How to price your sponsorships

Pricing a sponsorship slot is one of the first things makers get stuck on. Price too high and nobody bites; price too low and you leave money on the table. Here's a practical framework you can apply today.

Start from your audience, not a round number

Sponsors pay for attention. The most defensible price starts from the size and quality of the audience you can put in front of them:

• Reach — how many people will see the placement (subscribers, monthly visitors, daily active users).
• Relevance — how well your audience matches the sponsor's ideal customer.
• Engagement — open rates, click-throughs, replies. A small, engaged audience often beats a large, passive one.

A simple starting point

A common rule of thumb for newsletters is a CPM (cost per thousand) between $20 and $50 depending on niche and engagement. For a 5,000-subscriber newsletter, that's roughly $100–$250 per dedicated send. Use that as a baseline, then adjust up for a highly targeted, high-intent audience.

Fixed vs. negotiable

On GoSponsored you can list a fixed price or mark a slot as negotiable. Fixed pricing removes friction — sponsors know exactly what they're getting. Negotiable pricing makes sense for larger or custom deals where you want a conversation first. Many makers list a fixed price for standard slots and keep a negotiable option for bespoke packages.

Be transparent

The makers who close the most deals are the ones who share real numbers: audience size, traffic sources, and past results. Transparency builds trust, and trust closes sponsorships.

Set a price, publish the slot, and iterate. You can always adjust as you learn what your audience is worth.