How to find Podcast Sponsorship Pricing?

Over the last few weeks I have talked about sponsorship, how to find sponsors, how to keep sponsors, and if you need a sponsorship contract. The question I get the most is how do I price my sponsorship.

The most common is cost per mille or CPM, but I have a different way for you. Here is the formula and the framework you need to price your sponsorships.

What CPM Means in Podcast Sponsorship Pricing

CPM is the most common way to price sponsorship for big podcasts. CPM stands for cost per mille, and that means there is a dollar amount per thousand downloads.

If you have 1,000 downloads and your CPM is $20, you can charge $20 per sponsorship. If you get 5,000 downloads in the first 30 days per episode, you can charge $100 per sponsorship. Downloads are per episode within a 30-day period.

If you’re getting 5,000 downloads in the first 30 days, that puts you in the top 5% of podcasts. This podcast isn’t getting that many. How I Built It, my interview podcast, gets about that many, but I charge a lot more than $100 per sponsor spot per episode. I charge double or triple that.

There are real costs to both getting sponsors and running your podcast, and an average CPM is between $18 and $24 depending on the podcast category.

If we say $20, for most podcasts that is not going to be worth it. It would not be worth it to sell at a thousand downloads per 30 days.

You would make a lot more money not selling those ad spots and instead selling your own product or promoting your mailing list. The email addresses on your mailing list are worth a lot more than 20 bucks.

A Better Model for Podcast Sponsorship Pricing: Overall Reach

You probably do not have the downloads, but you might have followings in other areas: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, your mailing list, YouTube, website visitors.

You probably have an audience bigger than just the number of downloads in your podcast.

I have coached people who have smaller podcasts but a mailing list of 8,000 or 10,000, and newsletter sponsorships are blowing up right now.

When you put together an offer, instead of calculating your cost based on CPM, calculate your overall reach. You are basically calculating for your sponsor how many people overall you will reach.

Example Overall Reach Calculation

Let’s say you get:

• 50 downloads per episode over a 30-day period
• 4,000 Twitter followers
• 600 Instagram followers
• 2,000 on your mailing list

That is 6,650 as your overall reach. You are adding up your audience across all of these platforms.

You might wonder if people on your mailing list also happen to listen to the podcast.

You might have some overlap, but I do not think the overlap is significant enough to subtract.

If you want, calculate the overall reach and then round down to the next round number, or take 10% off. That is totally up to you.

Build a Value-Rich Offer

Put together an offer like this:

• A 60-second midroll ad read
• Three tweets the week the episode airs highlighting the sponsor
• One Instagram post, story, or reel about the sponsor that week
• A dedicated section in your newsletter where you talk about and thank the sponsor

This adds a ton of value for your potential sponsors and blows that $20 CPM out of the water. That is how I charge $250 to $350 per sponsor spot.

Because your audience trusts you and you are speaking from the heart, you are going to help with conversions.

General purpose sponsors cast a wide net and try to reach as many people as possible. Coca-Cola does not measure ROI from Super Bowl ads. You know how many people watched the Super Bowl, but you do not know how many people watched your specific commercial, and you do not know how many people were encouraged to drink a Coca-Cola after seeing the ad. You are going for brand recognition there.

When we talk about smaller audiences, I like to call them small but loyal or small but mighty.

They listen to you because they trust you. When you make a recommendation, even if it is paid, they are more likely to listen to that.

Trust, Fit, and Transparency Drive Conversions

I make it really clear to my listeners that there are sponsor spots. I vet those sponsors.

I do not just recommend anybody who is going to hand me a paycheck, and that is really important.

I have had sponsors before where I just did not think they were a good fit. One was Manscaped, a gentleman’s grooming company.

They wanted to sponsor my podcast and I said I just do not think men’s grooming tools are a good fit for my audience, and I declined.

Another sponsor sent me the product to try but did not want me to make it clear that it was paid placement. They wanted me to work their product into the conversation.

I told them no deal, because I need to make it clear. I make it clear when there is a current sponsor read. When I mention a former sponsor or current sponsor outside of that sponsor spot, I make it clear that they are a current or former sponsor.

I want to be very upfront about that. Because of that, my audience trusts me. When I recommend something they are more likely to convert, or there is such great brand alignment with my audience and the sponsor that they are more likely to convert.

CPA vs Sponsorship

I have called this CPA or cost per acquisition. I think cost per acquisition is a little bit different.

That is basically an affiliate program in my eyes. If you are getting paid per acquisition, that is an affiliate program. I personally do not do affiliate programs, and sponsorships are very different to me.

If a brand comes to me and says we do not want to sponsor your podcast but we will do an affiliate program, that is not going to work for me.

There are a few affiliate programs that work for me, so CPA is different.

Calculating your overall reach is the formula you want.

Stop Publishing Your Prices

I interviewed Justin Moore, and he told me that we should stop making our prices public. I had prices listed on the sponsor page so sponsors could pick a package.

That can work for bigger podcasts where they are straight up calculating CPM.

For us, where we are adding value beyond just reading a sponsor spot, you are probably going to want to come up with a custom package. Justin offered really good advice I want to reiterate.

Create Custom Packages in Podcast Sponsorship Pricing

Get on a call with the sponsor. If someone is willing to hand you a $10,000 check, they are worth the phone call, even if it is just to make sure that you are not some fly by night email address that is going to take their money and run.

Ask them this question: what makes this a win for you. Some brands might not be looking for conversions.

Maybe they are looking for brand awareness. Maybe they just want to be associated with you because you are a trusted voice in your space. That happens to me a lot in the WordPress space.

Take some notes. Ask what channels they want to be more visible on. I always say podcast sponsorship is my main offering, but I also do these other things. What works best for you.

Then come up with three sponsorship packages. Give them options. Shoot your shot on one of them.

For example: for $10,000 you can get a half sponsorship on my podcast, I will create three videos on my YouTube channel, and I will post 10 Instagram reels that you can then repurpose for organic sharing.

Podcast Sponsorship Pricing: Recap and Action Steps

Do not use CPM to price your podcast sponsorships. Instead:

• Calculate your overall reach across platforms: add up listeners, subscribers, followers, and site visitors.
• Build a value-rich offer that spans your podcast, newsletter, and social channels.
• Price based on the value of your trust and deliverables, not a $20 CPM.
• Vet sponsors and be transparent with your audience to protect trust.
• Stop publishing prices. Get on calls, ask what makes a win for them, and present three custom options.

If you are not willing to make YouTube videos, do not offer it. If you prefer to make reels where you talk about the brand or highlight the brand in some way, do that instead. Create an a la carte menu for yourself, get on a call with a potential sponsor, and come up with a custom package based on what makes a win for them.

Final Thoughts on Podcast Sponsorship Pricing

Calculating overall reach and packaging high-trust deliverables is a better way to price podcast sponsorships than CPM. Smaller but loyal audiences convert when there is clear fit and transparency. Price for the value you deliver, tailor offers to sponsor goals, and keep your pricing in conversation, not on a public page.