Episode 17: The Truth About Podcast Sponsorship
Monetising your podcast is something that is highly desirable, but sponsorship isn't the only way. Today I'm sharing the truth about how sponsorship can monetise your podcast and why it may not be for you.
You'll learn:
Why ads may not be for you
Types of ad spend from sponsors
Aligning sponsors to your podcast
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Good Chat Media acknowledges the traditional owners of the land where we work, live and record the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and we pay our respects to elder's past and present always was always will be Aboriginal land Hey, I'm Cass, the founder podcast production agency, Good Chat Media and welcome to Good chats. Good chat is a podcast with a holistic approach to business and marketing. And with the help of some super special people, I'll be spilling all the secrets about boosting your brand building credibility and connecting with community through podcasting. Let's get into the episode.
Hi friends, welcome back to another episode of the Good Chats podcast. It's your girl Tess. from Good Chat Media. I want to talk to you today about something that comes up so, so often in my world, but it's kind of something that I want to explain to help you understand why it may not be the choice for you.
Now, this is going to be a really quick episode, so strap in, take notes. But it's basically just one clear message and it's one that I've said before but as you know, I believe inconsistent messaging. So here we are to talk about it. If you haven't gathered by the Title of this episode we are talking about podcast Sponsorship.
I'm going to be recording an episode later in the year with my gorgeous friend Serena who is a partnerships and Sponsorships Wizard. But for now, I want to explain to you why sponsorship maybe isn't the way to go. I'm not saying it's not, and I'm not recommending against it by any means. You need to do what's right for you and your business and your podcast and the way it works for you.
But here is what I have to say. These questions about sponsorship usually come up when we are in a growth strategy session. And a lot of the time clients want to talk about it because they think That's the way that they should monetize their podcast. Now, that is a way to monetize. There are multiple ways to monetize a podcast, but I just want to make a direct correlation from storytelling and selling your services to podcast sponsorship.
So, as I said, when we speak to clients, they always want to monetize, but they always go directly to ads. And the first thing that I ask them when this comes up is when you listen to a podcast, do you listen to ads or do you like skip past them? And it's usually that they don't listen to them because I mean, for me, ads are just kind of annoying in podcasts.
I don't care what you have to sell. I'm here to hear what you have to say. I might be a little cynical with it though, because I listen to audio 24 seven, it feels in the best way, but I don't want to be listening to audio that doesn't make sense. I think having the most crystal clear plan going into your podcast, having notes, make sure you're clear and concise, and then chucking a random ad in there is just like WTF.
Why do I need to hear this? It doesn't make any sense. So if you don't listen to ads as a consumer, why on earth do you think that your audience will want to listen to ads that you've put in there? Now, I'm not talking about internal ads. I think internal ads are great, but I think there's better ways to do it.
So, for the purpose of this podcast episode, where I'm referring to sponsorship from another business putting an ad in your podcast episode. As I said, if you're not going to listen to them, why do you think the audience will listen to them? And then if the audience isn't going to listen to them, why would someone sponsor the podcast?
Do you see where I'm going here? When someone is going to sponsor a podcast. They either do it in two monetary forms, so it's either a flat rate for the episode or for a number of episodes, or it's CPM, which is cost per mille, and that means cost per thousand listens. So, it's not my favorite word to have to pronounce, so I'm just going to say CPM.
You know what it means now. The reality is, when you run your sponsorship through CPM, it usually is 18 to 35 for one ad as a CPM. That means that if you had 2, 000 people listening to each episode, that's a lot of people, The maximum payout for that ad is 70, 000. What? So in that case you'd probably go for a flat rate.
But say you're going with CPM for this example. Now, let's say that you're really good at storytelling and you've been able to weave in the storytelling about your services into each episode so that people understand how to work with you, the benefits, the way you help people, the way it could transform their life, why they need you in their life.
And you have a membership and each year, let's say that membership subscription is 1, 000. When it comes to your podcast, your audience is everything. So, putting ads that people don't want to hear about, or not doing it, and then converting one person per episode to that membership, could mean the difference between 70 for that episode and one person drops off because they don't want to hear the ads anymore, they're over it.
Or 1, 000 and then they tell their friends. The other thing is building trust with your audience is really important. So if you are going to take the route of advertising in your episodes, make sure it's aligned to your business. For example, if you talk about health and fitness in your episodes, you would be maybe more inclined to work with an apparel company that provides gym wear, or, uh, maybe a supplements company or, you know, a pilates studio.
But what you probably wouldn't do would be to partner with a tyre company. Because what does that have to do? with your audience, your mission, your purpose, your podcast. What does it have to do with it? I really think it's important to remember those two things. One being alignment in if you are going to have ads that they are aligned to your podcast.
And then the second thing is you're not an influencer. You're a business. Act like one. Where are you getting your money from? And I, and I'm all about different streams of income. That's a hell yeah, absolutely. But if you're putting ads in there, and then people are dropping off, it's clear that people don't want ads.
So just think about how you can tell your story better so that people understand what you do, how you help people, the transformations, all of those things that I said before, so that you are bringing money into your business, not just bringing money onto the podcast to cover costs. Remember, if you're doing your podcast as your master form of content in your business, this is a marketing tool.
To allow you to build credibility and trust and community so that you can then convert people to paying clients. You get me? You're nodding. I can see you nodding. Cute. That's all I've got for you this week. I want to know if you have used ads in your podcast before, how they've gone, how your audience reacted to them, and if they are working for you or, if you're really good at storytelling and you're able to convert clients. That's also what I wanna hear as well. So jump over to us. Come and say hi on Instagram, on TikTok, LinkedIn, and I'll chat to you next week. Bye.
We want to say thanks so much for joining us for another good chat. We would love if you would help us with our 2023 goals to get to 100 ratings and reviews and then send this podcast on to someone who you think will love it just as much. Connect with us on LinkedIn Instagram, my good chap media. I will chat with you next week. Bye. This podcast was produced by good chat media.
