You already know LinkedIn ads work. Decision-makers are there, targeting is precise, and the platform has become the default B2B advertising channel for a reason.
But here’s the problem: everyone knows it. When every B2B brand is bidding for the same CISOs, IT directors, and VP-level buyers, costs spiral. A “good” LinkedIn CPL for B2B tech companies is about $124 per lead. And it’s climbing year over year. For enterprise-focused companies, that number can push well past $500.
That’s the wall Rubrik hit. And it’s probably a wall you recognize too.
Rubrik is a data security company trusted by more than 6,000 organizations worldwide, including Sephora, Adobe, and Home Depot. Their mission: secure the world’s data. Their marketing challenge: reach the security professionals and IT decision-makers without burning budget on a channel that was getting more expensive by the quarter.
Their answer? Newsletter sponsorships. And the results surprised even their own leadership.
By the numbers: 1,000+ new MQLs generated. $100,000+ added to sales pipeline. 82% savings per lead compared to LinkedIn Ads.
The problem with LinkedIn (and why it’s not going away)
Daniel, Marketing Manager at Rubrik, put it plainly: “Sure, we could run ads on LinkedIn, but we’re looking at thousands of dollars, sometimes $500 per lead.”
That’s not a Rubrik-specific problem. It’s a structural one. LinkedIn’s auction-based ad system means the more competitive your target audience, the more you pay. For B2B tech companies chasing senior security and IT buyers, that audience is about as competitive as it gets.
The cost pressure is compounded by another reality: Rubrik’s marketing team needed to drive event registrations and webinar signups, not just brand impressions. Performance-focused campaigns on LinkedIn at $500 CPL make the math nearly impossible to defend to leadership.
So Rubrik started looking for a channel that could deliver the same audience quality at a fraction of the cost. What he found was something most B2B marketers overlook: the newsletters those decision-makers actually read every morning.
Why newsletter sponsorships work so well for B2B
Newsletter sponsorships aren’t a new concept. But for a long time, they were hard to scale: fragmented publisher relationships, inconsistent pricing, manual trafficking, and no centralized reporting. Most B2B marketers tried them once, got inconsistent results, and went back to what was familiar.
What’s changed is the infrastructure. Platforms like Paved have turned newsletter sponsorships into a real performance channel, with centralized inventory, transparent pricing, and the kind of attribution data that makes leadership say “keep going back to that well.”
Here’s why the channel works so well for B2B specifically:
- Newsletters are opt-in environments.
Readers chose to subscribe. That means your ad appears in a context of trust and active attention, not a scroll-past feed. - Niche newsletters deliver niche audiences.
A cybersecurity newsletter’s readership is almost entirely security professionals. The targeting is built into the editorial premise. - Cost efficiency is structural, not coincidental.
Newsletter CPLs are lower because you’re buying direct access to a curated audience, not competing in a real-time auction. - The format encourages reading.
A sponsored placement in a newsletter people open every morning gets far more time-on-page than a banner ad or a scroll-by social post.
The bottom line: newsletters give you the audience quality of LinkedIn at a fraction of the cost, in a context where readers are actively engaged rather than passively scrolling.
How to scale up newsletter sponsorships: the 90-day playbook
Rubrik didn’t stumble into these results. They ran a deliberate, phased strategy that any B2B marketing team can replicate. Here’s exactly how they approached it.
Month 1: Start small, test smart
Rubrik’s first move was to invest a modest $5,000-$10,000 to test the channel before scaling. Rather than going all-in on one big newsletter, they sponsored 3-5 small, niche publications that aligned tightly with their ICP: cybersecurity professionals, IT leaders, and C-level tech buyers.
The newsletters they targeted included CertMike, Packt, The Hacker News, and The National CIO Review — publications with highly engaged, topic-specific audiences.
The math was immediately compelling. As Rubrik explained: “With just one newsletter ad in CertMike, I’m reaching 40,000 contacts. If I spend $525 and get 30 registrations, it’s way cheaper. Paved is a really cost-effective way to get in front of the right people.”
Month 1 priorities:
- Choose 3-5 niche newsletters aligned with your ICP
- Set up UTMs and conversion tracking through your attribution tools
- Focus on the metrics that matter: signups, downloads, conversions (not impressions)
- Budget $5,000-$10,000 for initial experimentation
Month 2: Prove ROI, reinvest
After Month 1, Rubrik had early data to work with. The goal in Month 2 was simple: share wins with leadership, reinvest ROI into new sponsorships, and double down on what worked.
The Rubrik team targeted 15-30 conversions per sponsorship as a benchmark for success. When a placement hit that threshold, they ran it again, with fresh ad creative to avoid audience fatigue.
One critical note: don’t recycle the same messaging. Even a high-performing newsletter placement will see diminishing returns if the ad copy doesn’t change. Rubrik kept rotating creative across their top-performing publications.
Month 2 priorities:
- Share early wins with leadership (registrations, leads, downloads)
- Reinvest ROI into repeat sponsorships with top performers
- Refresh ad messaging for every new run
- Aim for 15-30 conversions per placement as your success benchmark
Month 3: Expand, experiment, scale
By Month 3, Rubrik had a playbook that worked. The next move was to expand beyond their core category and explore adjacent newsletter audiences.
This is where the advice gets interesting: “Be open to trying sponsorships in different newsletter categories. There’s a ton of newsletters on Paved that fall into my ICP in unexpected places.”
A cybersecurity win in a tech newsletter might translate to a business leadership newsletter. A webinar promotion that performed in an IT publication might also resonate with a finance or operations audience. The ICP doesn’t live in one inbox.
Rubrik also leaned into multi-touch attribution during this phase, connecting newsletter sponsorships to downstream outcomes: product demos, event registrations, and sales meetings booked.
Month 3 priorities:
- Expand to adjacent newsletter categories beyond your core vertical
- Use multi-touch attribution to connect sponsorships to pipeline outcomes
- Keep iterating on creative and placements
- Treat this as a performance channel, not a one-off test
The results (and what leadership said)
After running more than 100 sponsorships over the course of a year, Rubrik’s newsletter strategy had compounded into something their leadership couldn’t ignore.
Here’s what the channel delivered:
| Metric | Result |
| New MQLs generated | 1,000+ |
| Cost savings vs. LinkedIn Ads | 82% |
| Pipeline added | $100,000+ |
| Sales meetings booked (Data Security Summit alone) | 10+ |
| MQLs from a single event campaign | 100+ |
Rubrik used Paved to partner with top-tier newsletters focused on cybersecurity, C-level tech, and IT audiences. They ran a combination of dedicated and sponsored emails across publications including CertMike, TechNews World, and Planet Compliance. That single campaign generated 100+ MQLs, 10+ sales meetings, and $100,000+ in pipeline.
When Rubrik brought the numbers to leadership, the reaction was telling.
“My boss and his boss — our VP of demand gen — asked me, ‘What is this Paved platform?’ We were driving a ton of web traffic, getting solid registrations, and when I shared the numbers, they said, ‘This is great. Keep going back to that well.'” — Daniel, Marketing Manager at Rubrik
That’s the moment every performance marketer wants: when a new channel stops being an experiment and becomes a budget line item.
The final assessment: “I can tell you I’ve driven more pipeline than I’ve spent on Paved. So, the ROI is there for me.”
The digital marketer’s newsletter ad playbook
Rubrik’s strategy was built around cybersecurity and IT audiences. But the mechanics translate to virtually any B2B vertical.
If you’re running demand gen for a SaaS product, promoting a webinar, driving downloads for a gated report, or trying to build awareness in a niche market, the same three-phase approach applies:
- Start with 3-5 tightly targeted newsletters that match your ICP. Spend modestly. Track everything.
- Prove the ROI with real conversion data, then reinvest in what worked with fresh creative.
- Expand into adjacent categories where your buyers also spend time. Your ICP doesn’t read one newsletter.
The channel is especially powerful for teams that are:
- Feeling the squeeze on LinkedIn or Meta and need to diversify before CAC makes the channel unsustainable
- Running event or webinar marketing where cost-per-registration is the key metric
- Managing campaigns across multiple clients or verticals and need a centralized, scalable buying workflow
- Building brand presence in a niche market where trust and context matter more than reach
The part most B2B marketers miss: newsletters aren’t a replacement for LinkedIn. They’re a complement to it. Rubrik didn’t stop running LinkedIn ads. They found a channel that could deliver qualified pipeline at a fraction of the cost, which freed up budget to invest more strategically across the mix.
Ready to run your own Rubrik-style campaign?
Rubrik’s results didn’t come from a secret strategy or an unlimited budget. They came from finding the right channel, testing it methodically, and scaling what worked.
Paved makes that process straightforward. You get centralized access to thousands of newsletters across every vertical, transparent performance data, and smart audience-matching recommendations that help you find high-performing placements faster.
New publications are added to Paved every week. The more you explore beyond your core category, the more opportunities you’ll find, often in places you wouldn’t expect.
If you’re ready to find out what newsletter sponsorships can do for your pipeline, book a demo with Paved and we’ll help you build your first campaign.
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