Zoopla transforms the home-buying experience with real-time personalization

Company Overview

Employees: ~800

Region: United Kingdom

Industry: Real estate technology

Zoopla, a leader in the UK real estate space, connects millions of home seekers with estate agents, letting agents, and property developers. The platform offers property listings, market insights, and local data, helping customers make informed decisions about buying or renting.

However, Zoopla faced increasing challenges as their fragmented data infrastructure struggled to support their growth. Despite being a data-rich company, they faced a significant challenge: a fragmented data ecosystem that left their consumer data largely untapped.

To solve these problems, Zoopla adopted Segment as their customer data platform (CDP), however, this solution became a financial and operational bottleneck, with escalating costs and limited visibility into critical processes like identity resolution. These inefficiencies prevented Zoopla from unifying their data across multiple systems and limited their ability to leverage insights from their growing volume of customer data.

The challenge

Before adopting RudderStack, Zoopla's customer data was scattered across multiple systems, including website tracking tools, app analytics, form submissions, and rudimentary data models. Although they were using Segment, a traditional CDP, their ability to use this data was restricted due to high costs, lack of control, and poor data governance.

Steven Collings, Sr. Data Consultant at Zoopla, described the situation:
"We had a lot of people coming to our site, generating significant amounts of data, but we weren’t doing anything with it. It was fragmented, unstructured, and underutilized. Our data was proprietary, and we knew we needed to start using it–not just to deepen relationships with our users, but also to refine and activate audiences for our estate agent partners. Untapped potential was clearly waiting to be unlocked."

Zoopla’s key challenges were multi-faceted:

Siloed data: Consumer data was stored across disconnected systems.
Limited use cases: Data models were scattered and difficult to reuse.
High costs: The existing CDP was expensive and duplicative.
Governance issues: Tracking data lacked structure and consistency.
Lack of visibility: Processes like identity resolution operated in a black box.

"With RudderStack, we have much better control. We process data when we want, sync it when we want, and know exactly how it’s being handled—something we never had with Segment."

The Solution

Zoopla chose RudderStack to have the infrastructure to control their own data and streamline their processes. RudderStack’s architecture allowed Zoopla to centralize their consumer data in their own warehouse, which provided them with unparalleled visibility, control, and flexibility to activate data across multiple touchpoints.

"RudderStack is like air traffic control for our data. It shepherds traffic, sending the right information to the right places in exactly the right format. The platform simplified how we pipeline data, ensuring better governance, accuracy, and flexibility."

Zoopla’s migration from Segment to RudderStack was seamless, thanks to a clear project plan and strong ownership across teams. RudderStack’s flexibility also allowed Zoopla to drastically improve key areas during the migration. For example, they aligned tracking standards across web and mobile apps and used RudderStack Transformations to fine-tune and enrich their customer event data.

"We saved hundreds of thousands by switching to RudderStack without losing any functionality—and actually gained more control and transparency in the process."

Key Results and Benefits

Cost Savings

By transitioning to RudderStack, Zoopla saved hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Their previous CDP incurred unnecessary costs by duplicating functionality that Zoopla’s existing infrastructure could already handle. With RudderStack, Zoopla gained a more efficient and cost-effective solution.

Improved Data Activation

RudderStack empowered Zoopla to overcome the fragmented nature of their data by allowing Zoopla to construct a standardized, single customer view, providing a unified understanding of each user across multiple touchpoints.

With this view, Zoopla delivered consistent, personalized experiences that significantly enhanced engagement:

Personalized email campaigns became more refined and impactful. By utilizing detailed audience segmentation and enriched profile data, Zoopla targeted customers with highly relevant content. This approach expanded audience sizes and also increased responsiveness, boosting the effectiveness of their email marketing efforts.
Real-time traits allowed Zoopla to adapt user experiences dynamically. With RudderStack, they could process and act on behavioral data in real-time. For example, if a customer showed interest in properties with specific attributes (such as a balcony or garden) Zoopla could immediately tailor their on-site experience, ad targeting, and email content to customize those preferences.
Advanced analytics provided Zoopla with actionable insights into user behavior and preferences. By integrating data models into their centralized data framework, Zoopla uncovered trends and opportunities that informed their marketing and product strategies. They developed predictive models that categorized users by intent, such as first-time buyers or investors, and used these insights to craft tailored campaigns.

With centralized data, real-time adaptability, and actionable insights, Zoopla redefined the way they interact with their customers. RudderStack became the foundation of their data strategy, empowering them to activate data, and deliver consistent experiences across channels, in ways that drive business growth.

Data Governance and Quality

Using RudderStack’s Data Quality Toolkit, with tracking plans and monitoring tools, Zoopla established a robust framework for ensuring that all data collected, processed, and activated adhered to consistent standards of quality and accuracy. Zoopla was able to define, enforce, and monitor tracking rules across their entire data ecosystem, ensuring that data was not only reliable but also actionable. Any issues with tracking or data quality were flagged to the relevant teams, ensuring decentralized ownership and prompt resolution.

A key component of this transformation was the automated monitoring and alerting system. If an error occurred with data flowing from the website or app, the originating team was notified and tasked with resolving the problem. Instead of relying on a central data team to manage everything, Zoopla encouraged all relevant teams to take responsibility for their part of the data pipeline, which not only improved the speed of resolution but also fostered a culture of data ownership across the organization, elevating the importance of data quality in everyday workflows.

Additionally, RudderStack’s tracking plans allowed Zoopla to standardize how data was collected across multiple sources, from website interactions to app events and form submissions. This consistency enabled the data to be easily integrated, processed, and activated without introducing errors or inconsistencies. By aligning tracking standards across web and mobile apps, Zoopla created a seamless data flow that reduced discrepancies and improved the usability of the data.

The focus on data governance and quality also increased trust in the data across all teams. With reliable, well-structured data at their fingertips, teams felt confident using it to drive decision-making, from marketing campaigns to product enhancements.

As Steven, Data Consultant at Zoopla, explained:
"We’ve moved from a place where data issues were brushed under the carpet to one where we proactively address them. The combination of robust tracking plans and decentralized ownership has completely transformed how we manage data quality."

Flexibility and Efficiency

One of the standout features of RudderStack is transformations, which allowed Zoopla to modify event data on the fly. This ensured seamless compatibility with downstream tools like Iterable and Redis, enabling streamlined workflows without requiring extensive reengineering of data pipelines.

Zoopla uses transformations to tailor event data for specific use cases, such as modifying fields or formatting events to meet the exact requirements of their CRM tool, Iterable. These customizations ensured that data was not only accurate but also immediately actionable for marketing and personalization efforts. Similarly, they leveraged transformations to push real-time event updates to Redis, enabling near-instantaneous on-site personalization and dynamic user experiences.

This ability to refine and adapt data within RudderStack reduced the reliance on engineering resources. In the past, implementing new use cases often required the involvement of multiple teams, creating bottlenecks and delaying execution. With RudderStack, analysts could take full ownership of these tasks. By simply updating YAML files or modifying transformation rules, analysts were able to implement changes quickly and effectively, freeing up engineering teams to focus on higher-priority initiatives.

Steven, Data Consultant at Zoopla, described this shift:
"RudderStack has given us the flexibility to process data the way we want, when we want. Analysts can now own the process end-to-end, which has eliminated delays and allowed us to move at the speed of the business."

Driving Innovation with RudderStack

RudderStack’s flexibility extended beyond routine operations. Zoopla discovered new ways to use the platform that they hadn’t initially anticipated. While RudderStack was primarily adopted to unify consumer data, the platform also proved invaluable for managing customer data for their estate agents and property developers. Zoopla began using RudderStack as a reverse ETL tool to update Salesforce with critical customer information, allowing their sales and account management teams to work with the latest data without manual intervention.

RudderStack’s platform has opened new doors for Zoopla’s data strategy by:

Enabling real-time or near-real-time personalization through dynamic data updates.
Empowering analysts to implement new use cases without requiring eng resources.
Supporting unexpected use cases, such as reverse ETL for Salesforce updates.
Reducing operational bottlenecks and accelerating the time-to-value for new initiatives.

These capabilities not only improved efficiency but also unlocked the creative potential of Zoopla’s teams, allowing them to focus on delivering value to both users and partners. RudderStack became an enabler of innovation, seamlessly fitting into Zoopla’s existing workflows while providing the tools to scale and evolve.

"RudderStack is the arteries feeding data and powering all of our user experiences. It’s given us the control, visibility, and flexibility we needed while saving us money and simplifying our operations. It’s hard to imagine operating without it."