Should a local newsletter run Meta ads asking people to pay for a subscription?

Paid subscribers are worth a lot to local news. Legacy outlets carry a lifetime value of $200 to $500 per subscriber, which means even $100 to land a paying subscriber pencils out.

The mistake is asking a stranger in a Facebook feed to pay before they've read a single issue.

The play I run

1. Target the payers. College-educated, six-figure-income locals who care about government, taxes, and the courts. Not just event-goers.
2. Lead with free. A news-angle ad for the free newsletter.
3. Push the upgrade in email. A separate segment with a harder sell toward the paid tier, around $10 a month.
4. Keep it out of your main campaign. Run it as its own test with its own budget, up to about $2,000, so it can't hurt what already works.

When I did ask for money directly

For a legacy local news brand, I ran the first ad I've ever run that asks people to pay directly, with a $1 intro offer. The line I liked best was "The people who shape [county] all read the same thing."

The creative was an empty courthouse. Probably not engaging enough. For a paid product, the ad has to show the value of the journalism itself. Price can't be the hook.

Don't forget donations

A news organization I work with made $7,000 fast just by sending new subscribers to a donation page right after signup.