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Mobile app retargeting is a huge part of engagement, monetization, and retention for top apps, especially in categories like shopping, travel, and gaming. What could we learn about mobile app retargeting from a travel app with 100 million monthly average users?
I recently had a chance to find out.
The travel app is Ixigo, a booking app in India and elsewhere. I spoke to Ixigo’s senior manager for growth, Subhadeep Chakraborty, on a recent Growth Masterminds podcast.
We talked about:
- Retargeting’s critical role in Ixigo’s business (and yours!)
- The essential channels for retargeting that we never talk about
- Why it’s so essential to have multi-platform users
- How smart segmentation is the foundation of successful retargeting
- How to to use behavior-based triggers intelligently
- Determining the optimum wait time before retargeting
- How important personalization is to retargeting
- The mobile app retargeting waterfall: what to do when
- Retention as a rewards strategy
- How the best retargeting is free
- And much more …
Watch the interview
Hit play, keep scrolling …
10 critical mobile app retargeting insights
1. Return opens and visits are crucial
30% of people who search for a ticket on Ixigo but don’t buy come back the next day. That’s another chance to deliver value and another chance to monetize, and it’s critical to Ixigo’s revenue and growth, says Chakraborty.
“ It’s not always that the customer couldn’t find value in the platform, but it might be different external factors,” says Chakraborty. “It’s our job to bring back the right set of users back to the platform so that they can complete the expected action.”
Subtract that return and retention factor, and monetization takes a massive hit. Build it in, and it’s a huge factor in overall business success.
2. Mobile app retargeting isn’t just about retargeting ad networks
Retargeting has been tough on iOS ever since App Tracking Transparency: there’s way fewer IDFAs to collect, jam into an audience, and shoot over to an ad network.
But the good news is that there are so many organic and owned means of retargeting. And it turns out those are the ones Ixigo leans on most.
- Push notifications
The good news is that all of these are essentially free. But they do require a different focus during onboarding …
3. Multi-platform users make mobile app retargeting SO MUCH EASIER (and cheaper)
If you know nothing about your user but their GAID, some standard account info, and maybe a bit of app activity, retargeting takes a lot of cold hard cash.
But if you got an email address, a WhatsApp number, or some other communication-friendly PII in your app onboarding process, you’ve made that user/customer/player a multi-platform user. You have multiple means to communicate with that person on multiple platforms.
That makes this user far more valuable, and far more likely to engage and retain and monetize.
“ Whenever we are reaching out to the customers using the different paid channels, I believe that the customer is already out of reach,” says Chakraborty.
Ouch.
In other words, if you have to spend, you’ve already failed to some extent. (Counterpoint: yeah there are some caveats here. And yes, paid retargeting is not a bad thing in all cases, as you’ll see later.)
4. Smart segmentation is the foundation of mobile app retargeting
Retargeting that works is personalized based on what people want. In Ixigo’s case, this might be a flight, a train ticket, or a hotel room. To make that work, you need the right tech to immediately put users into audiences based on in-app actions, and then be able to take appropriate action.
You can roll your own or use a tool; Ixigo uses CleverTap.
Using the right tool doesn’t just enable smart segmentation, it also manages message orchestration across platforms. A good platform learns which ones work, which ones specific people respond on, what times they will see messages versus ignore them, and so on.
5. You have to use behavior-based triggers intelligently
If someone searches for a flight, you don’t just retarget based on flights.
You use a bit more intelligence.
“Let’s say that the customer was searching for a flight from a certain A city to B route,” says Chakraborty. “We would definitely add that to our copy, and we would also personalize even more.”
That “more” includes price changes, but it doesn’t end there.
It might also include different options on other airlines, or slightly different departure and arrival dates that might save money or be a quicker journey with fewer stops. Or a better package with a hotel stay or a car included.
And, of course, you get the user right where they need to be ASAP:
“We would also send a dynamic deep link so as to land the user back to the page from where he or she has dropped, so that they can very easily continue with the journey and complete the process, because it never makes sense to land the user back on the homepage.”
And yet … it happens. It’s happened to me in recent memory.
Also, perhaps counterintuitively, mobile app retargeting messages should not be just about pricing … even in a massively price-sensitive market like India:
“The first message is never about the offer because we don’t believe that offering just [better]prices to our customers is going to help them,” says Chakraborty. “It’s about personalizing the message for the user … and the timing.”
Which is a good segue …
6. The optimum wait time before retargeting varies … and matters
In most cases, the optimum wait time is not instant.
The first thing to think about when deciding how long to wait to retarget is not the offer or the event that triggered the retargeting opportunity.
It’s the customer, Chakraborty says, and the purchase.
So if the purchase could be cheaper in a day or two — not unknown in the flight industry — it’s better to retarget them later, when you have that infomation. And if someone is looking for a vacation, you have more time to allow their intention to solidify. Whereas if they’re looking at train tickets or any more immediate purchase, you need to execute your retargeting effort quicker.
It’s also about natural time frames for specific kinds of transactions.
Ixigo avoids bombarding users immediately after drop-off.
Instead, the company uses historical funnel data to determine how long the average customer takes to complete a booking. For example, if flight searches usually convert within three hours, Exigo gives that window for organic conversion before sending a message.
7. Personalization is critical in mobile app retargeting
It’s not just: complete your purchase, here’s a link.
Instead, it’s specific travel routes, price drops, and dynamic deep links back to the point of drop-off. And the specific names of the cities that the user was researching, along with routes and carrier companies.
The more personal, the more impactful.
8. The mobile app retargeting waterfall will save you money
Exigo’s approach to outreach is structured like a waterfall. It starts with low-cost, high-personalization channels and gradually moves toward paid options:
- Email
Email offers the most space and scope for detailed messages with personalization. This is a primary channel when available. - Push notifications & WhatsApp
Push notifications and WhatsApp messages are good, more immediate follow-ups if email doesn’t deliver. They are both cost-effective and timely, while offering less scope for detail and content. - Paid ads
Ixigo only uses paid ads after their organic CRM-based options are exhausted. These ads intentionally exclude recent search data to avoid conflicting with CRM outreach.
This channel prioritization helps Chakraborty maximize cost efficiency while maintaining user experience quality. It also reflects a broader philosophy: the users who’ve already downloaded your app or created an account shouldn’t require paid reacquisition.
9. Retention and loyalty programs: it’s rewarding to reward
Retention curves for Ixigo improve after 3 months, so if they can nudge new users toward long-term habit formation by incentivizing repeated usage, it’s generally a good thing. So Ixigo uses Ixigo Money to reward people who complete certain booking milestones over 3 consecutive months to get them to that place.
The equivalent for your app or service might be different: you’ll learn that by looking at cohort behavior over time.
Once you do, whatever you can do to incentivize users to act like those cohorts or users who retain will improve engagement, retention, and ultimately monetization.
Reward-based retention is a strategic long-term play. It’s not just about activating or reactivating users, but encouraging habit-driven behavior through meaningful incentives that build life-long customers.
Much more on mobile app retention in the full podcast …
Subscribe to Growth Masterminds wherever you get your podcasts, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
In the full episode, we cover:
- 00:00 Introduction to Growth Masterminds
- 00:52 Understanding Ixigo’s Market and Services
- 01:15 Retargeting Strategies at Ixigo
- 02:40 Effective Mobile App Retargeting Techniques
- 04:14 Timing and Channels for Retargeting
- 08:25 Personalization in Retargeting
- 10:06 Technology and Tools for Retargeting
- 11:38 The Importance of Retargeting
- 14:29 Real-World Retargeting Experiences
- 15:14 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
