How we drove 167K+ app installs and 6,754 first purchases across three countries using cashback creatives and region-specific targeting.
167798
First opens of installed app
$1.52
Cost per install
$42
Cost per first purchase
167,798
First purchases
Objective
Drive app installs, first opens, and ticket purchases across three distinct markets
The client — a travel search aggregator for flights, hotels, and train tickets — needed to grow their mobile user base and convert new installs into active buyers. The campaign focused on four core events: app installs, first opens, engagement actions (tapping the ticket search button), and direct ticket purchases from partner providers.
The challenge was geographic: three target regions with different user behaviors, price sensitivities, and travel habits demanded individual approaches rather than a one-size-fits-all strategy.
Target Markets
Three regions, three unique creative strategies
Rather than running a single global campaign, we developed region-specific creatives and messaging for each market — adapting tone, offer mechanics, and visual language to local expectations.
Poland
Price-conscious travelers, strong rail culture, high app adoption
Brazil
Mobile-first market, flight-dominant, cashback incentives resonate strongly
Turkey
Rapidly growing travel market, high deal sensitivity, competitive CPIs
Solution
A/B creative testing built around cashback and coupon mechanics
The central hypothesis: travel app users respond better to tangible financial incentives than to feature-led messaging. We built the creative strategy around two primary offer types — cashback on first purchase and coupons for the first 3 bookings — and tested them head-to-head.
Cashback on the first purchase vs. coupon on the first 3 purchases — tested across all three markets with region-specific creative execution.
First-Purchase Cashback Creative
Primary incentive tested at a higher cashback rate. Focused on the immediate reward of booking the first ticket through the app.
3-Purchase Coupon Creative
Lower per-booking discount spread across three purchases to drive repeat engagement and build habitual use of the app.
Google UAC (Universal App Campaigns)
Automated app install campaigns across Search, Display, YouTube, and Google Play — optimized toward download and first-open events.
Purchase Optimization Layer
Secondary campaign objective targeting in-app purchase events, using Mobile App (Google Play) and third-party app attribution sources.
- Unique creatives developed for Poland, Brazil, and Turkey — no cross-region asset reuse
- App campaign optimization split between Download goal and Purchase goal
- Primary and secondary conversion source tracking (Google Play + third-party app analytics)
- Ongoing creative rotation to prevent fatigue across a 4M+ impression volume
Performance Results
Campaign overview · Google Ads dashboard
4M
Total clicks across all campaigns
212K
Total conversions
tracked
$1.52
Average cost
per conversion
$325K
Total campaign spend
Outcome
What this case proves
Travel app growth requires more than volume — it requires the right incentive, delivered in the right market, at the right moment in the user journey. This campaign demonstrated that cashback and coupon mechanics, when tested rigorously and adapted for local contexts, can drive both install efficiency and downstream purchase activity simultaneously.
At $1.52 per install and $42 per first purchase, the campaign achieved strong unit economics across three geographically distinct markets — validating the multi-region, multi-creative approach as a scalable model for travel app acquisition.
167,798 first opens and 6,754 completed purchases prove that the gap between install and transaction can be closed when the offer is compelling and the creative speaks the local language.
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