Throughout 2022, YouTube has continued to carve out a name for itself in the podcasting world. In May 2022, Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights conducted an audio report that showed that YouTube has surpassed Spotify in becoming the most used U.S. podcast platform.
In August 2022, YouTube also launched a dedicated homepage just for podcasts, showing the world that podcasts are top of mind for the platform.
It’s clear that YouTube is a growing platform for podcast growth and tapping into new audiences. Despite there being endless listening platforms that can share your podcasts globally, YouTube offers unique features that will allow your brand to reach even more audiences (ones you simply can’t with just an audio format!).
The question comes down to should your branded podcast leverage this channel. Keep reading to learn our top 7 reasons why your brand should be using YouTube podcasts.
YouTube is the second most used social networking site, right after Facebook. According to Statista 2022, over 2.6 billion people use YouTube once a month. Just based on sheer numbers and eyeballs, it makes sense for your brand to leverage the opportunity to have your podcast on YouTube.
Another key aspect of YouTube is that because it’s visual, you’re able to attract visual learners. Some of these audiences would never download an audio-only episode, but the visual nature of YouTube allows them to stay engaged, stimulated, and connected (far more than if your brand only used audio).
Typically, audio streaming sites do not have any feedback from the users, except for Apple’s Ratings & Reviews. But that’s not enough for you as a brand to improve your content or have a true understanding of how your content is resonating with audiences.
YouTube is more like a community where people can interact with you. Rather than podcasting being a one-way conversation, you open it up to two-way dialogue. There’s no need for audiences to email you or to search for you through other social sites. They can simply comment in the comment section. This exchange allows your viewers to feel more connected to your brand because they have access to you.
Apart from comments, another very telling metric for your podcast is likes and dislikes – which YouTube provides! Truly a dream feature in the audio world to be able to understand which content is resonating with your audience and which isn’t.
This sort of consumer feedback is invaluable and can continue to inform your future brand content, format, and guests.
YouTube is consistently ranked as one of the most visited sites in the world. If your brand is using the right keywords, tags, titles, and descriptors then you would naturally rank higher on Google.
The best news?
Google shows YouTube content on the first-page search results for relevant keywords. It’s a missed SEO opportunity for your brand to not be capitalizing on these advantages by having your podcast on YouTube.
Unlike most podcasting platforms, YouTube provides you with valuable analytics that you can use to learn more about your audience (apart from comments, likes, and dislikes that we covered earlier!). You can get insight into who watched your videos, how they found you, and how long they watched the videos.
Aside from a few data-driven hosting platforms, this type of data is not available from most podcasting tools that can often only tell you the number of times your show was downloaded.
Understanding who your listener profile is, how they’re finding you, and at what point they jump off, allows you to zero in on the content and topics that are resonating and also tweak content based on the gender and age profile that is tuning in. It also provides insight into any show formatting changes that need to take place, such as the length of episodes, etc.
Content ID is a unique feature on YouTube, which allows the copyright owners to take down any content they find that they own. This feature is great and prevents others from stealing your brand’s content and making revenue from it.
Content ID gives companies peace of mind that they can create video content that will remain theirs from an intellectual property rights standpoint.
Lastly, what makes YouTube such an obvious choice for your brand is how easy it is to use. The reason it’s popular across age demographics is because it’s easy to search, view videos, doesn’t require any sign-ups, and is free of cost.
Consumers love that they have access to billions of videos about countless topics at their fingertips (similar to what the draw of podcasting is as well).
Should your brand be on YouTube podcasts?
It’s clear that brands only have more to gain than lose by being on the platform. Besides, in today’s day and age, not leveraging video is a missed opportunity for your brand as that’s where a lot of your current and future consumers are.
Remember: YouTubers are uploading about 720,000 hours of fresh video content per day. You want to be part of this wave (because your competition definitely will be)!
We understand the extra time, effort, and budget that’s required to add a video element to your podcast. If you’re not already, look at working with a podcast agency to help you manage, produce, and promote both the audio and video content for your show.
A team of driven podcast experts, the CoHost marketing teams goal is to provide content to help brands boost podcast growth, understand their data, and equip themselves with the resources necessary to scale.
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