YouTube has now established itself as a key player in the podcasting world. Long perceived as a platform dedicated solely to video, it has evolved into a true audio ecosystem where podcasts gain massive visibility. Listeners consume both video-style podcasts and audio-only episodes, depending on their habits and listening moments 🚗
For creators, it’s a unique opportunity to reach new audiences. But to make the most of it, you must understand how to leverage YouTube’s specific tools, formats, and codes.
In this article, we’re sharing essential best practices and tips to help you launch and optimize your podcast on YouTube 🔥
For a long time, YouTube and podcasts seemed to belong to two very different worlds. On one side, video, focused on visuals and instant engagement. On the other, audio, designed for long-form listening and storytelling. But little by little, these boundaries have faded. Today, YouTube has become the main entry point into the world of podcasting, whether video or audio-only.
Listening habits in France have evolved significantly:
These numbers confirm a deep trend: podcasting is no longer limited to pure audio, and YouTube is now a platform where listeners discover, listen to, and sometimes watch their favorite shows.
For many users, YouTube has even become their default podcast app, used just like Spotify or Apple Podcasts 🍏
YouTube isn’t only a listening space, it’s also, and especially, a search engine. People go there to explore new content, not just to find shows they already know 🔍
This discoverability mindset is key: automatic recommendations, Shorts, and suggestions tied to trending topics help an episode reach an audience far beyond the podcaster’s initial community.
One of YouTube’s biggest strengths is the freedom it gives listeners. The platform now allows creators to publish both video podcasts and audio-only podcasts that can be listened to in the background on mobile, in the car, or even through a smart speaker.
This flexibility makes YouTube a true listening space where everyone can consume podcasts the way they want and for creators, the opportunity is huge: reaching a platform used by more than one billion monthly users 🌍
Now that we understand why YouTube has become a strategic channel for podcasters, let’s look at how to actually publish your podcast there. There are two ways to publish your episodes: directly through YouTube, or through Ausha.
YouTube allows you to directly import an audio RSS feed, just like other listening platforms.
Here are the steps:
For those who want to centralize the management of their podcast, publishing via Ausha is the smoothest solution.
Here’s how it works:
On YouTube, a podcast is a playlist. Labeling it as such is what makes your show visible in YouTube and YouTube Music’s Podcast sections 🎶
You have three options:
💡 Tip: name your playlist using the exact title of your show and include only full episodes, no clips or teasers. This ensures a clear listening experience and better visibility on the platform.
Your titles and thumbnails are the storefront of your podcast on YouTube. They play a major role in discoverability and click-through rate.
A good title should be clear, concise, and explicit, not too generic, not too technical. On the visual side, opt for recognizable thumbnails: a consistent graphic style, readable typography, and visuals aligned with your brand identity.
This consistency helps your audience immediately spot your content in their subscription feed or recommendations 👀
YouTube isn’t a mono-format platform, it’s a complete ecosystem where each type of content plays a specific role in your relationship with your audience.
Start with your full episodes, designed for your superfans, the ones who want to dive deep into your richest conversations. Then, break these episodes down into Shorts: short interview moments or strong highlights, perfect for discovery.
You can also publish VOD content, such as collaborations, Q&As, or exclusive bonus material to enrich your brand universe. Finally, take advantage of Live sessions for interactive moments: announcements, launches, or live conversations 🗣️
Each format serves a unique purpose, but together, they create a coherent experience that strengthens audience loyalty and boosts the discoverability of your podcast.
YouTube Analytics provides extremely precise insights into your podcast’s performance.
In YouTube Analytics, you can track views, watch time, and average view duration for each episode to identify your show’s trends.
The Key Moments feature highlights the parts where your audience drops off, or, on the contrary, stays hooked. This is incredibly valuable for adjusting your pacing or formats.
You can also view how listeners discover your episodes (search, recommendations, browsing) and identify your top-performing episodes to extract concrete learnings 🤓
By analyzing these data regularly, you’ll learn to better understand your audience and optimize your content to offer them the most engaging experience possible 🥳
Today, YouTube offers much more than an ad-based model. Creators can rely on multiple complementary monetization channels, both through ads and beyond.
In addition to ad revenue sharing, where YouTube gives 55% back to creators, you can earn revenue through YouTube Premium, which pays for ad-free listening.
Other options: such as Fan Funding (channel memberships), sponsored content, and product highlights through Shopping, allow you to diversify your income.
This multi-revenue strategy brings more stability to your project and adapts to the nature of your content ☘️
The name of your playlist has a direct impact on how easily your podcast can be discovered. By choosing a generic title such as “Episodes” or “Season 1,” you make your show harder for both YouTube and listeners to identify.
You can also include relevant keywords to improve your SEO 🤖
On YouTube, there is no single podcast model. Some creators film in a studio, others record remotely, and some simply use a static image or graphic animation.
What matters most is consistency with your content and your audience, not high-end equipment. So there’s no need to wait until you have a set or multiple cameras to get started: a good microphone and a clear visual identity are enough 🎙️
YouTube is a global platform, and your potential listeners aren’t limited to English speakers.
Thanks to new features like multilingual audio tracks and auto-dubbing, you can now offer your podcast in multiple languages without recreating all your content ✈️
This opens the door to an international audience. In fact, more than 40% of watch time on multilingual videos comes from viewers choosing another language.
By diversifying your available languages, you significantly increase your chances of growing your community beyond borders.
On YouTube, every channel should tell a clear and consistent story. If you publish several podcasts with different formats or audiences on the same channel, you risk sending mixed signals to the algorithm and confusing your viewers 🤯
If your shows share the same tone, target, and visual universe, one channel might be enough.
But if their topics or styles differ, it’s better to create a dedicated channel.
This allows each podcast to build its own audience and benefit from clearer indexing.
In summary: one channel = one editorial line 📝
The podcast experience on YouTube is multi-screen. Your listeners naturally switch from one format to another and from one device to another.
They might discover your show on mobile through a Short, continue watching on their computer, then finish the episode on their TV.
In fact, 59% of Gen Z say they use short videos to find content they later watch in full.
So it’s essential to adopt a fluid approach: create bridges between your formats (Shorts, VOD, Live) and maintain visual and narrative consistency across all devices ♾️
YouTube has now become an essential platform for podcast creators. But succeeding on YouTube isn’t just about republishing your RSS feed: you need to think of YouTube as a complete ecosystem, with its own codes, formats, and analytics tools.
By varying your content types, polishing the presentation of your playlists, and exploring new revenue sources, you multiply your chances of visibility and engagement ❤️🔥
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