How I'm Spending $2,000 to Gain 1,274 Newsletter Subscribers

Author

Matt Karamazov
May 25, 2025

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📚 Hey, let’s talk about winning.

The Reading Life newsletter (my other one) just crossed 6,200 subscribers and I've been using a combination of paid ads, partnerships, and organic to grow it to that level.

For members of Creator Launch Academy, I'm going to be breaking down EVERYTHING I'm doing and learning when it comes to newsletter growth, of course, but especially when it comes to paid ads.

Because it's one of those growth channels that's insanely effective, but also more than a little intimidating for many people, and definitely hard to get right.

So I want to smooth out your path to success at least a little bit!

Last year, I ran a short Facebook ads campaign with about $500, and I think I added about 500 new subscribers or so. Probably something around there.

This time around, I'm starting with a fairly small ad budget of $20 per day, and running a “lead form” campaign to drive signups to The Reading Life.

I’ll be running this for at least 100 days, and I do plan on driving up ad spending before too long. But for now, say $2,000 over the next 100 days.

So far, I've spent about $55 (Canadian) and gained 35 new subscribers, giving me a CPL (Cost Per Lead) of $1.57 right now.

Not bad! And I expect that will drop even more (probably quite significantly) as Facebook's AI targeting kicks in and finds people even more likely to sign up.

Because remember: ads are how these social media sites make a majority of their money. They WANT you to succeed with paid ads, so they're going to do everything in their power to make that happen.

This is good - we want the incentives aligned whenever possible!!

I'm going to be going much deeper into this as the campaign progresses, as I scale the $/day ad spend, learn more about how to succeed with paid ads, etc.

But what did YOU want to know?

Reply to this email with your questions and - as always - I'll be more than happy to answer them!

If you want my personal help to add between $1-5K/month in monthly recurring revenue to your creator business, and grow your audience and authority exponentially at the same time, Creator Launch Academy is exactly where you need to be. Join here.

“Fearing letdowns creates the conditions for more letdowns. Stewing over failures leads to more failures. But understanding and appreciating the lessons of losing transforms the adversity of stumbling blocks into the advantage of stepping stones. Remember: if you’re growing, you’re likely failing, and if you’re not failing, you’re likely not growing.”

-Michael Matthews, Stronger Than Yesterday (Amazon)

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Another day of wins, losses, struggles, and victories, but we made it through! You and I. In fact, we’ve survived every single day we’ve lived so far, so that should give us some encouragement for the future!

It’s a crazy time in the world (in case you’re just climbing out from underneath your rock), with lots of dangers, opportunities, and enemies, and allies, but if we focus the majority of our attention on the opportunities and the allies, we’re going to be just fine. Talk soon.

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you:

  1. Book a 1-1 strategy call with me and we’ll get you up to $5K/month in revenue by following a custom plan we’ll build together.

  2. Become a Premium Member of The Reading Life newsletter and enjoy unlimited access to 150+ Premium Book Breakdowns, my complete notes from 1,300+ books, exclusive discounts, and more.

  3. Join Creator Launch Academy, my private business mastermind for educational content creators who want to stand out in their niche, build multiple revenue streams, and go full-time with their creative passions.