How to sell newsletter sponsorships even if you have a small audience

DEEP DIVE

If you want to sell your first newsletter ad, this is for you.

In this post, I'll break down:

• How to sell newsletter sponsorships even if you have a small audience

• How to create a media kit and sell your first ad

• How to price sponsorships

• And much more…

But first:

Why sell newsletter sponsorships and ads?

See, ads are the foundation of newsletter-first media companies.

Look at some of the most successful companies in this space:

• Industry Dive - $525M exit

• Morning Brew - $75M exit

• The Hustle - $27M exit

• The Peak - $3.75M exit

• Milk Road - ~$5M exit

• Axios - $525M exit

• And more…

They all built their businesses from ads and sponsorships in their newsletters.

Ads are the foundation of newsletter-first media companies

Most newsletter-focused companies will generate 30-60% or more of their revenue from sponsorships. And as your audience grows, sponsorships will become more and more lucrative

When should you start selling ads and sponsorships?

The simple answer is ASAP!

Don’t wait to start making money from your email list.

Don’t be afraid to sell ads either — If the ads are relevant and ethical, your audience will not have a problem with them.

However, you’ll need to wait until you have a critical audience mass before you directly sell ads to sponsors.

Let me explain…

• Direct sales = a direct relationship with the advertiser where they communicate and buy from YOU – not a 3rd part

• Critical audience mass = the audience size and engagement you need for most advertisers to consider working with you directly

3rd party ad sales

Before you have critical audience mass and direct sales relationships, you should sell ads through a 3rd party.

3rd party ads (or affiliate ads) are NOT as lucrative as direct sales and are NOT a sustainable business model for newsletter-first businesses.

However, you should use them anyway when you’re starting.

Here’s why:

• You can monetize with a small audience

• You get data on ad results (clicks, conversions, etc)

• Social proof — You can add these “sponsors” to your media kit and mention them on sales calls

• The money is green. They can cover your operating costs and help you build momentum to continue to grow your audience.

Which 3rd party ad networks or affiliate networks should you use?

• beehiiv ad network - CPC and CPM newsletter ads

• Beehiiv boosts - CPA offers for other newsletters

• SparkLoop - CPA offers for other newsletters

• Refind ads - CPA offers for other newsletters

• Wellput.io - CPC ads only (5k-10k subscriber minimum)

• Paved.com - flat fee newsletter ads

• MaxBounty - CPL and CPS affiliate network

• Impact.com - CPL and CPS affiliate network

With an ad network like beehiiv you can earn, on average, $1-$3 CPC or $5-$15 CPM from the ads you run.

So if you get 100 ad clicks per newsletter ad and publish four newsletters per month, that’s $800-$1200 per month in ad revenue

It's not amazing, but that’s a helpful starting point.

Other options:

Direct Affiliate

• Go directly to your favorite product’s affiliate program. Check their website footer or email their team to see if they have an affiliate program.

• Promote their product and earn a 30%-50% recurring commission

GrowLetter Ad Network 

My agency, GrowLetter, sells sponsorships for B2B, business, and financial newsletters with 10k+ subscribers. We sell ads for a flat fee, commission only. There's no exclusivity.

Our service isn't for every newsletter, but publishers who are a good fit will earn more with GrowLetter than other 3rd party options.

The critical audience mass you need to sell direct

To sell ads directly to a sponsor, you usually need this amount of subscribers and ad clicks:

• B2B or Prosumer newsletter = 5,000-10,000 subscribers and 50-100 clicks per ad on average

• B2C newsletter = 10,000-20,000 subscribers and 100-200 clicks per ad on average

(Note: Prosumer means an audience mix of professionals and consumers)

Most advertisers care most about ad clicks and CPC from newsletter ads.

So, if you have a smaller audience but you’re driving 100-200+ clicks on your ads, you can sell directly sooner.

Now, you may be wondering:

How do you know how many ad clicks you drive on average for a sponsor?

You’ll learn this by running ads from 3rd ad or affiliate networks!

It’s a must-do thing if you want to sell directly.

I recommend you:

• Run 3-6 ads from an ad or affiliate network (like the ones I listed above)

• Calculate your average ad clicks based on those results

Here’s a checklist of things you need to do before you sell ads directly

• Run a minimum of 3-6 ad network ads or affiliate offers

• Calculate your average ad clicks based on those results

• Reach critical audience and engagement mass (5k-10k subs and 100+ clicks per ad)

• Create a media kit

• Create an IO (Insertion Order)

• Have a way to collect payment

We will cover media kits, IOs, and collecting payment later. But first we need to cover:

How to price your ads

• The most common way to price newsletter ads in on a CPC (cost per unique link click)

• The number of ad clicks you drive on average, and your CPC rate will determine your ad fee.

• Always charge a flat fee per ad.

When you’re selling ads early on, price them lower to get sponsors in the door without friction.

If you haven’t gotten direct sponsors’ results yet, you are a risk and a time suck to them.

Price ads attractively to get business. Make the process fast and easy for sponsors.

Most sponsors have budgets of $10k - $100k per month (or more) to spend to growth their businesses.

At first, your ads may only drive ~100 clicks and dozens of conversions/leads.

Is that worth their time?

The answer is no — UNLESS you price, package, and deliver your ads in a way that overcomes this dilemma.

Here’s how…

Here are the most common ad CPC rate for newsletters.

Ad pricing (for small newsletters)

• For B2C newsletters = $1-$5 per click

• For B2B newsletters = $5-$10 per click

Ad pricing (for bigger newsletters - 50k-100k+)

• For B2C newsletters = $3-$6 per click

• For B2B newsletters = $5-$20 per click

Here’s the pricing formula you use to determine your flat fee:

• Average unique ad clicks per ad x ad CPC rate = ad fee

• For example: 100 uAd Clicks x $5 CPC = $500 per ad

If you’re selling your very first ads, pick a CPC on the lower end of the ranges above.

Ad packaging

• If your ad fee is less than $1000 per ad, avoid selling just 1 ad

• Almost all small newsletters should never sell individual ads

• Always sell a package of multiple ads!

Here’s why:

• It’s not worth the advertiser’s time (or your time).

• Driving ~100 clicks from 1 ad is not going to move the needle to grow the sponsor’s business.

• Telling your audience about them just once won’t get the sponsor results

• But a package of 3-6 ads will!

Create a minimum package that includes 3-5 ads you sell for a flat fee.

Give a 10-20% discount when advertisers book a package of 3-6 or more ads.

Here’s an example of what that looks like:

• B2B newsletter that sends 1x per week and drives 100 ad clicks on average

• 100 clicks x $5 CPC = $500 ad rate

• Minimum package: 3 ads for $1500 ($500 per ad)

• Drives 300+ clicks at $5 CPC

• Discount package: 6 ads for $2400 ($400 per ad)

• Drives 600+ clicks at $4 CPC

If ad packages, I recommend…

• Your minimum package should be 2-3 ads (don’t allow advertisers to buy less than this)

• Your 10-20% discount package should be 4-6 ads

• Don’t sell more packages of more than 8 ads early on (because your prices should be going up every 4-6 weeks)

What ad inventory to sell (primary ads, sponsored content, and more)

When you’re first starting to sell ads, keep your ad inventory options and packages simple. Don’t give sponsors too many options to choose from.

Have:

• 1 “test” package to get results with low spend

• 1-3 “upsell” packages to maximize results for the sponsor and revenue for you

The packages you make available could look like this:

• Test package: 3-5 primary newsletter ads

• Upsell package one: 6-8 primary newsletter ads

• Upsell package two: Sponsored content

• Upsell package three: Sponsored content and 3-5 primary ads

What is a primary ad?

It’s simple. A primary ad is the most common newsletter ad format.

Newsletters like Morning Brew, The Hustle, and The Skimm popularized this format.

A primary ad has these elements:

• Clickable logo at the top of the newsletter

• Ad section in the top 30% of email newsletter

• Headline

• Body copy with 50-100 words

• 1-4 hyperlinks and/or CTA button

• Image (optional)

What is sponsored content?

Sponsored content is content you create for the advertiser that tells their story and drives results (clicks, leads, sales)

This could mean:

• Newsletter deep dive, article or review

• Article / blog post on your website

• Social media posts

• And more…

You can charge much more for sponsored content than for newsletter ads.

• Sponsored content makes the entire piece of content (newsletter, blog, social posts, etc) about the advertiser.

• It requires more work from you, the publisher because you're creating all of the content in collaboration with the sponsor.

This demands a premium. Because of that premium, selling sponsored content as a publisher with a small audience is a great idea.

Advertisers get more value from it, and you make much more money than you would just by selling newsletter ads.

I recommend keeping your sponsored content offerings simple at first.

A package could look like:

• 1 Newsletter deep dive, article, or review

• Article on your website (same content as newsletter)

• 1-3 social media posts based on newsletter content

For a package like this, charge 5-10X what you charge for 1 primary ad.

For example:

• 1 primary ad cost $500

• Sponsored content package with newsletter, blog post, and 1 social post cost $2500-$5000 (5-10X more)

How to sell your first ad directly

Now we have everything ready to sell ads, we need a media kit to explain your brand, your audience, your sponsor offerings, and ad results.

For your first media kit you can create a simple page on your website with your media kit information (you don’t need a slide deck).

For example, my media kit is this custom beehiiv page.

What to include in your media kit

1) Introduce your brand

• Explain what your newsletter is

• Who it helps

• How your newsletter is different or better than others

Keep this section short and sweet. Here’s some examples:

• “Milk Road is the fastest growing crypto newsletter in the world”

• “Houck's Newsletter has become the go-to weekly advice column for founders”

• “Newsletter Operator is the #1 industry news and growth advice source for newsletter-first media companies and content creators”

• “TLDR is a daily newsletter read by over 1,000,000 software engineers, tech executives and decision-makers, and other tech employees.”

• “4M open-minded subscribers wake up to 1440 every morning. We're committed to delivering facts without motives. If this aligns with your brand, we should get in touch.”

2) Your numbers and audience information

Include the following:

• Total subscribers

• Unique open rate

• Total unique CTR

• Unique ad clicks (per placement)

• How fast you’re growing (per day or month)

• Who your readers are

• Where your readers work

• Where readers are located

• Job level and titles

• How much readers earn

• Gender (if applicable)

3) Show your impact

• Showcase reader testimonials, awards, and features in other publications.

• If you have testimonials from prestigious people in your industry, that’s even better.

• Advertisers want to see you’re a thought leader and a trusted publication or creator in your niche.

4) Ad units

• Explain what sponsorship options you offer and what they look like.

• You must have image examples!

5) Pricing

• List your price per ad package and placement.

• Save the advertiser time by listing CPM, unique impressions (opens), ad clicks, and CPC.

6) Past Sponsors, Sponsor Testimonials, Case Studies, and Repeat Sponsors

• The more advertiser results you can show, the better.

• Mention advertiser you’ve worked with and that have renewed with you (repeat sponsors)

• If you have testimonials or case studies from sponsors, add them here

7) Sponsorship Process

• Explain what it’s like to work with you and what happens after someone buys a sponsorship.

Media Kit Examples

Check out this swipe file with 20+ media kit examples from great newsletters.

Audience Surveys

To get the information you need for your media kit, you need to share a survey with your subscribers.

Ask questions based on the information you need for your media kit. Your survey will be tailored to your brand or your ideal advertisers.

I recommend incentivizing survey responses with a giveaway. Use copy like this when promoting a survey:

“We’ll pick one person randomly who completes this survey and give them a $100 Amazon gift card. It takes just 3 minutes to complete!”

Inbound sales

Now that you have ad results, audience data, and a media kit — let YOUR audience know you are accepting sponsors!

Add a:

• Sponsor CTA (call to action) in every newsletter

• Sponsor CTA on your website

• Let people know on social

Here’s an example: