.

Attributed Orders / Purchases

Amazon (14-day) vs Meta (7-day click) attribution shown side by side.

Keywords Converting Each Amazon Sponsored Products

IBB Top converting search themes
Keyword theme (match)OrdersCPP
bone broth · beef (exact)3,199$8.10
bone broth packets · beef2,227$7.01
bone broth (phrase)1,405$10.99
powder439$9.17
bone broth packets · variety334$10.63
bone broth powder207$10.10
beef bone broth200$9.82
chicken bone broth191$8.16
instant bone broth150$7.74
CDM Top converting search themes
Keyword theme (match)OrdersCPP
lemonade (flavor)73$11.44
competitor · "TRUE"48$8.95
collagen22$30.78
gluten free10$15.16
packet10$74.25
keto2$52.51
paleo1$19.94
Read: IBB owns its category — generic "bone broth" terms drive 7,000+ orders at sub-$11 CPP. CDM keyword demand is thin: its own brand term "collagen" converts expensively ($30.78), while a flavor term ("lemonade") and a competitor conquest ("TRUE") are its most efficient keyword wins. Most CDM orders actually come from auto-targeting (383 orders), not explicit keywords — a signal that deliberate keyword demand for CDM is still being built.

Audiences Converting Each Meta · persona ad sets

IBB Converting audiences
Persona audiencePurchasesSpendCPP
The Mother1,037$55.7k$53.67
The Weight Manager498$29.5k$59.19
The Health Manager376$24.6k$65.29
CDM Converting audiences
Persona audiencePurchasesSpendCPP
The Health Manager386$24.4k$63.16
CDM currently runs a single persona on Meta. No "Mother" or "Weight Manager" audiences are live for Collagen.
Read: IBB's best Meta audience is "The Mother" — over half of IBB's social purchases at the lowest persona CPP ($53.67). CDM leans entirely on "The Health Manager," the same persona that is IBB's weakest. The untested opportunity: extend IBB's winning "Mother" and "Weight Manager" angles to Collagen.

Meta Consumer Insights — Who Is Converting share of Meta purchases

The buyer behind each product looks different. Bars show each product's purchasers as a share of its own Meta conversions, so the two profiles are directly comparable regardless of volume.

Age of Converters

IBB buyers skew older (60% are 55+); CDM peaks in midlife (45–54).

Gender of Converters

Both are overwhelmingly female — CDM nearly exclusively so.

Placement Format

IBB converts across Feed, Reels & Stories. CDM converts almost only in Feed.

Platform

Roughly 70% Facebook / 30% Instagram for both — the one dimension where they match.

Top States — share of ad spend (location proxy)

Meta does not break purchases out by state, so this shows where each product's delivery/budget concentrated. Geography is the most similar dimension — both follow population (TX, CA, NY, FL lead).

The two buyers in one line: Instant Bone Broth converts an older (55+), slightly more mixed-gender audience that engages across Reels, Stories and Feed. Collagen Drink Mix converts a younger-skewing (45–54 peak), almost entirely female buyer who converts in the Feed — it has effectively no Reels conversions, a clear untested format. Location is near-identical for both.

Collagen Drink Mix — Brand-Era YoY EDM (Elevated) 2024–25 vs CDM (Collagen) 2026

The same product line on Meta before and after the rebrand from Elevated Drink Mix to Collagen Drink Mix. EDM ran as a year-long, low-budget test; CDM relaunched in May 2026 at ~6× the monthly spend. Read these as directional — the windows differ in length and CDM is still in launch mode.

How EDM & CDM are scoped: EDM = the single [NM] EDM – Prospecting – Creative Testing – CBO – LC campaign — the core DTC prospecting effort. Excluded: the BFCM - EDM promo ad set (seasonal discount, not like-for-like), the tiny Scaling - tCPA test, and the (CDF) Costco SE EDM Support retail-awareness campaign. CDM = the single [NM] CDM – Prospecting – Scaling/Testing – CBO – LC campaign. Both sides are now one core prospecting campaign each — apples-to-apples.
Customer Acquisition Cost
Cost per purchase (Meta)
$27.55EDM '24–25
$65.01CDM '26
CAC +136% — the rebrand-plus-scale is far costlier to acquire.
ROAS
Meta-attributed revenue ÷ spend
1.38×EDM '24–25
0.71×CDM '26
ROAS −49% — CDM is currently below break-even on first order.
Average Order Value
Revenue ÷ purchases
$38.16EDM '24–25
$46.17CDM '26
AOV +21% — collagen buyers spend more per order.
CPM
Cost per 1,000 impressions
$27.34EDM '24–25
$27.83CDM '26
CPM essentially equal (+2%) — reach cost is not the problem.
Link CTR
Link clicks ÷ impressions
1.11%EDM '24–25
0.72%CDM '26
CTR −35% — the creative earns the click less often.
Landing-Page Conversion
Purchases ÷ landing-page views
9.15%EDM '24–25
6.53%CDM '26
LP conversion −29% — the page/offer also converts worse.

Where the Efficiency Was Lost

Both stages degraded: impression→click is down a third AND landing-page→purchase is down a third. CPM is flat — reach isn't the issue.

Monthly CAC Over Time

The EDM Creative Testing campaign acquired at $16–30 through winter, then decayed to $60+ by summer 2025 as creative fatigued; CDM relaunched at $60–90.

Purchaser Age — EDM vs CDM

The collagen rebrand pulled in an older buyer: 71% of CDM purchasers are 45+, vs 55% for EDM.

Purchaser Gender — EDM vs CDM

EDM had a meaningful male base (incl. a younger protein buyer); CDM is 96% female.

What we can learn (corrected): The rebrand repositioned the product to an older, almost exclusively female wellness buyer (45+ share 55%→71%, female 87%→96%) and lifted AOV ~20%. But acquisition got much harder — CAC went from ~$28 to ~$65 and ROAS fell from 1.38× to 0.71×. The leak is at both stages, not just the top: link CTR is down 35% and landing-page conversion is down 29% (9.2%→6.5%), while CPM is flat. So reach cost isn't the issue — the collagen creative wins fewer clicks and the page/offer closes fewer of them. EDM's old creative (sub-$20 CAC for months) and its younger/male reach are the playbook to mine.

Shopify Sales — Same Product, Split at the Title Swap DTC, all channels

Shopify attributes all historical orders to the current title, so the eras can't be split by product name in reports. The definitive boundary is the order line-item title snapshot: the last "Elevated Drink Mix™" order was Apr 27, 2026; the first "Collagen Drink Mix™" was Apr 28, 2026. SKUs were unchanged (EDM-4713/4737/4751/4799), so the title flip is the only marker. Totals below are total store (DTC) sales of this product — not Meta-attributed.

Avg Order Value (Shopify)
orders containing the product
$27.56Elevated era
$35.08Collagen era
AOV +27% — corroborates the Meta AOV lift; premium positioning is working.
DTC Order Run-Rate
orders ÷ active months
~344/mo · Elevated
~672/mo · Collagen
Order velocity ~2× post-relaunch — but on far higher ad spend.
Elevated era total
Sep 2024 – Apr 27, 2026 (~20 mo)
$185.1knet · 6,886 orders
Steady DTC base across the test year.
Collagen era total
Apr 28 – Jun 5, 2026 (~6 wk)
$28.5knet · 874 orders
Early relaunch volume; small window.

Monthly Shopify Net Sales — Elevated → Collagen

Total DTC net sales of the product by month. Gold = Elevated era, green = Collagen era; April 2026 is the swap month (Apr 28). The May spike is the scaled Collagen relaunch.

Shopify read: On the store side the rebrand looks healthier than Meta alone suggests — AOV rose 27% ($27.56 → $35.08) and monthly order velocity roughly doubled after the May relaunch. The tension is efficiency, not demand: DTC orders are up, but Meta CAC ($65) now runs above Shopify AOV ($35), so paid acquisition is underwater on the first order and relies on repeat/LTV to pay back. Bringing the collagen creative and landing page closer to EDM's conversion rates is what turns this scaled relaunch profitable.

Why Collagen's CAC Is Higher — and Why It Should Beat Elevated driver analysis

Collagen should outperform Elevated — it's a bigger, higher-intent category with a higher AOV ($46 vs $38 on Meta) and ~2× the DTC order velocity. So the higher launch CAC isn't weak demand; it traces to season, scale, and creative maturity, all of which are temporary or controllable.

The exact Meta entities being compared
Campaign / ad setRoleSpendPurch.CAC
EDM [NM] EDM – Prospecting – Creative Testing – CBO – LCCore DTC prospecting (the comparison)$30,7511,116$27.55
CDM [NM] CDM – Prospecting – Scaling/Testing – CBO – LCAll Collagen (1 campaign)$28,344436$65.01
excl. SG – BFCM › “BFCM - EDM” ad setSeasonal promo — excluded$64564
excl. [NM] EDM – Prospecting – Scaling – tCPATiny test — excluded$542
excl. (CDF) Costco SE EDM SupportRetail awareness — excluded$1,7434
Results over time — [NM] EDM – Prospecting – Creative Testing – CBO – LC
MonthSpendPurch.CACCPMLink CTRROAS
Sep 2024$41013$31.54$25.061.59%1.23×
Oct 2024$2,937145$20.26$23.451.34%1.86×
Nov 2024$2,594158$16.42$26.911.39%2.27×
Dec 2024$3,129159$19.68$29.991.23%1.71×
Jan 2025$3,062156$19.63$26.270.84%2.13×
Feb 2025$2,795105$26.62$29.450.97%1.54×
Mar 2025$2,01569$29.21$37.981.18%1.33×
Apr–May 2025campaign paused
Jun 2025$2,68867$40.13$27.491.11%1.15×
Jul 2025$3,493124$28.17$27.971.07%0.99×
Aug 2025$4,30069$62.32$24.750.95%0.75×
Sep 2025$3,32751$65.23$27.361.12%0.62×
Total / blended$30,7511,116$27.55$27.341.11%1.38×

Clear arc: efficient through the Q4–January wellness peak (CAC $16–20, ROAS 2.1–2.3×), then a steady decay to $62–65 CAC / 0.6–0.8× ROAS by summer 2025 as the creative fatigued — even with CPM flat. The campaign was wound down after Sept 2025, ahead of the Collagen rebrand.

Factor 1 — CPM is NOT the cause

Auction/reach cost is flat across both eras (~$26–30). Collagen isn't paying more to be seen.

Factor 2 — Season explains most of the gap

The Elevated campaign's OWN CAC swung 2.3× by season. Collagen launched in the expensive summer window — season-matched, the gap is only ~1.5×.

Factor 2 · Seasonality
EDM CAC, peak vs summer
$19Oct–Jan peak
$44Jun–Sep summer
Same campaign swung 2.3× on season alone. CDM only has summer months so far.
Factor 3 · Scale shock
Month-1 spend vs EDM avg
$2.8kEDM avg/mo
$22.6kCDM month 1
8.1× the monthly spend from a cold start — early scaled CAC is inflated and still in learning.
Factor 4 · Creative concentration
Share of CDM sales from 1 ad set
83%
“Collagen without the hassle” = 362 of 436 sales. EDM ran ~10 angles; thin creative fatigues fast.
The storyline: Collagen's fundamentals are stronger than Elevated's — bigger category, +20% AOV, ~2× store velocity. Its higher launch CAC is not a demand problem; it's (1) a summer launch (the Elevated campaign's own CAC was 2.3× worse in summer than in its Oct–Jan peak), (2) an 8.1× spend jump from a cold start still inside Meta's learning phase, and (3) one ad and one audience carrying 83% of sales. CPM proves reach cost is unchanged. The path to beating Elevated: diversify creative beyond the single winner, broaden past the lone “Health Manager” persona (test Elevated's proven UGC angles), add a launch/seasonal offer, and let spend settle out of learning — then re-judge in the Q4–January wellness window where the category is cheapest to acquire.

Communication Strategy — Elevated vs Collagen Meta ad copy & creative

Pulled from the live Meta ads. Within each product the primary text and headline are essentially standardized — the variation is in the visual concept. Here are the two anchor scripts and how the messaging strategy shifted with the rebrand.

EDM Elevated Drink Mix (2024–25)
Headline
“Elevate Your Everyday Hydration”
Primary text
“Introducing Elevated Drink Mix by Bare Bones! Real fruit juice, 5g collagen, and prebiotic fiber for your gut in every stick pack… Just mix, sip, and enjoy wellness on-the-go!
✅ 5g Collagen Protein ✅ 5g Prebiotic Fiber ✅ Real Fruit Juice”
Format: UGC creator video (Rachel, Nicole, Kali) → product page (PDP)
CDM Collagen Drink Mix (2026)
Headline
“Collagen Drink Mix”
Primary text
“Our delicious collagen drink mix is crafted to fuel your day — hydration, collagen, and protein from real fruit and agave.
✅ Fruity ✅ Flavorful ✅ Packed with clean, functional nutrition”
Format: studio static (agency “Nord”) → dedicated landing page
What changed in the message
DimensionElevated (EDM)Collagen (CDM)
Hero benefitHydration ("Elevate your hydration")Collagen (in name + headline)
Secondary storyPrebiotic fiber / gut healthProtein + taste; gut story dropped
Proof styleQuantified specs (5g / 5g / real juice)Sensory ("Fruity, Flavorful")
Format / voiceUGC creator video, testimonialStudio static, brand voice
DestinationProduct page (PDP)Dedicated paid-media lander
Angles testedCuriosity/urgency ("Doesn't Know It Yet", "Break Glass")Benefit/convenience ("No hassle", "Glow", "One Stick", "Us v Them")
PromoEvergreen copyAdds "Summer Sale" push

Which concepts actually convert (CAC)

EDM's UGC creator videos acquired at $22–25; CDM's best static workhorse is $63. Lower is better. (Concepts with ≥4 purchases.)

CDM concept performance (May–Jun 2026)
ConceptSpendPurch.CTRCAC
099 Collagen without the hassle$21,4633400.72%$63
129 Summer Sale (promo)$1,280210.50%$61
116 Flavor First$766100.60%$77
114 Drink Your Collagen$85550.76%$171
115 Tear Mix Drink$15440.65%$39
119 Us V Them$22330.49%$74
113 Glow From Within$26520.86%$132
118 One Stick$37220.56%$186

One static ("no hassle") carries the account; "Glow From Within" earns the highest CTR (0.86%) but doesn't convert. EDM video CTRs ran 1.0–1.5% — roughly 2× CDM's statics.

The takeaway for creative strategy: The rebrand got the headline right — leading with "collagen" matches real category demand. But it dropped EDM's two highest-performing engines: UGC creator video and quantified, problem-aware proof. EDM's creator videos converted at $22–25 CAC and ~1.0–1.5% CTR; CDM's best static is $63 at 0.72%, and 80%+ of CDM spend rides on a single static. The highest-leverage move: keep the collagen-forward headline, but rebuild EDM's UGC creator-video format and a quantified benefit hook into the Collagen creative, and diversify beyond the one static. Caveat: EDM's cheap CACs partly reflect its Sept–Nov (cooler-season) run, but the ~2× CTR gap is format-driven, not seasonal.