Three Ways To Monetize A Podcast Using Ads

We answer a listener's question about the best ways to include ads in a podcast. We break down affiliate marketing, advertisers, and sponsors so you can choose a monetization path that matches your goals and how hands-on you want to be.

If you have questions about incorporating ads for your podcast, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com 

Keep podcasting!

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Welcome to Podcasting Q&A

Cara Pacetti 0:00

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you by the people at Buzzsprout. I'm your host, Cara Pacetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. First, I want to know what podcast decisions are you trying to make right now? Just click the Send Us Fan mail link in the show notes and share your questions with us. We can help. We love answering listener questions on Podcasting Q&A, and today is no different. So today's listener question is what are the different ways I can include ads in my podcast episodes? So if you're interested in monetizing your podcast, you have probably heard terms like affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and even programmatic ads. But what do these terms actually mean? And how do you know which one is right for your show? Today I'm going to walk through three strategies for including advertisements in your episodes. I want to share how each one works and when it makes the most sense to use it. Our

Affiliate marketing that fits your niche

Cara Pacetti 1:04

first option is affiliate marketing. So affiliate marketing, in my opinion, is one of the easiest to implement. And it's my most favorite because you're just sharing with your listeners about products that you stand behind and that you love. So an affiliate marketing program is a partnership where you promote a product. And then when someone purchases that product through your unique link, you get a commission. It's easy to share, and there's no extra cost to the listener for using the link and making a purchase. You just get a little kickback when they do. So if there's a product you want to share about, it's pretty easy to find an affiliate link for that product or service. I recommend visiting the company's website. Typically, if they have an established affiliate program, they'll have a whole page that's dedicated to ways of using the affiliate link and where you can find your unique link so that you can share it with your listeners. If you can't find anything that says affiliate, they might be referring to it as something else. So it may be buried in their website footer under partners, maybe refer a friend, creators, or it could even be called an ambassador program. So if you're seeing anything like that, I recommend diving a little deeper and seeing if you can find the information for using that affiliate program on your podcast. If you still can't find the affiliate information for your favorite product, reach out to the company directly. You may just be the first podcaster or the first content creator that wants to share about their product and they haven't even considered an affiliate program yet. So be the front runner in this, reach out to them, let them know how much you love their product and what it would mean to you to share it. And I bet you can convince them to give you a unique link and get the ball rolling on an affiliate program. So once you've joined this affiliate program, you have this unique link. How do you share it with your listeners? Well, first and foremost, I do recommend making sure that the products that you are sharing fit into the niche of your podcast. So if you are doing a podcast on fitness, maybe your affiliate link is about your favorite supplement. If you are doing a podcast about podcasting, maybe you're sharing our refer a friend link here from BuzzSprout for podcast hosting. So you want to make it in line with the subject of your content. An easy way to make sure your listeners are aware of this affiliate link that you now have is to go ahead and create a call to action during your episodes. And you can reference the link that you're adding to the show notes and encourage listeners to take an action step in purchasing the product using your link. If you're hosted here with us on BuzzSprout, this is a great opportunity to use dynamic content. So dynamic content allows you to add a short audio clip as a pre-mid or post role to your episodes. We did a whole podcasting QA episode on using dynamic content. So I'm gonna link that in the show notes if that's something that you're interested in and you want to use that for adding ads to your podcast. Once you've decided how you want to incorporate this call to action or this information into your episodes, the next obvious question is so how do I get paid? So this is something that will be established with the company that you're working with. They all have various ways of giving you a credit or commission on the purchases made through your affiliate link. Sometimes it's just a flat rate that's set by the company, or sometimes it can be a percentage of the volume of sales through each link. The amount and the way that you are compensated for listeners using your affiliate link will vary from company to company. So when is it best to use an affiliate link? Affiliate links and affiliate programs are great for new podcasters. They work best when you are already using the product yourself and you love it. They are ideal for when you want full control over what it is that you are recommending.

Incorporate ads from an advertiser

Cara Pacetti 4:56

The next option I want to share for including ads into your podcasting episodes is to work with an advertiser. So an advertiser is any company or organization that pays to place an ad in your podcast. But I want you to think about this relationship as being primarily transactional. So what they're paying for is that precious real estate on your episode. For example, if you are working with Casper Mattress and they want you to read an ad on your episode, they are simply just paying for that 60 seconds that you're reading the ad. There's no established partnership, it's a literal transaction of time and they are paying for that time. So I want you to think about it that way when you're thinking about an advertiser. While you could find advertisers on your own and pitch your podcast to them, another option for obtaining advertisers for your podcast is actually to use an advertising marketplace. So a marketplace allows you to match your podcast with available advertisers. Instead of finding advertisers on your own, the platform helps to connect you with brands who are looking to place their ads on podcasts like yours. There are a few options for advertising marketplaces out there like Gumball or Podcorn. And if you're hosted here on BuzzSprout, you will actually have access to our own advertising feature called Buzz Sprout Ads. Buzzsprout Ads is the easiest way to monetize your podcast when you're hosted here with us on BuzzSprout. This is something that is available for all podcasters who are on a paid plan, but there are some minimum qualifications you'll have to meet before you can start accepting ads into your podcast. I'm gonna link a help article in the show notes below that outlines all of those qualifications. But once you've met those, we will actually show you available advertisements running that match the categories for your podcast. So there are no contracts or formed relationships between you and the advertiser when you use Buzz Prout ads. It's just an ad that you see, you review if it's a good fit for your podcast, you accept that ad and it will play across your episodes until the ad run is complete. At that time, we'll pull the ad and it's removed. While we match your podcast with potential advertisers based on the podcasting categories you've selected inside of your BuzzSprout account, each marketplace is going to handle this process a little differently. So the way that you get matched with potential advertisers will vary from platform to platform. Now, there still is always the option of striking a deal on your own, but if you use an advertising marketplace, it does help to minimize that work for grabbing potential advertisers for your podcast. The next natural question, of course, is how do I get paid? How you get paid can vary between advertising marketplaces and platforms. But if you're using BuzzSprout ads, you will be paid as soon as the ad run has completed and you will see that added to the Buzz Sprout wallet inside of your account. So when is it best to include advertisers in your podcast? This is great if you want a simpler, more automated path to monetization. It's helpful when you don't have time to find advertisers on your own. Go ahead and join a marketplace. And it's ideal for podcasters who are focused on creating new content, but also they're ready to start dipping their toe into monetization without committing extra time and

Build a relationship with a sponsor

Cara Pacetti 8:18

effort. The last way of incorporating ads into your podcast is to work with a podcast sponsor. A podcast sponsor refers to a company that pays to promote their product, service, or brand on your podcast. While this may sound a lot like an advertiser, a sponsor and advertiser are different. And I want to walk through some of those differences. A sponsor is usually a deeper, more prominent partner to your podcast. Typically, when a company is sponsoring your podcast, you're partnering with that company and they want to play a part in backing your content. Maybe it's just for an episode, maybe it's for an entire season, an event, or even a podcast series. When you introduce your episodes, you are going to highlight the company that is sponsoring that content and making it happen. A sponsorship can go beyond just a 60-second mention in a couple of your episodes. This could include branding. Maybe you add the company logo as a part of your artwork. Maybe they're sponsoring swag that you can give away for your podcast. So a sponsorship is less transactional and it's more about forming a relationship with this company. So while there are many ways of obtaining a sponsor for your podcast, one of those ways is actually to go out and pitch your podcast to the company directly. So when you're pitching to companies and you want them as a sponsor, you want to make sure to include who your audience is, how many downloads you receive, why their product would be a good fit to mention on your podcast, and ask what sponsorship opportunities they're offering. So are they even considering it and maybe what kind of levels they'd be willing to offer? Once you've established a relationship with a podcast sponsor, the common way that I hear podcasters mention their sponsors is by reading off a host read ad, either in the beginning of the episode as a pre-roll, maybe a mid-roll, or even as a post-roll. So this is another great opportunity to use dynamic content since it will allow you to easily add and take away that information dependent on the sponsorship relationship that you have agreed to. As an example, if this Podcasting Q&A episode was being sponsored by MailChimp, I might start out the episode with a pre-roll that says, thank you so much to our sponsor, MailChimp. MailChimp delivers game-changing results for thousands of customers, and we are honored that they have decided to sponsor this week's episode. And then I would go into my regular episode. So that is just one way of including a sponsorship in your episodes. So of course, the natural next question that we always ask is, how do I get paid? So, like the affiliate link option, this is something you would negotiate with a sponsor on your own. This could be for a flat fee, maybe a monthly sponsorship, or even a campaign agreement, which will determine how long the ad will run or how many downloads you've agreed to. So, when is it best to use a sponsorship as a podcaster? This is actually a little different than affiliate marketing or using an advertiser, since the other two options kind of allow you to be the recipient of advertisers who are looking to promote their product and you are just kind of facilitating that because you have episode real estate. A sponsorship is really putting yourself out there. So you are pitching your podcast and letting that sponsor know why they would be a good fit and why this would be a good relationship. So I would say that when you are confident in the content you're providing, that you'd be confident enough to build a relationship with a brand, that is when a sponsorship would be a good option for including ads in your podcast. So let's do a quick recap. Our listener asked for ways to include ads in their podcast episodes. So first we have affiliate marketing, which lets you recommend products and earn commission from purchases. Next, we have advertisers, which is a transactional relationship with an advertiser who's trying to place their ad on your episodes. And last is a sponsor. So a partner who is ready to support the podcast financially while you give them an agreed upon acknowledgement and spotlight for supporting the show. The best option really depends on your audience size, your podcasting goals, and how hands-on you want to be with monetization. If you have questions about including ads on your podcast episodes, reach out to us on the podcaster success team by emailing support at buzzsprout.com. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.