I booked a newsletter ad. Here's how it went.

Ever thought about booking a newsletter ad?

When you hate Facebook ads as much as I do, you look for any alternative.

I would WAY RATHER pay another writer to help me grow than pay Meta. And you might think it’s cost prohibitive to book ads with publications directly but au contraire mi amigo!

It’s surprisingly affordable—starting as low as $50—and it has a way bigger upside than platform ads. Plus, no bad guys!

Today, I share my recent newsletter ad experiment results and how you can try it.

This is part of our series on Paid Ads to grow your audience. Read last week’s edition on beehiiv boosts and next week, look out for an edition on the dreaded Facebook ads.

P.S. Want to workshop your publication live? New free community sessions added! Join us to talk about making money with Outpost, growing with paid ads and hitting your next milestone.

How newsletter ads work

I’m calling these newsletter ads, but you should actually think of these as a cross-channel opportunity. They could also be called creator ads or publisher ads.

You’re tapping into someone else’s audience. An audience they have cultivated carefully. An audience that trusts their judgment and recommendations.

Who you place the ad with is the targeting.

It could be another solo writer, a creator who also covers your beat or a small newsroom.

Depending on who you book with, they might also leverage social media, events or communities to promote you. Let them choose where they reach their audience best.

All you have to worry about is your message and your call to action.

This is the modern day equivalent of putting an ad in the paper and it comes with way better tracking now because click reports exist.

But beware of thinking of newsletter ads as purely a cost per click game.

One of the biggest reasons to book with another indie publisher is that they lend their reputation to you. This pays off in unexpected ways later on. The quality of traffic is so much higher. Readers come in more ready to upgrade.

A lot of this is pretty tough to measure so let me walk you through my experiment!

My newsletter ad experiment

🎯 Goal: Acquire new subscribers for less than $10 and keep paid acquisition at less than 30% of my overall list growth.

🤔 Prediction: Get at least 30 new subscribers on an ad spend of $297.

🧪 Methods: Place 3 weeks of ads with Maliha of The Side Blogger (6 total placements).

📊 Metrics:

• Return on ad spend

• Number of new subscribers

• Open rate for new subscribers

• Unsubscribe rate for new subscribers

One of the ads (which Maliha generously turned into a full blown issue) 👇️ 

My newsletter ad results

Overall results: ✅ Winner

57 new subscribers and 1 new paying subscriber.

69% open rate, 10% click rate, 5% unsubscribe rate.

Way better than I predicted.

I chose Maliha’s newsletter because she’s already sent me readers through her blog and social media so there was signal that her audience was a good fit. Plus, she’s an experienced creator with a good size audience (8k+) and I like her newsletter.

Did this ad pay me back?

Yes.

You need to know how much revenue you make per reader (through any revenue stream) to figure out if ads paid you back. My primary revenue streams are paid subscriptions and sponsorships and my approximate revenue per new free reader is $6.70 (see my math).

• Cost per new subscriber = $5.21

• Revenue per new subscriber = $6.70

• Return on ad spend = 128%

Paid ads experts want return on ad spend to be higher like 300-600% (the higher the better) but I’m happy any time it’s over 100%—meaning break even.

128% may seem low compared to my beehiiv boosts return BUT let’s not forget about the untrackable value:

• Above and beyond: 

  • Maliha wrote an entire issue about Journalists Pay Themselves. That was way above and beyond what any platform would ever do.

  • Maliha edited the copy to fit their audience which likely made the ad perform better than the standard copy I sent over.

• Actually a good match:

  • Maliha actually likes this newsletter and their readers can probably tell it’s a real recommendation because of the way they wrote the copy.

  • Because of the above, new readers who came in through this channel were a better match for my newsletter, were more interested and will likely stick around longer than platform ads.

• Bonus promotion

  • Maliha gives me tons of free promotion. They speak my name in rooms that I am not in and they mention me on social media all the time. You can’t easily track or stamp a price on that but it’s invaluable!

Booking ads with creators will continue to be a slam dunk for all these reasons, as long as you are seeing some trackable return come through.

See below for a couple more of the ads 👇️ 

Is all this math and analysis making your eyes glaze over? Never fear! I’m coming out with a simple spreadsheet to calculate your ad return. Look out for it as part of the Paid Sub Playbook this month.

What’s next for my newsletter ads experiment?

I will keep running newsletter ads and I will keep running them with The Side Blogger, if she’ll have me.

I’d like to have a list of at least 6 great match publications or creators who I can run ads with throughout the year. I’ll be continuing to seek those folks out. Is that you? Send me a note!

How to try newsletter ads for yourself

Make a short list of other websites or newsletters that have an overlapping audience with yours. Publishers you already know are ideal but many writers have their ad info on their website just like Maliha does and you can often just book directly.

You can also cruise creator platforms like Passionfroot or Paved.

It’s very simple to place a newsletter ad:

1) Reach out to a publication or a creator and share your budget
2) Review and choose from their packages (or they’ll offer you one)
3) Share any creative assets they need (copy, links or images)
4) You’re off to the races!

Tips for running ads with creators

• Use UTM links for tracking. You can make a more trackable link with this tool so that you know who came from which ad.

• Buy a set of placements (at least 3). Not much comes from one ad. People need to see your name/offer multiple times to punch go.

• You can test publishers against each other but you don’t really need to because this type of ad isn’t a commodity. It’s a relationship builder with the publisher and their readers.

• Ask the publisher/writer/creator for recommendations. They know their audience and their channel performance. They will know how to make your ad successful and they want your ad to be successful so you come back and tell others!

• Some writers aren’t running ads formally but can still be pitched. In those cases, know your budget and how many ad placements you want. Writers will often custom make a package for you, especially if they know you.

Next week in our ad-ventures: running Facebook ads to grow your newsletter…

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