How should I split my Meta ads budget between an established newsletter and a new one?

One operator I advised was spending $15 a day on a new brand and $20 a day on an established one sitting at about 37,000 subscribers. I told them to drop the old one from $20 to $5 and push more toward the new one.

"How much changes if you get from 37,000 to 40,000? Not much. You just want enough budget to keep up with the unsubscribes so you're staying above water."

Why does a mature list need less spend?

Because the marginal subscriber matters less. On a big list, the next few thousand subscribers change little. On a new brand, they change a lot.

That mature list was still coming in at about 24 cents a subscriber, which is nuts for a list that size. Cheap isn't the question. Upside is.

What is a maintenance budget?

Enough daily spend to offset the people who unsubscribe or get cleaned off the list, so the total holds steady or creeps up. On that account, about $5 a day.

Should I upload my existing list to Meta?

Once the list is big enough, yes, as an exclusion. Upload the subscribers so the ads stop paying to reach people who already subscribe.

• At 3,000 or 4,000 subscribers the value isn't worth it.
• At 20,000 it probably is.

Expect the numbers on a brand with a big existing list to be worse than at the very beginning. Meta already got the easiest signups. It should still be worth it.

How big should any one newsletter's budget get?

I cap Meta spend at about $1,000 to $2,000 a month per newsletter. Beyond that the cost per subscriber goes too high to make sense. Daily guidance is in how much to spend per day.