In this episode, I’m answering a listener question about podcast networks...what they do, when they’re useful, and how to know if partnering with one makes sense for your show.

If you’ve ever thought “a network will help me grow my audience,” this one’s for you, because the truth might surprise you.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• Why podcast networks aren’t a silver bullet for growth
• The minimum audience you’ll need for networks to consider you
• The difference between sponsorship and programmatic revenue
• What networks really look for in a partner show
• The three partnership models
• What value you need to bring and receive for a deal to be worth it

EPISODE CREDITS:

Host: Rachel Corbett

Editing Assistance: Josh Newth

LINKS & OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

Download my free podcasting guide

Check out my online podcasting course, PodSchool

Click here to submit a question to the show

Email me: rachel@rachelcorbett.com.au

Follow me: Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok or check out my blog or the PodSchool website.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Got dreams of being a professional podcaster but have no idea what you're doing. This is impossible. That's about to change. A new kind of school. Welcome to the Pod School Podcast.

Hello. Welcome to the show.

Today I'm answering a question from Melissa. She said, what are the benefits of partnering with a network and what are those networks looking for? First up, do you need to be with a network?

No, you don't. In fact, at a certain point there will be no point in trying to go with a network.

I get a few people reaching out to me when their downloads are very small and they think that the way to grow that is to be with a network because they'll get promotion and all of those kind of things. The thing is that we're sort of in a time when a network needs to see proof of audience before they can be an effective partner for you.

So that really means that your show needs to be hitting at least 10,000 downloads per episode.

If you are going going with a network in your country, that is likely going to be that they will require that amount of downloads that are specific to that country.

So for example, if you go with an Australian network, they're mostly monetising Australian downloads if they're getting sponsorship and that cause they've got boots on the ground. There are definitely some networks that can work with external partners internationally.

But the number of downloads that you need is in bigger markets like the UK and US to sort of even be considered are often 100,000 local downloads.

So if you are, you know, doing a podcast that's getting a thousand, a hundred thousand US downloads or a hundred thousand UK downloads, like, good on you, that's fantastic. But that's the sort of numbers that those kind of bigger markets need to play in that sponsorship space.

So just deal with a lot bigger numbers than we do in Australia. But certainly you need to be sitting around that 10k mark, ideally local audience, and then anything else is, is great.

And you know, there are networks that can monetise your downloads even if it's not via sponsorship. It can be via programmatic ads that are bought dynamically. Those are sold a little cheaper, so you don't make a huge amount of money off those.

But they can be monetised. But the essence is you probably not going to find value in a network partner until your downloads are at a minimum at that level.

And then if they're higher than that and significantly higher, that's when a network can bring value and that's when it can be usually really useful. Signing with A network, because you might not have any capability to sell your podcast yourself.

You might not have any interest in selling your podcast yourself. So actually having a sales team go out and do that for you can be fantastic.

Yes, if you are, you know, generating a decent number of downloads and network is going to offer you support in terms of promotion and those kind of things as well. So that can be helpful to grow your audience.

But a lot of people that I talk to about joining networks are interested because they think that is the way for them to go from 5 downloads to 50,000 downloads, and that is just not the case. A network is very unlikely to be interested in you at 5 downloads, and you are better off generating your own audience and building that.

Partnering with a network and just getting ads on a radio station to promote your podcast is not going to mean 100 downloads today and 50,000 downloads tomorrow. You know, it is just the same math that applies to all podcast promotion is that you need to chip away at it.

Even the bigger shows that come into a network that are getting promoted, promoted across the network, they're still growing incrementally through that promotion.

So it's not like an ad on a radio show is a silver bullet to a million downloads, you know, and it's really important when you're thinking about a partnership from the perspective of the network as well as the creator, there needs to be something in it for both parties.

Now, you know, the idea of podcasting as a niche interest kind of medium is definitely still the thing you need to create a content that makes sense and has a niche and is easily definable to find an audience. The frustrating about that from a commercial point of view is that advertisers still want scale.

You know, it doesn't matter how many times you tell advertisers that you can actually get a lot of bang for buck with a smaller audience, because they're really engaged, they're really keen, they're really into the content. So often you don't have to sort of, you know, send your message out to as many people to get solid results.

But unfortunately, the only way to prove that is by doing what is called effectiveness studies at the end of a campaign. So basically, you want to get a sense for the advertiser that has spent money with you. How much of an impact has that advertising had?

Now, that takes surveying your audience, and that is not something that, you know, most podcasters have the time nor inclination to do. So you have to have a bit of rigor around the end of a spending campaign.

To be able to say to an advertiser, here is the data that I collected from my audience about the impact of that. And you have to have an advertiser on board in the first place to be able to run that effectiveness study to show that to the next advertiser.

And often you can't get that advertiser unless you have audience.

So it's a bit of a round and around chicken and the egg situation, you know, but certainly if you are just starting out your podcast and you think the only way to growth is going to a network, it's going to be very hard to sign up to a network if you do not have audience.

So the path is usually start a show and then build an audience to a certain point where a network can provide value and you can provide value for a network. And then some of the great things about that is that they can take some of that commercial pressure off you.

They can go and sell the stuff that you can't or don't know how to sell. They can get you in front of advertisers that you might not have access to.

You know, you might have built up an audience and some smaller advertisers are coming to you. But there might be the advertisers like Kmart, Woolworths, whoever else that you'll never get in touch with.

But a network can get you in touch with and put your show in front of those kind of advertisers. You'll also have potential for additional revenue.

So this is something that we see with a lot of podcasters that we bring into the network that I work for at the moment. You know, we can monetise by selling those podcast hosts.

We can sponsor their podcast, but we can also give clients the opportunity, opportunity for those podcast hosts to voice ads that then run on the radio network. So that can be another opportunity that you just don't have access to if you're just an independent podcaster on your own.

And then obviously marketing and PR support, that's something that a network can offer to assist, especially if they've got like a radio network to promote your show across. That can be really helpful.

Like I said, it's not a silver bullet, but it certainly helps to build audience, build awareness, all of that kind of stuff. It's just not the one path to success.

You know, if you're a small podcaster, concentrate on what you're doing, build your audience, get your show to a point where there is something to sell, and that's when you can start to have a conversation with a network, and then it can be a real benefit. There are a few models too, that networks work in. You can either have a model where they own the IP entirely and they just pay you a fee.

So that's a lot of the content that a network would create that would go under the banner of being an original. Now, more often than not, at least in the jobs that I've worked at, we have created those ideas. So we don't work on a pitch basis.

Some networks will work on a pitch basis where they might pay you a fee or a commission or whatever for your idea. But at least the networks that I have worked at, we will, if we own the ip, we will cast a show.

So we will go out and find people that we want to be a part of that show, and we will pay them a fee to be a part of it. If you're thinking, how do I become one of those people that a network wants to look at? You have to have built up an audience on another platform.

That could be that you have a podcast that's got a really strong audience. And we know there would be people that would come across to this podcast.

It could also be that you have a really strong social following or YouTube following. And we know that those people would come across. Now, you don't know conclusively, unfortunately, until you press to upload on the first episode.

But a network is really looking at what kind of engagement do you have with your audience, what kind of audience size do you have? Does the probability state that it is likely that people are really interested in what you are doing and would come across to a podcast?

So you kind of have to have built that up for a network to be interested in you to begin with. And that could be that you've built a really successful podcast. The other model is a sort of hybrid model.

So this is where a network would bring in the product production of your show, so they would look after the editing, the video, all of that kind of stuff. And that would be a rev share model. You would still own the ip.

The rev share would be slightly more in the network's favor to cover the production costs. And that is an option often for shows that have really significant downloads.

And a network is like, okay, well, we can actually justify assigning some pretty impressive production support here to this, because we know that we've got the audience to sell, so we can take this out to market. The third option is a pure license model. So this is when you would have a revenue share.

It's usually in the favor of the creator, but the creator does absolutely everything. So the network is really just a commercial partner. They go out in market and sell the podcast.

But all of the production, the video, the audio, the social media content, all of that stuff is created by the individual creator. There is some promotional support, often in that arrangement. Just depends what kind of arrangement you have with the network.

But the bulk of the work on the actual podcast, from a content perspective, is done by the creator. So those are the different types of models, but at the base of it is the same thing. Audience.

Audience in some capacity, either an audience that you've developed on a platform yourself, an audience that you have in your podcast. You know, that is really what a network needs to make a partnership work.

And at least in my experience, you know, I don't want to partner with a podcaster unless they come on board with me and the network that I'm a part of and they get value out of that. Otherwise, what is the point?

There is no reason in just hoovering up shows to get them underneath your wing for them to then feel under, serviced, undervalued, all of those kind of things, you know, you really want, if you are running a network, the right way, for the people that have come underneath your network to feel like there is value in me being here. And that is really important. That is hard to actually deliver sometimes because the market, market can be difficult.

You know, you can't necessarily make people buy a podcast. You can put a podcast in front of multiple different clients and they might not decide to go forward with it.

But I think having your show in a partnership with a network, if you have the audience there, at least you've got somebody doing that work for you. So that can be really useful. So hopefully, Melissa, that has answered your question.

If you've got a show that has a decent amount of audience that could benefit from partnering with the network, hit me up, girlfriend, because I can help you out with that. If you have any questions, please make sure that you head to the description of the episode and click the link. You can submit your question there.

If you would like some help setting up your home studio, you're like, you know what? The time has come for me to speak into a microphone and do this myself.

Then head to podcastingguide.com or the link is also in the description of the episode. And you can download my free podcasting guide that gives you all the tools and tech that you need to get started.

Thank you so much for listening and I will see you next week. That's all for today.