Effective newsletter advertising: formats, integration, and tracking

Are you tired of battling unpredictable algorithms and ad challenges in online marketing? Consider the potent resource of email newsletters. Unlike platforms plagued with privacy concerns and ad blindness, newsletter subscribers willingly opt-in, showing genuine interest. 

This article explores the world of newsletter ads, offering practical guidance on effective and non-intrusive advertising.

Why advertising in newsletters is effective

Newsletters aren’t just a means of communication; they’re a dynamic platform for monetization. Publishers have realized the potential of newsletters as a valuable advertisintg space, extending beyond traditional website banners.

Today, advertisers reimagine newsletters as a valuable asset. Leveraging email newsletter metrics and engagement rates, publishers demonstrate their substantial value. As a result, many publishers are embracing newsletters to gain their revenue. Here are three compelling reasons why newsletter adverts are effective:

  • Engaged audience: Newsletter subscribers actively choose to stay updated, showcasing a genuine interest in your business, thus elevating engagement prospects.
  • Sky-high engagement rates: Newsletters consistently deliver outstanding open and click rates, guaranteeing that your newsletter adverts land in your audience’s inboxes.
  • Trust: You build a reputation by consistently offering informative and captivating content via newsletters.

Ad formats for newsletter ad campaigns

Advertising within newsletters entails more than just adding a banner at the top. In the realm of newsletter ad campaigns, you have a variety of formats at your disposal, each with its unique advantages. The beauty of email ads is their potential to seamlessly blend with the newsletter’s core content when executed correctly.

However, not all ad formats are conducive to newsletter adverts due to certain technical constraints. For instance, JavaScript-based ads like Google AdSense ads in newsletters are impossible. That’s one of the reasons why affiliate marketing is an excellent match for newsletter ads.

Banner ads

Banner ads are among the most prevalent ad formats in newsletters. They typically find their spot at the top or bottom of the newsletter, offering static and animated variations options. They excel at promoting specific products or services.

Banner ads catch the eye, standing out from the content to grab attention. However, their conspicuous nature also reveals their promotional character. A potential hiccup comes from email clients that hinder the reloading of external images, meaning these banners might only show up if users actively opt to reload such content.

Example of a banner ad in a newsletter
Example of a banner ad in a newsletter

Text ads

Text ads show their grace within the newsletter, embodying a format virtually indistinguishable from the newsletter’s editorial content, complete with embedded links. Their CTR thrives due to this seemingly organic integration. Therefore, this is the first choice format to embed affiliate links.

Example of a text ad in a newsletter
Example of a text link within the newsletter content

Classified ads

These concise, text-based ads are ideal for businesses looking to promote job listings or straightforward products or services that require no extensive explanation. They often have a dedicated section within or at the end of the content. Still, unlike the text links mentioned above, their integration into the text flow is usually less seamless.

Example of a classified ad in a newsletter
Example of classified text ads at the email’s bottom

Sponsored content

Sponsored content’s design mirrors the newsletter’s editorial content, often appearing as sponsored articles, product reviews, or curated lists of recommendations. This format lives on the publisher’s reputation and can both enrich or diminish it. Therefore, you should choose those partners and review the promotional content very carefully.

Native ads

As a mix between banner ads and sponsored content, native ads blend in with the editorial content of the newsletter. Their design is less intrusive and more engaging than traditional banner ads.

Google ads

Unfortunately, you are not allowed to use Google ads in your newsletters. It is impossible to execute the AdSense code in email formats. AdSense also requires ads.txt validation for serving, making email distribution unfeasible. However, the most important reason for not placing Google ads in newsletters is that it violates Google’s program policies

Smooth newsletter ad integration with MailOptin

The MailOptin Pro plugin flawlessly facilitates the integration of subscriber forms, empowering you to manage newsletters and automations directly within your WordPress backend. This versatile tool lets you craft, format, and dispatch newsletters using an intuitive editor. The automation process is a breeze, allowing you to schedule automatic delivery to specific target groups and newsletter lists via your connected email marketing service account.

This premium plugin is costly, but it offers native integration with the most widely used email marketing services, including renowned platforms such as Mailchimp, AWeber, MailerLite, Constant Contact, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Mailjet, or SendinBlue.

Connect with your newsletter service

To establish a connection with your newsletter service, follow these steps:

  1. Install MailOptin Pro.
  2. Go to MailOptin > Integrations.
  3. Choose your email marketing service.
  4. Proceed to connect by providing your API key as per the provided instructions.
Integrations of the MailOptin plugin
Connect MailOptin with your email marketing service

Create newsletters and embed ads

Creating a compelling newsletter in MailOptin is easy, with the option to incorporate various elements such as buttons, images, dividers, or posts as content blocks. To embed an Advanced Ads ad within your newsletter, include a text block in your content and paste the shortcode for an ad, ad group, or manual placement into the designated field. Instantly, your ad will be visible in the preview on the right.

Adding an Advanced Ads to MailOptin
Add Advanced Ads shortcodes to embed newsletter ads

It’s that straightforward—everything you require for hassle-free newsletter ad placement.

Tracking newsletter ads

When tracking ads in newsletters, there are a few limitations to remember. The reason is that Advanced Ads’ two standard tracking methods, Frontend and Google Analytics, rely on JavaScript, which doesn’t work in emails.

Click tracking

If you’re using the Frontend or Database method for tracking, you can measure ad clicks by enabling link cloaking for these ads. Here’s how it technically works in the background: when a user clicks on your newsletter ad, Advanced Ads redirects this link to your target URL and records this click in the statistics. 

However, click tracking for externally embedded links won’t function if you’ve chosen Google Analytics as your exclusive tracking method.

Impression tracking

Impression tracking is more complex. You can explore two workarounds to gather reasonably accurate impression data for your newsletter ads.

Utilize the Database tracking method

The first workaround involves modifying the tracking method. Unlike Frontend tracking or connecting with Google Analytics, Database tracking records every ad impression stored in the database. This approach allows you to measure impressions, even for externally embedded ads like your newsletter ads.

However, it’s important to note that Database tracking can sometimes inflate ad impression values for specific website configurations. Since you set the tracking method globally in Advanced Ads, I recommend being cautious when switching to this method solely for measuring newsletter ad performance. Doing so may result in unnaturally high impression counts for other ads on your website.

An exception to this advice is if you primarily use Google Analytics as your tracking method. In such cases, you can configure a constant to run one of the local tracking methods simultaneously, thus enabling Database tracking without disrupting your data flow to Google Analytics.

Combine tracked clicks and impressions from different sources

If you chose the Advanced Ads Frontend tracking method on your website and enabled the link cloaking feature for your newsletter ads, you will now record the clicks. However, you cannot record ad impressions in this configuration. In this case, extrapolate the click-through rates of your newsletter ads by comparing the number of opened newsletters from your email marketing service reports and correlating it with the number of detected clicks.

You always calculate the click-through rate: CTR = clicks ÷ impressions *100%

For example, if your report shows 1000 newsletter openings and you count 20 clicks in Advanced Ads, you can estimate a CTR of 20 ÷ 1000 = 2%.

An illustration visualizing the formula for click-through rate: CTR equals clicks divided by number of impressions

The importance of A/B testing for optimizing ad performance

Determining the approximate performance of your newsletter ads will help you optimize them. Learn your average CTR and conversion rates to weed out poor-performing ads and replace them with better-performing ones.

For such A/B tests, you essentially set up ad rotations using ad groups.

Set up ad rotations

As previously outlined, you can embed ads in MailOptin newsletters by incorporating shortcodes. The MailOptin’s editor can interpret shortcodes for individual ads, ad groups, and placements.

Simply including an ad group containing multiple ads and selecting the Random group mode is sufficient for MailOptin to automatically compute the rotation logic. It will treat each singular newsletter sending action analogous to a call to a regular WordPress post with that ad group on it, applying predefined group settings—thereby also the rotation of multiple ad units—anew every time.

This feature is particularly advantageous for conducting A/B testing, where you can pit different banners or text links against one another. It helps you determine the top-performing ads based on their Click-Through (CTR) and conversion rates to increase revenue through newsletter ads.

Tips and best practices

Newsletter ads can be an effective way to generate revenue. Here are some tips and best practices to make the most of this strategy:

Choose the right advertisers

Collaborate with advertisers whose products or services align with your newsletter’s content and audience.

Ad relevance

Ensure the ad content resonates with the interests and needs of your subscribers. Irrelevant ads can deter readers and harm your credibility, while relevant ads are more likely to engage your audience.

Quality over quantity

Concentrate on high-quality, well-targeted ads rather than inundating your newsletter with numerous options. Quality advertisements are more likely to yield better results.

Mindful frequency

Be conscious of the ad frequency in your newsletter. An excessive number of ads in too little space can overwhelm readers, so strike a balance to maintain a positive user experience.

Design and format

Guarantee that ads seamlessly blend with your newsletter’s design and format. They should appear as integrated content rather than disruptive elements.

Ad placement

Experiment with different ad placements within your newsletter, such as the header, footer, sidebar, or within the content. Monitor click-through rates to identify the most influential positions.

Labeling and transparency

Consider labeling ads clearly as “Sponsored” or “Advertisement” to maintain transparency with your audience. Readers appreciate honesty regarding promotional content.

Implement A/B testing

Regularly conduct A/B tests to track and optimize ad performance. Test various ad formats, placements, and messaging to identify what resonates best with your audience. Monitor metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated to make data-driven decisions.

Effective email list segmentation

Segment your email list to deliver targeted ads to specific subscriber groups. Personalized ads often perform better than generic ones.

These revised tips and best practices can offer clarity and readability while maintaining the intended message.

Technical limitations

In addition to the tracking challenges when incorporating newsletter ads, there are a few other essential limitations to consider when venturing outside the realm of your website.

These constraints encompass the non-functionality of Display and Visitor Conditions in the newsletter context. Furthermore, features like Lazy Loading, Click Fraud Protection or other Cache Busting-based functions like ad refresh will face impediments in the newsletter environment. It’s crucial to acknowledge these constraints for a successful newsletter ad integration.

Conclusion about newsletter adverts

Newsletter adverts can be an effective path to monetization of your content. It extends beyond traditional banners, catering to a receptive audience with impressive click-through rates. The key is simple integration, whether it’s text ads, classified ads, banner ads, sponsored content, or other formats.

With the MailOptin Pro plugin, you can effortlessly connect your subscriber forms, simplifying newsletter management in your WordPress backend. It’s a gateway to captivating newsletters and scheduled deliveries to specific target groups through your email marketing service.

While tracking challenges exist, you can adapt and optimize with A/B testing and audience segmentation. Consider the simplicity and effectiveness of newsletter ads to engage your audience, build trust, and boost your revenue.

FAQ

What are the different types of newsletter advertising options available?

Newsletter adverts include sponsored content, banner ads, text ads, classified ads, and native ads. Sponsored content mimics regular newsletter content, while banner ads are graphic ads often placed at the top or bottom. Text ads are concise and blend with content. Classified ads are short ads in dedicated sections, and native ads seamlessly blend with newsletter content.

Can I add Google ads to newsletters?

To integrate newsletter ads, install MailOptin and Advanced Ads. MailOptin natively integrates with popular email marketing services. With Advanced Ads, you can easily insert ads into newsletters, making it a straightforward and efficient solution.

How do I integrate newsletter ads?

To integrate newsletter ads, install MailOptin and Advanced Ads. MailOptin natively integrates with popular email marketing services. With Advanced Ads, you can easily insert ads into newsletters, making it a straightforward and efficient solution.

Author image Joachim

Joachim started marketing his first local news website in 2009. Shortly after, he successfully monetized his travel blogs about Morocco. He is an expert in affiliate marketing in the tourism and travel industry. When he's not writing tutorials for Advanced Ads or supporting other users, he prefers staying in Marrakech or at the Baltic Sea.

With over a decade of industry expertise, Advanced Ads is your surefooted ally in the ad tech realm. Their array of WordPress ad manager plugins enhances your advertising strategy, ensuring effective ad placements. Rely on their ad tech proficiency to stay ahead in the dynamic world of digital advertising. Contact info

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