The beehiiv Ad Network is a marketplace inside beehiiv where publishers on paid plans claim sponsor offers, place them in their posts and are paid per thousand unique opens (CPM) or per payable click (CPC), with earnings deposited into the beehiiv Wallet on the 20th of the following month, according to beehiiv's Ad Network FAQ. Boosts is the old name for paid recommendations: you earn a set amount for each verified subscriber you send to another newsletter, and that money lands in the same Wallet as each subscriber passes verification.
Who can use the Ad Network
The FAQ, updated on 1 October 2026, says the Ad Network is open to anyone on a paid plan who is actively sending on beehiiv. Some older beehiiv pages still say “Scale plan or above”; the pricing page now names the paid tiers Lite and Pro, so treat Scale as an earlier plan name rather than a separate requirement. In practice you need:
- A paid beehiiv plan, because the Free plan does not include the marketplace.
- Newsletters sent through beehiiv itself; the FAQ says the network cannot be used with third-party email providers.
- A Stripe Express account, set up after Stripe Identity Verification. The FAQ says beehiiv does not support PayPal, Wise or other processors for these earnings, so publishers in countries where Stripe Express is unavailable cannot take part.
- Saved ad preferences, including publication tags and a detailed description, so offers can be matched to your audience.
- Some sending history: the FAQ notes that a publication with no posts yet will mostly see general campaigns open to a wide range of publishers.
CPM and CPC offers: what you are paid on
| Term | What beehiiv says it means | Why it matters to you | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | A set amount for every 1,000 unique opens in a single send, counted from email sends only | Web views of the post earn nothing, and privacy features inflate opens | Using the beehiiv Ad Network |
| CPC | A set amount per payable click on the sponsor's links in email sends | A list that rarely clicks earns little on these offers | Ad Network terminology |
| Verified unique click | A click that passed checks for bots, fraud and repeat clicks | Still shown in post reports as a content-quality signal | Understanding payable clicks |
| Payable click | The quality-weighted click count that advertisers are billed on and publishers are paid on | It will not match verified clicks one-to-one, and beehiiv says it is usually the higher number | Payable clicks FAQ |
| Estimated earnings | A projection from your newsletter's history, explicitly not a guaranteed amount | Your final payout reflects measured performance after the send | Ad Network for publishers |
The payable clicks article explains that the count starts from unique subscriber clicks inside the advertiser's payout window, currently 72 hours, removes automated and known-invalid traffic, and weights the rest by quality signals. It also says the exact weighting is not published, and that engaged, organically grown lists tend to see a higher share of clicks qualify.
Claiming and placing an ad
- Save your ad preferences so the marketplace knows your topics and audience.
- Open Ad Network, then Offers, to browse the live marketplace, which refreshes hourly. beehiiv's pages disagree on how many offers you see: the FAQ and the opening of the placement guide say up to 7, while the same guide's key-limits box and beehiiv's monetization page say up to 15.
- Claim an offer to open its details, where you can switch the advertiser logo on or off, pick a headline angle, preview the creative and add an optional intro in your own voice.
- Insert the ad by typing /ads in the post editor, or assign a claimed ad to a post from the Offers page.
- Stay inside the limits the Ad Network guide sets: up to 5 claimed ads at once, 5 days to publish each claim, and up to 3 ads per post with no more than one carrying a logo.
- Move an ad to another post rather than deleting it, because deleted ads cannot be claimed again.
- Send, then wait for the numbers: the Ad Network guide says clicks are tracked for 72 hours and a detailed report arrives about 96 hours after sending.
The creative itself cannot be edited once placed, but you can add your own content above or below it. The FAQ also confirms the network is non-exclusive, so beehiiv ads can run alongside sponsors you sell yourself; our guide to pricing newsletter sponsorships covers direct deals.
Offer evaluation checklist
- Would you recommend this product to a reader who asked you directly? If not, downvote it; beehiiv says downvoting does not lower your publisher rating.
- Does the rate type suit your list? CPM offers favour lists with steady unique opens, while CPC offers favour readers who click.
- Estimate the payout yourself: your average unique opens divided by 1,000 and multiplied by the CPM, or your average clicks in that slot multiplied by the CPC, then compare it with the estimate on the offer card.
- Decide where it will sit; beehiiv's guide suggests placing CPC ads higher in the email to give them more visibility.
- Read every claim in the creative, and write an intro only if you can introduce the sponsor honestly.
- Check whether the ad would crowd out a direct sponsor or push the issue past the number of ads you are comfortable running.
- Confirm you can publish it before the claim expires, on a send that already fits your schedule.
- Decide whether the automatic “In partnership with” banner is enough of a label for your readers, or whether to add a plainer one.
When the money arrives
beehiiv's guide to the Wallet says Ad Network earnings move into your Wallet on the 20th of each month for ads that ran the month before, so an ad sent early in a month is paid several weeks later. From the Wallet you withdraw to the bank account linked to Stripe Express, and the Wallet guide says withdrawals typically take 3–5 business days. The FAQ adds that some accounts are paid through Mercury instead, by invitation.
- Downgrading or closing your account does not cancel pending Ad Network or recommendation earnings; the Wallet guide says they are still paid on the normal schedule and can be withdrawn after a downgrade to the Free plan.
- Earnings moved into your spending balance for paid recommendations cannot be moved back or withdrawn.
- beehiiv does not issue traditional invoices for these earnings; downloadable Ad Network reports serve as payout records, and the Wallet exports a CSV of all activity.
- The Wallet guide says Stripe provides tax forms such as the US 1099-K for earnings over $5,000 in a calendar year. Wherever you live, these earnings are income, so keep the reports for your accountant.
Boosts are now paid recommendations
beehiiv's article Boosts to paid recommendations: what changed sets out the renaming, and it explains why older tutorials no longer match the dashboard:
| Old name | Current name |
|---|---|
| Boosts | Paid recommendations |
| Grow Boosts | Incoming recommendations |
| Monetize Boosts | Outgoing recommendations |
| Boosts Marketplace | Recommendations network |
| Auto-clean | Removed, replaced by verification tags |
The same article says Email Boosts and Direct Links have been retired: no new ones can be created, though email boosts already in flight run until they expire and links already shared keep working. Every paid-recommendation subscriber is now tagged as pending verification, verified or failed verification, and subscribers who fail stay on the receiving publication's list instead of being silently removed.
Earning from outgoing paid recommendations
- Complete Stripe Identity Verification and link your bank account through Stripe Express, as beehiiv's guide to paid outgoing recommendations requires.
- Open Recommendations, choose Discover publications, and filter offers by category, language, size, posting activity, audience location and cost per subscriber.
- Review each offer's payout per subscriber, audience summary and country restrictions; beehiiv shares approximate insights about your newsletter with the other publication, not exact figures.
- Apply with a short personal message, and wait for the publication to accept before it appears as an active paid partner.
- Set up your recommendation slots, which can shuffle, pin, auto-match or feature one of your own publications, drawing on free offers, paid offers or both.
- Get paid per verified subscriber, with earnings deposited to the Wallet as each one passes verification.
Verification time is where beehiiv's pages conflict. The Wallet guide, updated on 1 October 2026, says the verification hold can take 3 to 21 days, while the older Wallet dashboard article, updated in August 2026, still says 10 to 17 days; plan cash flow around the newer, wider range. On fees, beehiiv's guide for publishers paying to grow says a 20% fee is already factored into the marketplace price, which suggests the payout shown to you is already net of it; check that against your first deposit. If you are on the paying side, our guide on growing a newsletter covers when buying subscribers makes sense.
Monthly earnings log
| Column | What to enter | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Month | The month the ads ran or the subscribers were verified | Your own records |
| Campaigns run | Advertiser, post title and send date for each placement | Ad Network reports |
| Rate type and rate | CPM or CPC, and the rate shown when you claimed the offer | Offer details at the time of claiming |
| Units billed | Unique opens for CPM offers, payable clicks for CPC offers | The campaign report |
| Ad earnings | The amount on each report and the payment date it shows | Report PDF |
| Recommendation subscribers | Verified subscribers sent to each paying partner | Outgoing recommendations overview |
| Recommendation earnings | Amounts credited as subscribers passed verification | Wallet earnings and Stripe Express receipts |
| Withdrawals | Date, amount and the day it reached your bank | Wallet history and bank statement |
| Transfers to spend | Earnings moved into paid recommendation spending, which cannot be reversed | Wallet history |
| Tax notes | Currency, the exchange rate used and the tax year it belongs to | Your accountant's instructions |
Label every ad you run as advertising, whatever the banner says; our FTC disclosure guide covers US wording. If you are still choosing a platform, our Substack vs beehiiv vs Ghost comparison sets beehiiv's plan fees against the alternatives.
Limitations of this guide
Everything here was read from beehiiv's pages on 1 October 2026. Several of those help articles carry beehiiv's own notice that they are being updated, and they disagree with each other on offer counts, plan names and verification times, so check the dashboard and current articles before relying on any single figure. beehiiv states that estimated payouts are not guaranteed, and nothing on this page estimates what your newsletter will earn.
The tax points are general information drawn from beehiiv's description of Stripe's forms, which are US-specific. How Ad Network and recommendation income is taxed depends on where you live and how your business is set up, so ask a registered tax agent or accountant, especially if you are paid in a currency other than your own.