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Podcast advertising vs. Donation Revenue
The average CPM is between $20 to $45 for every thousand impressions, some podcast CPMs can go as high as $100, as with the podcast StartUp.
USEFUL FINDINGS
1. ADVERTISING REVENUE
- According to several top podcasters, the cost-per-mille or CPM is between $20 and $45. This is the price advertisers pay for every thousand impressions.
- Some podcast CPMs can go as high as $100, as with the podcast StartUp.
- According to MarketingPro, advertising on a podcast can cost between $200 per episode to as much as $25,000 per episode.
- For 500-999 listeners per episode, advertisers pay $22 for a 30-second CPM ad and $27 for a 60-second CPM ad.
- For 1,000-2,499 listeners per episode, advertisers pay $22 for a 30-second CPM ad and $32 for a 60-second CPM ad.
- For 2,500-4,999 listeners per episode, advertisers pay $23 for a 30-second CPM ad and $31 for a 60-second CPM ad.
- For 5,000-24,999 listeners per episode, advertisers pay $21 for a 30-second CPM ad and $30 for a 60-second CPM ad.
- For 25,000-99,999 listeners per episode, advertisers pay $22 for a 30-second CPM ad and $32 for a 60-second CPM ad.
- For 100,000-999,999 listeners per episode, advertisers pay $29 for a 30-second CPM and $30 for a 60-second CPM ad.
2. DONATION REVENUE
- The Radical Personal Finance podcast has 214 patrons (donors) and generates $1,240 per month.
- The goal of Radical Personal Finance is to earn $6,000 per month in donations so it can be kept free from corporate sponsors.
- Certain posts are blocked for non-patrons and are only available after a listener becomes a patron by making a monthly pledge of $3 per month.
- Circle Round attempted to support its podcast for young children and families by requesting a donation of $5 per month or $60 per year in exchange for a colouring book that children could use to interact with the podcast.
- The Endless Thread podcast offered a customized six-second song that was written and recorded by the podcast's hosts for a $10 donation.
3. TOP PATREON CREATORS
- Chapo Trap House is the top patreon creator with 29,899 patrons and earning of $133,598 per month.
- Brandon Stanton with 22,212 patrons ranks second while Dark Cookie with 19,032 patrons ranks third.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Information on the average donation revenue and average advertising revenue for podcasts based on a per-episode or per-month basis is not available. We began by looking for reports on podcast revenues, searching through sources such as Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Edison Research, etc. This strategy wasn't productive, as there was no information on the average donation revenue or average advertising revenue for podcasts per episode or month. Instead, we found information on the overall podcasting revenues market size, its growth, etc.
Next, we searched podcasts membership sites like Patreon and sites like graphtreon which publish information on podcasts stats. However, this strategy did not provide the required information. At most, we found information about patreon earnings, number of patreons, etc. We also looked for information on websites of podcast production companies like Wondery, Cadence13, WaitWhat among others. However, this strategy did not work as there was no information on the average donation revenue or average advertising revenue for podcasts per episode or month. At most, the articles contained information on the future of podcasts, growth, etc.
Our next strategy was to look for business articles, press releases published on revenues of podcast advertising and/or podcast donation. We searched through sources such as growthmarketingpro, digitalmusicnews, publicradiobizlab among others, however, we couldn't provide the required information through this strategy. We found information about advertising rates per episode for various listener range, ways podcasts generate revenues, etc. We also searched for interviews of C-suite level employees of podcast publications, interviews of podcasters, etc on sites like insiderradio, hotpodnews, etc. But the information found was about industry growth, features, etc.
Then, we searched for the overall revenue generated by a podcast per month and then calculate the average donation revenue and average advertising revenue based on the percentage of the revenue generated from these mediums respectively. We looked for information for various podcasts like Chapo Trap House, Brandon Stanton, Dark Cookie. This strategy did not work as there was no such information available and we could find information on the overall revenue per month. We aimed at finding information on the revenues for 5-6 of the top podcasts and extrapolate the same for the overall podcast industry as a proxy.
There are no industry reports, articles that provided information on the average donation revenue and average advertising revenue for podcasts based on a per-episode or per-month basis. The reason for non-availability of such information could be that the revenues vary for each podcast and the ranges are very extreme, and cannot be generalized for the industry as a whole. For example, Podcast advertising can range between $200 to $25,000 for a one-episode spot.