Retargeting: The Unsung Hero of India’s Festive Marketing Surge

As India’s festive season approaches each year, a familiar rhythm unfolds. Marketing budgets swell, user acquisition (UA) campaigns accelerate, and brands scramble to win consumer mindshare during what is arguably the most competitive period in the Indian advertising calendar.

The weeks preceding Diwali, Dussehra, and other regional celebrations are often equated to a Super Bowl moment for marketers in India: intense, high-stakes, and loaded with opportunity. Yet, in this season of excess and ambition, much of the strategic focus remains fixated on the top of the funnel to drive reach, acquire new users, and build visibility.

And while this approach is justified by the sheer volume of demand, it often overlooks a critical lever that consistently delivers impact at scale: retargeting.

In a market where attention is fragmented and fleeting, retargeting is frequently treated as a tactical afterthought. Often, many marketers think of retargeting only after acquisition campaigns are in place. But such a view dramatically underestimates its true strategic value.

According to industry benchmarks, retargeting or remarketing approaches surge by over 50% during the festive window, significantly outpacing regional trends. What’s more, finance and retail apps that incorporate retargeting see 2–3x improvements in user retention.

Understanding the Festive Consumer Mindset

To understand why retargeting is so critical, we must first understand how Indian consumers behave during the festive season. The festive season in India is marked by a significant shift in user behaviour, whereby users like to browse across multiple apps and offers before making a purchase. The decision is also sometimes guided by price drops, social validation, or sometimes even auspicious periods for a specific purchase. This, along with multiple app offers, means that an average festive buyer engages with festive category purchases multiple times and over 7-10 days before a purchase is made. 

While product views rise by 30% in this phase, conversions often remain low or flat. In the chaos of festive browsing, users often forget what they were considering or where they saw it. Retargeting brings them back by bridging the gap between intent and purchase. This prolonged decision-making window presents both an opportunity and a challenge. While interest is high, conversion depends on sustained engagement. In this context, retargeting plays an essential role, not by driving discovery, but by maintaining presence and relevance as the user progresses toward a decision.

Driving Conversions Where They Matter

In a high-stakes season, performance is measured by tangible outcomes such as installs, registrations, purchases. Brands look to maximize their spends during this period to look at how metrics like ROAS, ROI, GMV are impacted. Retargeting plays a central role in driving these outcomes by engaging users who have already signaled clear intent. These users have browsed a product, added to cart, or visited a key page. 

In our experience of running campaigns and working with brands across verticals, we have noticed that when brands run retargeting campaigns alongside acquisition, conversion rates can significantly improve by more than 40%. This can also have significant impacts on the acquisition costs, bringing CAC down by over 20%. WebEngage’s festive study reinforces this: users who are retargeted are three times more likely to complete a transaction within seven days. In verticals such as eCommerce, Food Delivery, and FinTech, this uplift is particularly strong.

Retargeting Brings Continuity to the Funnel

Some verticals require aggressive acquisition to scale during the festive period. But most brands benefit from orchestrating efforts across the full funnel, from discovery, to engagement, and conversion, through coordinated, well-timed messaging. Retargeting is what connects these touchpoints.

• Brand recall: When users are reminded of what they previously explored, whether it was a product, a discount, or a wishlist item, they are more likely to return with intent.
  
  
• Decision-making speed: Timely reminders and nudges help reduce the delay between intent and action, especially during a time-sensitive festive window.
  
  
• Conversion recovery: Abandoned carts, incomplete registrations, and high-intent visits don’t need to be lost opportunities. Retargeting re-engages these users with formats that are both relevant and personalized.
  
  

• A Festive Retargeting Playbook

To unlock retargeting’s full value during the festive rush, timing, segmentation, and creative execution must work in sync:

• Segment by Intent Stage: Treat a cart abandoner differently from a category browser. Offer the former a price-drop alert, and the latter a bundle deal.
  
  
• Use Countdown & Urgency Cues: Time-sensitive messaging such as “Offer ends in 12 hours”, works exceptionally well when purchase cycles are short. Pair them with countdown ads for greater impact.
  
  
• Sync with Festive Calendar: Align campaigns with key shopping days (e.g., Dhanteras for jewellery, Navratri for apparel) to stay culturally relevant.
  
  
• Experiment with Formats: Native ads, rewarded videos, and push notifications can cut through ad fatigue better than static banners.
  
  
• Leverage Cross-Device Retargeting: Festive shoppers switch between devices. Ensure your retargeting follows them seamlessly across touchpoints.
  
  

Through dynamic creatives and personalized offers tailored to where a user left off, whether it’s a reminder about a cart item, a limited-time deal, or a complementary product, retargeting helps marketers to create cohesive consumer journeys, leading to conversions

The UA-Retargeting Tango for Success

During the festive season, acquisition budgets are at their highest, but so are drop-off rates. Without a structured retargeting strategy, a significant share of these newly acquired users disengage before converting, driving up effective cost-per-acquisition and reducing overall ROAS. In a high-noise environment, where repeated exposure is often the difference between indecision and purchase, a smart strategy that places UA and retargeting orchestrated together can help to keep the brand. 

This festive season, brands that prioritize full-funnel performance by integrating retargeting early into their media plans will outperform those focused solely on new user acquisition. The opportunity is not just to reach more people, but to convert more of the ones you’ve already reached.

See how we drive retargeting success for brands: https://mdsp.co/casestudies