Cure, a female-founded hydration brand, tested a new approach to customer acquisition with Optimized Media Mix. By automatically combining tactics across the entire shopping journey, the full funnel strategy helped Cure reach more first-time buyers.
Built on the World Health Organization’s oral rehydration solution formula, Cure makes electrolyte drink mixes with ingredients including coconut water, pink Himalayan salt and real fruit juice. The products contain no added sugar or artificial ingredients.
For Cure, growth begins with trial. Because hydration is a taste-driven category, introducing consumers to the product is an important first step toward making it part of their daily routine.
Reaching more first-time buyers with a full funnel strategy
Before the pilot, Cure ran Sponsored Product campaigns with optimized bidding. Those campaigns helped the brand connect with consumers already searching for hydration, but about two-thirds of attributed sales came from existing customers. Cure wanted to learn whether a different campaign approach could bring more new-to-brand consumers to the brand.
Over a four-week test, Cure’s Optimized Media Mix campaign drove a 13% lift in new-to-brand sales. Just over half of the campaign’s attributed sales came from new-to-brand consumers, compared with about one-third in the control.
“Hydration is a taste-driven category, so the hardest part is getting someone to try Cure for the first time,” said Jamie Maher, Growth Marketing Manager at Cure. “A first purchase is just the start for a product people use every day, so we’re comfortable putting more weight on reaching new customers than on maximizing a single month’s sales.”
The test also showed the trade-offs of prioritizing acquisition. Total sales were flat overall, while sales in the test group were lower than in the control. Cure viewed that outcome in the context of its longer-term goal: reaching new consumers who could become repeat customers.
Extending reach across the shopping journey
Reach data offered another important finding. The campaign reached about 64% more consumers than the control, with a large share of that additional reach coming through Shoppable Display. The format connected with consumers the brand’s Sponsored Product ads were not reaching.
The result helped demonstrate a role for display beyond awareness: it can also support customer acquisition. For Cure, the pilot showed that relying on search alone could limit the brand’s ability to reach new consumers.
Driving results without manual management
Cure continued running the campaign after the pilot because new-customer acquisition remains a priority on Instacart. The campaign also gives the team a way to manage its investment across formats: Cure sets one budget, and the campaign allocates it between sponsored products and shoppable display.
The experience illustrates how ecommerce advertising can help brands balance immediate sales with the longer-term value of introducing products to new consumers. By testing an approach that broadened its reach, Cure gained evidence to inform how it invests in growth on Instacart.
Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.
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