How to Get Advertisers for Your Podcast

Author: Barry Elvis

The best way to monetize your podcast is by finding advertisers to sponsor your show. This can seem like a daunting task at first, but it doesn’t have to be. If you have created a popular podcast, then you have already done the hard work. Now it is just about finding podcast advertisers you can comfortably support.

Find the Right Podcast Advertisers

Consider how your podcast became what it is. What compels your listeners to return again and again? Choosing the right podcast advertisers is crucial to the continued success of any podcast. Listeners develop a level of trust and intimacy with their podcast hosts, and the wrong advertiser can break that trust. It is important to choose a product or business you trust and personally endorse. It is also important to understand the products that your listeners want. When you choose to market a product that listeners want and respect, then you maintain the trust you have spent so much time cultivating.

Understand the Language of Payment

Advertisers primarily sponsor podcasts in two ways. The first way depends on the amount of views a podcast receives and is known as CPM (cost per mille). In this method of payment, a sponsor will typically pay a podcast a certain amount of money for every 1,000 listens or downloads. Sometimes, however, CPM works in reverse. A sponsor will pay a set amount for your endorsement in an episode, and then they will measure the CPM. Then you and the sponsor can adjust the price of the next endorsement based on the measured value.

The second method of payment comes in the form of CPA (cost per acquisition). Sponsors will often give you a coupon code that you will share with listeners, and then they track the amount of sales they get with that coupon code. Sponsors set a price for every one of your listeners who purchases a product.

Pitch a Sponsorship Deal

Now it’s time to pitch your show to potential podcast advertisers. An effective way to hook a sponsor is through a detailed slideshow. Provide details on the topics central to your podcast, the size of your audience, and a ballpark figure for pricing. It’s a good idea to share some of the positive tweets and emails you’ve received from listeners. This shows the level of engagement and trust you’ve developed and can pass onto the sponsor. It’s also important to make a strong connection between your audience and the sponsor’s target market.

Podcasts have become an accessible and exciting form of storytelling and communication in recent years. Everyone has a great story to tell or a thoughtful perspective to share. In their most basic form, podcasts appear extremely straightforward and simple to create. But this can be misleading.

Podcasts that grab attention and create revenue require a high level of craftsmanship that many first timers will find daunting. Many successful podcasts rely on a producer to help them stand out in an increasingly competitive art form. Here are just a few of the responsibilities a producer can shoulder.

Create & Manage a Unifying Concept

Any great podcast will have a unifying concept or theme that the series organizes around. Sometimes the unifying concept is a straightforward narrative. Other times the unifying concept is a general topic, such as supernatural phenomenon, literature, or baking. A producer keeps the podcast focused by arranging episodes and conversations in a way that shapes this concept. Of course, a host could perform this role, but an outside perspective is often useful in noticing the moments when a series might confuse the audience by veering too far from the unifying concept.

Identify Guests & Stories

A producer’s role is to take care of big picture ideas to free up hosts to get down to what they do best. A crucial factor in creating the right podcast is finding the right guests and stories. Producers find the perfect guests for developing the unifying concept, and they can take care of scheduling guest appearances, brainstorming key questions, and prepping hosts on the best directions to take interviews to uncover the right stories.

Smooth the Kinks in Post Production with Podcast Software Tools

A good producer will help identify the best podcast software tools for their podcast’s needs.

If they don’t have the skills to create a podcast that is beautiful to listen to, a producer will have the wherewithal to delegate that task to someone with a great understanding of podcast software tools. It is difficult to completely grasp just how important the perfect sound bites or transition can be, but we all know a well-produced podcast when we hear one. Sadly, using the highest quality podcast software tools is not an easy skill. And this high level of production can make all the difference between a one-time per user and a returning listener.

Author Resource:-

I'm Barry Elvis, podcast marketing consultant, providing info about monetizing a podcast, analytics, promotion ideas and advertising for SME's. You can find my thoughts at podcasting blog.