Axis: Driving Digital Performance at Scale for Indonesia's Mobile Youth

Axis, a subsidiary of XL Axiata, is one of Indonesia's leading mobile network operators, specifically targeting the youth segment with affordable data packages and a vibrant brand personality. In an increasingly competitive telco landscape — with Telkomsel, Indosat, and Smartfren all vying for the same young, digital-native audience — Axis needed a performance marketing partner that could deliver measurable subscriber growth while maintaining efficient cost metrics across a diverse archipelago of 17,000+ islands.

The Challenge

Indonesia's mobile telecommunications market is one of the most competitive in Southeast Asia, with over 340 million mobile connections serving a population of 275 million. For Axis, the challenge was multifaceted. The brand had strong awareness among its target demographic of 15-25 year olds, but conversion from awareness to active SIM registration was lagging behind competitors. Previous digital campaigns had delivered impressions but struggled to drive the last-mile action of actually purchasing and activating an Axis SIM card or data package.

During our initial audit, we uncovered several critical performance gaps:

• Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) was averaging Rp 85,000, nearly double the industry benchmark for telco subscriber acquisition in Indonesia
• Campaign targeting was broad and undifferentiated, treating all youth segments identically regardless of behavior, location, or data usage patterns
• Landing page conversion rates were below 2%, with high bounce rates indicating a disconnect between ad creative and post-click experience
• Attribution was fragmented, with no unified view across Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, and programmatic display channels
• Regional performance varied wildly — campaigns optimized for Jakarta were underperforming in tier-2 and tier-3 cities where Axis had the most growth potential

The goal was clear: deliver 1 million new subscribers over 12 months at a maximum CPA of Rp 50,000, while maintaining brand consistency and compliance with Axis's brand guidelines.

Our Approach

Our performance marketing team designed a full-funnel digital acquisition strategy built on three principles: Hyper-Segmentation, Creative Velocity, and Regional Intelligence. Rather than running monolithic national campaigns, we architected a modular system that could adapt messaging, creative, and offers to the specific nuances of each audience segment and geographic region.

The strategy was underpinned by a robust data infrastructure. We implemented server-side tracking, unified cross-channel attribution through a custom data pipeline, and established real-time performance dashboards that enabled our team to make optimization decisions within hours, not days. This data-first approach was critical in a market where mobile user behavior shifts rapidly and campaign performance can degrade within a single news cycle.

Strategy & Execution

The campaign architecture was organized into three interconnected layers, each designed to move potential subscribers through the conversion funnel efficiently.

Layer 1: Audience Intelligence & Segmentation

We developed eight distinct audience personas based on a combination of mobile usage data, social media behavior, geographic location, and psychographic profiling:

• Gaming Enthusiasts: Heavy mobile gamers who prioritize low-latency data packages (primarily male, 16-22, concentrated in Java and Bali)
• Social Media Natives: Users whose primary data consumption is Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp (balanced gender, 15-20, nationwide)
• Streaming Addicts: YouTube and Netflix consumers seeking unlimited video streaming packages (18-25, urban areas)
• Budget-Conscious Students: University students and high schoolers seeking the most affordable data-per-rupiah ratio
• Regional Digital Explorers: Users in tier-2/3 cities newly coming online, often on their first or second smartphone

Each persona received tailored ad creative, landing pages, and data package recommendations, ensuring that every touchpoint felt personally relevant rather than generically promotional.

Layer 2: Multi-Channel Campaign Architecture

We deployed campaigns across five primary channels, each serving a specific role in the acquisition funnel:

• TikTok Ads (35% of budget): In-feed video ads and Spark Ads featuring relatable scenarios — gaming lag vs. smooth gameplay, buffering vs. seamless streaming — designed to drive immediate package purchase intent
• Meta Ads (25% of budget): Instagram Reels and Facebook feed ads with dynamic product ads showing location-specific Axis packages and pricing
• Google Ads (20% of budget): Search campaigns targeting high-intent keywords like "paket data murah" (cheap data packages) and "kartu perdana terbaik" (best SIM card), plus YouTube pre-roll for awareness
• Programmatic Display (10% of budget): Retargeting campaigns across the mobile web, re-engaging users who visited Axis's website or app but did not convert
• Telco-Native Channels (10% of budget): SMS and push notifications to Axis's existing subscriber base for upselling higher-value data packages

Layer 3: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Recognizing that ad performance is only half the equation, we invested heavily in post-click optimization. Our team redesigned Axis's campaign landing pages with a mobile-first approach (92% of traffic was mobile), implementing:

• Sub-2-second page load times, critical for users on 3G/4G connections in regional areas
• Simplified purchase flows reducing steps from 6 to 3, with pre-filled fields based on device and location detection
• Social proof elements including real-time counter of recent purchases and user testimonials from the same region
• A/B testing of 47 landing page variants across the 12-month campaign, driving a cumulative 340% improvement in conversion rate

As detailed in our performance marketing methodology, we believe that the intersection of creative excellence and technical optimization is where the most significant performance gains are achieved — and this campaign was a testament to that philosophy.

Key Results

The 12-month campaign exceeded every target, delivering results that established Axis as a case study in telco digital acquisition across Southeast Asia:

• 1.2 million new subscribers acquired — 20% above the original target of 1 million
• CPA reduced by 45% — from Rp 85,000 to Rp 46,500, beating the Rp 50,000 target
• Landing page conversion rate increased from 1.8% to 7.9%, a 340% improvement
• 3.8x ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) across all channels, with TikTok delivering the highest ROAS at 4.7x
• Regional growth acceleration — tier-2/3 city acquisitions grew by 180%, with particularly strong performance in Surabaya, Medan, Makassar, and Semarang
• Brand lift — unaided brand recall among 15-25 year olds increased by 12 percentage points in target markets

The campaign's success also led to Axis expanding its digital marketing budget by 60% for the following year, with Maju Mapan Digital retained as the lead performance agency for all digital acquisition initiatives.

Client Testimonial

"What sets Maju Mapan Digital apart is their obsession with data and their ability to translate insights into action at speed. In the telco industry, where the competitive landscape shifts weekly, having a partner that can optimize campaigns in real-time rather than waiting for monthly reports has been a game-changer. The results speak for themselves — we exceeded our subscriber targets, crushed our CPA goals, and most importantly, we now have a scalable acquisition engine that gives us confidence in our digital growth trajectory."