Big Podcasting seems almost designed to collect advertising dollars, with very little left for small to mid-sized podcasts. Rather than fighting for table scraps, maybe the narrative needs to be changed.Photo by Rakicevic Nenad from PexelsBig advertisers like to spend money on big shows simply because it's easier than spending money on smaller shows. Magellan AI tells us the top 15 advertisers are spending more than $1.3 million on podcast ads each month. At an average CPM of $25, that's a lot of M's to manage. About 52 million impressions, in fact. If you're that ad buyer, how many podcasts do you want to spread your money around? The answer is as few as possible. Put yourself in their shoes, with a $500,000 media budget (1/3 of what the top advertisers are spending). Would you spend it $1000 at a time across 500 shows? No, of course not. How about $50,000 across 10 shows? Maybe. But $100,000 across 5 shows makes it even easier on you. And yeah... for the same return.That's not good news for shows that aren't generating millions of downloads per episode. How are shows with more modest audiences supposed to compete? By not competing, actually.Good luck trying to justify why spending $500 on your show is worth some insanely high CPM of $50 to $200 or more. That's a fight you're going to lose nine times out of 10. Instead, reframe the conversation. Don't even use the language of advertising. None of it! Offer custom sponsorships and partnerships big shows simply won't do because they don't need to.Branded segments. Branded episodes. Or a series of branded episodes. Each produced in conjunction with the sponsor. Solid, valuable content that you can only make because of the involvement of that sponsor. Smaller companies are often looking for ways to outdo (but not outspend) their bigger competitors. Getting creative and providing real value through clever partnering and sponsorships that only your show can deliver sure sounds like that's something worth trying regardless of your show's size.-----Sponsored by:Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast hosting company-----Links-----Team Coco acquired by SXMWTF with Marc Maron to let Acast handle ad sales and distribution exclusivelyMagellan AI tells us the top 15 advertisers are spending more than $1.3 million on podcast ads each monthArticle from DigidayGot a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!-----Podcast Pontifications