Email Advertising: How to Drive Revenue with Email Ads & Retargeting
Learn email advertising strategies including sponsored emails, retargeting, and promotional campaigns. Maximize ROI with proven email ad techniques.
email advertising
Email Advertising?
Email advertising is the most cost-effective way to drive direct revenue. With $42 ROI per $1 spent, it outperforms social, search, and display advertising combined.
Types of Email Advertising
1. Promotional Email Campaigns
Direct sales emails announcing offers, discounts, and new products.
2. Retargeting Emails
Emails triggered by specific browsing behavior:
- Abandoned cart emails — Item left in cart
- Browse abandonment — Viewed products but didn’t add to cart
- Category interest — Browsed a specific category
3. Automated Promotional Sequences
Scheduled drip campaigns that promote products:
- New customer welcome offers
- Post-purchase cross-sells
- Seasonal promotional series
4. Sponsored Newsletter Ads
Paying to have your product featured in another company’s newsletter.
Email Advertising Best Practices
Segmentation Is Everything
Don’t blast the same promo to everyone. Segment by:
- Purchase history
- Browsing behavior
- Engagement level
- Customer value
Personalize Your Offers
- Recommend products based on past purchases
- Show recently viewed items
- Personalize discount amounts by customer value
Optimize Your Subject Lines
- Create urgency: “24 hours left: 40% off”
- Spark curiosity: “Your wishlist items are on sale”
- Use numbers: “Save $50 on your next order”
A/B Test Everything
- Subject lines (biggest impact)
- Offer type (% off vs $ off vs free shipping)
- CTA button text and color
- Send time and day
Email Retargeting Strategy
Cart Abandonment (Highest ROI)
- Trigger: Cart created, no purchase within 1 hour
- Emails: 3-email sequence over 72 hours
- Result: Recovers 5-15% of abandoned carts
Browse Abandonment
- Trigger: Viewed product page, didn’t add to cart
- Emails: 1-2 emails within 24-48 hours
- Result: 3-5% conversion rate
Lapsed Customer Win-Back
- Trigger: No purchase in 60-90 days
- Emails: Re-engagement series
- Result: Reactivates 5-10% of lapsed customers
Setting Up Email Advertising
- Choose a platform with automation: Brevo (free)
- Segment your audience
- Design promotional templates
- Set up retargeting automations
- Create a promotional calendar
- Track revenue attribution
For ecommerce, Tajo + Brevo enables full retargeting with Shopify data.
Measuring Email Advertising ROI
Track these metrics:
- Revenue per email
- Conversion rate
- Average order value from email
- Campaign ROI
- Customer lifetime value from email-acquired customers
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is email advertising?
Email advertising uses email to promote products, services, or offers to subscribers. It includes promotional campaigns, sponsored emails in other newsletters, retargeting emails based on browsing behavior, and automated promotional sequences.
How effective is email advertising?
Email advertising delivers $42 ROI for every $1 spent — the highest of any marketing channel. Promotional emails drive 19% of all ecommerce revenue when combined with automation and personalization.
What's the difference between email advertising and email marketing?
Email marketing is the broader discipline (newsletters, automation, relationship building). Email advertising specifically refers to promotional, revenue-driving emails — sales announcements, product promotions, and retargeting campaigns.