The 2025 Guide to User Acquisition for India’s Festive Season

The glow of Diwali lights, families shopping online, quick-commerce deliveries racing through the streets, India’s festive season is no longer just a celebration; it’s the single biggest growth moment for apps. In 2025, user acquisition isn’t about a one-week sales spike; it’s about sustained growth over nearly nine weeks of celebrations, shopping, and digital engagement. If you’re an app marketer, this is your Super Bowl. The question is, will you just watch the surge, or will you ride it with a smart user acquisition strategy that wins installs, boosts engagement, and builds retention?

Festive Season 2025: The Nine-Week Growth Engine

Traditionally, Diwali week was the peak for installs. But new data shows the festive rush now stretches across Navratri, Dussehra, the wedding season, and year-end sales. In the final quarter of 2024, user acquisition and remarketing spend hit an estimated USD 576 million, driving 20.5 million installs across various categories.

The momentum continued even after the main celebrations:

Gaming apps grew by 29% post-Diwali.
Food & Drink apps saw a 16% surge in engagement.
Android remarketing spend jumped 40% for travel and 26% for shopping apps.
On iOS, shopping app sessions rose by 20% post-festival.

The key takeaway is clear: plan your spends smartly across the festive season. Festive user acquisition is a marathon with multiple peaks, from pre-festival awareness to post-festival retention.

What’s Different in 2025

This year’s festive season is unfolding against a backdrop of renewed economic optimism and unprecedented digital adoption.

Ad Spends Are Rising Again: Consumer companies are set to increase festive advertising by 15–20% YoY, making the ad landscape more competitive.
E-Commerce & Q-Commerce Are Driving Installs: With India’s e-commerce market expected to hit $160 billion by the end of 2025, online festive sales are projected to reach ₹1.2 lakh crore (~USD 14-16B), a 27% jump over last year. Quick commerce is poised to capture a significant 12% of these sales.
Mobile Is Still King: India recorded 24.3 billion app downloads in 2024, with users spending 1.12 trillion hours in apps. With 806 million internet users, mobile remains the undisputed screen of choice for commerce, content, and communication.
A Booming App Economy: In 2024, the Google Play and Android ecosystem generated ₹4 lakh crore in app revenue and supported 3.5 million jobs in India. Non-gaming apps saw 20–21% growth in in-app purchase revenue, while in-app ad revenue rose by approximately 26% YoY.

The festive season is hitting at a time when India’s app economy is stronger than ever, making it the perfect moment for well-planned acquisition campaigns.

Five Pillars of a Winning Festive User Acquisition Strategy

To cut through the noise, marketers need a strategy built on precision, relevance, and flexibility.

Pillar 1: Phase Diversification Plan your campaigns in three distinct phases: pre-festival (awareness and early installs), festival peak (high-impact promotions and deals), and post-festival (remarketing and retention). Why It Matters: User intent doesn’t end with Diwali. Engagement remains strong for weeks afterward, offering a cost-effective window to re-engage users and nurture loyalty.
Pillar 2: Channel Mix & Device Strategy Use a balanced mix of Android and iOS campaigns, leveraging both traditional in-app ads and on-device recommendation channels like OEM placements and lock screen discovery. Why It Matters: Android delivers massive scale, especially as over 60% of India’s new smartphone users come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. At the same time, iOS often yields higher retention and LTV. On-device placements help you capture high-intent users before they even open an app store.
Pillar 3: Creative & Local Relevance Festive shopping in India is deeply cultural and hyper-local. Ditch generic creatives for localized campaigns that use regional languages, culturally relevant visuals, and gifting narratives. Highlight urgency with countdowns and festive deals to drive action. Why It Matters: Tailoring offers to local context, culture, and preferences allows marketers to scale their impact authentically and achieve higher CTRs.
Pillar 4: Budget Flexibility Instead of concentrating your spend in one week, spread it across the entire nine-week window. Hold reserves for the post-festival surge and be prepared to adjust your bids in real-time based on performance metrics like CPI and ROI. Why It Matters: CPMs and CPIs spike during the peak festival week. Smart budget pacing helps you acquire users more efficiently and capitalize on lower costs before and after the rush.
Pillar 3: Creative & Local Relevance Festive shopping in India is deeply cultural and hyper-local. Ditch generic creatives for localized campaigns that use regional languages, culturally relevant visuals, and gifting narratives. Highlight urgency with countdowns and festive deals to drive action. Why It Matters: Tailoring offers to local context, culture, and preferences allows marketers to scale their impact authentically and achieve higher CTRs.
Pillar 4: Budget Flexibility Instead of concentrating your spend in one week, spread it across the entire nine-week window. Hold reserves for the post-festival surge and be prepared to adjust your bids in real-time based on performance metrics like CPI and ROI. Why It Matters: CPMs and CPIs spike during the peak festival week. Smart budget pacing helps you acquire users more efficiently and capitalize on lower costs before and after the rush.
Pillar 5: Retention & Remarketing What to Do: Your work isn’t done once the install is complete. Use push notifications, in-app events, and loyalty offers post-Diwali to keep new users active. Focus on measuring lifetime value (LTV), not just install volume. Why It Matters: The festive season brings a huge influx of new users. A strong retention strategy is crucial to convert them from seasonal shoppers into year-round loyal customers.

Q: What are the biggest mistakes to avoid during festive UA campaigns?

A: The most common errors include focusing only on Diwali week while ignoring the full nine-week window; running the same generic creative across all regions without local context; measuring only installs instead of post-install engagement and retention; and overspending during the peak week while missing out on more cost-efficient opportunities before and after. Another key mistake is neglecting platform differences—Android and iOS users have different behaviors and require tailored tactics.

Putting Your Festive Strategy into Action

At Appnext, our mission is to help your app get discovered at the right moment. During India’s dynamic festive season, we empower marketers to succeed through:

On-Device Discovery: We place your app recommendations directly within the user’s mobile journey across leading OEM and operator channels, capturing intent where it originates.
Contextual Targeting: Powered by our patented Timeline technology, we surface your app precisely when user intent is highest, ensuring your message is a helpful suggestion, not an interruption.
Flexible Campaign Management: Our platform offers full transparency, smart budget pacing, and real-time analytics to help you optimize for what truly matters: long-term growth.
Retention-Focused Tools: We help you convert installs into engaged users with post-install remarketing capabilities designed to boost LTV.

With the right partner, your festive campaigns won’t just drive downloads they’ll deliver sustained ROI and measurable growth.

Six-Week Festive Prep Checklist

Weeks –6 to –4: Research your audience and build a library of localized creatives.
Weeks –4 to –2: Launch early awareness campaigns to build momentum and soft-test creatives.
Weeks –2 to 0: Ramp up your spend with promotions, deals, countdowns, and urgency-driven messaging.
Festival Week: Maximize installs with heavy, targeted deployment during peak user activity.
Weeks +1 to +3: Shift your focus and budget toward remarketing and retention offers.
Week +4 Onwards: Measure your full-funnel ROI, retention, and LTV then refine your strategy for the next big event.

Conclusion

The 2025 festive season represents India’s biggest opportunity for user acquisition, but success demands playing the long game. From building pre-festival awareness to driving post-festival engagement, every phase is a chance to grow. Apps that prepare early, localize their content, diversify their channels, and invest in retention will win not just installs—but loyal, high-value users that last all year.

FAQs

1. When should I launch my festive user acquisition campaigns in India?

You should begin your campaigns six weeks before Navratri. This early start gives you a significant strategic advantage by allowing you to build brand and app awareness before the competitive noise reaches its peak.
It also provides a crucial window to test multiple creatives and audience segments, which helps you benchmark your CPI and refine targeting strategies. By doing this, you ensure your campaigns are fully optimized and ready to perform at maximum efficiency when Diwali week arrives, letting you capture high-intent users more effectively.

2. How much budget should I reserve for post-festival remarketing?

A smart rule of thumb is to reserve 20–30% of your total user acquisition budget for post-festival campaigns. This investment is critical for several reasons.
First, it allows you to re-engage the high-intent users you acquired during the festive rush, reminding them of your app’s value.
Second, it helps you capture late adopters who often download and explore apps after the main shopping period is over. Most importantly, this strategy shifts your focus from short-term installs to long-term value, driving retention, repeat usage, and a healthier LTV.

3. Which platform is better for festive campaigns—Android or iOS?

Both platforms are essential, but they require a dual approach for optimal results. Android is your key to achieving massive scale and reach, particularly in India’s fast-growing Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where the majority of new internet users are.
On the other hand, iOS campaigns typically deliver higher-value users with stronger monetization potential and retention rates. To maximize your overall ROI, you must tailor your creatives, targeting parameters, and budget allocation specifically for each platform, playing to their unique strengths.

4. What type of ad creatives work best during India’s festive season?

The most effective festive creatives are emotionally resonant and deeply localized. To achieve this, you should incorporate regional languages to improve relatability and connection with diverse audiences.
Your themes should revolve around core festive concepts like gifting, family gatherings, and celebrations. To drive immediate action, use tactics like countdown timers, early-bird offers, and limited-time deals that create a sense of urgency. Visually, embrace the spirit of the season with bright, festive imagery such as lanterns, rangolis, diyas, and fireworks.

5. How do I measure the success of a festive campaign beyond installs?

To understand the true impact of your campaigns, you must look beyond simple download numbers. Track metrics that reflect genuine engagement and long-term value. Start with Day-1, Day-7, and Day-30 retention rates to see how many users are sticking around.
Analyze session length and frequency to measure how active users are within your app. Finally, track key in-app events that align with your business goals, such as purchases, sign-ups, or content views. These deeper metrics will give you a clear picture of user quality and campaign profitability.