Why are Meta ads the best way to grow a local newsletter?
Short answer
Because nobody searches for a local newsletter. Meta already has the attention of the people who live near you, and you can reach them with one setting: they live within about 10 miles of here. That's why local subscribers cost cents. Other channels need people to be looking for you, or cost far more, like postcards.
"People don't proactively go look for this stuff. You basically pay Meta to say, I already have these people's attention, do you want to throw your stuff in front of them?"
That's the whole case. Every other strategy either needs people to be looking for you, which they aren't, or it's just too expensive.
Why is local so cheap on Facebook?
Because targeting is easy. Who do you target? People who live within 10 miles of here. That's it. National brands fight over interests and lookalikes. A local newsletter just needs geography and a good ad.
The result: most of my subscribers come in between 30 and 60 cents. Compare that to anything physical. You could make a bunch of postcards, but the cost per signup is way too high compared to Meta.
How fast can it grow a list?
- A realtor friend I helped got his ads down to 15 cents and added five or six thousand subscribers in a month.
- In a partner organization's publisher cohort, publishers spending about $25 to $35 a day added roughly 1.5% of their local population in about 10 weeks.
- At 50 cents a subscriber, $10,000 buys about 20,000 subscribers.
Should I just boost my best posts instead?
Boosting has a place, but only for winners.
"Don't just boost anything, because if it's not that engaging, who cares if an extra 10,000 people saw it? But when a post pops off, boost it."
A percentage of those people will say, I live here, I want to follow you. They follow. Then an automated DM through ManyChat asks if they know you also have a newsletter. Think of all of that as one funnel. I learned the hard way that boosting weak posts wastes money.
About one in three people who engage with my newsletter ads also follow the page, so the ads feed social too.
What does it take to start?
- A dedicated subscribe page with the Meta pixel on it.
- One proven ad, ideally video with text on top.
- Location targeting and nothing else.
- About $25 a day, raised slowly.
Start with the ad that works best for me and how much to spend per day.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From Local Media HQ podcast episodes and publisher setup calls in 2025 and 2026. Last updated .