Newsletter Sponsorships: Substack and Beehiiv Creators as an Influencer Marketing Channel

The short answer

A newsletter sponsorship is a paid placement inside a creator-run email newsletter, and it differs structurally from a normal social influencer deal in two ways: the audience is owned — an email list the reader actively chose to join, not an algorithm-governed feed — and pricing usually runs on CPM against unique opens rather than a flat fee per post. Two platforms currently dominate the creator-run newsletter economy: Beehiiv, which runs a self-serve Ad Network matching advertisers with newsletters by topic and audience (starting at $5 CPM, per beehiiv's own pricing page), and Substack, which launched Native Sponsorships in 2026 — an invite-only pilot program open only to writers who've reached Bestseller status (at least 100 paid subscribers). Neither platform has published a Danish or Nordic pricing structure.

Why does a newsletter deserve its own channel page?

The Academy already covers podcast, Twitch, Discord and Snapchat/Pinterest sponsorships as distinct channels — a newsletter earns the same treatment because its mechanics differ from all of them on one central point: who owns the distribution. An Instagram following ultimately belongs to the platform — the algorithm decides who actually sees a post, and a creator can lose reach overnight. A newsletter list, by contrast, is an email list the creator owns and can export; delivery doesn't depend on a feed algorithm, only on whether the email lands in the reader's inbox. That makes a newsletter sponsorship look more like a classic media placement than a social post — closest in spirit to a podcast sponsorship (a paid slot inside a periodic, subscribed-to release), but without the audio, and with a clickable link by default, which solves the exact structural tracking problem that podcasts don't have. See podcast sponsorships as influencer marketing.

Beehiiv: Ad Network and Boosts — two different products, often confused

Beehiiv is a newsletter platform (comparable to a CMS or ESP for email), and it offers two separate monetization products that shouldn't be confused with each other:

• Ad Network — the actual advertising product. Per beehiiv's own support documentation, a publisher can price a placement either by CPM (the advertiser pays per 1,000 unique opens in a single send — beehiiv's own worked example is a $5 CPM, which earns the publisher $5 for every 1,000 unique opens delivered) or by CPC (per unique click on the sponsored link — beehiiv's own example: $2 per click, yielding $200 from 100 clicks). Publishers receive up to 7 advertiser offers on a rolling basis, refreshed hourly, matched to the newsletter's audience, content category and past performance — in other words, a marketplace where the advertiser isn't necessarily negotiating directly with a named creator, but gets matched automatically.
• Boosts — not a brand sponsorship at all, but a co-registration product for cross-promotion between newsletters: a publisher recommends another publication to their own subscribers and earns an agreed payout for every verified new subscriber, paid out via Stripe. It solves a different problem (audience growth between newsletters, not brand exposure) and shouldn't be confused with the Ad Network, even though both are beehiiv products that generate revenue for the publisher.

For a brand that wants to sponsor a newsletter, the Ad Network is the relevant entry point — Boosts is a tool newsletters use on each other, not something a brand buys into.

Substack: from a subscription model to Native Sponsorships

Substack's core business has historically been paid subscriptions: the platform takes 10% of subscription revenue plus Stripe's processing fee (roughly 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction), per Substack's own published pricing. That's still how most Substack writers primarily earn — but in 2026, per the company's own blog post on on.substack.com from co-founder Chris Best, Substack launched a separate program: Native Sponsorships.

The program works as follows, per Substack's own description:

• Access requires Bestseller status. Only writers who've earned Substack's own "Bestseller" badge — awarded automatically at 100 or more paid subscribers, per Substack's own support documentation — can set up a "Creator Kit" (a shareable media kit) and signal interest in the program.
• Substack does the matching, not the writer. Substack itself handles "matchmaking, infrastructure, and logistics" between writer and brand, rather than the writer having to source, negotiate and manage the relationship alone.
• The writer keeps editorial control. Per Substack's own blog post, the writer chooses who they work with and sets the creative direction — the program is described as direct partnerships, not ads inserted arbitrarily.
• Four collaboration types. Per Substack's own program description, as quoted publicly by several writers participating in the pilot: editorial integrations (a content series developed with the brand), events & experiences (the brand sponsors or co-hosts a writer's real-life event), audio & video (baked-in, host-read ads or custom segments inside a writer's podcast or video), and subscriber perks (early product access or a discount paired with the writer's existing paid subscription bundle).
• Launch partners. Per Substack's own blog post, the program launched with Yahoo Scout, Whatnot, Granola, Balenciaga, T-Mobile, Polymarket and Uber as launch partners, collectively investing "millions of dollars" into creators.

An important caveat: as of mid-2026, Native Sponsorships is an invite-only pilot, not a self-serve, open marketplace the way beehiiv's Ad Network is — a brand can't simply book a placement directly. Several writers who've publicly covered the pilot have quoted Substack as saying the platform takes no cut of sponsorship revenue during the pilot phase, and that the company plans a larger program later in 2026 — that detail comes from the program's own description as relayed by third parties, not something this article could verify directly with Substack itself, and terms may have changed by the time this is read.

Substack vs. Beehiiv: comparison

	Substack (Native Sponsorships)	Beehiiv (Ad Network)
Eligibility	Bestseller badge (100+ paid subscribers) plus an invitation into the pilot	No documented subscriber threshold — publishers receive a rolling stream of advertiser offers
How brand and writer get matched	Substack handles matchmaking manually/curated, pilot phase	Automated marketplace, up to 7 offers per hour, matched by topic/audience/performance
Pricing model	Not published — negotiated directly as part of the partnership	CPM (from $5/1,000 opens) or CPC (from $2/click), per beehiiv's own worked example
Collaboration format	Editorial integration, events, audio/video, subscriber perks — deeper, more custom formats	Sponsored placement/link inside a normal send — a more standardized ad format
Maturity	Invite-only pilot program (2026)	Established, self-serve product

How to book a newsletter sponsorship: three routes

Route	How it works	Best fit
Direct with the writer	Negotiate price, format and placement directly with the newsletter's owner — the model that has historically dominated creator newsletters, regardless of platform	A specific newsletter whose audience is clearly the right fit, where full control over the deal matters
Beehiiv's Ad Network (self-serve)	Set campaign criteria and get matched automatically with newsletters that fit the target audience and category	Testing the channel broadly without negotiating with each newsletter individually
Substack's Native Sponsorships (curated)	Apply to participate; Substack matches brand and writer manually within the pilot's scope	A brand that wants a deeper, editorial integration rather than a standardized ad buy — but only available if the brand gets invited in

Disclosure rules apply inside an email too

A newsletter sponsorship is advertising, regardless of it being delivered as an email rather than a feed post. The Danish and EU disclosure baseline — covered in full in influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU — is medium-agnostic: what matters is whether there's a commercial arrangement behind the content, not whether it's delivered as video, a post or an email. No documented exception for the email format was found at either the US FTC or Forbrugerombudsmanden — the disclosure has to be clear before the reader engages with the sponsored section, the same principle that applies to podcast audio and Discord servers.

Decision framework: when does a newsletter sponsorship make sense?

IF you want a deeper, more editorial form of exposure than a standard feed post → an editorial integration through Substack's Native Sponsorships (if you can get access) or a direct deal with a writer fits better than a standardized banner placement.

IF you want to test the channel broadly and quickly without negotiating one by one → beehiiv's Ad Network gives a self-serve route in, matched automatically by audience and category.

IF your product needs explaining, or trust matters more than a quick visual impression → newsletters share that advantage with podcasts: a reader who chose to subscribe is typically more engaged than a random feed scroller.

IF you need precise, granular tracking → use a unique tracking link inside the sponsorship itself, not just a discount code — unlike podcast audio, a newsletter has a clickable link by default, which removes podcasts' structural attribution problem.

Worked example

The figures below build on beehiiv's own published CPM mechanic ($5 per 1,000 unique opens), but the subscriber count, clicks and conversion are hypothetical and illustrate only how the calculation fits together — this is not a documented Danish market price and not a real Make Influence customer case.

A brand books a sponsored placement in a beehiiv-hosted newsletter at a $5 CPM. The send reports 20,000 unique opens: 20,000 ÷ 1,000 × $5 = $100 for the placement. Using a unique tracking link inside the placement, 40 recipients click through, and 5 of them complete a purchase at an average order value of $80, producing tracked revenue of 5 × 80 = $400 and a tracked ROAS of 400 ÷ 100 = 4×. Because the newsletter has a clickable link by default, this example doesn't need the same structural-undercount caveat that applies to podcast promo codes.

Common mistakes

• Confusing beehiiv's Boosts with a brand sponsorship. Boosts is cross-promotion between newsletters — the relevant product for a brand is the Ad Network.
• Assuming Substack's Native Sponsorships can be booked self-serve. As of 2026, it's an invite-only pilot — the realistic route in for most brands is still a direct deal with the writer.
• Using a discount code instead of a unique tracking link. Newsletters have a clickable link by default — falling back on a spoken or written code discards that advantage unnecessarily.
• Assuming a Danish pricing structure exists. Neither Substack nor beehiiv has published Danish or Nordic figures — treat the US examples as directional mechanics, not a price.

Make Influence's operational perspective

In Make Influence's experience, creator-run newsletters remain a very small part of the Danish influencer marketing landscape compared with Instagram and TikTok, but the structural advantage — an owned audience with a clickable link by default — makes the channel worth watching as more short-form creators, per international media coverage, start building newsletter subscriber lists alongside their social channels. Our recommendation is to treat a newsletter sponsorship as its own line in the media mix, tracked with its own unique link — see how influencer tracking actually works — rather than assuming a newsletter behaves like just another social post.

FAQ

Are newsletter sponsorships the same thing as influencer marketing?

They belong to the same family: a creator with an audience gets paid to expose a brand to it. The difference is the distribution format — an owned email list instead of an algorithm-governed feed — which changes how the sponsorship is priced and tracked.

Can a brand book a Substack sponsorship without Bestseller status?

Not through the Native Sponsorships program, which requires the Bestseller badge (100+ paid subscribers). A direct deal outside the program is still possible with any Substack writer, regardless of badge status.

What's the difference between beehiiv's Ad Network and Boosts?

The Ad Network is brand advertising inside a newsletter, priced by CPM or CPC. Boosts is a co-registration product for recommending one newsletter to another newsletter's subscribers — the two shouldn't be confused.

Is there a Danish price for newsletter sponsorships?

No. Neither Substack nor beehiiv has published a Danish or Nordic rate card — the examples used in this article are American and illustrate the mechanics only.

Does a newsletter sponsorship need to be disclosed as advertising?

Yes. The Danish and EU disclosure baseline applies regardless of medium — see influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU.

What about podcasts and other niche channels?

Podcasts share newsletters' advantage of an engaged, subscribed-to audience, but lack a clickable link — see podcast sponsorships as influencer marketing. For other niche channels, see Twitch and Discord.