Channel Experimentation and the Tiktokification of Video Ads — Ryan Watson, onX

Founder combined public data (county private land parcels, Forest Service and BLM maps, topo, satellite imagery) into maps loadable onto a micro SD card for Garmin GPS units. Sold the 'chip' through sporting goods stores with a 'Get the chip' campaign, starting in Montana, then expanded state by state. Chip revenue funded building the mobile app once phone GPS got good enough.

Before becoming onXmaps, the company was called Hunting GPS Maps, the target keyword, and used huntinggpsmaps.com (still owned) as the original URL for the hunting product, because the founder expected Google to be a primary acquisition channel.

An in-house SEO team (overseen by the guest) writes content that qualifies the niche audience, e.g. 'deer shot placement' or 'best hunting boots'. Visitors are hard-to-find hunters, so they feed a robust retargeting structure rather than just converting directly. Guest also recommends using keyword data to see how the audience thinks and to position products and features.

Because a niche audience is hard to find, focuses on channels with strong affinity data (interest targeting, lookalike audiences, hashtags): TikTok, Facebook, Google, YouTube, plus search where people have a direct need. Tested many third-party display/video networks; kept the few whose algorithms could find the customer. Relies on a strong creative team to run many tests quickly.

Years ago tested Snapchat ads despite internal skepticism; it produced customers and onX still spends there. Likewise tested TikTok despite 'our customers aren't there, it's just kids' objections; its scale made it a great channel.

UA team members who study TikTok shot their own low-fidelity TikTok ads, no production crew. Runs these alongside high-fidelity motion graphics and B-roll from a strong in-house creative team; both styles work. Guest: small teams with low creative resources can do more than they think because TikTok ads are lo-fi.

Builds short-form, lo-fi video concepts and, once one works, spreads it across TikTok, Reels, Facebook and YouTube, then iterates the concept inside each channel. Facebook still has room for higher-fidelity experiential creative given its many placements. Creative is tested per app since concepts don't transfer between hunters and off-roaders. Post-ATT, the video itself is used to qualify the audience ('your creative is your targeting').

Works with many influencers, from title-sponsoring podcasts (macro) to micro-influencers. Their videos run as ads (creators also get exposure from onX's media spend). Some influencers aren't graded on promo-code or affiliate revenue at all because their photo and video content feeds the website, SEO blog and ads. Influencers teaching the tool to their audience act as ambassadors that keep existing users engaged. Influencer and in-house video alternate as the better performer; the aim is a constant flow of video.

The Elite (highest) tier includes perks from partners: camo/apparel (FirstLite percent-off promo code for Elite members), a draw-odds and hunting research company, $200 off a dog training course for bird hunters. Deals are negotiated individually: some are mutual (partner gets sales and awareness from onX's audience, onX gets their audience's interest), others onX pays the partner to give members free access to their service. Goal: increase wallet share by adding value instead of raising prices, and raise LTV because members want to keep the perks. Elite also gets exclusive features, and the Elite tier is marketed heavily.

Advertises a 'door opener' feature to get people to try the product: for onX Hunt, land ownership maps. If that doesn't sell on the spot, follows up with educational content across influencers, ambassadors, retargeting and marketing automation, since flashing sales and deals attracts fewer power users.

Guest built onX's marketing automation foundation early, adopting Phiture's playbook (and working with Phiture) of push notifications and in-app messages that drive feature usage and understanding. Recommends integrating a tool like Braze so a strong mid-funnel educates users instead of re-acquiring them to re-educate them.

Keeps top-of-funnel acquisition on mobile install ads, which are hard to beat, but routes retargeting to a web purchase flow (e.g. Stripe) to keep the ~30% app store fee. Also watching moves like Twitter pricing web lower than Apple as a possible next step.

onX switched to (and is testing) opt-out trials, i.e. trials that auto-convert to paid, as part of experiments to raise web sales. Details not given.

Uses Kochava as MMP, including its smart links across the website, to track what works. Rather than relying on formal incrementality tests (hard at scale and with a niche audience), watches install -> trial and trial -> purchase rates closely with marketing automation partners: if a new network launches, rates hold and purchases grow, assume incrementality. Uses the web funnel (less affected by ATT) and search demand to watch the halo effect of paid spend.

Builds activity-specific apps on shared mapping data (Hunt, Offroad, backcountry) rather than one app for everything, and has not bundled them. Sees some cross-conversion (an Offroad ad pulling a Hunt purchase) but not much; bundling remains an open business question.