AP 0520: How Do I Determine Podcast Sponsorship Costs?

AskPat 520 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 520 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today, hope you are off to a great start of your week.

All right, here's today's question from Rebecca.

Rebecca: Hi Pat, this is Rebecca Thompson, from CLR Virtual Connection. I am starting to get sponsors for my podcast, and I was wanting to know, how do you choose who's a sponsor for the beginning of the show versus who is a sponsor for the end. Do you have different price points or is it just kind of a pick and choose? Thanks for taking questions, I appreciate it, have a great day.

Pat Flynn: Hey Rebecca, thanks so much for the question today, I really appreciate it. And as you could hear on this particular episode on this particular show, and on my other shows, I do have sponsors. Now, that wasn't always the case. Back before episode 96, ever since I started, I did not have any sponsors, but it was on episode 97 of the Smart Passive Income podcast that I decided to roll in, see what it was like, and because I made sure that the sponsors lined up with who my audience was, I got over those fears and all those sorts of things.

In that episode, I talk with John Lee Dumas, who is the host of the show Entrepreneur on Fire, and we talk all about the positioning and the pricing, and how to get sponsors, and what to look out for, what to do, what not to do, and that sort of thing. So if you all want to check that out, head on over to SmartPassiveIncome.com/session97. Again, SmartPassiveIncome.com/session97.

Now to get more specific with your question Rebecca, how do I choose who is at the beginning of the show and who's at the end? Well, it just depends. Because sometimes I have sponsors who just want to purchase the front end of the show, or what's called the pre-roll, and there's other ones who want just the post-roll. I typically promote, on AskPat, both. And sometimes I'll have sponsors who you'll hear at the beginning and at the end, or the pre-roll and the post-roll, and that comes with, typically, a price that's higher than if they were just to go in the beginning or just go in the end.

Typically, the beginning, or the pre-roll, is a higher priced point than the post-roll because you might think that those who are listening to your show will obviously hear the first ones and not everybody will get to the end, which is typically true. However, on Smart Passive Income, I don't have any podcast sponsors at the beginning of the show. None of my shows do. But, the ones after episode 97 do. And that is because I was able to talk to specific sponsors and pretty much convinced them that it was the end of the shows that were going to convert better. And actually running campaigns with sponsors who were kind of reluctant at first because they typically purchase either pre-roll, or post-roll and pre-roll together, or they also include mid-rolls.

Sometimes you'll hear podcasts sponsorships in the middle of an episode which I don't have and I know some shows that do. And again, it's up to the host and how you want to do it. But I always wanted to make sure that my audiences experience with my show was great and it was not interrupted. That if I were to include sponsors, which I eventually did, that it would enhance the content and add more value to it instead of take people away. Because it's at the end of the show, it's after the content is over, and they don't get that first impression, like there's something there now that's different. For AskPat, of course, but AskPat is a smaller episode, so I wanted to give sponsors a little bit more time than they would if it was just a 30 second plug at the end. So that's why I also include a plug here in the beginning.

But anyway, going back to what I was saying earlier, I was able to convince these sponsors that the end of the show, for Smart Passive Income, was okay. And that they would convert in a very high rate that they probably wouldn't be used to because of the listenership that I have. And the fact that I know that I have a devoted audience who pays attention to what I recommend and what I share, and who gets featured on my site and on my podcasts, and that when people reach the end of the show, they're likely going to take action. And a lot of people do listen all the way through and because of that, those spots converted very, very well and actually blew a lot of those people who I was connecting with at the sponsor—or at the companies—it blew their minds. Because it was just unexpected. And so, to actually open them up to understanding that, if I can provide value first, and then serve up that company at the end, and feature them at the end, then it makes sense for everybody. And it's a win for everybody.

But again, I'm most concerned about my listeners, and to make sure that they have something that is useful that is interesting that would help them in whatever it is that they're trying to do, and it doesn't take away from the show. And so that's where it's at. So in terms of how I choose, well sometimes I work directly with companies and then I work with them showing them what's available, that on AskPat, I have the first and last of the show available or, excuse me, the pre-roll and the post-roll. Or, on Smart Passive Income, it's just the post-roll. Sometimes I'll also offer up and be able to command a higher price by including their logo and a mention on the show notes for particular episodes, or the resource page for my blog, and that also makes it very easy to charge a higher price too and to show them that there's traffic coming to those pages, that they do convert. Again it makes you in command of those pricing situations that you're talking through with these people at these companies.

But like I said earlier, that's a direct relationship that I have with them. I reach out to them or sometimes they reach out to me, and we talk and we consider the contract and the deals from there. Now, I do run with a company called Midroll. Kinda ironic, cause I don't actually have mid-rolls in my particular podcast episodes in terms of a plug in the middle of my show, but they help you, as a podcaster, find sponsors which is great, and it makes it very easy because there's a dashboard and you get to see going in to the recording of an episode who that sponsor is, you can approve those sponsors, and you know, they have relationships.

They're sort of the middle man now, of course. They do take a commission as a result of being the middle man and finding those sponsors for your show. But it's a win for everybody because those sponsors want to get in front of traffic, you have that traffic and that listenership, and I will say that I have talked to people over at Midroll asking them, “Well, how many downloads do you need in order for you to consider working with somebody who has a podcast?” And they had mentioned about 50,000 downloads per month, minimum.

Now that isn't set in stone and I would recommend reaching out to them if you do have some sort of listener base, and depending on the loyalty, you might be able to run rests and that sort of thing, but check them out, Midroll.com. They're a great company, they've been helping me manage most of the sponsors here for this particular podcast, AskPat. They also help for Smart Passive Income too, although I do a lot more personal, one on one relationships with other companies to fill in a lot of the gaps in there.

So go ahead and check that out, and again, if sponsorship is not for you, then that's okay. You could also consider generating an income from you podcasts through affiliate marketing. So, you gotta be, you gotta make make sure that if you have—this is really important because the language that you use could get you in trouble—if you have an affiliate promotion, so there's a company out there that you are recommending their product and you have an affiliate link that you want to share and you get paid a commission through recommending that, you of course have to mention that, that's the case, but also, you don't want to say that that company is a sponsor. If you just have an affiliate relationship with them, they're not a sponsor. A sponsor is somebody who pays you for getting featured on their show. Not for recommending, not a commission from items that you sell, although there could be a deal where you actually have both things happening at the same time.

But you don't want to call a company a sponsor unless you've wheeled and dealed with them in terms of, yes, they know that they are sponsoring your show because then there's a sort of endorsement there and a connection that you need to worry about. So again, just to make sure, make sure you talk to a professional to make sure that you're all squared away in that sense, but Rebecca, I hope that answers your question and yeah, it's your show, you could do whatever you want to do, which is really cool. You can have as many slots available and make sure that you have some sort of media kit if you're doing it on your own that shares what those options are, what the pricing levels are at and all those sorts of things. So wishing you all the best and thank you so much for the question today, I really appreciate it.

We're gonna send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show, and for those of you who have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show too, just head on over to AskPat.com, you can ask right there on that page. Just hit that record button and ask your question. It's that easy.

I also wanna mention that my book is coming out very soon in a couple weeks now, I recommend you go to WillItFlyBook.com, you'll be able to see the book available for pre-order now and you can check out the bundles that are available as bonuses for you who act early. And man, this is gonna be crazy. In a couple weeks, the book's gonna come out and I'm really excited to see what happens and I hope you are too.

So go ahead and go to WillItFlyBook.com to get more information about that. It's gonna help you validate your ideas and be able to potentially even get paid for them before you build your idea, to make sure that that is something people want, instead of focusing on that idea for years and just realizing then that it's not gonna work out. So go ahead and check it out, once again, WillItFlyBook.com. And here's a quote to finish off the day by Og Mandino. He said, “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”

Should be our attitude for sure. Take care, and I'll see you the next episode of Ask Pat. Thanks.