How to Sell Job Ads to Businesses That Already Sponsor You

Quick Answer

List your current and past sponsors, check which of them are hiring, and offer those first a job post plus a mention in your next issue, priced against your sponsorship rate. Follow up with a monthly hiring plan for the ones who hire all the time. Send every buyer their views and apply clicks when the post ends. That report is what sells the second post.

Why Sponsors Are Your Best First Buyers

Selling job posts to strangers is slow: they do not know your audience, and a job post from an unknown site looks like a risk. A sponsor has already decided your readers are worth paying for. You are not selling them a new channel. You are offering a new use for one they already trust.

Hiring is also a separate budget. The money for a sponsorship comes from marketing. The money for a job post comes from hiring, which at most companies is bigger and spent more often. Selling to a sponsor's hiring side adds revenue without taking any from your sponsorships.

Find the Sponsors Who Are Hiring

Build a simple list: every business that sponsored you in the last twelve months, the person you dealt with, and whether they are hiring. The last column takes ten minutes per sponsor. Look at their careers page, their LinkedIn jobs tab, and whether their roles appear on your board through imports already.

That last check is the strongest opener you have. If your board already lists a sponsor's open role through an import, you can show them their own job, on your board, in front of your readers, before you ask for anything.

An Example Rate Card

The prices below assume a newsletter or local site whose sponsored slot sells for about $400. Scale them to your own rate. The shape matters more than the numbers: a cheap entry product, a featured upgrade, a bundle with the issue, and a recurring plan.

For a sense of the market, the median single post across boards running on Kardow is 99 in the board's own currency, and most sell between 49 and 99. Specialist audiences, like one profession or one industry, can charge more because nobody else reaches the same readers.

The Bundles That Sell

Post plus issue mention. The best-selling product for most newsletters, because it maps to what a sponsor already buys from you. The mention is one line in your jobs section, written by you: role, company, and a link.

Sponsorship plus a free post. Instead of discounting, add a job post to a sponsorship at no extra cost. The sponsor sees the board, and the next time they hire they already know how it works.

Monthly hiring plan. For employers who hire every month: a hospital, a school district, a fast-growing company in your niche. A set number of posts and one mention a month, billed monthly. This is the product that turns job revenue into something you can forecast. On Kardow, packs of posts and monthly plans are on Pro and above.

A Script for the First Conversation

Send this to the person who buys your sponsorships. Keep it short, specific, and about their open role, not about your new product.

On a call, ask two questions before you mention a price: how many people they expect to hire this year, and where they find them today. The first tells you whether to offer a single post or a monthly plan. The second tells you what you are competing with.

Answering the Four Usual Objections

After the First Post

When the post ends, send the employer a short report: how many people viewed it, how many clicked apply, and which issue it ran in. Kardow tracks views and apply clicks for every job, and employers can see them on their own posts. Ask directly whether they filled the role and whether they have another one coming.

Then add the employer to your list for the hiring plan. An employer who posts twice in three months is telling you they would rather pay monthly.

If you are still setting the board up, start with our guide to adding a paid job board to your newsletter.

Frequently Asked Questions