Newsletters aren't a niche channel anymore. Marketers are putting real budget behind them, and the numbers from 2025 back it up.
In early 2026, the Paved Team pulled the results from every sponsorship delivered through the Paved Marketplace, surveyed more than 1,500 advertisers, and compared it all against the previous year. Here's what stood out, what it means for the rest of 2026, and why the channel keeps growing.
Newsletters had their best year yet
In 2025, advertisers spent millions on newsletter ads through the Paved Marketplace. Brands like HubSpot, Canva, and Shopify put budget into the channel, and publisher earnings followed.
The numbers:
- •Newsletter earnings on Paved grew 30% year over year
- •Total ad campaigns run through the marketplace grew 40%
- •Advertisers reached an 80% larger subscriber pool than in 2024, as more newsletters joined the marketplace
"Paved is different from all in terms of quality, payouts and consistency of advertisers," one publisher on SoftwareTestingHelp told us. "I strongly recommend having Paved combined with your other ad stacks. Your overall earnings will see a big jump."
Native email ads are pulling more weight
The Paved Ad Network delivered billions of impressions in 2025 and grew its unique user count by 84% compared to the year before.
To keep up, the Paved team doubled in headcount. More people means better performance for advertisers and more opportunities for publishers to monetize their audiences.
"I see newsletters as one of the most impactful frontiers in media today," said Phil Reich, CEO at Paved. "Paved is uniquely positioned to simplify how advertisers buy sponsorships while empowering publishers to monetize their audiences in smarter, more sustainable ways."
What separates a good ad from a great one
We gathered anonymous feedback from advertisers across every 2025 sponsorship on the marketplace, asking how well each placement met their goals and matched expectations. A few patterns showed up again and again in the 4 and 5 star reviews.
Short ad copy wins. The top-performing ads keep it brief. Bullet points, bold text, and links do the work of making the ad skimmable.
Lead with value. Almost every high-rated ad makes the benefit obvious in the first line. No clickbait, no slow build to the point.
Clean layouts blend in. The best-performing placements look like they belong in the newsletter. They don't read as an external banner dropped into someone else's content.
Advertisers also came back. Rebooking intent grew 53% year over year, and the newsletters with the highest rebooking rates shared a few things in common: predictable performance, clean layouts, simple CTAs with fresh copy for each offer, and tight alignment between advertiser and audience. "I would run this placement every week if I could," one performance marketer told us.
The brands happiest with newsletter ads were in software, tech, media, marketing, and financial services. We anticipate a huge untapped opportunity for direct to consumer brands in 2026.
Where this leaves for the rest of 2026
A few takeaways for anyone running or booking newsletter ads next year:
Keep ads short and benefit-focused. The best performers blend into the newsletter and make their value clear in the first line. One clear goal, short copy, and a native look drove consistent results all year.
Don't over-design. You don't need a flawless layout to win. Simple, clickbait-free combinations of image and text topped the charts in 2025. What matters is reaching the right people and giving them something worth acting on.
Remove friction from your offers. Signups and downloads outperformed everything else. The easier the ask, the more likely someone follows through.
Better ads mean more revenue, for everyone. Marketers are shifting serious budget into newsletter ads because the performance is hard to ignore. Publishers with clean layouts and real subscriber connections are set up to win repeat demand in 2026.
