Monetization & sponsorships

What goes into a professional podcast media kit?

A professional podcast media kit is one page: what the show is, who listens, honest downloads per episode from the last 90 days, format and cadence, the ad placements you sell, your rates, any past sponsor results, and one clear way to book. Everything else is decoration.

The one page, section by section

A media kit is a single page with eight parts. Each one answers a question the sponsor would otherwise have to ask you by email, and every question you answer in advance is one less reason for the reply to wait until next week.

What a podcast media kit must contain
SectionWhat it must contain
The show in one lineName, format, and who it is for, in a sentence a stranger can repeat.
Who listensRoles, industries, life stage, where they live, and what they buy. Say how you know.
The numbersAverage downloads per episode over the last 90 days, episodes published, and cadence.
Format and cadenceInterview or solo, episode length, release day, and how far ahead you are booked.
Ad placements offeredPre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll, read length, and which placements are host-read.
RatesA real price next to every placement, plus what a multi-episode flight costs.
ProofPast sponsor results, a code redemption, a listener quote, or a brand you already recommend.
How to say yesOne name, one email, one calendar link, and what happens in the next seven days.

Two of those sections carry most of the weight. Who listens is what a brand is buying, and rates are what turn interest into a decision. On a Pro account, the Pod Green Room media kit builder assembles the kit from your real lineup and show data, so the page reflects the show you are running.

Keep it to one page

Sponsors read kits between meetings. A second page rarely adds information, it adds a scroll. If a section cannot survive on one page, it belongs in the call rather than the kit.

Report the number you can defend

Use average downloads per episode over the last 90 days. Lifetime totals and all-time counts read as inflation, because they are. A sponsor who catches one padded number stops trusting the whole page, including the parts that were true.

Sponsors check. Buyers who place podcast ads for a living look at your chart position, your review count, your following, and your publishing gaps, then compare that picture to the number on your kit. When a show claims a big audience and has eleven reviews and a six-week hole in the feed, the mismatch answers for you. A true number is what makes the rest of the page usable.

When the number is small

Small numbers are fine. State the number, then state the density around it: who these people are, what they do for work, and what they have bought because you mentioned it. A few hundred listeners who all run operations at mid-size manufacturers is an easier sell than a general show ten times the size.

The numbers to include besides downloads

Anything you can source belongs on the page. Anything you cannot source stays off it.

Describe the room, not the size of it

The audience profile is the section a buyer reads twice. Name who listens, what they do, and why a recommendation from you moves them. A buyer needs one sentence they can carry back to their team, and you should write that sentence for them.

Say how you know. 'Based on our listener survey in May' or 'based on the roles of the guests we have hosted this year' turns a claim into evidence. If all you have is your inbox, use it: quote two listener emails and say they are typical. A profile like 'professionals aged 25 to 54' is the fastest way to look like every other kit in the folder.

Price the placements instead of inviting a negotiation

List each placement with a real number next to it. Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll, and any bundle you sell, each with a length and a price. A kit with no rates turns into three emails about rates, and slow deals die quietly.

Settle the pricing before you send anything. The podcast sponsorship calculator turns your downloads and niche into a rate you can explain, along with an anchor, a target, and a floor. Put the target on the page and keep the floor in your head.

Two things buyers look for and rarely find: what a multi-episode flight costs, and whether category exclusivity is available. Both are yes-or-no answers you can print. A brand that wants to own your category for a quarter will pay for it, and will never ask if the kit stays silent about it.

Proof, and one clean way to say yes

Show what happened the last time a brand ran with you, then make booking take one click. A named sponsor, a redemption count, or a listener who wrote in about the product does more work than any adjective on the page.

No sponsors yet is a normal place to be. Use the brands you already recommend for free and say so plainly: we have mentioned this product unprompted in four episodes and listeners ask about it. That is real evidence a host read will sound natural, which is the thing the buyer is quietly worried about.

Close with a person rather than a form. Your name, a real email address, a calendar link, and a line about what happens next. Reply with the placement you want and I will hold the date for seven days does more than a contact page ever has.

Before you send: one page, a 90-day download number you can source, a named audience, priced placements, one proof point, and a booking link. If any of the six is missing, the kit will generate questions instead of answers.

Keep the kit current

Update it every quarter, and before any pitch that matters. Stale numbers are the most common flaw in an otherwise strong page, because the kit gets built once and then sent for a year while the show keeps changing underneath it.

Keeping a record of which version of the media kit went to which brand, and when, is the other half of the job. Sponsor tracking in Pod Green Room holds the brand, the date, the placement discussed, and the follow-ups, so the second conversation starts where the first one stopped.

One last pass before the kit goes anywhere: run the show through the sponsor readiness grader to see what a buyer sees when they open your feed. The kit is one step on a longer path, and how to get podcast sponsors covers the pitch that carries it and the follow-up that saves it.

Common questions

What should be in a podcast media kit if I only have 200 downloads per episode?

The same eight sections, with the download number stated plainly and the audience section doing the heavy lifting. Give the real 90-day average, then describe exactly who those 200 people are and what they buy. Price a flat host-read rate rather than a CPM, and offer a single-episode test with a tracked code. Small and specific closes deals that big and vague does not.

Do I need a media kit to get a podcast sponsor?

You need one before the second email. A pitch can open the conversation, but the moment a brand is interested they ask for numbers, placements, and pricing, and whoever sends a clean one-page answer first tends to keep the deal moving. Building the kit also forces you to decide your rates in advance, which is the part most hosts avoid until they are under pressure.

How many pages should a podcast media kit be?

One. Two at most, and only if the second page is case studies from past sponsors. Buyers scan kits between other work, so everything that decides the deal, audience, numbers, placements, rates, and contact, belongs on the first screen. Extra pages usually hold background about how you got into podcasting, which no buyer has ever needed to make a decision.

Should I put my rates in my podcast media kit or wait until they ask?

Put them in. Withholding rates costs you two email rounds and signals that the price depends on who is asking. Print a number next to every placement, plus what a multi-episode flight costs and whether category exclusivity is available. If you are worried about anchoring too low, list the flight price first and the single-episode rate under it.

What download number do sponsors want to see on a media kit?

The average per episode over the last 90 days, not lifetime downloads and not your best episode ever. Sponsors are buying your next few episodes, so the recent average is the number that predicts what they get. State the window next to the figure. A number with its window attached reads as a business, and a bare number invites a follow-up question.

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