This weird YouTube podcast growth hack should be illegal

If you’ve been to any of the big podcast events in the past year or so - or indeed if you’re just generally online and thinking about podcasts - you’ve doubtless heard the hype around video podcasts.

“Video podcasts are the future!”?

“You NEED to have a podcast video strategy!”?

“What do you mean you don’t have a video podcast yet?! What a loser.”

(I’ve never heard anyone say that last one, but I know it’s how some audio podcasters feel after hearing the video hyperbole).

You’ll also be familiar with these stats:?

• YouTube is the most-used podcast platform in the US?
• YouTube is #1 for podcast discovery
• 1 in 3 users say they prefer watching podcasts with video

However, when I speak to colleagues around the podcast and publishing industry there seems to be some confusion: they’ve heard the hype and seen others achieving results but are disappointed with the performance of their own shows on YouTube.

I’ve spoken to two such colleagues recently - both of whom run large, well-known podcast companies producing some of the most exciting audio content in the UK.?

If they’re struggling to make it work, how are smaller outfits supposed to succeed?

At the New Statesman, video has been a key part of our podcast strategy for the past two years. Our YouTube channel has grown to a modestly successful 137,000 subscribers and during the UK general election we were the third-most-viewed politics podcast in the UK - just behind The Rest is Politics (Goalhanger) and The Political Fourcast (Channel 4).

YouTube has been an important part of expanding our podcast reach to 1 million unique users per month, with YouTube views eclipsing audio downloads.

As a result, I am an unashamed YouTube podcast enthusiast.

So video - and YouTube in particular - will be a returning theme of Podcast Strategy Weekly. I’ll share some of the things I’ve learned along the way to help you grow new audiences through video podcasts.?

To start with, I want to share a growth technique for new channels which I’ve never heard anyone else talk about. Which actually makes me pretty nervous. Is it stupid? Or, actually, it could well be skirting of the very edge of what’s allowed. Either way, it worked for me when we were launching the New Statesman’s podcasts on YouTube - and it might just work for you, too.

YouTube, please don’t cancel me for this.

This article was originally published in Podcast Strategy Weekly, my email newsletter. Sign up for free to receive new issues first at podcaststrategy.substack.com

The YouTube growth hack no-one talks about

Launching a new YouTube channel can be a dispiriting affair. You spend ages planning, strategising, scripting and crafting the best videos you possibly can… then, full of anticipation, you hit publish and…

crickets.

Any YouTuber or channel manager will tell you, your early videos will be lucky to break a thousand views in their first week or so after publishing. When we relaunched the New Statesman’s YouTube channel in 2021 our early videos received views in the tens or hundreds. Not exactly the growth explosion you might be hoping for.?

Why??

Because the YouTube algorithm - or as they prefer to call it, the recommendations engine - didn’t know who our channel is for.

How the YouTube algorithm works

As YouTube say, the recommendations engine exists to serve users with videos they will enjoy.

The bit they don’t say, of course, is that it does this in order to keep users on the platform, watching videos and consuming adverts.

When you access the YouTube website or app, everything you do is tracked. The recommendations engine uses a variety of signals to understand who you are and which types of videos you enjoy, then uses that information to recommend other videos you are likely to watch and enjoy.?

How does YouTube know which videos to serve? It uses the metadata you provide in the title, description and tags, as well as the content of the video, to understand what the video is about, then monitors how users interact with that video.?

Now pay attention because this next bit is important:

If one user watches and enjoys your video, YouTube will show your video to more users with a similar profile.

One half of the equation

Most YouTubers or channel managers are familiar with the first bit of this equation. They’ll tell you to use compelling thumbnails, a clickable title using your target keywords, and to include the same keywords and target search terms in your description and tags. They’ll recommend using chapters, cards and an end screen. Some even recommend including keywords and metadata in your video and thumbnail file names.?

You should absolutely do all of this (apart from the file name thing, YouTube say they don’t look at that) because it gives YouTube important information to understand what your video is about.

But it doesn’t tell YouTube who it is for.?

Without knowing who will like your videos, the algorithm will have to cycle through a few iterations of trial-and-error to find that first user who watches and enjoys your video. And with early videos, my experience is that error is far more likely.?

So, finally, here is the bit no-one tells you: there is a short cut.

You can provide information which helps the algorithm understand user profiles to show your content to.?

Read on below and I'll tell you how to do it. ??

If you're finding this article useful please share it with someone you think might benefit. And follow me on LinkedIn for more like this every week.

A shortcut to getting YouTube recommendations

Step 1: Identify your audience

Create a demographic profile of your target YouTube user: age, gender, interests, lifestyle. Write all this down.

Step 2: Identify similar YouTube channels

In incognito mode, or on your own YouTube user profile, browse YouTube to identify successful channels producing similar content to you, who your target user might enjoy.?

If your channel is already up and running you can use YouTube’s audience analytics as a starting point. Go to YouTube Studio > Analytics > Audience and find the section titled “Channels that your audience watches”.

A word of caution on competitors: it’s not always who you might expect. The New Statesman is a political magazine in the UK, and our closest similar publication (who people often confuse us with) is the Spectator. You might therefore assume that viewers of the Spectator on YouTube are a useful cross-over audience. In fact, the New Statesman on YouTube has surprisingly little audience crossover with the Spectator, presumably because the two magazines appeal to users with very different political leanings.?

Take into account the psychology of your user as well as the general subject matter interest.

Step 3: Create a new YouTube account

Create a YouTube account with demographic details matching your target user profile.?

This helps YouTube categorise this user type.

Step 4: Watch competitor videos

While logged in as your “target user” account, browse YouTube and subscribe to the competitor channels you identified in step 2. Watch videos from these channels, making sure you allow them to play all the way through. Interact with the videos by hitting the like button and commenting under the videos you watch.?

Watch time, likes and comments are all signals the YouTube algorithm uses to understand what kinds of videos a user enjoys.

Step 5: Watch MORE competitor videos

After one video has finished, select another video in your target content niche from the suggested videos in the video end screen or on the YouTube side bar. Again, let this next video play all the way through.

When a user watches multiple videos in a session, this provides further positive signals to the algorithm that reinforce the type of content the user is likely to enjoy.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 multiple times, at the times of day when your target user is likely to watch your content.

Step 6: watch your own existing videos

Once you have built up a watch habit for your “target user” profile, use the same profile to watch videos on your own channel. Again, allow them to play all the way through and interact through likes and comments. As above, once the video has finished, watch more videos in the same niche or from your own channel.

When a user generates high watch time on a video, then goes on to watch another video afterwards, this provides a signal to YouTube that the first video is likely to drive extended YouTube viewing sessions and is therefore worth recommending.?

Step 7: watch your new videos straight after upload

Now, every time you upload a new video, log in as your “target user” profile and watch your new video all the way through, interacting and watching another video afterwards.

By doing this you have told YouTube that this new video appeals to a user matching your target profile. This dramatically increases the chances of YouTube showing your video to other similar users. If they then click, watch and interact that further reinforces the signal and your video reach can start to gather momentum.

Step 8: repeat

Keep using your target user profile to watch more videos over time - both your own, and your competitors.

Give the snowball a nudge

Building a YouTube audience is like making a snowball - it grows exponentially with every cycle. Using this method is like giving your snowball a little push at the top of a hill, to nudge it in the right direction to accelerate growth.

Like I say, I’ve never heard anyone else recommend this, but when I did this process it seemed to work. The videos we were publishing started gaining measurably more traction and it accelerated our early channel growth. Now the channel has grown to a point where recommendations appear to be self-sustaining so it’s not longer necessary.

I would be extremely keen to hear from anyone who tries this method, to find out whether it works for you. If you have done this, or give it a try after reading this email, please let me know how you get on. Maybe it will be worth a follow-up in a future issue of Podcast Strategy Weekly.

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