Valentine’s Day marketing is usually built on the assumption that people plan ahead. Bookings are made early, gifts are pre-ordered, and campaigns are locked weeks in advance.
But just 48 hours before Valentine's Day, user behaviour begins to shift.
A large part of Valentine’s Day planning happens late. Apps get downloaded the night before. Gifts are bought a day before (or even on the day!). Dinner plans materialise closer to the date as well to book tables. Among Indian customers in 2025, quick commerce platforms reported moments of 581 chocolates and 324 roses ordered per minute on Valentine’s Day itself, with demand for gifts and curated bundles growing more than 4× compared to regular days.
This is why last-minute Valentine’s Day user acquisition depends much on the right segmentation and how quickly marketers can respond to the shifts.
Weeks before February 14, intent looks more like browsing: users are looking at restaurants, gift ideas, and casually exploring options. But within 48 hours of the day, intent becomes decisive and compressed. The move from browsing to decision is visible in behaviour: session lengths shrink, app switching increases, and searches become narrower and quick to transact as immediacy sets in.
For marketers, this shift is critical. Traditional audience definitions struggle in this window because they’re built on long-term traits: demographics, past installs, or historic interests. Last-minute Valentine’s Day intent, by contrast, is built on short-term signals: what the user has done in the last few hours, not who they were last month. This requires them to prioritise working with a DSP that can offer AI-led optimization on behaviour that signals urgency.
Certain app categories experience pronounced surges as Valentine’s Day approaches.
Food and restaurant booking apps see dramatic spikes in usage. Data from Adjust shows restaurant booking sessions can jump as much as 156% on February 14, while food delivery sessions rise significantly above typical averages in the week leading up to the day. This makes sense: convenience and certainty outweigh exploration at this stage, and users prioritise verified plans over open-ended browsing.
Quick commerce apps also thrive on impulse gifting because users here are driven by a “need it now” mentality. Dating and social discovery apps also see engagement bumps through increased sessions and interactions as Valentine’s Day approaches and especially on Valentine’s Eve and Day itself, driven by users looking to connect, match, or simply engage socially. Recipe and dine-in inspiration apps also benefit, since many users choose to celebrate at home or personalise the occasion with a special meal.
In the final 48 hours, a smart DSP shifts how it evaluates users. Behaviour in the last one to three days carries more weight than historical interests accumulated over months.
What does this look like in practice?
Users who suddenly begin exploring apps related to dating, gifting, food delivery, or experiences — regardless of their past engagement — are treated as high-intent. A smart DSP continues to use demographic layers such as age, city tier, device type, and purchasing power, but overlays them with contextual and intent-based signals that indicate what the user is trying to solve right now. In this window, when and why matter more than who they were last month.
For example, a user in a metro city within the 22–35 cohort who is actively browsing gifting, food, or experience-based apps late at night represents a very different opportunity than a similar demographic user who hasn’t shown recent activity. Likewise, a Tier-1 or Tier-2 urban user switching between restaurant discovery and food delivery apps signals immediate decision-making intent, even if they’ve never installed a booking app before.
This is where contextual and intent-led segmentation outperforms static audience definitions, allowing marketers to reach users who may not “fit” traditional Valentine’s Day personas, but are clearly in-market when it matters most.
Creative Strategy: What Actually Converts at the Last Minute
For dating apps, last minute acquisition also relies on the right creative strategy. This means serving ads that emphasise easy discovery and instant matches rather than aspirational romance narratives. For quick commerce, creative messaging should highlight availability and speed — can they get it today? For food and experiences, reassurance beats inspiration: show available tables, quick delivery, special offers, and deals.
The best creatives align with when people are most ready to act, rather than trying to create new desire. A DSP enables this by aligning creative delivery with time-of-day and intent intensity, ensuring that the right message appears when users are most likely to convert.
A mix of right creative strategy is needed to capture the right users at the last hour:
Native display remains a core format because it blends seamlessly into app environments, reducing friction and driving consistent engagement, particularly in performance-led campaigns.
Short-form vertical video has become the dominant attention format, especially among younger users, because it mirrors social consumption patterns while delivering a clear value proposition within the first few seconds. High-performing in-app video is usually 6–10 seconds, front-loaded with the value proposition, and designed to communicate even if the sound is off.
Interactive and rich media formats stand out in otherwise static environments and allow for slightly more storytelling without committing to video.
QR code and interactive ads on CTV create a powerful action loop by using the big screen to build intent and mobile to convert it in real time through QR code-led ads.
Top Best Practices for Last-Minute Valentine’s Day UA
To maximise impact in the final 48 hours, teams should:
First, shift segmentation logic away from static audience traits and toward behavioural recency. Use the DSP’s ability to refresh audiences in real time based on recent signals — sudden category exploration, multiple session bursts late at night, and specific purchase behaviour.
Second, optimise delivery for time and context, not just demographics. Valentine’s Day intent peaks in predictable windows — evenings, late nights, and early mornings in India — and aligning UA exposure with those peaks improves efficiency.
Third, align creative with urgency and certainty, focusing on messages that confirm solution availability, avoid vague romantic language, and emphasise actionability.
Finally, monitor performance in real time and adjust quickly. Last-minute windows move fast, and what worked on February 10 may underperform by February 14 morning. A DSP that adjusts delivery based on real-time response helps capitalise on moments most likely to convert.
Because in marketing, just like love, showing up at the right moment matters more than saying the perfect thing. If you’re exploring how programmatic can respond better to high-intent moments, let’s talk at marketing@mdsp.co