Sponsorships
One of the most obvious, yet most difficult, ways to monetize a podcast is through the use of sponsorships.
There are a couple of problems with this method of monetization.
First, have thousands of downloads to even qualify for a sponsorship. In addition, a lot of sponsorships aren’t targeted to your audience. There are a lot of podcasts out there with ads for mattresses, or meal delivery kits, but their podcast may be about entrepreneurship. What are the chances those listeners are going to check out those products or services? Not great.
You may view it as though you are getting paid regardless, so what difference should it make to you? Well, a lot. You don’t want to do things that turn off your listeners. And I can tell you ads like that will.
If you are going to do sponsorships, I recommend they apply to your listeners first. Second, I recommend host-read ads which are where you are the one reading the ad in your voice versus some random person. It will be better received that way. It will seem less like a commercial, and one of the big reasons people listen to podcasts instead of the radio is they rarely have to deal with commercials. And if you do a host-read ad, I recommend easing it naturally into the content you are already discussing. Try to make it a part of your content if you can. I also recommend keeping the ad under thirty seconds and putting it in a mid-roll spot instead of a pre-roll. The reason being is that I have found that if you have an ad (unless maybe it’s for one of your products or services) right out of the gate; you are more likely to lose new listeners if an ad is a very first thing they hear at the beginning of each episode.
The only sponsorship platform I use and recommend is Podcorn. This is because it is the only one I am aware of that doesn’t require podcasts to have a certain number of listeners or downloads to pitch or secure sponsorships. I will have an overview video of Podcorn at Podcast Profit Pro as well as a sponsorship spreadsheet template and sponsorship scripts.
Getting sponsors is a lot more work and more time-consuming than it is worth, especially if you are going with the CPM (cost per mille) method, which is roughly $25 per 1,000 downloads. The route I have taken and recommend is to approach relevant companies directly. Companies you either already use or recommend. Work out a flat-rate deal (either per episode or a block of episodes). This is what I have done, both inside and outside of Podcorn.
There are some podcasts where sponsorships make the most sense as their method of monetization. That would be super-niche (i.e., underwater basket weaving, because that’s the go-to that everyone uses) or hyper-local (i.e., the city or town you live in). And with either of these types of podcasts, it is possible to secure sponsorships before you even launch the show.
I am in the beginning stages of planning my podcast for the town that I live in. I will do spotlight interviews with local businesses (restaurants, shops, etc). To monetize this type of show, I will offer and securing sponsored ads or featured spotlight episodes. When you are the only podcast in town (or on a certain subject like underwater basket weaving, for example), your buying power is increased because even if you only had 100 listeners, every single one of them is a potential customer.
In Podcast Profit Pro, I will break down how things go with my local podcast.