Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / How Newsletter Writers Use Paid Social Ads to Grow Subscribers
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this narrative floating around that the only way to grow a newsletter organically is by writing great content and hoping people share it. That works. But there's another path that a lot of independent writers are quietly using to jump from a few thousand subscribers to fifty thousand or more in under a year. Luna: Paid ads. And I think a lot of newsletter creators are intimidated by that. They assume advertising is for big companies with big budgets. Lucas: Exactly. But the reality is, the barrier to entry for running ads on Facebook or Instagram is incredibly low. You can start with a hundred dollars and test. And the economics can work if you're smart about it. Luna: So what's the playbook? Where do you even begin? Lucas: Well, first you need to decide which platform. Facebook and Instagram are the most popular for B2C newsletters — think health, wellness, lifestyle, personal finance. LinkedIn is better for B2B, like newsletters about sales, marketing, or SaaS. Luna: And the ad format matters too. There's a big difference between a 'click to website' ad and a lead-gen ad that collects emails directly on the platform. Lucas: Right. Lead-gen ads are interesting because the friction is lower. The user doesn't have to leave the app, fill out a form, or confirm their email. They just tap and their info is submitted. But the quality of those subscribers can be lower — they might not be as engaged because it was so easy to sign up. Luna: I've heard writers say they prefer sending traffic to their own landing page, even if it costs more per subscriber, because the conversion is more intentional. Lucas: That's a legitimate trade-off. Some writers run both types and then compare the open rates and click-through rates of the two segments. If lead-gen subscribers open at 20 percent and landing page subscribers open at 40, the cheaper cost per lead might not actually be cheaper in terms of engagement. Luna: So you're measuring cost per engaged subscriber, not just cost per subscriber. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where the smart operators differentiate themselves. They're not just looking at the raw number. They're looking at how those subscribers behave in the first seven days. Luna: What about targeting? I imagine you need a pretty clear picture of who your ideal reader is. Lucas: You do. And the best way to build that is to start with a seed audience of your existing subscribers. Upload your email list to Facebook as a custom audience, then create a lookalike audience based on that. Facebook finds people with similar characteristics. That's usually the highest-performing audience for newsletter ads. Luna: And if you're just starting out and don't have a big list? Lucas: Then you go with interest-based targeting. For example, if your newsletter is about remote work, you target people who follow Remote OK, who engage with digital nomad content, who like companies like Zapier or Notion. The key is to be specific. A broad audience of 'entrepreneurs' is too big and too expensive. Luna: So niche down. Got it. What about the creative itself? I see a lot of newsletter ads that are just screenshots of the newsletter with a headline. Lucas: Those can work, but the ones that perform best often lead with a specific benefit. 'Get one actionable marketing tip every morning.' 'Learn how I turned $500 into $50,000 in six months.' It's direct response copywriting applied to newsletters. Luna: And video ads? I've noticed more newsletter creators using short video clips. Lucas: Video ads can have higher engagement and lower cost per result in some niches. A fifteen-second clip of the writer talking directly to the camera about why they started the newsletter can be very effective. It builds trust fast. Luna: Let's talk budget. What's realistic for a writer who wants to test this? Lucas: I'd recommend starting with five to ten dollars a day per ad set. Run it for a week. That's about fifty to seventy dollars. See what your cost per subscriber is. If it's under two dollars, you probably have something worth scaling. If it's over five dollars, you might need to refine your targeting or creative. Luna: And scaling — when do you know it's time to increase the budget? Lucas: When your cost per subscriber is stable and your subscriber quality is good — meaning they open your emails and click through. Then you can slowly increase the budget by twenty percent every few days. But watch for ad fatigue. If the same audience sees the same ad too many times, performance drops. Luna: Ad fatigue is real. I've seen newsletters that were getting great results for weeks suddenly see costs double because they didn't refresh their creative. Luna: One thing I'm curious about — what about newsletters that are purely free? Is it worth running ads if you're not converting anyone to paid? Lucas: It depends on your monetization model. If you're planning to eventually launch a paid tier, building a large free list gives you a pool to convert. If you're monetizing through sponsorships, a bigger list means higher sponsorship rates. So yes, it can be worth it even without immediate direct revenue. Luna: But you have to be disciplined. I've seen writers burn through a few thousand dollars with nothing to show for it because they didn't track their metrics properly. Lucas: That's the biggest risk. You can lose money fast if you're not watching your cost per subscriber and your lifetime value. But the writers who do it well — they treat it like a business investment, not a gamble. Luna: Speaking of treating it like a business — one thing that keeps this show free is that we don't run ads. If these kinds of marketing conversations have helped you think more clearly about your own newsletter or business, and you'd like to support that choice, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, we really appreciate that. It's listener support that keeps the show ad-free and focused on the strategy that actually works. And speaking of strategy — let's get back to paid social. One more tactic I want to mention is retargeting. Luna: Oh, right. So after someone visits your landing page but doesn't subscribe, you can show them a follow-up ad. Lucas: Exactly. Retargeting ads can have a much higher conversion rate because the person is already familiar with you. You can use a different angle — maybe a testimonial or a specific piece of content. It's a way to capture the people who were interested but got distracted. Luna: And the pixel makes that easy. You just install the Facebook pixel on your landing page and it tracks visitors automatically. Lucas: Right. So to sum up: start small, test one platform, use lookalike audiences if you have the data, track cost per engaged subscriber, refresh your creative regularly, and consider retargeting to capture the ones that got away. Luna: And if you're a writer on Substack or Beehiiv, both platforms have integrations that make it easier to connect your subscriber data to ad platforms. Lucas: That's a good point. The technical barrier is lower than ever. It really comes down to whether you have the patience to test and the discipline to measure. Luna: Alright, next episode we're going to look at something a little different — how newsletters are using in-person events to build community and convert subscribers. That should be interesting. Lucas: Looking forward to it. Thanks for listening, everyone.