📊 Split testing secrets for newsletter sponsorships

Want to maximize your newsletter sponsorship performance?

Split testing is your secret weapon.

Let's dive into how publishers and brands can use split testing to drive better results (while minimizing risk) 👇

For Newsletter Publishers 📧

Despite what most newsletter publishers think…

You actually don't need to commit your entire audience to test sponsored content.

Instead, you can try:

1. True Split Testing if your ESP (like beehiiv) supports it:

• Split your audience into segments

• Test different sponsored content with each group

• Compare performance head-to-head

2. Strategic Placement Testing if your ESP doesn't support splits:

• Place sponsored content lower in your newsletter

• This naturally reduces clicks (similar to testing with a smaller audience)

• Test different positions to find the sweet spot

Why this matters:

Both approaches help you:

• Test multiple campaigns simultaneously

• Identify your highest-performing offers

• Maximize your effective cost per thousand (ECPM)

Pro tip about ECPM:

While many use opens as their ECPM denominator…

That metric is wildly inaccurate for measuring actual views.

Instead, use your subscriber count for more reliable calculations.

Once a campaign performs well with a segment…

You can roll it out to your full audience with increased confidence and (likely) more revenue.

For Brands 🎯

Instead of committing to a full-audience sponsorship upfront…

You can test newsletter sponsorships with a fraction of the audience first.

This means:

• Lower initial investment

• Faster performance insights

• Data-driven decisions about scaling

Think of it like this:

Why spend thousands testing a full audience when you can validate performance with a smaller segment first?

Once you find newsletters that work…

Then you can confidently scale up to full-audience sponsorships.

Smarter Testing, Better Results

Whether you're a publisher or brand, split testing transforms newsletter sponsorships from guesswork into science:

• Publishers discover their most lucrative offers

• Brands minimize risk while finding winners

• Both sides benefit from data-driven decisions

At Wellput, our platform helps you take the complexity out of testing.

Through our network of quality publishers and brands, we make it simple to find and optimize winning partnerships.

Ready to optimize your newsletter sponsorship strategy?

👉 Try Wellput risk-free, here.