# Newsletter vs Meta Ads | Scottsdale Scoop

> We buy Meta ads ourselves, so here is the honest comparison: auction CPMs, 1% click rates and murky attribution vs a 62% open rate in a trusted local voice.

Source: https://advertise.thescottsdalescoop.com/newsletter-vs-meta-ads

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|  | Scottsdale Scoop | Meta ads |
|---|---|---|
| How your ad arrives | Inside content readers chose to open, in a voice they trust. | An interruption in a feed people are scrolling to get past. |
| Attention | 62% of subscribers open the issue and read it. | Feed ads earn a glance of a couple of seconds. Average click rates sit near 1%. |
| Pricing | Flat and predictable. You know the cost before you book. | An auction. CPMs move week to week and spike every fourth quarter. |
| Work required | None. We write the feature, you approve it. | Creative production, audience testing, fatigue management and ongoing optimization. |
| Trust | A recommendation from a local voice readers already know. | An ad from a brand they've never heard of, labeled Sponsored. |
| Local attribution | Clicks reported per issue. Foot traffic follows a trusted mention. | Signal loss since iOS privacy changes makes small local campaigns hard to measure honestly. |

## The facts worth knowing

### Attention is the whole game

Meta's own research puts feed ad attention at a couple of seconds on mobile and industry benchmarks put average Facebook ad click rates near 1%. Our readers open at 62% and click at nearly 10% because they came to read, not to scroll.

Sources: Meta mobile feed research, WordStream industry benchmarks, our beehiiv analytics

### Auction pricing works against small budgets

Meta CPMs are set by auction, so your costs rise whenever bigger advertisers show up, especially in the fourth quarter. A newsletter placement is a flat rate. The price you book is the price you pay, whatever Amazon is spending that week.

Source: Meta's auction based delivery system and seasonal CPM patterns every media buyer knows

### Since iOS 14, local attribution got murky

Apple's privacy changes stripped much of the tracking signal Meta relied on. Small local campaigns now often show fewer conversions than actually happened or attribute them wrong, which makes it genuinely hard to know what your spend did. A newsletter report is simple: this many opened, this many clicked.

Source: widely documented post ATT measurement gaps for small advertisers

### We're a Meta customer too

We spend real money on Meta ads to grow this newsletter because they're genuinely good at cheap reach and finding new people. That's exactly why we built the newsletter: reach is rentable, trust isn't. Meta gets strangers to notice you once. The Scoop puts you in front of the same locals week after week in a voice they already trust.

Source: our own ad account

## Where Meta ads still win

Scale, retargeting and speed of testing. If you need thousands of strangers to see a video this week or you're retargeting your own site visitors, Meta is the right tool and we'd tell you to use it. The smartest local budgets do both: Meta for cold reach, the Scoop for trusted repetition with locals who actually buy.

## Ready to reach 15,000 Scottsdale locals?

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## Keep comparing

Newsletter *vs* Newspaper

Print circulation keeps shrinking and there's no way to know who actually saw your ad.

Read the comparison

Newsletter *vs* Magazine

Glossy city magazines are beautiful. They're also slow, expensive and measured by estimates.

Read the comparison