How to evaluate and test new acquisition channels

Executive overview

Every company chases the next growth curve, but most jump to new channels before checking if those channels fit. Adam Grenier's framework filters that decision through three lenses: channel-customer-company fit, channel maturity and DNA, and your own organisation's risk appetite.

True first-mover status is painful — tracking breaks, content is offensive, refunds don't happen. Know that going in. Brand-new channels rarely justify the effort at their earliest stage; it's maturing channels and established ones unlocking new formats that produce the best returns.

The most common mistake is treating channel selection as a popularity contest rather than a fit problem.

The three-ingredient framework for new channels

• Ingredient 1 — medium fit: Does the channel's strength overlap with your customer's need and your company's goal? Spotify × Clubhouse (audio, discovery, artist depth) is a strong overlap. Spotify × Paparazzi (photo-driven) is not.
• Ingredient 2 — channel DNA: Where is the channel in its growth curve? Early channels change fast, require constant re-investment, and may disappear. Facebook's early mobile-install ads felt like an emerging channel even on a mature platform.
• Factor in how the channel monetises — if your goals support their business model, you get preferential access, custom deals, and stickier solutions.
• Zynga's notifications growth lever vanished overnight when Facebook changed the product; betting everything on an early feature is high risk.
• Ingredient 3 — company DNA: Do you have the risk appetite for true first-mover work? Do you have staff to dedicate without pulling from core channels?
• Don't explore emerging channels before you have a working base on Google and Facebook. A foundation first, then layering.

How to run channel tests

• Size the investment to match the signal from the three ingredients: weak fit → half a person; strong fit on a mature channel with a 20-person team → three dedicated people.
• Set your success metric before you start — and make it channel-appropriate. Clubhouse isn't trackable by clicks; measure room growth instead. TikTok can be direct-response.
• Most channels show directional signal within a month ("fishing" — not statistically significant, but enough to know if it's moving).
• Don't let any test bleed past a quarter without clear directional improvement.
• Factor in production cost: a $20k video needs more runway than a midnight text-ad experiment.
• Maintain a backlog of channel experiments and weigh each against what you're giving up by not doing the others.

Which channels are worth watching now

• OTT/streaming TV: More trackable than traditional TV, non-skippable inventory, better tooling than four years ago — suits companies with video storytelling to tell.
• Influencer: Hyper-granular targeting comparable to early Facebook (target 10 people with exactly the right profile). Still manual and relationship-heavy; tooling (e.g. Grin) helps with discovery, CRM, and payments but doesn't eliminate the back-and-forth.
• TikTok: Past the chasm — formalised ad platform, proven scale. Treat it like Facebook, not like an experiment.
• Podcast: Effective when treated like radio (right programme, personal feel, sustained repetition) not like direct-response. Hard to scale for consumer volume; excellent for B2B where each customer is high-value.
• VR: Interesting the way mobile was interesting pre-iPhone 3. Only relevant if you already have a VR product.

The growth CMO vs the traditional CMO

• Traditional CMO thinks of brand as campaigns — plan, execute, learn, repeat on a long cycle. Growth CMO treats every brand investment as the setup for the next iteration.
• Product and marketing must operate as one function, not two teams that "work together." In product-led companies the product is the marketing.
• Key attributes of a growth CMO: data-driven across the entire funnel (not just performance); agile iteration mindset applied to everything including brand and logo; experimentation beyond channel selection — into the funnel, the story, the design.
• Hiring signal — look at the candidate's T-shape: find their depth, then probe how they compensate for gaps. The good ones have already thought about it.
• Red flags: discomfort with chaos, unwillingness to get back in the weeds, planning horizons of 24 months without agile checkpoints.
• Resource: Hacking Marketing (applying agile product development to marketing teams). Reforge and Maven have relevant courses.

Product-market fit and crossing the chasm

• Early adopters are often fundamentally different from the broad market — don't assume PMF with one transfers to the other.
• Claiming a large TAM while only having PMF with a narrow segment is one of the most common red flags in early-stage companies.
• When markets shift (economic change, new competitive dynamics), reset to zero: assume you no longer have PMF and re-validate. Launching a new acquisition channel won't fix a PMF problem.

Burnout vs depression — knowing the difference

• Burnout and depression feel similar but require different responses. Misidentifying them leads to the wrong fix.
• Burnout signal: reduced adaptability — the shift from "here are the risks, let's try it" to "why are we wasting time on this." People in high-growth roles who stop seeking harder problems are burning out, not just tired.
• Depression signal: withdrawal from things you love outside work. Cancelling the improv class, skipping the post-class drinks — motivation collapses across all domains, not just work.
• Exhaustion still produces re-motivation when new opportunities appear. Depression doesn't.
• Therapy often uncovers that what looks like overwork is actually an unmet underlying need (e.g. recognition, connection) that work was filling. Knowing the real driver changes what you need to fix.

Tools and practices for mental health

• Therapy: check company benefits and healthcare providers — more is covered than most people realise.
• Build a small group of friends with whom you're radically transparent; once you share, they share back, and it becomes a safe ongoing resource.
• Meditation: Waking Up (Sam Harris) for learning why it works, not just how. Aura for on-demand guided sessions.
• Physical signals matter: increased snacking or unhealthy eating patterns can be an early indicator of a depressive state.
• Why Buddhism is True — accessible explanation of why meditation is effective, without requiring any religious commitment.