Why Morning Brew Is Doubling Down on the beehiiv Ad Network

Overview

• Advertiser: Morning Brew
• Platform: beehiiv Ad Network
• Campaign date: November 2022
• Primary goal: Subscriber growth + brand awareness
• Outcome: Target CPAs hit, strong CTRs, campaign renewed

The Opportunity

Morning Brew is a newsletter-first media company built on scale, performance, and efficiency. To continue expanding its readership, the team needed a channel that could:

• Reach high-intent newsletter readers
• Scale across multiple trusted publications
• Deliver measurable subscriber acquisition, not just impressions

That led them to the beehiiv Ad Network.

Why the beehiiv Ad Network

The beehiiv Ad Network was built to solve two problems at once:

For advertisers

• Access to thousands of high-quality newsletters
• 125M+ monthly impressions and ~10M unique readers
• First-party data in a format that converts
• Easy testing across audiences, creatives, and verticals

For newsletters

• Turnkey monetization without ad sales overhead
• No selling, scheduling, invoicing, or reporting
• Revenue without sacrificing editorial focus

Campaign Details

Goal: Drive new Morning Brew subscribers

Target audience: Readers 25+ interested in business, finance, tech, education, science, and history

Target impressions: 250,000

Campaign length: 1 month (Nov 1–30)

Campaign Performance

During the campaign:

• Ads ran across 17 unique newsletters
• Delivered 250K+ impressions
• Reached nearly two dozen distinct audiences
• Achieved CTRs exceeding 1.25% on optimized sends
• Delivered CPCs under $3.50
• Met Morning Brew’s target CPA

The campaign also unlocked a key advantage: continuous optimization. As data came in, beehiiv was able to refine audience selection and creative, improving performance throughout the flight.

Result: Morning Brew renewed for another campaign in January 2023.

Impact on Newsletter Publishers

While Morning Brew gained subscribers, participating newsletters generated meaningful revenue, regardless of size.

The Street Sheet

A weekly business and finance newsletter using the Ad Network to supplement existing sponsorships.

“Pretty incredible to see. Honored to be along for the ride.”
— Brooks Dyroff, Founder

Morning Huddle

A smaller fantasy football newsletter that earned hundreds of dollars from a single sponsored send.

“It feels like having a full-time ad agency helping us monetize.”
— Jacob Robinson, Founder

Wall St. Rank

A brand-new beehiiv publisher that secured two sponsorships within their first week.

“beehiiv is a game changer for creators and small businesses.”
— Amrit Rupa, Founder

Key Takeaways

• Newsletter ads outperform when placed in trusted editorial environments
• The Ad Network enables true performance marketing, not just awareness
• Small and large newsletters alike can monetize immediately
• Advertisers benefit from scale and specificity
• Optimization improves results over time, especially for repeat advertisers

Summary

Morning Brew used the beehiiv Ad Network to efficiently reach engaged newsletter audiences, hit target acquisition costs, and drive real subscriber growth—leading to a campaign renewal.

At the same time, newsletters across the beehiiv ecosystem generated incremental revenue without taking on ad sales complexity.

Whether you’re:

• an advertiser looking to acquire high-quality subscribers, or
• a newsletter looking to monetize without distraction

the beehiiv Ad Network is built to scale both sides of the market.