Hey, Manny here. Apologies for the delayed timing on this send but we got it done! 🤟
Welcome back to this week’s edition of Growth Levers, where you get:
3 things happening in the newsletter world
2 winning newsletter ads and breakdowns of why they worked
1 pro tip to improve your ads and thus improve your CPA
Let’s get into today’s edition and see if you can find a lever to pull:
3 Things You Should Know
🎙 Tyler Morin and Louis Nicholls launch Letterland LIVE: A live show covering the newsletter industry, including the most newsworthy topics and interviews with some incredibly smart newsletter operators. Also run by 2 very cool guys in this small newsletter world.
🐝 Ramp chooses beehiiv for their B2B newsletter. My bet: Ramp, who have been at the forefront of B2B marketing for years, will blaze the trail for more B2B companies to invest in newsletters as a long-term nurture channel.
🤖 Adam Ryan: 98%+ of newsletter clicks are bots. Certainly not ideal, but absolutely a conversation worth having. Must-read for advertisers and operators alike.
2 Winning Ads
Ad 1: Doctored Podcast Graphic
Newsletter: The Water Coolest
Disclosure: This ad has not actually run for The Water Coolest. Tyler, if you're reading this, feel free to use it, lol. We swapped in the branding from a client ad to keep their creative private, but this format has run for 4-5 of our clients and 3 have found strong results with it.
What Makes It Great:
The format mimics a real phone notification, like someone texting you a podcast recommendation. That familiarity makes it feel native to the feed and gets past the "this is an ad" reflex before the reader even processes what they are looking at.
Brevity is the entire game. The top line has to be a question that sets up the bottom line to deliver the answer, and both need to be short. The bottom line also has to carry enough context about the newsletter and potentially a CTA, so there is zero room for extra words.
Once you have the template locked in, you are really just swapping short-form copy on both lines while keeping the visual consistent. The clients where we found the best results tested enough variants to land on two or three copy pairings that clicked with their audience.
Ad 2: Doctored ChatGPT conversation
Note: I am not currently running ads for my newsletter. I swapped in Growth Levers branding on an ad we ran for a different client to keep their creative private 🤟 But who knows, I may run this as the first ad for Growth Levers 👀
What Makes It Great:
This format is underrated. I have not seen many people try it yet, and because so few advertisers are running it, it stands out.
The question you ask ChatGPT has to double as your hook and your ICP qualifier. If it addresses a problem or curiosity your target reader actually has, they stop and read.
The "answer" has to be short enough to absorb inside the ad creative but long enough to communicate what the newsletter is and why they should subscribe.
Tons of copy angles to test here. You can swap the question and answer to target different pain points or curiosity gaps, so I would encourage committing to multiple variants rather than treating it as a one-and-done creative.
1 Meta Ads Pro Tip
Stop letting Meta run your ads on placements that have a near 0% chance of converting anyone.
Meta defaults to some settings you may not be aware of when building a campaign, and one of them allows your ads to run across 20+ placements. A good chunk of those will never convert a subscriber for you.
Over a year of ad spend, that is thousands of dollars burned on placements that do nothing for your CPA.
The fix is in the ad placements section of the ad set. With our clients, we only allow ads to run on 6-7 placements that we know actually bring in conversions.
BONUS: I created a Loom recording that walks you step-by-step on how how to adjust this when building any ad set. If you want me to send it to you, reply to this email with the word "LOOM" and my team will send it over.
Before you go, here’s how I can help:
I've spent the last five years of my life driving 5M+ newsletter subscribers with Meta ads across newsletters from Morning Brew, Workweek, The Daily Upside, James Clear, and many more.
If you want to skip the hours of work in Canva and the overwhelming UI of Meta Ads Manager, my agency can make the ads and grow your newsletter without you lifting a finger - submit your newsletter details here.
That's all for today. I'll see you back here next week!