I Broke My Podcast Sponsorship Rule and There Were Consequences

I have a confession: over the summer, I panicked a little bit. I wasn’t sure I was going to hit my podcast sponsorship goal for the year. I was short on sales, slacking a little, and you know…the whole pandemic thing. So I panicked. I reached out to a bunch of sponsors, made a couple of deals that were more beneficial to the sponsor than to me, and ended up breaking one of my biggest rules for the show. It didn’t go over well.

Listeners and Content First

My show wouldn’t be where it is without the listeners. So my goal has always been to put them first and make sure I produce great content. Since my show is general 40-45 minutes, I want to limit the amount of promotions – personal or paid.

No More Than 3 Sponsors Per Episode

As a result, I have a rule to allow only 3 episodes per spot. 1 pre-roll and 2 mid-roll, or 3 mid-roll. This allows me to evenly space ads without bombarding the listeners. It also leaves me a little wiggle room to promote my own project or property – usually my newsletter.

However (as you could probably guess), I purposefully oversold 2 episodes with a 4th sponsor. That brought me to 1 pre-roll and 3 mid-rolls.

I thought I could get away with adding them to longer episodes, but honestly even my long episodes seldom clock in at over an hour.

No Fewer Than 4 Episodes to a Sponsor Run

There’s actually two other rules I broke in this order. One is that I have a minimum of 4 episodes to a sponsor run, and those spots must be paid at full price. Discounts start a 6 episodes.

This particular sponsor only wanted 3 episodes, and I obliged because I perceived them as a big get and wanted to land them on the show.

I also gave them a deeply discounted rate in accordance with their own spending guidelines.

I Should Have Known It Wasn’t a Good Fit

Now I reached out to them because I truly believed my audience would benefit from hearing about their product. And I still use it – it’s excellent.

But I should have known a sponsorship agreement wasn’t a good fit for us. My audience simply isn’t as big as they generally like to see. That means I had to drop my prices and hope the episodes they sponsored were hugely popular. In actuality I was seeing a decline in listens (I guess the pandemic was why, but I never really figured out the reason).

I should also make clear that this is not their fault. I have no ill will towards the company that sponsored. But because of their expectations, and the fact that I had full episodes they wanted to sponsor, I should have passed.

The Consequences

The first consequence was pretty clear: I couldn’t deliver for the sponsor. This is a big deal for me because as a relatively small podcast, I know that listenership is only one facet of how I sell spots. I also generally include content extras to make up some of the cost and form some longer-term back links and helpful content.

But I didn’t do that this time around. I oversold myself and underdelivered. And I hated it. I eventually made good by forgoing the fee for 2 of the 3 episodes, but it wasn’t an ideal outcome for me.

A Bad Review

Here’s the consequence that made be want to write this blog post: I got a bad review on Apple Podcasts:

OK I know what you’re thinking: this feels a little bit like when Ted Mosby got one bad review and it ruined his day. But hear me out.

I don’t have that many reviews (which you know, if you listen, please leave a rating and review) so a single bad one affects the overall rating, which could affect when and where the show is features, and listenership adoption.

But aside from that, this review is a direct result of me breaking one of my important rules for the show.

Lessons Learned

I made the rule of 3 sponsors not based on data, but because I had an inkling. I felt shows that were overrun with ads were not as well received.

Further, I didn’t even break my rule for a big pay day. I got paid less than I normally would have, and the sponsorship caused me more stress than it should have (again – that isn’t their fault. It’s my own).

My advice to you: set some ground rules for your podcast, and follow them. It will make your show more consistent, your listeners happy, and your conscience clear.