Using HTML promotions

HTML Promotions let you add, schedule, and manage ad tags and custom creatives as a dedicated HTML promotion type. You can paste HTML directly into a promotion — including Google Ad Manager ad tags — and it renders correctly in your sent newsletter. HTML promotions use the same workflow, permissions, and reporting as your other promotions, so ad networks, sponsored widgets, and other third-party creatives stay consistent and trackable from one place.

Who can do what

• Company admins create HTML promotions in your company’s Promotions area, assign them to channels, and schedule them like any other promotion.
• Anyone who edits your templates or campaigns can add Promotion blocks and choose the zone, so the right promotion appears. See Adding promotions to your templates and campaigns.

Set up an HTML promotion

1. In your company’s view, open Promotions and click Create promotion.
2. Enter the details: Title, Promoter name, Channels, Zone (where in the newsletter layout it should appear), and Schedule.
3. Under promotion Type, select HTML and paste your code into the editor field.
4. Save as Draft to finish later, or Activate to make it available. Active promotions appear in your promotions list.

How your HTML is handled

Letterhead cleans pasted code for email safety while keeping the parts that matter:

• Preserved — links, images, click tracking (including ad click tracking), and basic HTML structure
• Removed — unsafe markup that could hurt deliverability or security

Your creative serves and tracks clicks as intended, and your newsletter stays safe. HTML promotions support most composer style settings, except heading styles.

Using Google Ad Manager ads

You can run Google Ad Manager ads in an HTML promotion, but only with Google Ad Manager 360 — the paid version. The free version of Google Ad Manager won’t work for newsletter ads.

Why the free version doesn’t work

The free version of Ad Manager can only generate JavaScript ad tags (Google Publisher Tags). JavaScript doesn’t run inside email: Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, and other email apps strip it out for security, so a JavaScript tag shows up as nothing at all in your delivered newsletter. This isn’t specific to Letterhead — a JavaScript ad tag won’t serve in any email.

For an ad to appear in a newsletter, it needs a plain HTML tag: essentially an image wrapped in a click-through link, with no script. Only Ad Manager 360 can produce tags in that format.

Get a newsletter tag from Ad Manager 360

Ad Manager 360 lets you monetize email newsletters with targeted, image-based ad placements that track impressions inside your emails. Google’s own guide walks through the setup: Newsletter ads in Ad Manager.

1. In Ad Manager 360, turn on the newsletter feature from the Advanced features menu. If you don’t see it, check with whoever administers your Ad Manager account or your Google account team.
2. Generate a newsletter tag for the ad placement you want to fill. This gives you HTML — an image and a link, with no script.
3. Copy that HTML and paste it into an HTML promotion in Letterhead, following the steps in Set up an HTML promotion above.

If the code you’ve been given contains <script>, it’s a JavaScript tag and won’t display in email — you’ll need the newsletter tag instead.

Running an ad you manage on another platform

If an ad server or campaign manager already handles an ad’s scheduling and reporting, you don’t have to recreate it as a promotion. Paste its code straight into a newsletter with the HTML block:

1. In Campaigns, open the newsletter, and drag the HTML block to where the ad should appear.

2. Paste the code from your ad platform into the block.

3. Swap the platform’s placeholder merge tags for Letterhead’s, so they fill in at send time:

   Placeholder	Replace with
   {EMAIL}	{{ email }}
   {FIRST_NAME}	{{ firstName }}
   {LAST_NAME}	{{ lastName }}

   See the complete list of personalization tags.

4. Turn on Relax HTML Validation so the code renders as written.

A test send won’t show a third-party ad properly: the ad platform doesn’t treat a test as a real send to a real subscriber, so it doesn’t fill the creative or count the impression. The ad appears when the newsletter goes out.

Unlike an HTML promotion, an ad in an HTML block isn’t scheduled, placed or reported on by Letterhead; that all stays with your ad platform.

FAQ

Do HTML promotions get metrics? Yes — metrics appear on the promotion’s details page like any other company promotion. See Measuring promotions.

Can I preview an HTML promotion? Yes — a preview shows on the promotion details page.

For everything else the Promotions area can do, see Finding your way around Promotions.

Prefer to have it done for you?

Penpal can list, reschedule, pause, or edit your promotions for you in conversation. See how Penpal works.