Making the work
Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover ad networks. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Ads on your site, paid out by Google
Get paid for recommending other newsletters
Google AdSense | SparkLoop | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Not listed |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Usage-based | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | 20% of what you earn | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web |
| Covers | Ad Networks, Monetization & Payments | Ad Networks, Giveaways & Referrals, Newsletter & Email |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Ads on your site, paid out by Google
AdSense is the default answer to putting ads on a site, and for most creators it is the only one available until traffic grows enough for a managed network to take the call. Setup is a script tag and a review. The rate per thousand views is lower than what Raptive or Mediavine negotiate, and the trade is that nobody has to want you first.
Our note
Start here, and treat the 25,000 pageview mark as the day to apply to Raptive. The same traffic earns several times more through a managed network, and the switch is a script change.
Only on this side
Get paid for recommending other newsletters
SparkLoop turns a newsletter's own audience into revenue by paying it to recommend other newsletters, either inside the email or on the page somebody lands on after subscribing. The same network runs the other way, so a publisher can buy subscribers from it as well as sell them. Both sides sit on the free plan. It works with the mainstream sending platforms rather than replacing one.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.
| Works with |
|---|
| Nothing in particular |
| Substack |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
|---|
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
|---|
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
|---|
Our note
Treat the free tier as the whole product and the $2,000 add-on as a separate decision for a newsletter already growing fast enough to reward referrers. Read the per-subscriber rates before planning revenue around this, because they are the number the pricing page leaves out.
Only on this side