Substack Launching Ad Network
ConvertKit vs. Beehiiv vs. Substack
Substack moving into ads would be less a side feature and more a reset of its value proposition. The core issue is that many successful Substack writers already sell sponsorships manually, so Substack is leaving money and workflow control on the table while Beehiiv and Kit bundle advertiser demand, placement, reporting, and payouts into the product. An ad network lets Substack defend its 10% take rate by helping writers earn more from the same audience.
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The evidence shifted from prediction to product direction over time. In 2023, writer interviews framed ads as the most obvious missing monetization tool on Substack. By May 2024, Substack had begun piloting ads in creator publications. By July 2025, it was described as building its own advertising product to reduce defections.
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This follows the playbook competitors already proved out. Beehiiv reached about $30M annualized revenue by June 2025, with roughly one third from its Ad Network and Boosts. Kit used sponsor and recommendation networks to improve retention by turning the platform from a cost center into a revenue source for creators.
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The product gap is concrete. On Substack today, many writers still find sponsors inbound, paste in ad copy manually, and handle reporting themselves. A native network would centralize inventory, match advertisers to newsletters, and spare writers from sales emails, negotiation, trafficking, and campaign reconciliation.
The next phase is newsletter platforms converging on the same bundled model, audience growth, paid subscriptions, and ads in one stack. For Substack, that means using its brand and reader graph to build a higher earning creator middle class, not just a handful of star writers, and making monetization infrastructure as important as discovery.