The bCast Blog

A warm welcome our guest writer, Rosalyn Moreno!

Most podcasters, really, ought to be monetising their content, but in order to get their podcasts to do so, they need to sell ads. Or, in other words, they need to acquire some sponsors.

Sponsorships are the most effective and popular way to get revenue from your podcasts. In fact, the majority of advertisers welcome podcast advertisements; it's a platform where listeners can develop genuine connections with the host, and so they are more likely to be sold on and advertise for a service or product that's been advertised by the host!

How Podcast Sponsorships Work

Sponsors are usually looking to sell their products and increase their brand awareness... but how? To the layman and the podcasting rookies, it's easy to feel a little miffed by the entire process.

The first thing you need to know is that sponsors measure how much an ad would cost them in two ways:

1. Cost Per Mille (CPM): This is how much the sponsor pays per 1000 downloads; listens to your podcast; or impressions on your social media posts that the ads are attached to. CPM pricing is usually done per episode where there is an ad spot, but sponsors can also use it to assess the efficiency of their ads.
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2. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): This measures the amounts of sales or acquisitions the business makes from your advertisement. They either pay you a referral bonus for every signup, or they use the CPA to assess your ads after running them for a while. If your podcasts only bring together a small crowd, then CPA would be your best option, especially if you don't have up to 1000 fans.
   

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Attract a Huge Fan Base With Your Podcasts

If you're aiming to be a successful podcaster and want to make money from it, then you need to be making the best podcast you possibly can. The aim of making money can be easily missed if you don’t have a decent fan base, and a sponsor will only want to buy advertisements from you if they're sure their brand will gain more attention through your platform. The sponsor can only be convinced if they think you have the numbers to prove it. If your podcast is engaging and niche enough, you'll easily be able to get those numbers!

What you talk about on your podcast is super important, too. Let’s say you talk a lot about skincare and how to keep your skin clear and smooth. Depending on how engaging and passionate you are on the topic, you'll likely have a myriad of fans that skin beauty brands and owners will want to interact with.

You could also invite skin-care professionals onto your podcast; you could create fun segments that'll engage both the guest and the audience. Doing all of this with a website in place; having strategically placed SEO keywords; understanding the trending niches; and having links to your podcast would result in some impressive fan figures destined to impress potential sponsors.

Create a Website For Your Podcasts to Help You Build Traffic

Consider creating a website for your podcast and brand; this will go a long way in attracting sponsors and a wider audience with the right SEO techniques. But remember: building a good, well-designed website that gets your message across isn’t a walk in the park - if you're not a professional in this... well, look into hiring one. You can hire one of the best in the business among digital marketing agencies like Tactica, New Jersey SEO Company, a tech company proven to deliver fantastic results to your podcast business, fetching you more money than you have to pay for their services!

From building an industry-specific website to making it rank high with intelligent SEO techniques, Tactica is the real deal. All you need to do is tell them what you want and they'll take it from there. Once they're through, getting sponsors should be easier for you. Sponsors usually go online to look for podcasters in their niche with large fanbases, so when you have a Tactica-built website with the company’s SEO techniques and you marry those with your engaging podcasts, sponsors will easily find and come to you!

Get an Offer From Your Media Host

After taking care of the how, it is now time to know where to find them.

Let's assume you've already built a reasonable fan base either with your website or by uploading engaging podcast episodes - if your podcasts are interesting and bring in more fans everyday, then there's a rather big chance that sponsors will be looking to partner with you. Established podcast distributors should present options of running advertisements to the podcasters registered with them; they can also partner with bigger brands to help you make more money.

Where can you find these types of sponsors? An example of this is bCast. On this platform, you can find big brands willing to promote their services on podcasts, and if you can host some of them, you are poised to make money.

Where to Find More Sponsors

Apart from registering on bCast to stand a chance of getting big brands as sponsors, you can also search for sponsors on your own by:

1. Browsing through advertisements on other websites in your niche. If you intend to reach out to those sponsors, then you need to be releasing engaging podcasts that are related to them.
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2. Checking through your online community to see if there are posts from any brand representative.
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3. Search some of the keywords in your niche on google and check out any sponsorships related to your search results. You can reach out to the bigger brands first because those who would be buying usually prefer them.
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4. Partner up with an experienced SEO consultant who will know where to look for sponsors. 
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5. Find out from your audience what kind of products they tend to buy. You can use that information to look for sponsors with brands in those niches.
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6. Check out industry magazines and the companies that advertise in them. If you are able to pick out some in your niche, you can make a request for them to be your sponsor. This can be effective if you already have the numbers they need.
   

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Final Word 

Sometimes, running a successful podcast goes beyond your ability to engage your listeners; sponsors look for traffic with the purpose of selling ads. But getting to sell ads is another ball game entirely. It is very important to be visible to the online community first, and then getting sponsors can be easier if you know where to find them.

Consider some of these learning points and they should set you on the right path to becoming a successful podcaster!