- 01Mine your first customers for proof points, not just testimonials
- 02Write for the category question, not the brand name
- 03Turn any offline touchpoint into a trackable redemption link
- 04Seed one creator with a giveaway that requires a real action
01 Snapshot
The one-glance read on who they are and how they grow. Each point is verifiable from the receipts above.
Plant-based clean energy shots and gummies (organic green tea caffeine + L-theanine) that grew 550% YoY in 2025 per Circana retail data.
Creator-led, amplified by paid search and display.
~132,029 estimated monthly visits (+74.9% over the last 3 months) as of the traffic snapshot, 137,545 Instagram followers, and 62 combined active paid ads across Google (5 of 35 total) and Meta (57) as of 2026-07-17; the company closed an $11M raise at a $161M valuation in May 2026 and states "Over 1 Million Shots Sold" on its own site.
As of 2026-07-17, Meta's entire visible ad library (oldest spot 51 days old) is pushing the new Clean Energy Gummies line, while a fresh Google search ad from a different advertiser name, Absolute Link Limited, started running to properwild.com on 2026-07-10.
Proper Wild's engine is a creator giveaway flywheel, micro and mid-tier creators posting bio-link "free shot" redemptions, that it has just re-pointed at a brand-new gummies product with a freshly built Meta ad account, while Google search carries the only paid channel with genuine multi-month longevity.
02 How it unfolded
The order the channels came online. Sequence is strategy: what they did first, and what they layered on once demand existed.
03 Traffic & channel mix
Estimated demand, the channel split behind it, and the keywords and referrers doing the work. Directional modeling, not audited analytics.
Traffic sources
Top search keywords
| Keyword | Volume | Weight | CPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| proper wild | 2.8k | $1.39 | |
| proper wild energy shots | 470 | $1.30 | |
| proper wild energy chews | 0 | - | |
| are energy drinks in moderation bad for you | 220 | - | |
| roper wild website | 230 | - |
Closest competitors by audience
Proper Wild draws an estimated 132,029 monthly visits, up 74.9% over the last 3 months. Display ads are the single largest channel at 42.4% of the mix, direct traffic follows at 25.8%, and paid search adds another 14.6%, a combination that points to a paid-acquisition-heavy funnel stacked on top of a base of habitual direct visitors likely built by the brand's retail footprint (creator posts reference it stocked in "65k stores + 400 airports"). Organic search contributes a further 12.1%; the rest, social paid, referrals, email, social organic, and emerging AI-assistant search, together total under 6%. On keywords, "proper wild" itself pulls 2,820 monthly searches and "proper wild energy shots" pulls 470, both branded demand the site is positioned to capture, while "are energy drinks in moderation bad for you" (220 searches/mo) shows category-level informational demand the blog content is built to intercept. Among the closest competitors, eboost.com and drinknooma.com are direct clean-energy/hydration rivals fighting for the same shelf positioning, and seattlegummy.com is the nearest format-level competitor now that Proper Wild has entered gummies.
04 Organic content
The specific pages earning their organic search traffic, and the pattern behind why they rank. Adapt the format, not the topic.
Proper Wild's top organic pages are almost entirely ingredient-education blog posts: pieces on why taurine is left out of their formula, how natural versus artificial caffeine is made, and whether sugar-free energy drinks cause weight gain, alongside the homepage and the core shots product page. The pattern is a myth-busting, comparison-style content wedge that answers broad category questions (not branded ones) where competition is thinner than head-term energy-drink searches, then resolves each question in Proper Wild's favor. It likely ranks well because it owns top-3 positions on several of these exact questions, including a #1 for "energy drinks without taurine" and "how long do energy drinks last," turning generic category curiosity into a natural on-ramp to the no-taurine, plant-based positioning the rest of the funnel repeats.
Top pages by organic traffic
05 Channel map
Not traffic share. How much weight the growth system actually puts on each channel, with a one-line read on the role it plays.
What drove growth
06 The creative doing the work
Each exhibit shows the actual asset, an X-ray of why it works, a status, and a play you can adapt. This is the heart of the teardown.
As of 2026-07-17, Proper Wild runs 5 of 35 total collected Google ads and 57 active Meta ads. Google is the only platform with a genuine longevity signal: the oldest active ad has run ~216 days since December 2025, with three more active spots between 180 and 189 days old. Every visible Meta ad, by contrast, is 51 days old or newer, so none of it qualifies as a proven winner yet; it reads as a coordinated launch wave for the new Clean Energy Gummies line, plausibly timed to the $10M raise the company announced for that launch.
The winning Google ads and the newest Meta gummies push both route to a family of near-identical "Shots Gummies Flex" landing pages built around one core offer: 10 servings of Clean Energy Gummies for $39.99 plus 10 free servings (BOGO) and free shipping, framed as 56% off and working out to $1.99 per serving. The "Enjoy Guilt Free Caffeine in Gummy Form" ad, for instance, lands on the "Shots Gummies Flex 3" page carrying that exact BOGO stack, while the "You're up before the sun" mom-focused ad lands on "Shots Gummies Flex 4" with the same structure. Every variant repeats the "Over 1 Million Shots Sold" trust badge and layers in a 10% email/SMS capture offer for first-time visitors who don't convert on the BOGO. Checkout runs on a subscribe-and-save model through Recharge, meaning the free-shipping, 40%, and 10%-off tiers are gates designed to push the one-time buyer into a recurring subscription rather than a single purchase.
- Running
- 51 days (longevity = it's converting)
- Hook
- POV: You're a tired mom who needs energy RIGHT NOW. A hand pours a liquid from an orange and green can into a kitchen sink drain.
- CTA / offer
- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE
- Audience
- The text "POV: You're a tired mom who needs energy RIGHT NOW" and visuals of a woman struggling with daily tasks (reheating coffee, folding laundry, picking up toys) directly target mothers experiencing fatigue.
Why it works. Targets tired moms by name and dramatizes discarding a canned energy drink, setting up Proper Wild as the swap before a scarcity-driven flash sale.
Problem identification and agitation (0:00-0:08): The video opens with a hand pouring out an energy drink, followed by a woman looking exhausted with the text "POV: You're a tired mom who needs energy RIGHT NOW" and "because you've reheated the same coffee 3 times". Open with POV: You're a [specific tired audience] who needs [outcome] right now, paired with a visual of physically discarding the old solution.
- Running
- 51 days (longevity = it's converting)
- Hook
- A woman holds a red gummy between her fingers and says, "Energy gummies are better than energy drinks."
- CTA / offer
- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE
- Audience
- Individuals seeking alternative energy sources, those sensitive to traditional energy drinks, and health-conscious consumers looking for plant-based options. This is signaled by the direct comparison to energy drinks and emphasis on 'clean energy' and 'no artificial sweeteners'.
Why it works. Pits its format against the entire energy drink category in one spoken line, giving drink loyalists a reason to keep watching before the BOGO offer lands.
Start with a bold, contrarian statement at 0:00, "Energy gummies are better than energy drinks." Have a real customer state a direct comparison against the dominant format in your category, then follow with concrete reasons and an offer.
- Running
- 51 days (longevity = it's converting)
- Hook
- “Energy drinks? Out.” A woman with long brown hair is in a kitchen, holding a silver can, and then crushes it in her hands.
- CTA / offer
- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE
- Audience
- Individuals seeking clean, sustained energy without the jitters or stomach upset associated with traditional energy drinks, indicated by the comparison to energy drinks and emphasis on 'clean energy' and 'no weird junk'.
Why it works. Delivers a blunt verdict against the entire energy drink category and dramatizes it by crushing a can, before walking through the product's features.
Problem-agitation hook with a bold claim and visual metaphor (0:00-0:03, “Energy drinks? Out.” and crushing a can). State a blunt one-line verdict against the category incumbent, then physically destroy or discard the incumbent on camera to match the words.
Show 7 more exhibits
- Running
- 51 days (longevity = it's converting)
- Hook
- Visual: A young woman with long brown hair, wearing a white tank top and a grey hoodie, sits at a wooden table with a laptop open to her left and a notebook open in front of her. She is looking down at the notebook with a distressed expression, holding her head in her hands. On-screen text: "Things I didn't expect from energy gummies:"
- CTA / offer
- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE
- Audience
- Individuals who experience brain fog, lack of focus, or energy dips during work/study, and are looking for a clean, effective energy supplement. The visual of a woman working on a laptop signals students or professionals.
Why it works. Opens on a visibly stressed woman slumped over her laptop and notebook, letting the relatable overwhelm set up the product as relief before a scarcity offer.
Problem Agitation (0:00-0:02): The video opens with a woman looking distressed and holding her head, with the on-screen text "Things I didn't expect from energy gummies:". Open on a real, visibly stressed moment your customer recognizes in themselves before you introduce the product as the fix.
- Running
- 51 days (longevity = it's converting)
- Hook
- On-screen text: "Mom life hack: Energy Gummies > Coffee". Visual: A woman in a brown tank top and black pants is folding laundry in a bright room with large windows. Below her, two packets of Proper Wild gummies (red and yellow) are held up by a hand.
- CTA / offer
- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE
- Audience
- The phrase "Mom life hack" and the parenthetical "(Because moms don't have 10 minutes to brew anything.)" directly targets mothers who are busy and seeking convenient energy solutions.
Why it works. Mom-audience comparison hook using shorthand math notation against coffee, paired with a visible product hold-up during a laundry-folding routine.
Problem-solution framing with a bold claim at 0:00: "Mom life hack: Energy Gummies > Coffee". Start your ad with a relatable problem statement or a claim that directly challenges a common alternative, positioning your product as the better option.
- Running
- 51 days (longevity = it's converting)
- Hook
- Visual: A woman with long brown hair, wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and gold hoop earrings, holds up a single red gummy towards the camera. On-screen text: "energy gummies". Audio: "Energy gummies are better than energy drinks."
- CTA / offer
- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE
- Audience
- Individuals who experience 'brain fog' from travel, work, or time zone changes, and are dissatisfied with traditional energy sources like coffee and energy drinks. This is signaled by the second woman's relatable struggles and the explicit rejection of other energy solutions.
Why it works. Straightforward comparison hook for energy-drink switchers, pairing the claim with a physical product hold-up before a scarcity-driven offer close.
Bold opening claim and visual rejection of competitors (0:00-0:03, 0:08-0:12). The first woman states, "Energy gummies are better than energy drinks," and later crushes an energy drink can, while the second woman crosses out coffee, matcha, and energy drinks. Start your ad with a direct, provocative claim that positions your product against a common, but flawed, alternative. Use strong visual metaphors to 'reject' the old solution.
- Hook
- "GET A FREE ENERGY SHOT + A CHANCE TO WIN $20,000" overlay on a woman holding a small pink bottle, looking up at the camera with green trees and a bright sky in the background.
- CTA / offer
- Get a free Proper Wild energy shot and a chance to win $20,000 cash.
- Audience
- Individuals interested in energy drinks, sweepstakes, and free products. The casual, direct address suggests a younger, social media-savvy audience.
Why it works. Giveaway-driven UGC hook for outdoor/lifestyle viewers, combining a free product with a large cash sweepstakes to maximize lead volume.
Bold claim and direct offer in the first 3 seconds: "GET A FREE ENERGY SHOT + A CHANCE TO WIN $20,000" (0:00-0:03). Lead with your single most compelling offer, spelled out as on-screen text and spoken audio, within the first 3 seconds of your video.
- Hook
- "IMAGINE THIS YOU" A woman in sunglasses is sitting in a car, holding a small bottle with a red and white label.
- CTA / offer
- Free Proper Wild shot and entry to win $20,000 cash.
- Audience
- People interested in energy drinks/caffeine, and those looking for opportunities to win money. The casual, direct address suggests a younger, social media-savvy audience. The mention of 'free caffeine' at 0:41 directly targets caffeine consumers.
Why it works. Uses a sunglasses driving scene with a branded bottle in hand paired with a cash giveaway offer to drive trial through social sharing rather than direct claims.
Lead with a bold, high-value offer: "IMAGINE THIS YOU $20K GIVEAWAY" (0:00-0:03). Pair a lifestyle scene of your product in normal use with a high value giveaway or freebie hook to drive shares rather than direct claims.
- Hook
- Visual: A man in a black long-sleeved shirt and a black and yellow trucker hat sits on a dark couch, looking directly at the camera and speaking. On-screen text reads "Proper Wild" and "Best kind of energy". Audio: "Listen, if you suffer from ADHD, lack of focus, no productivity, your brain is constantly wandering..."
- CTA / offer
- 30% off
- Audience
- Individuals who suffer from "ADHD, lack of focus, no productivity," or whose "brain is constantly wandering." This targets people seeking cognitive enhancement and sustained energy without jitters or crashes.
Why it works. Direct-to-camera testimonial naming ADHD and low focus by name, targeting viewers who already search those exact terms for a fix.
Problem identification and agitation (0:00-0:09): The speaker lists common issues: "ADHD, lack of focus, no productivity, your brain is constantly wandering." Start your creative by directly naming 2-3 specific, common problems your target audience faces, using their language, before introducing your product.
- Reach
- 105 upvotes · 112 comments · r/barstoolsports
A community is already discussing this in r/barstoolsports. Show up there authentically and answer the thread before a competitor does.
Who amplifies them
The amplification base is almost entirely third-party creators rather than the brand's own posting or any visible founder account. The giveaway wave anchored by Mandy (@mandysmillion) also ran through a second creator, @disclosuremusic, who pushed the same "$20k + free shot" mechanic to a separate following, meaning the campaign was seeded through at least two independent creator audiences rather than one. Beyond the giveaway, a recurring cohort of nano and micro creators posts under the #properwildpartner tag, most self-disclosed with #ad: on TikTok that includes Addi, michaelseyer, galentipton, Mataya, and jahnini, and on Instagram it includes @jhop5, @charlexzfitness, @itsanotherb, @yasminemcbride_, and @zacharyjwixon. A larger creator, @bussinwtb (posting for the "Bussin With The Boys" podcast audience), ran a disclosed #ad framing Proper Wild as what "keeps The Boys fueled." On TikTok Shop specifically, creator Jenny Eats | Adorkable Finds tagged a gummies post #tiktokshopcreatorpicks alongside a Costco-run angle, confirming a shoppable-affiliate listing distinct from the organic ambassador posts. A separate tier of creators, including Krystal Lauren, Hannah Mae - SAHM, and Lauren Wells, are whitelisted inside Meta's ad system, meaning Proper Wild runs paid spend directly through those creators' own pages rather than the brand page, a deliberate blur between "organic creator" and "paid media account." No founder personal account activity appears in the evidence, so the amplification engine here is creator-carried, not founder-carried.
07 Organic & video
The organic content engine: the videos, creator posts, and community presence earning attention without paid spend.
Creator content runs on an almost continuous cadence: the sample evidence stretches from September 2022 through July 2026, with a visibly denser cluster of posts from September 2025 onward, closer to a standing seeding program than a series of one-off sends. The clips split into three repeatable formats: talking-head declarations where a creator holds up a red gummy and states "Energy gummies are better than energy drinks," a script that recurs across at least three separate creator videos rather than reading as one person's improvisation; relatable-problem b-roll, like a creator jumping on a couch captioned "ME AFTER SAYING I'M TIRED" or folding laundry under "Mom life hack: Energy Gummies > Coffee"; and bigger-reach lifestyle posts from creators with existing audiences, such as Million Dollaz's 2023 clip ("All the beat ingredients go in to @Proper Wild for clean and natural energy"), which pulled 130,078 engagements. The brand's own TikTok account mirrors the same afternoon-slump angle it uses in paid creative: a 2022 post ("give your 4pm self the best of both worlds") drew 12,495 engagements, showing the mid-afternoon-crash hook predates the current gummies push by years. The talking-head confession format is the one that recurs most, both organically and inside the Meta ad library, which suggests it is the format Proper Wild actively briefs creators to replicate rather than one that simply happened to go viral once.
08 Affiliate & partners
How the brand turns creators and partners into a tracked, variable-cost acquisition channel, and how the program is structured.
Proper Wild runs a confirmed affiliate and partner program, linked directly from its homepage at properwild.com/pages/affiliate, recruiting affiliates and partners to drive referral traffic. The #properwildpartner tag worn by the ambassador cohort described above is the visible output of that program in practice. Two separate tracking layers sit underneath it: upf.ai links appear in several creator captions and bios (used by creators like michaelseyer and a couple-comedy account tagged #properwildpartner), a per-creator trackable-link setup typical of influencer-marketing platforms, and gotoaisle.com links (try.gotoaisle.com/proper-wild-in-store, discover.gotoaisle.com/proper-wild-loyalty-pass) run a separate trade-promotion layer that converts in-store purchases into a loyalty-pass signup, surfaced both by a creator's Instagram post and by an unaffiliated Reddit freebie thread. Combined with the TikTok Shop listing, this is a multi-layered affiliate stack: brand-recruited partners, per-creator tracked links, and a trade-promotion redemption system, not a single lightweight referral program.
09 The playbook
The channels are not separate. They are one system where each stage feeds the next. Here is the read, then the plays to run tomorrow.
The inferred playbook
Proper Wild's loop starts with paid creator seeding that manufactures the appearance of organic reach, converts that reach through redemption links rather than direct checkout, and is now pointing the whole apparatus at a new product line before the new line has its own proof of paid performance.
whitelisted ad accounts running through creators' own pages, alongside a wide #properwildpartner ambassador cohort, mean a meaningful share of what looks like organic TikTok and Instagram activity is brand-sponsored content running under someone else's handle, not unprompted fan content.
free-shot links, the giveaway mechanic, and the gotoaisle.com loyalty-pass system all train the audience to redeem something free first, deferring the actual sale to the subscription upsell that follows on the landing pages.
Dig deeper+3▾
the brand is pointing its newly built Meta ad account and existing creator relationships at the gummies line rather than building awareness from zero, but Google's evergreen search layer remains the only channel with genuine multi-month proof the underlying "clean energy" pitch converts.
its already-noted physical retail footprint has only a creator-dependent digital bridge in the gotoaisle redemption links, so most in-store buyers likely never enter a tracked funnel at all.
subscription reorder and retention rate on the Recharge program, blended customer acquisition cost across the Google and Meta spend, the revenue split between DTC subscription and the retail/wholesale channel now expanding into conventional stores, and sell-through rate at the physical retail doors driving the reported 550% YoY Circana growth.
Mine your first customers for proof points, not just testimonials
The proofProper Wild's own customer survey of thousands of early buyers produced the specific stats and quotes it later used in press and ads, including its near-even gender split and the share of buyers new to the whole category, plus real-customer lines like "I'll be 66 soon and I enjoy life!!!" that ended up verbatim in a Meta ad.
The adaptationSend your first 50 to 100 customers a five-question survey asking what they used before you, what surprised them, and one sentence they'd tell a friend. Pull one counter-intuitive stat (a "new to the category" style number) and one verbatim quote, then run that exact quote as ad copy or a landing-page headline instead of writing brand copy from scratch.
Cost: $0. Time to signal: days. Works pre-PMF: yes, provided you already have real paying or trial customers to survey.
Write for the category question, not the brand name
The proofthe myth-busting, comparison-style blog wedge covered above ranks Proper Wild top-3 on broad category questions like "energy drinks without taurine" rather than competing only for branded search.
The adaptationList the specific objections or myths a skeptical buyer in your category googles before they've heard of you (not "best X," but "is X bad for you" or "does X actually work"), write one direct, mildly contrarian answer post targeting the exact phrasing of that query, and resolve it in your product's favor in the final paragraph. Publish one this week; it costs nothing but writing time.
Cost: $0. Time to signal: months (organic search compounds slowly). Works pre-PMF: yes.
Turn any offline touchpoint into a trackable redemption link
The proofthe gotoaisle.com free-shot and loyalty-pass links bridge Proper Wild's retail shelf presence into a trackable digital funnel, surfaced by both a creator post and an organic Reddit freebie thread.
The adaptationIf you have any offline presence at all, even a single pop-up table, a local retail placement, or an in-person event, put one QR code or short link on it that redeems a small free sample or discount in exchange for an email or phone number. Use a free tool (a Linktree-style page or a spreadsheet-tracked promo code) rather than a paid platform to start, so an in-person interaction becomes a name in your funnel instead of disappearing.
Cost: $0 to under $500. Time to signal: weeks. Works pre-PMF: yes, conditional on having at least one physical touchpoint to attach the code to.
Seed one creator with a giveaway that requires a real action
The proofthe Mandy and @disclosuremusic giveaway wave, both requiring entrants to click a link and follow official rules rather than simply comment, generated hundreds of thousands of engagements and a wave of downstream #properwildpartner posts from smaller creators.
The adaptationInstead of asking one creator to simply post about you, structure a giveaway that requires the entrant to visit a specific link (an email capture page, a waitlist, or a redemption form) to qualify, with a written "official rules" disclaimer for legal cover. Approach one creator whose audience matches your buyer, offer free product or service credit as the prize, and measure success by link visits and captured emails, not just video views.
Cost: under $500 (cost of product or service given away). Time to signal: weeks. Works pre-PMF: yes, conditional on having a product ready to ship or a service slot to give away.
Run paid spend through a creator's own account, not just your brand page
The proofseveral of Proper Wild's active Meta ads run from whitelisted creator pages (Krystal Lauren, Hannah Mae - SAHM, Lauren Wells) rather than the brand's own page, preserving the look of a personal recommendation at paid-media scale.
The adaptationOnce you find one creator whose organic post about your product actually performs, ask them to grant ad-account access (Meta's partnership ads / whitelisting permissions) so you can put media spend behind their post from their own handle, rather than only boosting a repost from your brand account. This keeps the social-proof framing intact while giving you paid reach and targeting control.
Cost: dedicated budget or hire (requires both media spend and a creator relationship already in place). Time to signal: weeks. Works pre-PMF: no, this needs an ad budget and at least one creator post already proven to convert. Not transferable at an earlier stage: the whitelisted paid-media program and the multi-week Google search longevity Proper Wild has built up both assume an existing ad budget and years of accumulated creative and keyword data; a reader with no ad spend history should treat those as a later-stage target, not a starting motion.
You just read how Proper Wild does it. Tomorrow it is someone else.
Every morning we take one company that is actually growing and break down where its customers come from: the ads still running after a year, the channel doing the real work, and the play you can run this week.
Systemaic · directional intelligence. Traffic, spend, and reach figures are SimilarWeb-style estimates and qualitative reads of public data, not audited numbers. Built on real public receipts.
// teardowns with a similar GTM motion
sources & receipts (9)
Live ad libraries: meta ad library · google ad library
Researched facts: Proper Wild launched exclusively online (direct-to-consumer) in 2019: 2019 · Founder/CEO Vincent Bradley previously co-founded FinTech Global Markets, a tech-enabled i · Billionaire investor Carey Metz took a 20% stake in Proper Wild at a $12M valuation as par · Proper Wild's customers and sales grew 700% since COVID-19 shutdowns began in March 2020: · In October 2022, Proper Wild formed a marketing partnership with Barstool Sports spanning · Proper Wild raised $10M to support launch of a caffeinated energy gummies line alongside i · Total funding reported at $13M across 2 rounds, with the $10M 2026 round characterized as
Traffic, spend, and revenue figures are estimates as noted in the report; the links above are the primary public artifacts.