GoLetter Insider
Posts
What No One Tells You About Paid Growth

What No One Tells You About Paid Growth

CAC disasters, Boost saves, and how to hit breakeven (or better)

Mo The Newsletter Dude
June 10, 2025

Hey Newsletter Operators , it’s Mo!

So, you finally decide to run paid ads for your newsletter.

You throw $100 into Meta or X.
You get 100 subscribers.
$1 CAC - not bad.

Until you realize:
→ 60 of them never open a single email
→ 12 unsubscribe within 24 hours
→ None of them click anything
→ You’re not sure if any of this actually worked

Welcome to the messy middle of paid growth.

Everyone tells you to “just run ads”.
But no one talks about how much of it doesn’t work the first time.

Let’s fix that.

📌 Stuff worth checking out

🔗 How to Build a Sales Funnel for Your Newsletter Business (ft. ClickFunnels) | Creator Growth Summit

⚠️ Paid Growth is NOT Plug-and-Play

Even the smartest newsletters waste their first $100–$500 testing.

Why?
Because what works for your audience, your content, your hook, it takes real iteration.

But that doesn’t mean paid is bad.

It means you need a full CAC picture, not just cost per subscriber.

💡 Let’s Break Down CAC the Smart Way

Let’s say:
→ You spend $100
→ You get 100 subs
→ Your CAC = $1

Now let’s say:
→ 20 of those subscribers join another newsletter through Beehiiv Boosts
→ You earn $20 in Boost revenue

Net CAC = $0.80

Already better.
And you haven’t even sold anything yet.

But there are more ways to lower your CAC.

🟡 Add affiliate links to your welcome email
→ Target tools your niche actually uses
→ Make it subtle and helpful, not spammy

🟡 Sell a small product in your onboarding flow
→ A Notion template, resource guide, swipe file
→ Even $10–20 can cover paid costs fast

🟡 Set up a sales automation
→ Send new subscribers a time-based offer (3–7 days after sign-up)
→ Use something simple

🎯 Your Goal: Break-Even or Better

Zero CAC is possible.
Even negative CAC (you earn more per sub than you paid) is possible.

But it’s not automatic.
You need:
✅ Audience–content fit
✅ Monetization layered in
✅ A few weeks of testing and refining

Most importantly…

🧠 Remember: You’re Building a Business

If you’re running paid traffic and hoping it all just works, you're not running ads, you're gambling.

But if you treat your newsletter like a media product with a funnel, a monetization engine, and a content promise - now you're playing a different game.

And one that scales.

✅ TL;DR: Paid Growth Tips for Newsletter Operators

Start with Meta, not X
Enable Beehiiv Boosts immediately
Track net CAC, not just raw cost
Layer in monetization from day one
Don’t panic if your first $200 flops - that’s part of the learning curve

Want to see what our paid growth funnel looks like for clients?
Or want help setting one up?