Budget Tracker Launch
How Storytelling, UGC, and meeting users where they are transformed the launch of a free product into a LTV growth lever
Q1 2023
Context
Inflation’s impact on wedding planning reached its apex by Q1 2023
Revenue (-2% YoY) and community activity showed that couples were overwhelmed and stressed over budget (83% of couples reported overspending on weddings)
Competitors’ budget tools were generic and disconnected from product ecosystem
Zola responded with a free Budget Tracker integrated with vendor marketplace bookings and wedding invitation purchases
My goals
Introduce Tracker with a multichannel launch campaign
Generate buzz and drive upper funnel signups and grow average LTV
Position Zola as a trusted planning and advising source
Onboarding screen
Integrated functionality of in-app transactions for automated budget capture
What I did
Persuaded product team to nest Tracker on couples’ home page instead of it being standalone to position as true center of product ecosystem
Grounded launch strategy in Budget Diaries campaign, featuring budgets and anecdotes from real couples; collaborated with growth, content, lifecycle, and social teams to bring it to life
Partnered with engineering and lifecycle to embed CTAs into onboarding flow and welcome series
Product tour I set up to guide couples through UI
Results
+6% in overall signups QoQ
+16% in QoQ conversion to paid
56% cross-conversion rate to vendor marketplace (generated $1.1M incremental revenue by Q3 2023)
+18% lift in stationery sales (foil-pressed invites and save the dates became top sellers!)
Blog traffic grew to 2.1M monthly visitors (up from 470K) with 60% attributed to Budget Diaries
12% drop in QoQ CAC
Learnings
Meeting the moment always wins
Budget Tracker users spent 2.7x more than non-adopters
Authenticity beats polish
Unfiltered stories build trust, relatability and engagement
Ecosystem lock-in drives LTV
Embedding the free tool into core UX made it indispensable and created natural monetization pathways
Legacy:
Budget Diaries have not only continued to be a growth lever, but there’s now a content category dedicated to couples’ budgets