Hey, fellow grower. Remember the feeling you got after learning to ride a bike and the training wheels came off for the first time? Or for those of us where that was wayyyy too long ago to remember, that feeling when you got your driver’s license and were on the road alone for the first time?
Well, that’s how I’m feeling as we dive into issue #2.
-Peter
In this week’s newsletter:
- 🙅 Don’t fall into the cheap volume trap
- 📉 When ROAS isn’t what it seems
- 🤔 What do CFOs really want from you?
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DATA INSIGHT
🙅 Don’t fall into the cheap volume trap
There’s a dangerous lie floating around media-planning spreadsheets, and it's the idea that buying cheaper, lower-tier ad inventory to juice eyeballs is a "smart volume play."
After scouring our network’s results this week, it seems we (inadvertently) tested this theory. And our results suggest that spreading budget across less-premium placements to hit a blended CPM target is basically the media buying equivalent of watering your lawn with a spray bottle. It looks like you're doing something, but absolutely nothing is growing.
The big takeaway: Only certain types of placements drive conversions
- We isolated a 350k-subscriber career-focused daily newsletter to remove audience variables, and looked at placement types.
- The result: Tier 1 was the only placement tier that drove trackable conversions over the past seven days (seven sends). Lower tiers generated a decent amount of clicks, but zero conversions.
- This poses a problem b/c if a placement can't produce a single trackable conversion, you can't even tell whether your creative failed or the slot did.
What separates the tiers:
- Tier 1 placements include logo insertion at the top of the email, and sit prominently before/immediately-after the first major editorial section. Tiers 2 and 3, the lower tiers, sit…wait for it…lower in the newsletter🤯, with less copy space and visual noise when compared to Tier 1s - but still solid engagement (usually).
- Across 21 recent placements in the aforementioned career-focused daily newsletter, Tier 1 slots generated all 23 tracked conversions (mostly high AOV consumer products, for context), while Tier 2 and Tier 3 slots generated zero trackable sales - despite delivering millions of sends and tens of thousands of verified clicks.
Big picture: While Tier 2 and Tier 3 placements perform well across our network (0.7% ad CTR and 1.2% ad CTR, respectively), Tier 1 placements generate a significantly higher click-through rate (2.8%). In meetings we’ve started referring to Tier 1s as the headliner, and the lower tiers as the openers or check spots (any comedy fans out there?).
💡 What to do for your next campaign: Stop buying secondary placements to hit a blended CPM target; consolidate budget into Tier 1 or “premium” - AKA prominent - inventory to actually drive conversions. It may feel safer to buy three cheap placements instead of one expensive one, but if the cheap ones literally never convert, you're just lighting money on fire slowly instead of all at once. Bite the bullet, pay for the premium attention, and actually measure what your creative can do when people are forced to look at it.
NEED TO KNOW
What you may have missed this week
⚖️ Google keeps AdX: A judge rejected Google’s forced AdX divestiture following its monopoly ruling. For marketers, this means the infrastructure underlying much of open-web advertising remains largely intact - though behavioral remedies may increase pricing control and bid access.
📏 When ROAS isn’t what it seems: How a retailer showing an 11x return on spend still lost money on each order.
📈🤔Beware of inflation (not the kind you’re prob thinking of): Bots are poisoning reporting and retargeting; they now generate over half of web requests, according to Cloudflare. So if you’re measuring campaign performance, make sure you have methods in place to verify human behavior.*
*Shameless plug: At DONUT Press Media, helping brands improve their targeting (of HUMANS) is our bread-and-butter. It all starts with premium newsletter demand. Learn more.
THE HELP DESK
Stuff that makes your output better and your job easier
🙌 Finally, an answer to the question: What does your CFO actually want from you?
🤖 Become Chief Market-AIng Officer: Improvado’s AI Marketing Prompts Guide is a must-read that covers all the best practices for 2026.
😬 Control issues? Me, too. Here’s a nine-step guide on how to delegate without it becoming a mess.
Whoa, we’re halfway there (to the end of the week). Hope you’re thriving and not just livin’ on a prayer. Happy growing; see you back here next Wednesday✌️.
-Peter & Scott
P.S. Meta or Google not providing the same bang for your advertising buck? At DONUT Press Media, we have 13.4M+ premium subscribers across dozens of highly engaged niche audiences. 43% have a net worth over $2M. 87% are decision-makers. If you're considering diverting some test spend to newsletters, we should definitely chat. Book a call →