Revenue growth also came from working with more brands with the native format. The growth came initially from higher CPMs, thanks in part to higher click-through rates with the native ads, said Zalk, who would not share Flipboard’s CPM or CTR rates. The company has already seen progress in this area: revenue from Flipboard’s newsletters in Q1 2021 was four times higher than its Q1 2020 revenue, Zalk said, declining to provide specific revenue figures. By the end of this year, Zalk hopes to triple that percentage. They’ve so far been more of a brand marketing tactic than a revenue driver: ads from the company’s newsletters currently contribute less than 2% of the company’s overall revenue. Up until last year, newsletters were “thought of as an engagement tool” for Flipboard, Zalk said, to stay connected with Flipboard users and drive them to the app.

Brands like Bombas, Atlas Coffee Club and Motley Fool have participated. Flipboard is also selling some sponsorships directly. Flipboard would not say how much this cost.įlipboard declined to name the ad networks it is working with to help fill its native advertising inventory. Flipboard is on track to do away with banner ads completely by the end of the second quarter for its seven regular newsletters.įlipboard now has a presenting sponsor announced at the top of its newsletters and a promoted section by that same brand further down in the email that resembles one of the curated articles in the newsletter - with a headline, image and a block of text - but actually contains a brand’s messaging. By the fourth quarter of 2020, Flipboard had begun removing banner ads from its emails, starting with its flagship “10 for Today” email, which curates the top 10 most interesting stories of the day.īy the end of the first quarter of 2021, the company had moved nearly all of its emails to a so-called “native,” or sponsorship, format, in which an advertiser pays to sponsor an email for a single day and have a piece of branded content appear in the body of the newsletter. At the beginning of 2020, Flipboard began talking with successful newsletter publishers that successfully sold sponsorships against their newsletters rather than run-of-the-mill display ads.

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