I recently helped a client get their first podcast sponsor for a year-long sponsorship. The podcast has yet to have a single episode, but because my client had a very well-defined audience and a completed editorial calendar for the year, the sponsor saw value and jumped on the opportunity. The exclusive podcast sponsorship sold for $8K. This may sound like small potatoes but remember they haven’t aired a single episode yet!
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links in my posts and I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post, but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
Podcasting can be big money. Popular podcasters like Pat Flynn bring in over $145K per month from podcast advertising alone but don’t think that sponsors are just for guys like Pat. Sponsors are looking for new and unique podcasts so they can get in front of your audience. Read on to learn how to get sponsors for your podcasts.
How Much Can I Charge for Podcast Sponsorships?
The industry standard for podcast advertising is $18 for a pre-roll ad and $23-25 for a mid-roll advertisement.
A pre-roll ad is a 15 second spot at the very beginning of the podcast that says something like, “This podcast is sponsored by Boothbid.com. BoothBid can help you grow your conference revenue via exhibit space and sponsorship sales.
The mid-roll is generally more free-form. If you’ve listened to talk radio, you know what a mid-roll sounds like. The show host will tell you during the middle of her show that she loves her Naturals weight-loss supplement and how it helped her loose 10lbs after Thanksgiving along with a discount code for her listeners to use to order their product.
A mid-roll advertisement is usually about 50 seconds long. The advertiser will provide you with a script or at least the main talking points and then invite you to free form part of it to make it sound more authentic.
How Much Money Can You Really Expect to Earn from a Podcast Advertisement?
Most podcasters require that an advertiser order both the pre-roll and mid-roll for each show. So that’s $18 + 25 = $43 (US) per thousand downloads of your podcast.
Podcasts can vary dramatically in terms of listenership, but a good baseline is that for a smaller or newer show you’d see around 2,000 downloads per month.
How Do You Find Podcast Sponsors?
My client mentioned above found their first podcast sponsor by placing the opportunity in their sponsorship materials and placing that on their website. I then did an email blast to their email list highlighting the opportunity.
Note: The client had a sponsorship menu ready to go and they had an email list!
There are four basic ways that you can find sponsors:
- Advertise for them on your podcast
- Advertising via your website
- Hire a sponsorship expert to sell them for you for a commission
- Wait for advertisers to come to you.
You can always sell the advertising spots yourself, but unless you are very good at sales, I don’t recommend this. Hire a professional and offer them a commission per sale instead.
Advertise your podcast sponsorships on www.boothbid.com for $49/month!
Many people are unfamiliar with what a podcast is and how it works, so finding a sponsorship sales consultant to sell for you is easier, then you can concentrate on your content. Also, keep in mind sponsors that may not be niche-specific, but advertise regularly on podcasts (such as Audible).
You can always wait for advertisers to come to you if you are not in a hurry to sell your ad spots. You will get some interest but building your sponsorship income this way is much slower.
How To Choose a Sponsor?
It’s best to only advertise for companies related to your niche. Advertising for timeshares or weight-loss supplements when your podcast is about entrepreneurship won’t go over well with your listeners.
Also, limit your podcast sponsors to two per episode unless you decide to sell the sponsorship to one title sponsor. You don’t want your sponsor clips to disrupt the flow of your show.
Your first sponsor doesn’t need to be a large name-brand company — you can also look for businesses with a smaller budget a great product. Online businesses are a particularly good fit, since they can sell to listeners anywhere in your country or across the world. Convincing a local brick-and-mortar business without an online store to buy ads with you may be a tougher sell, unless your podcast has very strong local listenership.
What is popular on Google, Pinterest, and Quora with your crowd? Brainstorm some keywords you should search for, then set aside a few hours one afternoon to do those searches. If you’re having trouble finding prospective sponsors, ask yourself: What would you be stoked to get a free sampleof? What are you interested in? What tools, courses or products have helped your business? Better yet, ask your email list, they will tell you what they are interested in.
If you are ready to start your podcast, be sure to check out Pat Flynn’s Smart Podcast Player for $8 a month! Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income is a master podcaster and he build the podcasting platform he uses for his own podcast. For $8-$12/ month you can’t go wrong hosting your podcast with this platform. Click here to purchase the annual plan and get a 33% discount!
“As an affiliate of the Smart Podcast Player, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link. I wouldn’t be sharing this amazing podcasting tool if I didn’t think it would benefit you, your podcast, your podcast listeners, and your business.”
How Do You Get Enough Downloads to Attract Advertisers?
Sponsors want two things: (1) to sell their product, and/or (2) increase awareness of their brand (aka a “hearts and minds” campaign).
Both goals are frequently priced out and measured using CPM: cost per mille (‘thousand’ in Latin). This is how much sponsors will pay per 1,000 downloads of your podcast, views of your video, or impressions on your tweet/Instagram/Facebook post. This is how sponsors assess the performance of their ad after the fact (“We paid $500 for this ad and it was downloaded 8,000 times. That’s a $6.25 CPM. Awesome! Let’s renew that ad!”).
Another metric is CPA: cost per acquisition. This is the number of sales or signups businesses get as a result of an ad. Sponsors will sometimes pay podcasters a referral bonus for each signup they get (“Your ad drove 20 signups this month, we pay $30 per signup, so here is $600.”), or use CPA as a metric to assess the ad a few weeks after it runs (“We paid $500 for this ad and got 100 signups. Wow, that’s a $5 CPA! Let’s sign up again!”).
Podcasts with highly engaged audiences should use CPA as their metric. CPA will ensure you get paid what you’re worth. Whether your show is downloaded 10 times or 100,000 times, you are paid by the results you drive. Bigger shows with high download numbers but a less engaged audience will likely get paid more by measuring in CPM — but if their ads don’t sell products for sponsors, they may not get repeat business.
Podcasts are awesome for selling products, spreading awareness, and building good reputations for companies. It’s an intimate medium where listeners develop real relationships with hosts, so when hosts recommend products in their own voices, audiences are more likely to try their product. According to Edison Research, podcasts also have attractive demographics for advertisers, with listeners that are more wealthy than average (at least in the U.S.).
From the 2017 IAB Podcast Playbook.
How Do I Pitch My Podcast Sponsorship?
A pitch is your sponsorship proposal. This can be as simple as sending an email to a prospective sponsor with some information on your show, demographic, and your pricing. One easy way to level up your pitch is with a branded slide deck. Businesses love slide decks. They look really professional and you can make one in PowerPoint and then turn that into a PDF for easy emailing.
Don’t forget to save a “master template” version of your deck, then make a copy each time you reach out to a new sponsor. Like a résumé, you want to optimize your pitch for the person you’re sending it to.
As for what to include in your deck, this is what worked for my client:
- Title slide with your show artwork.
- About Us slide with show description: summary, episode length, subject matter, format, hosts, reporting, guests, etc.
- Our Listeners slide with audience demographics, download statistics, and relevant anecdotes (messages, tweets, quotes about how much your listeners love you). If you don’t have demographic info, think about including stats on podcast listeners in general from Edison Research.
- Pricing slide with your rates, and if you have them, alternative partnership ideas
How Do I Send an Email Pitch?
After putting all this work into your slide deck, you are ready to send I tout into the world! Email marketing is my favorite type of marketing. Once you hit send you just wait for responses and then follow-up. Don’t listen to anyone who says email marketing is dead! I make my clients millions of dollars a year literally with sponsorship email campaigns!
Here’s an example of an email I sent to a prospective sponsor:
Hello Lynda,
Thanks for your interest in the XYZ podcast.
We know what it’s like to run a business, so much work and so little time to keep up with constantly-changing industry trends and topics. That’s why we’ve created the XYZ podcast to bring you the latest news, tips and lessons-learned in a short and entertaining interview show. We think [business name] would be a great partner, and with [number] downloads and counting (around [number] weekly listeners), we know you’ll get exposure to a wide audience!
We currently advertise the XYZ Podcast via:
- Our Website www.xyz.com
- The XYZ Blog
- Social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram
Here is a link to our latest podcast…www.xyzpodcast.com/episode 001
I attached a PDF with some more information on our show demographics and rates.
We are accepting sponsorship reservations until January 31!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Best,
Alana
Send this email out over and over again! I like to do this in a few times a month. Set a repeating calendar reminder to do sponsor outreach every week, two weeks, or month. Hire someone on Upwork.com for $50 to research companies to pitch or just do it yourself and on another day send a whole bunch of emails to those companies. I do this every week and it’s so easy! You can automate the whole email marketing process with Convertkit! Convertkit makes it easy to connect with your audience and monetize your email list. With Convertkit you can set up an entire email sales sequence from pitch to follow-up to close so your work is done with just a few clicks! I use Convertkit for all of my businesses and it’s an affordable way for me to connect with my audience.
Also, don’t be afraid of “underselling” or “underpricing” your show — the only thing a marketer likes more than a one-hit-wonder of an ad is a reliable source of repeat signups. For one of my magazine ad sales clients, I consistently offer “special pricing” for repeat advertisers and brand new advertisers. No one knows the difference. Sponsors don’t talk to each other! No one will say “Oh, but you charged Sponsor A $100 last week, so why should I pay $150?” You get to reinvent your pitch and reset your pricing with every email you send. Start with what is comfortable for you then go up from there, just don’t undervalue your sponsorship because you are afraid to ask for a certain amount!
Follow-Up and Follow-Through
What if they don’t email me back?
Let’s face it: sending excited emails to people you’d really like to work with, then never hearing back, can be a disappointing and exhausting experience. A normal hit rate is about 10%. So if I email 100 prospects I will hear from 10 and out of that 10, I will get 1 or 2 sponsors. That is still awesome guys!
Here are my rules for following up with those prospects you emailed:
Email – Email – Call – Email
- Follow up via another email no sooner than one week after the first email. (Use a task manager to remind you!)
- Call and leave a message if necessary
- Email once more and leave it for a month or two.
It normally takes 7 touches before a prospect reaches out so don’t get discouraged!
This last point is important! No just means “not right now.” Keep trying but don’t be a nuisance. Try reaching out with your editorial calendar or when you have a really special interview.
As always be persistent and be professional and you will get a sponsor for your podcast!