How much should I charge?

[thezashow]

Hi,

I was approached by a potential advertiser to advertise and promote their brand on my show. I would like to know what criteria must I take into account when deciding on the price for the advertising campaign.

I work on a minimum 1 month campaign. I offer a spoken "This show is sponsored by ... " and mention where and how to get in touch with the advertiser, a banner ad on the website amongst the option for the advertiser to offer an incentive for using them, like discounts, etc. It is a weekly show with about 350+ listeners per show.

I know that each situation is different and there is no "one size fits all" approach, but the last thing I want to do is charge too much or charge too little. I want to make sure they get good value for money.

I've learnt so much about podcast advertising over the past couple of months and how different it is compared to traditional media. This is very new to me and I want to learn as much as I can, but als not to make a stupid mistake.

Thanks

[ElNacho]

mm...dunno.

[kinkysex]

I've heard the number: $50 cpm or 50 bucks per thousand downloads. Most podcasts that offer ads have told me a number close to that.

If you have 350 downloads, then 15-20 bucks or so.

If you want to charge more, just convince your client that you are worth more than the standard rate. :lol:

Good luck.

[ElNacho]

i think that HBO went $40 per thousand downloads. from the podtrac deals.

[thezashow]

Thanks for the info so far.

Can I also assume that podcasters generally charge according to the number of downloads per show or for the number of downloads per month?

[ElNacho]

per show

[dbwilldo]

We charge per 1K shows downloaded and include a banner add on the site (above the fold at 1024x768). Normally only for shows that were downloaded during the current month and the last week of the previous month.

The going rates, from the research I did, were $10 - $50 per 1K downloads. Using the podtrac survey results we have been able to get a pretty good idea of our demo (we actually have had 200 people take the survey so far!) and charge accordingly.

It's not a living, but it does pay for bandwidth and equipment upgrades.

[thezashow]

I think I am getting a much better idea now. I think it is also good to know all this so that I can prepare myself for any questions that come my way.

I agree, it is not going to make a living for myself, but been able to cover my costs and buy gear is a major factor for me.

[dbwilldo]

It's not a living, but it does pay for bandwidth and equipment upgrades.

That sounded lame. It's not like I'm doing this to make money. Even without sponsors, I'd still be making a podcast! It's too much fun not too! Just that the extra money helps to grow the show and have cool stuff for our listeners and blah blah blah blah.

[barbecuebob]

Hi everyone,
This is Miss Claudia from the BBQ Bob show - just wondering where one would go to get the ads...
Bob and I are new to this - and we do it for fun - but the amount of downloads are tremendous and would be nice if we could earn just enough to pay for more bandwidth. :)

If you guys could point me in the right direction - we'd sure appreciate it.

BTW, have you heard of kiptronic? Any good?


Miss Claudia
http://barbecuebob.podomatic.com
http://www.bobsbeerandbbq.com

[SFEley]

Bob and I are new to this - and we do it for fun - but the amount of downloads are tremendous and would be nice if we could earn just enough to pay for more bandwidth. :)
Well, first, if you're paying anything significant for bandwidth you may have chosen the wrong provider. Libsyn (http://www.libsyn.com) offers cheap hosting with no bandwidth charges, ever, and there are standard Web hosts (http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?69030) that will give you more bandwidth than you're likely to need for a long time (e.g., a terabyte) for just a few dollars a month.

Second, if you have an interesting subject niche for your podcast (it sounds like you do) and an audience of at least several hundred to a few thousand, the thing I'd consider doing would be to develop a media kit and then approach manufacturers or merchants in your subject area directly. If you can find the right people to contact, and state clearly how you deiiver a message that your audience is eager to hear, they'll be interested.

[barbecuebob]

I just wanted to check in - found your kind reply and wanted to thank you straight away.

We have about 2000 subscribers (in a month - that is good, yes?)
As I told you, we're very GREEN about all of this stuff.

What exactly would a media kit consist of for a podcast?

Thanks again -- have a beautiful day!

Miss Claudia

[rwalch]

2000 subscribers in one month is not good - it is great.

I would ask you to check how you are counting subscribers. Often times those new to podcasting count subscribers - by the number of hits to ones XML file. This is not an accurate number as someone subscribed to your show may ping your XML file once an hour every day. So you could get over 700 hits just from one subscriber.

Feedburner - offers a way to look at the number of people subscribed to your show.

However you are best to look at unique downloads of the MP3 file - Libsyn offer good stats for this, and all you have to do is put your MP3 file for your next show there and you will know within a few days of release what your audience really looks like.

If you are not using either of these two services - you may want to look a little more closely at your stats before approaching a sponsor. Because most sponsors will ask you for some evidence on the number of listeners for your show.

Rob @ podCast411

[barbecuebob]

Hi Rob,
Thanks for replying.

I use podomatic advanced stats - and I count the number of subscriptions hit (meaning by clicking the subscribe button) which is different from the unique visitors and downloads. We have high download too -- but I don't count that for subscriptions...only what subscribe says.

Is that right?

Thanks....
We are, so far today, number one in food on podomatic. :)

Today's show we're gonna have me taste various beers at the local brew store with brewmaster. UGH.
I'm a lightweight - hope I don't walk outta there schnitzled!

[KHPR]

OK I've got a question on the CPM as to how you work it. Say an advertiser has an add on a show that is a year ago and that show is still getting downloaded by new potential consumers. Do you track that and bill them? How long do they continue being tracked and billed? 10-50/thousand downloads is fine to start with, but let's take a look a few months into the future. Are you still tracking what they've been charged for and billing them for the new d/l's?

Eric

[rwalch]

Typically you would charge them based on what you think the show will get in downloads.

So if your last 3 or 4 shows were getting 2,000 downloads and you think the next few shows will also get 2,000 downloads each and you agree on a $25 CPM. Then you would charge them $50 for each show they agree to sponsor. If your show takes off during the length of the agreement - then they got a good deal. And when it comes time to renogiate the contract you then base it on the downloads on what you think new shows will get download wise.

But rarely would someone agree to a deal based on "Actual" downloads for the show their advertisement is in. It makes it to tempting to run up the numbers, and that would scare off anyone that thinks about the situation.

[geeknews]

Rob what do you mean advertisers would not do a deal on actual downloads? This is how we have been selling ad deals for the past 18 months.

Straight CPM deals are done on completed downloads of the show minus duplicate downloads from the same IP. This is working well on all the deals we have signed.

Ask the 86 podcasters at blubrry.com how they are currently getting paid on the ad deal we have running for them over the next six months. Better yet ask the 214 podcasters at blubrry.com how they are gonna get paid starting January 1 for the ad deals we have contracted.

This is not rocket science.

[rwalch]

Todd - I stand corrected.

Just seems like a lot of extra work - basing it on actual downloads. You have to record and report the stats and then bill accordingly - the other person wants to verify and the bill is not a set bill.

What about time frames into the future? - How long are advertisers required to pay for downloads of the shows with their ad's? If I have a show that is downloaded two years from when it was originally posted - do they still pay?

As someone that bought advertising in my past life I would rather just pay an expected rate based on past verifiable numbers and be done with it. I don't like surprises. So if a show suddenly took off and I was expecting to pay x and the bill comes in for 5x - I would not be happy as it could ruin my budget.

Do you also offer flat rate advertising? Just curious.

[KHPR]

OK here's something. One of my podcasts has been averaging 8887 downloads based upon the total number of downloads divided by the number of shows. I use this because we still have people downloading old shows. SO at $25 CPM that would be $200/ show (or month?) also this ignores the 887 that don't make up a thousand whcih would translate to a total of...$222.18. You're missing $22.18 you could be charging that the client gets for free.

As for unique downloads that is an incorrect method. Most homes and many companies run their services through a dynamic IP address that is served to the computers in the house via the same IP address. In this case Mom, Dad, Son and Daughter could be downloading the same show and listening (4 listeners) but they are being counted as only 1. The number of unique downloads vs. overall is not that disproportionate to prove otherwise. We have had a total number of downloads of over 100K but our unique IP's are at 95K. That's not too much difference (5%). This is for all of our shows so the average per show multiple download by a person would be less than 1%.

I like the idea of charging a monthly fee based on the number of average overall number of downloads per show x 52 weeks (for a weekly show) divided by 12. This would be re-evaluated each month. So for us at $25/CPM (which I've reworked to .025/dl) it would work out to...$962.75/month. If they pay this for several months and the count goes up (which ours has) they would get a deal. Besides they're ad is still on the show that will continue to be downloaded.

Eric