Sponsorship Shenanigans: How Not to Blow Your First Deal

I saw on Facebook where a sponsor or a potential sponsor was asking all sorts of questions and the person had no idea how to answer any of them.

And so today we're going to talk about podcast sponsorship.

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So I was in a Facebook group and I see where Riley Soper says, hey, let's talk about podcast sponsorships.

I have my first sponsorship opportunity.

I have a daily podcast.

I have some ideas, but I just don't know how to answer these questions that I'm getting from a potential sponsor.

My ideas are below.

And so here are the questions they ask, what is the expected number of impressions available per month or the number of spots available per month?

And she said, I'm considering three slots per week, two pre roll and one mid roll.

So 12 per month.

Reminder, it's a short daily podcast with each episode is only 10 to maybe 15 minutes long.

So if you do, let's go with 10 minutes because it makes the math easy.

If you do two 30 second ads, that's one minute.

That means your show is already 10% ads.

If you do a mid roll, let's say that's 30 to 60 seconds.

Let's go 60 seconds.

You know, it adds up quickly.

And she then asks, I'm considering two pre rolls and then a two, this is the sponsor, a two to three minute mid roll.

Nobody's listening to that.

Just no two to three minutes.

Holy cow.

And then do you happen to have a rate card?

And what was interesting is somebody said, hey, all the kind of negotiating cards are in your hand.

You have nothing to lose.

To which I said, you have nothing to lose except your audience.

Make sure the ads are relative to your audience.

I used to listen to a show for web designers because the ad, I listened for the ads.

It was like the Super Bowl.

The ads were so relevant.

And I learned a lot of new services that I wanted to try out because of the ads.

Radio right now is 30% ads, which is why when you turn it on, you got a 30% chance of hearing ads.

And yeah, it's, it's a man.

Morning radio is even probably worse.

And remember The Back in 2005, one of the reasons that podcasting was so popular in the early days is because it wasn't radio.

And advertisers and agencies are trying very Very hard to turn podcasts back into radio.

Oxford Road is a company that deals with advertising.

They analyze ads to see how well they work, etc.

And they are recommending no more than 10% ads.

So if you're at 10 minutes now, that would be a minute and that will turn people off.

I know I can stomach one pre roll and that's.

I think the first thing people should hear is you.

But two pre rolls I'm going to skip because there are a lot of other shows now that's just me.

It's a survey of one.

But when people front load and I get it, if it's an interview show, you preload all your ads and then the rest is that.

But it's not a great first impression and it's hard to do.

For the record, I do a show on Saturday morning, it's 90 minutes and I do my ads.

Not at the very, very beginning.

I welcome people to the show and then I do a minute and a half of ads and then we do about an hour of ad free before I do another one.

But also when you're doing advertising, bundle the advertising on the podcast with, oh, it's X amount of money for the podcast.

It's X amount to be mentioned on the website.

That's your show notes.

And it's X amount to be mentioned in the newsletter if you wanted to.

And it's X amount to be mentioned on social.

And right now we're selling it on a perfect episode basis.

Don't get into the math of what they call CPM, which is the amount of money per 1,000 downloads that gets.

You know, now it's like, wait, this episode, I only did 900 downloads and this one did 1300.

And sell it per episode.

Yes.

They're going to do the math and figure out what the CPM is because they're used to buying radio and they can't learn anything new, apparently.

But I'd also insert them dynamically.

You can use tools like Buzzsprout and Captivate.

That's why I don't like Spotify.

Another reason I don't like Spotify, but I love Captivate's dynamic tool.

Also, keep in mind that once you sign up for a sponsorship, if you're a person that occasionally skips an episode, not anymore.

You're under contract and you may have to shape your content.

So if you find out about a really great service that your audience would love, you may not be able to tell them because, well, they're a competitor to your sponsor.

And also, whatever you're going to charge, make it higher than you think.

And I'm here to tell you everyone undersells their value.

Your relationship with your audience is worth more than you're probably going to charge for.

So just keep that in mind.

Everybody's like, oh, I'm just gonna stuff ads in this.

I'm like, well, you know what there are.

And look, you could do one ad and you're still gonna lose people.

They're gonna be like, oh, you're selling out.

Well, you're not if the ad's relevant.

So keep that in mind.

Also keep in mind with some of these ad agencies.

I worked with Libsyn, we had advertised Cast, that was a company that we bought.

And there are times when you will run an ad in January and the advertising people are making sure that you don't have to redo it.

And so there's like this weird 30 day money back guarantee kind of thing going on.

So in February they're like, yep, you did the ad, right?

And then it's like another 30 days to get paid.

So the ad you did in January, you're gonna get paid in March.

Ish.

So that's the other downside of ads.

I'm not anti ad, I just, I'm a person that's like.

I've seen a lot of shows ruined by ads and I just.

There are better ways to sell and make money.

Mainly sell your own product and service.

Whether that's consulting or a book or a membership or crowdfunding, things like that.

But when you have the right ad for the right audience, that's amazing.

Especially if it's one that you love.

So I would start there, find a product that you use and you know your audience would love, see if they have an affiliate program.

Because sometimes I've made.

If we go back to the whole CPM thing and usually CPM is around $20 for a host red ad and around $3 if it's.

Yeah, 3.

So that's 0.003 per download.

If you're doing some sort of pre run, you know, here's a yet another insurance commercial kind of thing.

But I found a product that I loved and I talked about it for my own personal use and I later calculated The CPM was $50 per thousand downloads.

So that's where you know, sometimes affiliate.

If you have the right.

It's all about getting the right product for the right audience.

They'll love it.

And so don't just take yet another BetterHelp mattress insurance, food delivery service.

Find one that really fits your audience and that you can be proud of because that will come through.

In the ad, they're like, I love this.

For years I talked about PodPage on my show.

I loved it so much, I now work there.

That's the kind of sponsor you want on your show.

Now, if you need help with this, coming up with a rate card, things like that, that's stuff I can help with.

Again, just charge more than you think you should and figure out where that is.

That I want the sponsor to make money on the deal, but I want to make money on the deal.

Find that.

Win Win.

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I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters.

It's what I do.

And I can't wait to see what we're going to do together.