Do you podcast for the money or the fame? 

That emoji is me laughing and crying at the same time.

It’s said that most podcasters do not make money. The truth is that most of us have negative cash flow after accounting for the cost of gear, time, and not taking a salary.

We podcast for the love of it… the networking… building a personal brand. I get it. It’s not all about the moolah.

As you publish each episode, though, wouldn’t it be nice to have more listeners… get more feedback… help more people?!

Growing a podcast can be hard. It helps to have a team. I’m linking here to a social enterprise that helps you find remote workers while creating jobs for talented people in countries like Venezuela, Argentina, and Kenya. I’ve had really good experiences with it.

If we want to grow a podcast, it helps to treat it like a business. Building a team costs money. Marketing a show requires funds. Money, money, money!

Making a podcast can be fun, but growing one can be too.

CPM

Here’s the good news. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, the podcasting industry experienced a 19% increase in advertising revenue in 2020. Podcast ad revenues are expected to exceed $1 billion this year and $2 billion by 2023.

One notable highlight:

At 76%, mid-roll spot placements continued to account for three-fourths (76%) of revenues.

CPM stands for “cost per mille” and refers to the ad cost per 1,000 listens.

Here’s the bad news for the average podcast that gets 164 downloads after 30 days.

PODCAST PRE-ROLL AD CPM

• The average 15-25 second pre-roll ad spot will have a $15 CPM.
• It’ll cost approximately $1,500 to purchase a pre-roll ad on a podcast that generates 100,000 listens.
• Calculating a $15 CPM for 164 downloads is $2.46. 

PODCAST MID-ROLL AD CPM

• The average 30-60 second mid-roll ad spot will have a $30 CPM.
• It’ll cost approximately $3,000 to purchase a mid-roll ad on a podcast that generates 100,000 listens.
• Calculating a $30 CPM for 164 downloads is $4.92. 

PODCAST POST-ROLL AD CPM

• The average 15-25 second post-roll (also known as an “end-roll”) ad spot will have a $10 CPM.
• It’ll cost approximately $1,000 to purchase a post-roll ad on a podcast that generates 100,000 listens.
• Calculating a $10 CPM for 164 downloads is $1.64. 

Selling ads for less than $5 isn’t worth anyone’s time… advertiser or podcaster. 

AFFILIATES

You’ve got to start somewhere. The advice that I’ve heard most often is to start with affiliate marketing.

Cost Per Action (CPA) Marketing is a marketing model in which a commission is paid when a user takes a specified action. It is also referred to as Cost Per Acquisition Marketing. It is not dependent upon how many downloads your episodes get.

Joe Saul-Sehy of The Stacking Benjamins Podcast once told me that he started by joining an affiliate network like cj.com and doing ad reads so that listeners got used to hearing those spots. It also gave him confidence when approaching potential...