How Product Managers Can Drive Growth Without Marketing Budget

Most startups don’t fail because of bad products they fail because no one knows they exist. And here’s the more complicated truth: most startups also don’t have a marketing budget.

When I first started building products, growth meant running campaigns or buying Facebook ads. But when you don’t have the money, you learn a different skill how to make the product itself drive growth.

Let me show you what I mean, with real examples from my work building Naija News and Afrilearn.

Build shareability into the product

When we launched Naija News in 2016, we had zero budget. Not a single dollar. But we understood something about Nigerians: they love to share news on Facebook, WhatsApp, everywhere.

Instead of spending on ads, we built viral push notifications and social sharing buttons that made it effortless for readers to share stories with others. We didn’t just publish in English; we added Hausa to reach more communities.

The result? Within two years, Naija News grew from a small blog into a platform with 28M+ annual readers and 3M daily subscribers. Zero marketing spend, pure product-led growth.

Turn pain points into growth loops

At Afrilearn, students kept complaining about two things: learning felt boring, and data costs were too high.
We could have tried to convince them otherwise with campaigns, but instead, we fixed the product. We launched Learn & Earn, which rewarded students for consistent study. Suddenly, studying became fun, and students began inviting friends. We compressed lessons, added offline modes, and reduced data costs. Parents started telling other parents about the savings.

These weren’t just features. They were growth loops solving pain in a way that naturally attracted more users. That’s how we scaled to 3.2M+ learners across eight countries without ever relying on a big budget.

Partnerships beat paid ads

.When you can’t pay for reach, borrow it.

Instead of spending millions on advertising Afrilearn, we built distribution partnerships. The app was listed on telco platforms and pre-installed on devices, instantly reaching thousands of new users.

The same happened with Naija News when we secured syndication with Opera News. Overnight, our reach multiplied at zero cost. The product and partnerships became our marketing.

Community is your best sales team.

Every great product manager knows: when your users feel part of something, they’ll do your marketing for you.

Afrilearn didn’t just give students content it gave them progress dashboards. Parents started using those dashboards to track their kids’ growth, then shared the experience with other parents. Teachers saved hours on admin and began recommending the platform to different schools.

That community trust did more than any paid campaign ever could. When your users feel like stakeholders, they’ll spread the word because it makes them look good, too.

Measure what spreads, not what shines

Here’s a mistake too many PMs make: chasing features that look impressive instead of features that spread.

At Afrilearn, we tracked which features users were sharing with their friends. One stood out the AI-powered homework assistant, AskAfri. Students loved bragging about having a “robot tutor,” and word of mouth exploded.

We doubled down on that, not on flashy features that only impressed investors. Growth without a budget isn’t about building everything it’s about creating the things people can’t stop talking about.

Why this matters

In emerging markets, most founders don’t have the luxury of big ad budgets. However, they do possess creativity, community, and grit. Product-led growth doesn’t just save money it builds products that truly solve pain, scale faster, and last longer.

That’s why Afrilearn and Naija News are still alive today. And it’s why I believe the best marketing strategy is still a product that works so well, people can’t stop sharing it.

If you’re a product manager staring at a zero-dollar marketing budget, remember this: your best growth engine is sitting right in front of you, the product itself. Build something so valuable that users bring their friends along for the ride. That’s what turns ideas into impact, and products into movements.