Chris Ledlin, Australia/NZ Content Head for Youtube and Steve Mclendon, Global Head of Youtube Podcasting highlighted the most important Dos and Don’t for podcast success on Youtube at SXSW Sydney.
- DO put your podcast into a Youtube playlist. Podcasts ARE playlists
- Don’t give your playlist or episodes generic names, such as ‘episode,’ chose titles that help you stand out on the platform
- Obsess over your thumbnails, they are a gateway to your content. Make them bright, bold and emotional
- Don’t just focus on the English speaking market, use multilanguage dubbing to reach audiences beyond English
- Explore multiple revenue streams: Advertisements, Tips, Fan Funding, shopping and sponsored content
- Don’t put multiple different podcasts into one channel unless the audience is the same. If they are expecting one thing and getting something different, they will abandon the episode and maybe also the channel
- Do get to know your audience and your analytics.
Youtube paid over $100 billion to its creator partners last year.
Youtube viewing is on mobiles, but there is also “massive consumption of visual podcasts on smart television screens,” because many people want to consume content on their living room devices.
Video podcasts are growing, especially with Gen Z. “If you’re not embracing video you’re leaving some potential audience on the table,” said Ledlin.
“Videos with niche audiences drive most of the viewership. If you’re a podcaster, niche audiences resonate, you don’t have to get to a million views to be successful.”
Australian 20 million people watch Youtube content, which now “dominates living room streaming content.” 41% of daily viewers are consuming more than 15 mins of content.
Quoting some Australian examples, Ledlin said Toni & Ryan produce successful Youtube style podcasts. Their podcasts have over 500 million views and 12 million hours of watch and listen time.
More than 50% of watch time for The ABC’s If You’re Listening podcast is coming from connected tvs.
The Beyond 23 Cricket Podcast, presented by Michael Clarke has 80 million hours of watch time.
What’s new in Youtube podcasts:
Video previews, not static tiles/pictures. Youtube podcasts viewed on connected tvs will now look more like a tv streaming service screen, with a featured main hero video short containing the episode name, wit little thumbnails of upcoming episodes below the hero image.
Collaborations – you can collaborate with other creators and make your video show up on collaborators’ feeds as well as your own
A/B testing for thumbnails. One of the powerful aspects of Youtube’s scale brings the ability to test your thumbnails against watch stats to decide which thumbnail will work best.
Using analytics by asking natural language questions.
Side by Side ads for live streams so that viewers can see an ad in half the screen without interrupting the live feed, which shows in the other half of the screen.
Most popular podcast charts by country
https://rephonic.com/charts/youtube/australia/popular-podcasts
What’s coming next year:
AI powered suggestions for video clips and vertical shorts.
Audio to video for those who only create audio content. It will use Deepmind video creation AI technology.
A watch-with function for group watching and interaction
Auto translation dubbing with lip sync to the translated language
Dynamic brand segment insertion – creators can put brand mentions into the video and change or pull them out when the promotion is finished.
On the consumer side more easy discovery and easy access to podcasts.
Reporting from SXSW: Steve Ahern