What is negative CAC for a newsletter?

I didn't coin the term. I first heard it from another newsletter operator. The idea is simple: your cost to acquire customers becomes negative because you get paid to acquire them.

"That's the negative CAC model. Your cost to acquire customers is you get paid to acquire customers. I wouldn't promise it, it depends on a lot of facts, but even if it was 50%, instead of paying a dollar you're paying 50 cents."

How does the math work for a local newsletter?

Most of my local subscribers cost somewhere between 30 and 60 cents on Meta. If each new subscriber earns about 50 cents through offers right after signup, acquisition costs of 30 to 60 cents are covered. You're growing for free.

Here's a version with bigger numbers I used on my podcast: if a subscriber costs $50 to acquire and an offer pays you $50 per person who takes it, your subscriber cost is now zero.

Where does the money come from?

• An offer to business owners. About 15% of local subscribers own a business. Show them something like "first ad 50% off this month," a $100 or $200 purchase. If about 1% of all subscribers take it, you can cover your list growth.
• A paid-plan trial, if you have one.
• Partner lead-gen. Local businesses pay per lead or pay for a slot on the post-signup page.
• Paid recommendations or affiliate offers. These work better for national and B2B newsletters than for local.

What changes if it works?

Everything about your budget. If growth costs nothing, you don't bank the margin. You double or triple the spend.

"Imagine if the growth cost was zero, right? I would double, double the spend, triple the spend."

The question stops being what a subscriber costs. It becomes what the first five minutes after subscribe produces. If you can grow your list for free, or get paid to grow, throw as much money at it as you can.

What if you only get partway?

Still worth it. If offers cut your acquisition cost by 30%, 50% or 80%, that money goes back into ads. A realistic first goal for a new local newsletter spending around 50 cents a subscriber is getting to neutral.

Why is it hard?

• You need local businesses willing to pay per lead or pay for a slot.
• You have to sell those businesses, which is real work.
• You need tracking so every lead is counted before the business gets it.
• The welcome flow can't feel like constant pitching.

I named roughly 50 cents per new subscriber as the target after a call about a welcome-offer product. It's still something I'm working on, not a result I can show you yet. It's why I built greetform: to help publishers make money back quickly on new subscribers.