PERFORMANCE MARKETING · USER ACQUISITION
Not installs. Not sign-ups. 15,000 new grocery orders per month, consistently, at scale. Happy Ads ran the performance engine that powered Airlift's rapid expansion across Pakistan.
The Challenge
Airlift — Pakistan's venture-backed instant grocery delivery startup — was operating in one of the most competitive and most capital-intensive categories in Pakistan's startup ecosystem: quick commerce. With Cheetay, Bazaar, and international players all competing for the same Pakistani grocery delivery customer, Airlift needed to acquire new customers faster and more cost-efficiently than its competitors, while maintaining order quality — customers who ordered once and never returned were a burn liability, not an asset.
The performance marketing challenge was multi-layered: grocery delivery apps have a notoriously difficult acquisition funnel because first orders require high intent (the user must need groceries right now, trust the platform, and complete a first transaction). Standard app install campaigns drove installs; converting those installs into genuine first orders was where most campaigns failed. Airlift needed a partner who could optimise for first-order conversion, not just install volume.
The campaign also needed to operate at consistent monthly velocity: 15,000 new orders per month is not a one-time spike — it requires sustained campaign performance with real-time optimisation to maintain delivery rate as audience saturation builds in core cities.
The Solution
Happy Ads built a full-funnel performance campaign for Airlift that tracked and optimised for first grocery order completion — not app installs. By integrating Airlift's MMP (Mobile Measurement Partner) data into Happy Ads' campaign management layer, the team could see exactly which channels, creatives, and audience segments were producing real first orders versus installs that never converted. Budget was reallocated daily from low-conversion sources to high-conversion performers.
The channel mix combined programmatic mobile display (running across food, cooking, and lifestyle apps where grocery intent was highest), social performance ads (Meta + TikTok optimised for purchase events, not installs), and retargeting campaigns that re-engaged users who had installed the app but not yet completed a first order. Creative testing ran continuously: price-led creatives (first order discounts), speed-led creatives (30-minute delivery promises), and convenience-led creatives (skip the traffic, get groceries now) were rotated by daypart and audience segment.
The result was a consistent 15,000+ new grocery orders per month — a performance benchmark that contributed directly to Airlift's user growth metrics and fuelled its rapid expansion across Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.
Key Results
15K+
New Grocery Orders Per Month
Consistent
Monthly Velocity — Sustained at Scale
Full
Funnel — Install to First Order Tracked
Pakistan
Rapid City-by-City Expansion
Key Insights
01
02
When a startup's growth plan depends on a sustained monthly order intake, performance marketing ceases to be a marketing function and becomes an operational one. Airlift's 15,000 orders per month from Happy Ads' campaigns was a business-critical input — a number that appeared in board decks, investor updates, and city expansion decisions. Maintaining this at consistent velocity required daily campaign management discipline, not set-and-forget automation.
03
Happy Ads' creative testing for Airlift consistently showed that price-led creatives — featuring first-order discounts prominently — outperformed brand/convenience-led creatives by approximately 3× on first-order conversion rate. In high-competition grocery delivery, the rational decision to try a new platform is triggered by price, not brand story. The brand relationship is built post-first-order through the product experience itself.
