As a Product Manager, few things keep me up at night like this question: How do I aggressively push a new product without cannibalizing the revenue of existing cash cows?
When Jio AirFiber—a slick, plug-and-play wireless broadband service—launched, my mission was clear: drive adoption through in-app promotions. The catch? The Jio app’s prime real estate was already occupied by money-makers like prepaid recharges and JioFiber ( here’s the catch: there was also doubt on adoption of AirFiber when JioFiber was already a known, high-performing option ).
Replacing them out for AirFiber ads meant risking revenue, but not promoting AirFiber meant missing growth targets. Ah, the classic PM dilemma.
The Problem: A High-Stakes Game of Digital Real Estate
Limited Ad Space: The app’s most valuable spots were taken by profitable campaigns.
Revenue Tradeoffs: Replacing them with AirFiber ads could mean losing serious $$$.
Geo Constraints: AirFiber wasn’t available everywhere, so blasting ads nationwide was wasteful.
Key Challenge: How do I promote AirFiber hard where it matters, without blowing up our revenue goals?
We considered a few approaches:
Time-based rotations (AirFiber every 3rd session) → Too inconsistent.
Targeting heavy data users → Not enough correlation with availability.
Geo-targeting → Bingo. Show AirFiber only where it was live.
Execution:
Phase 1 (Pilot): Ran AirFiber ads in 9 cities (where AirFiber was launched in it’s Phase 1), replacing Less than 10% of existing promotions.
Phase 2 (Analyze): Tracked CTR, conversions, and revenue impact.
Phase 3 (Scale): Expanded to 20+ cities, using Phase 1 data to justify more ad space.
Fallback: Non-serviceable areas kept seeing the usual money-making promos.
The Results: Happy Stakeholders, Happy PM
15% higher CTR for AirFiber ads (geo-targeting = relevance = wins).
<5% revenue drop from displaced campaigns (vs. a projected 20% if we went national).
10% faster adoption of AirFiber as the free reach from the ad space (in Jio’s ecosystem) increased user awareness of the product rapidly.
Key Takeaways for Fellow PMs
💡 Geo-targeting is your friend – Prioritize without full displacement.
📊 Data de-risks scaling – Pilot first, expand later.
🤝 Stakeholder love = proof + patience – Show them the numbers, not just the vision.
So, next time you’re stuck between a new product launch and a revenue goal, remember: geo-fencing might just save your sanity (and your quarterly targets). 🚀
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Thoughts? Ever faced a similar tradeoff? Drop a comment (or just silently nod in PM solidarity).
