Role: Performance & Retention Marketing Lead

Company: Jabama (vacation rental marketplace similar to Airbnb)

Background

When I joined Jabama as the Performance Marketing Lead, the company was in a fast-growth phase where most efforts and resources were focused on user acquisition, not lifecycle. Retention was handled with one-off, manual campaigns, and there was no automated infrastructure to onboard, activate, or re-engage users.

Although we had millions of users, our communication was fragmented across channels, with no event-based system, no behavioral logic, and very limited analytics around lifecycle performance.

Around that time, leadership decided to shift toward stronger lifecycle marketing, and I was asked to build this foundation from scratch.

We chose WebEngage, a platform widely used in our region — even by much larger products across ecommerce, fintech, and travel — because it offered great technical support, a strong community, and proven success for businesses at our scale. I led the entire implementation, from research and data modeling to full automation delivery.

What I Found

Before implementing WebEngage, several gaps were immediately clear:

• No unified event-based data model for lifecycle or behavioral targeting
• No behavioral segmentation (only mass one-time blasts)
• Manual and inconsistent messaging, leading to uneven user experience
• No clear visibility into activation, retention, or CRM’s contribution
• No shared understanding of the funnel between Product, Marketing, Tech, and Growth

To improve activation, repeat bookings, and order share, we needed two things:

1. A reliable marketing automation system, and
2. A holistic lifecycle marketing plan aligned across teams.

My Approach

1. Building the right data model (product research + industry benchmarking + technical alignment)

I started by researching lifecycle data models used by Airbnb-style marketplaces and studied best practices and case studies from Amplitude.com, which provided extremely helpful examples.