225 | Why I'm Betting Everything on YouTube

Summary

Chief Audience Officer - Episode 225: Why I'm Betting Everything on YouTube

Release Date: June 24, 2025
Host: Kev Michael

In Episode 225 of Chief Audience Officer, host Kev Michael delves into his strategic pivot towards YouTube as the premier platform for podcast growth and monetization. Drawing from his extensive experience and evolving insights, Kev outlines why YouTube stands out amidst the rapidly changing digital landscape and provides a comprehensive guide for podcasters aiming to amplify their reach and revenue.

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1. The Evolution of Podcast Growth Strategies

Season One: The Early Days (2018-2019) Kev begins by reflecting on his initial foray into podcasting with "Philly Who?" in 2018. As a software developer passionate about Philadelphia, he leveraged local listservs and innovative tactics like Instagram bots to grow his audience.

Kev Michael [02:23]: "I grew past a hundred thousand downloads. I grew it past six figures in revenue."

Season Two: The Facebook Group Era (2020-2021) The onset of COVID-19 shifted audience behaviors, pushing Kev to harness Facebook groups through a strategy he termed Targeted Daily Engagement. Engaging with groups daily yielded significant growth until the rise of TikTok altered social media dynamics.

Kev Michael [05:12]: "Targeted daily engagement doesn't really work anymore because people don't really follow people as much as they used to."

Season Three: The Podcast Guesting Phase In response to diminishing returns from previous strategies, Kev pivoted to Targeted Podcast Pitching, securing guest spots across multiple podcasts. While initially effective, saturation led to decreased impact as the market became oversaturated.

Kev Michael [06:36]: "Because of that, it's no longer... a great way to grow your audience."

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2. Why YouTube is the Ultimate Platform for Podcast Growth

After experimenting with various growth tactics, Kev identifies YouTube as the most strategic platform for modern podcasting. He outlines six compelling reasons supporting this shift:

2.1 Discoverability

Audio vs. Video Discoverability Kev highlights the inherent challenge in podcast discoverability due to the lack of a robust algorithm tailored for audio content. In contrast, YouTube's sophisticated algorithms enhance content visibility, making it easier for new audiences to discover podcasts.

Kev Michael [09:10]: "Audio only podcasts are the most difficult to grow an audience, in my opinion."

Spotify's Video Prioritization While Spotify is attempting to improve discoverability, its emphasis on video podcasts means audio-only shows face greater hurdles.

Kev Michael [10:27]: "Spotify is prioritizing shows that are publishing video episodes and short form within Spotify."

2.2 Supply and Demand Dynamics

Stagnant Podcast Listening Kev observes that the time spent listening to podcasts remains static, unlike the burgeoning demand for video content.

Kev Michael [12:06]: "The amount of time that people are spending listening to podcasts is not going up."

Rising Video Consumption As video content consumption rises, leveraging YouTube aligns with growing audience behaviors, reducing competition and increasing potential reach.

Kev Michael [13:37]: "The supply of video content is going up, but the demand is also going up... it's easier to get attention."

2.3 Integrated Short Form and Long Form Content

Seamless Transition on YouTube YouTube uniquely accommodates both short and long-form content, allowing podcasters to create engaging clips that funnel viewers to full episodes effortlessly.

Kev Michael [14:58]: "On YouTube, you have short form and long form in one platform."

Challenges with Other Platforms Platforms like Instagram and TikTok silo content types, making it difficult to transition audiences from short clips to full podcast episodes.

Kev Michael [15:00]: "It's very hard to get someone scrolling Instagram reels to stop and go listen to your podcast."

2.4 Search and SEO Advantages

YouTube's SEO Power As the second-largest search engine globally, YouTube offers unparalleled SEO benefits, ensuring long-term visibility and continuous audience growth.

Kev Michael [16:06]: "YouTube is the number two search engine in the world and it is owned by the number one search engine in the world."

Sustained Growth Through Search Kev shares his personal experience where YouTube videos continued to garner views and drive leads months after publication, unlike audio podcasts whose downloads plateau quickly.

Kev Michael [16:49]: "Your YouTube episodes are going to be bringing you reach and views and new audience for years to come."

2.5 Superior Metrics for Data-Driven Growth

Comprehensive Analytics YouTube provides detailed metrics beyond simple download counts, enabling podcasters to make informed decisions and optimize content effectively.

Kev Michael [17:52]: "YouTube has more metrics than you can ever want to look at."

Actionable Insights By analyzing metrics like click-through rates, podcasters can refine titles, thumbnails, and content strategies to enhance engagement and growth.

Kev Michael [19:22]: "If that was an audio Podcast, we'd be making guesses on what to change. Not so on YouTube."

2.6 Monetization Opportunities

Revenue from Views YouTube offers direct monetization through ad revenue, providing an additional income stream for podcasters as their content gains traction.

Kev Michael [20:46]: "YouTube is the only platform that reliably pays you to market your own business."

Earning Potential With potential earnings of $10 to $25 per 1,000 views, popular podcasts can generate significant revenue purely from their YouTube presence.

Kev Michael [20:51]: "If you have a video that gets 100,000 views, you can make $2,500."

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3. Embracing YouTube: A Strategic Imperative

Kev emphasizes that transitioning to YouTube is not just a temporary fix but a long-term solution immune to the cyclical challenges previously faced by podcasters. He encourages podcasters to adopt YouTube as their primary platform to harness its multifaceted benefits.

Kev Michael [21:35]: "Start treating YouTube like your primary platform."

Real-Time Implementation and Continuous Learning Kev plans to share his ongoing experiences and learnings from YouTube in real-time, positioning himself and his audience ahead of the curve in podcast growth strategies.

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4. Conclusion

In this episode, Kev Michael provides a persuasive case for why YouTube should be the cornerstone of modern podcast growth strategies. By leveraging YouTube's discoverability, integrated content formats, robust SEO, actionable metrics, and monetization potential, podcasters can achieve sustained audience growth and revenue. Kev's insights equip business owners with the tactical knowledge needed to navigate the evolving digital landscape and build an audience that not only engages but also converts.

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Notable Quotes:

• Kev Michael [00:05]: "Every growth strategy under the sun, I finally found the one platform that gives us the podcast growth strategy to rule them all."
• Kev Michael [09:10]: "Audio only podcasts are the most difficult to grow an audience, in my opinion."
• Kev Michael [16:06]: "YouTube is the number two search engine in the world and it is owned by the number one search engine in the world."
• Kev Michael [21:35]: "Start treating YouTube like your primary platform."

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions and strategic insights shared by Kev Michael in Episode 225, offering valuable guidance for podcasters aiming to thrive in the current and future media landscape.

Transcript

[Kevin Michael]

I'm betting everything on YouTube.

[Co-host]

After seven years of podcasting and trying.

[Kevin Michael]

Every growth strategy under the sun, I finally found the one platform that gives us the podcast growth strategy to rule them all. You see, most podcasters are still chasing growth in all the wrong places, using tired tactics like social media engagement hacks, podcast guesting, or plastering AI generated clips.

[Co-host]

All over their social media feeds. And if it feels to you like.

[Kevin Michael]

Growing a podcast has gotten harder and not easier, that's because it has. The online landscape and the different platforms have changed, but most podcasters have not caught up yet. The truth is, podcast audio listenership growth has flatlined, yet video consumption is exploding. And if you want to grow a podcast in the here and now, you need to be where the people are actually looking.

[Co-host]

My name is Kev Michael, and this.

[Kevin Michael]

Is Chief Audience Officer, where it's my.

[Co-host]

Job to help you build an audience of buyers.

[Kevin Michael]

Over the past five years, I've helped more than 500 entrepreneurs to grow and monetize their podcasts.

[Co-host]

But here's the problem.

[Kevin Michael]

For the past year, I've been kind of stumped on how to reliably generate repeatable podcast growth. But I'm not stumped anymore. And after today, you won't be either, because here's what we're going to cover. First, I'm gonna explain why it's been so dang hard for you to grow your podcast and why it's not really your fault.

[Guest]

And.

[Kevin Michael]

And then I'm gonna walk you through the six powerful reasons why YouTube is now the smartest and most strategic place to publish your podcast. From search and short form to audience growth, and, yes, monetization and sales. So if you want this to be the year that your podcast finally blows up and generates you an roi, stick around and let's get to it. Okay, so before I get into the reasons why I believe that YouTube is the strategy that podcasters should go all in on, let me share with you the three seasons of podcast growth that I have experienced that leads me to believe that this is the move if your goal is to grow and monetize your podcast. So I started as a podcaster in 2018. Back then, I was a software developer at a big health insurance company. And I wasn't super passionate about software or health insurance, but I was and am passionate about my hometown, which is Philadelphia. And so I launched a podcast about Philly called Philly who?

[Co-host]

And so for the next two years.

[Kevin Michael]

I grew that podcast. I went full time. I became a full time creator. Before that was a Thing.

[Guest]

And.

[Kevin Michael]

And the way that I grew that podcast was very different than the way that you grow podcasts now. I grew that local show through local listserv, so that was email lists that a bunch of Philadelphia people were on. I made an Instagram bot that went 24, 7. I had this little tiny computer called a Raspberry PI, and I coded it so that it would scrape Instagram every day, and it would go to the guests of my podcast, and it would.

[Co-host]

Follow everybody who followed that guest.

[Kevin Michael]

And back then, in 2018, there was this convention where if someone followed you on Instagram, it was polite to follow them back. Remember that?

[Co-host]

Follow for follow.

[Kevin Michael]

So that's how I grew the Philly who Instagram. I had a bot just following people, and people would then follow the Philly who Instagram back then after they followed, they would start to get my audiograms. And so in 2018, a great way to grow a podcast was by posting audiograms. And basically, if you don't know what an audiogram is, it was a video that had a tiny animation on that you put to your podcast audio, because nobody was filming podcast video back then. And back in 2018, believe it or not, posting videos on Instagram was new. It was kind of controversial. People were like, instagram is for photos.

[Co-host]

Why are there videos?

[Kevin Michael]

But if you posted an audiogram that just had, like a little bit of movement on it, people's minds were blown because images were moving on Instagram.

[Co-host]

This was not even 10 years ago.

[Kevin Michael]

Crazy, right? So 2018 to 2019, that was how I grew my podcast. I grew past a hundred thousand downloads. I grew it past six figures in revenue. And then 2020 happened, and Covid hit, and everything changed. And this is the first time that I experienced everything changing when it comes to podcast. So then Covid hit, and what happened was everybody flocked to Facebook groups. People were on Facebook groups 24 7, and Facebook knew this, and so they boosted Facebook groups. Back then, if you logged on Facebook In 2020, 2021, all of your notifications would come from groups. And it was really easy to grow an audience with Facebook groups. So with that, I created a framework for how to do that and called it Targeted Daily Engagement. The idea was you go on to Facebook groups and you go onto social media platforms and you engage with people for 15 minutes. And back then, when you did that, people would follow you. And back then, when people followed you, they would see everything that you post.

[Co-host]

After they followed you. Not so much anymore.

[Kevin Michael]

But back then, that was the case. So for two years, I helped people grow their podcasts by getting them to engage on social media for 15 minutes every single day. And it worked. Their podcasts grew. But throughout 2019, 2020, and 2021, TikTok was growing like crazy, and it was completely disrupting the online media world. And by 2021, all of the social media platforms have been tiktokified, which means that when you logged into a social media platform, you no longer saw stuff from people that you followed. You saw a for you page, which showed you stuff that the algorithm thought.

[Co-host]

You would be interested in.

[Kevin Michael]

And so once that happened, Facebook completely abandoned Facebook groups.

[Co-host]

Now Facebook groups are an absolute ghost town.

[Kevin Michael]

And targeted daily engagement doesn't really work anymore because people don't really follow people as much as they used to. It's just different on social media. And even then, if somebody follows you, they're looking at their for you page.

[Co-host]

They're not looking at their follow feed anymore.

[Kevin Michael]

So even if someone follows you, they're not really going to see your content. So in 2021, there was another tectonic shift on how to grow an audience.

[Co-host]

And that's when the algorithms took over. Now, at this point, 2021 grow, the show has scaled. We've had hundreds of clients come through.

[Kevin Michael]

To grow their podcast. And I'm like, what the heck? The way that I teach people how to grow their podcasts stopped working.

[Co-host]

So I got to hurry up and figure out another way to help people grow their shows.

[Guest]

And.

[Kevin Michael]

And I did, through extensive testing, what I discovered, that at that point in time, podcast guesting was crushing it.

[Co-host]

So if you just got yourself Featured.

[Kevin Michael]

On, like, 20 podcasts a year, you could grow your podcast really, really easily. It was like this hack.

[Co-host]

So I created a new system.

[Kevin Michael]

Targeted daily engagement became targeted podcast pitching. And the idea was if you focus on getting featured on one other podcast per week, your show would grow exponentially. And that was true for most shows that I worked with. And so I adapted my business, which helps podcasters grow and monetize, to helping them execute targeted podcast pitching. But then once again, two years after that started working, it suddenly stopped working. And that's because the cat kind of is out of the bag when it comes to podcast casting.

[Co-host]

Everybody knows that it's a great way to grow your audience.

[Kevin Michael]

And because of that, it's no longer.

[Co-host]

A great way to grow your audience.

[Kevin Michael]

It's way more competitive now to get on podcasts. People have kind of heard the same interviews over and over again, so listeners aren't as enthralled by interviews. And so it's really not the best.

[Co-host]

Way to grow anymore.

[Kevin Michael]

So that brings us to like the 2024 era, where me, the podcast growth.

[Co-host]

Guy, is like, what the heck?

[Kevin Michael]

Now, I've seen three different seasons where growing an audio podcast is done in three different ways. And those ways were cycling really, really quickly. So if you've been podcasting for a while and you've had this whiplash where you're like, what the heck? I feel like everyone keeps talking about different ways to grow a podcast.

[Co-host]

Which way is the way?

[Kevin Michael]

It's because it has changed this fast. However, I don't think that's true anymore. So now this brings us to 2024, where I was like, okay, podcast pitching is not really working as it once was.

[Co-host]

What is the answer now?

[Kevin Michael]

And what I discovered from studying podcasts that are starting to blow up in 2024 and 2025, they're doing it in one of two ways. Way number one is that they get really good at short form content.

[Co-host]

So they blow up their audience on.

[Kevin Michael]

Something like Instagram or TikTok. I'm talking to the tune of 100 500,000 subscribers subscribers. They get a huge massive audience on a short form platform and then they launch a podcast. Now there be dragons there. Because what I've seen is that not.

[Co-host]

Everybody who's good at short form content.

[Kevin Michael]

Does well at long form content.

[Co-host]

They are two similar but separate skills.

[Kevin Michael]

So for me, given that my mandate has been to help entrepreneurs with podcasts to grow and monetize their show, I'm looking at these strategies and thinking, okay.

[Co-host]

Which of these do I want to teach my audience to do?

[Kevin Michael]

So I looked at shortform. I've done some testing with, you know, creating short form video on Instagram and TikTok and stuff like that. It hasn't really clicked for me. I have never been a short form creator and so I was like, that's probably a great way to grow, but that's not within my skill set. So I probably shouldn't try to teach other people how to do it.

[Co-host]

So let me turn my attention to the other way that I have noticed.

[Kevin Michael]

Shows are growing and that is YouTube. Now, what's funny about this is I'm a little late to the game here and after looking at YouTube, understanding how it works, and here's the key, helping some of my clients to grow on YouTube now I am all in. I know for sure that this is the strategy to use if you want to grow a podcast now.

[Co-host]

And I strongly believe that this Strategy.

[Kevin Michael]

Is going to be immune to the two year whiplash cycle that we podcasts.

[Co-host]

Have experienced over the past six. And so these are the six reasons.

[Kevin Michael]

That I'm going all in on YouTube now and in the future to grow and monetize a podcast. Reason number one is discoverability. There is no algorithm for audio. It is the plight of podcast growth. Audio only podcasts are the most difficult.

[Co-host]

To grow an audience, in my opinion. And that is because there is no.

[Kevin Michael]

Algorithm, there is no bit of code.

[Co-host]

That has been written and is there.

[Kevin Michael]

Specifically to take your content and show it to the people who might be interested in it. It does not exist like it does on Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or YouTube. Now Spotify is making an attempt at this and if you browse podcasts on Spotify, you're going to start to see that it's starting to recommend new shows to you. That is a great sign for us podcasters. But here's the catch. Spotify is prioritizing shows that are publishing video episodes and short form within Spotify. So if you are an audio only.

[Co-host]

Podcaster, it has never been more difficult for you to grow.

[Kevin Michael]

And the truth is, in order for you to grow your audio podcast, you have to go grow your audience elsewhere. Or you have one of two options. Option number one is that you essentially buy ads on other audio podcasts or you know, try to get featured as a guest on a bunch of audio podcasts, do tons of swaps. And that is a valid strategy.

[Co-host]

But if you don't have any audience.

[Kevin Michael]

And you don't have money to blow on podcast ads, that's not something that you can really feasibly do. So what you're left with is you have to go somewhere else and grow your audience somewhere else and, and then port that audience to your audio show. And that's what I've been helping the people do here at Grow the Show for a long time. My first show was that I grew my Instagram account, I got featured in the press and I emailed a bunch of people and got them all to jump into the audio feed. Then with Facebook groups it was go grow your audience in a Facebook group.

[Co-host]

Then get them into the audio feed. Now with podcast guesting, it was a.

[Kevin Michael]

Little more pure because you were getting on other podcasts. But like I said before, that's not working as much as it once did. So again, if you're an audio podcaster.

[Co-host]

There is no algorithm, there's no discoverability.

[Kevin Michael]

People have been talking about this for as long as I can remember as a podcaster, but YouTube is nothing but discoverability. In fact, sometimes it becomes a little bit of a problem because too many new people are discovering your YouTube videos.

[Co-host]

If you look at your metrics, a.

[Kevin Michael]

Lot of the time, 50 to 80% of the people who are watching any of your videos have never heard of you before. And there's some times when you don't want that to be the case. But for us, we're looking at audience growth. That's a great problem to have.

[Co-host]

So reason number one is audio podcasting has no discoverability.

[Kevin Michael]

YouTube has nothing but discoverability. Reason number two is supply and demand. What do I mean by that? Now, this is anecdotal. I don't have any double blind studies to prove this yet. But I talk to podcasters all day, every single day. And I am a podcast listener myself. And what I can tell you is that the amount of time that people are spending listening to podcasts is not going up. That piece of the pie is not growing. And to prove that, just think about.

[Co-host]

Your own podcast listening behavior.

[Kevin Michael]

Do you spend more time listening to podcasts today than you did a couple of years ago? My guess would be no, because podcast listening is a companion behavior. And what that means is people listen to podcasts while they're doing something else.

[Co-host]

So it might be working out, it.

[Kevin Michael]

Might be going for a run, going for a walk, cleaning your house. It could be commuting or a handful of other things. But people listen to podcasts while they do those things. And the problem is they're not spending more time doing those things. People are not commuting more, they're commuting less. People are not cleaning more than they used to. People are not generally working out more than they used to. So they're spending the same amount of time listening to shows than they used to with video. Though that is not true. Have you told anybody in your life recently that you want to spend more.

[Co-host]

Time looking at screens? No.

[Kevin Michael]

You've told them you want to spend less time looking at screens. Everybody's in that same boat. And yet we are all spending more time watching videos.

[Co-host]

Short form, long form, whatever it might be. We are spending more time watching videos than ever before.

[Kevin Michael]

So here's what this means for podcasts. As time goes on and the world.

[Co-host]

Wakes up to the benefits of being.

[Kevin Michael]

A content creator, more people become content creators and businesses, and people spend more money making their content good. So as time goes on, content becomes more competitive with audio. That's really bad, because the demand for audio content is not going up, but the supply of audio content is going up and is getting better.

[Co-host]

Compare that to video, where, yes, the.

[Kevin Michael]

Supply of video content is going up, but the demand is also going up. So that means that it's less competitive.

[Co-host]

There'S more room as the market grows of video creators, the market of video.

[Kevin Michael]

Consumption is growing, so it's just simply.

[Co-host]

Easier to get attention.

[Kevin Michael]

And to illustrate how podcast viewership particularly is seeping into other parts of people's lives, I was speaking with a client recently who just hit the 35,000 subscriber mark on their podcast channel. They just launched their show a handful of months ago. They're already at 35,000 subs on YouTube. I got on a call with that.

[Co-host]

Client recently and they came to me.

[Kevin Michael]

And they said, hey, I think there's a problem with my analytics here because.

[Co-host]

It says that 15% of my views are on TVs.

[Kevin Michael]

That can't be right. And I said, no, that's absolutely right. 10 to 15% of podcast episode consumption on YouTube is happening on TVs. People are choosing to put a podcast on over Netflix. What does this mean for you? Your podcast can make you literally a TV star. That wasn't the case a couple of years ago. Reason number two is that the attention.

[Co-host]

That people are spending is changing and.

[Kevin Michael]

So we need to adapt with that attention. Reason number three is that YouTube has short form and long form in one platform. So earlier I told you about how a great way to grow your audience right now is by doing short form video on any of the short form platforms.

[Co-host]

However, the problem with growing on short.

[Kevin Michael]

Form on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook X or wherever else you can post short form videos is that if your goal is to grow your podcast, you have to grow on that platform and then get all those people to leave that platform and go consume your podcast somewhere else. That is very hard to do from a behavior perspective. It's very hard to get someone scrolling Instagram reels to stop and go listen to your podcast.

[Co-host]

It's almost impossible.

[Kevin Michael]

But on top of that, the platforms don't want that.

[Co-host]

Instagram doesn't want you to send traffic.

[Kevin Michael]

To YouTube or Spotify or Apple, so they prevent it from happening. However, if you're publishing clips of your podcast and you're publishing on YouTube, it is so easy for them to just jump over to the full version. And in fact you can link it so that there's a button that says.

[Co-host]

Watch the full video here.

[Kevin Michael]

So on YouTube you have short form and long form in one platform and While it's not going to be as much growth as you think, because everybody says that, you know, shorts don't grow longs as much as you think, it still is going to be more than posting shorts on other platforms.

[Co-host]

Reason number four is search and SEO. YouTube is the number two search engine.

[Kevin Michael]

In the world and it is owned.

[Co-host]

By the number one search engine in the world. I personally have never cared about SEO.

[Kevin Michael]

When it comes to audio podcast growth, but you cannot deny the power of.

[Co-host]

SEO with when it comes to YouTube growth.

[Kevin Michael]

Case in point, the very first YouTube video I ever published on this channel. It's actually about targeted daily engagement. The social media strategy that I told you about earlier that, you know, worked a couple years ago doesn't work as much anymore. When I published my first video episode In January of 2022, the video got about 100 downloads in its first week. The audio version of that episode got about 1,000 downloads in this first week. So one week after publishing in January 2022, the YouTube video had a hundred views, the audio version had a thousand downloads.

[Co-host]

Fast forward six months.

[Kevin Michael]

The YouTube video was at about 900 views and the audio version of that episode was at about 2,000 downloads. So at that point in time, 2022, I was like, clearly audio is the way to go. Look at how the audio version of my episode has performed double the video version. However, fast forward three years later, the the audio version still at 2000 downloads. It stopped getting new downloads after six months. The video version though, is about to top 16,000 views. So that video has been getting new views and it's been getting me new leads and sales for three years because people search for how to grow your podcast on social media. So what does this mean for us podcasters? Well, unlike audio, where you post something.

[Co-host]

And the vast majority of the downloads.

[Kevin Michael]

Happen within the first week, if you do it right, your YouTube episodes are going to be bringing you reach and views and new audience for years to come, thanks to search and the algorithm. Reason number five is superior metrics. We're all business owners here.

[Co-host]

We love metrics.

[Kevin Michael]

In fact, we probably track too many metrics.

[Co-host]

That's why it's so hard for us.

[Kevin Michael]

To be successful audio podcasters, because there.

[Co-host]

Are virtually no audio podcasting metrics that are useful.

[Kevin Michael]

There's really two metrics. There's how many downloads did your episode get and what is your episode completion rate, which by the way, nobody knows to check that one anyway. So pro tip, check that out and see where it's at. But basically, what podcasters do is they publish an episode and they look at their downloads. That's all that they get to look at. And if their downloads aren't going up, they have no idea why it is. This has been a struggle for me helping podcasters for years because even though I now at this point can tell you if a show is good or.

[Co-host]

What needs to be adjusted, or whether the questions are good, or whether the.

[Kevin Michael]

Intro is good, whatever it might be, without any type of metrics, it's all subjective feedback. And it's just very hard to say, here's what you need to improve in order for your audience and your show to grow. That is not the case with YouTube.

[Co-host]

YouTube has more metrics than you can.

[Kevin Michael]

Ever want to look at. And here's an example of why this is so impactful.

[Co-host]

So I was working with a client.

[Kevin Michael]

Just a couple weeks ago who came on and I said, let's grow your show on YouTube. And the first thing that I know to look at now when helping a podcaster grow on YouTube is to look at their click through rate on their videos. This client came up. His click through rate on his videos was averaging 1.8%. That's because he had horrible titles and awful thumbnails. And so we said, okay, right now about 2 out of every 100 people who sees your video is clicking on it. That is not enough for growth.

[Co-host]

We needed to make it more. The way that we make it more.

[Kevin Michael]

Is by improving your titles and thumbnails. So we did. I said, make your titles this way. Do this with your thumbnails. The next week we met again and his most recent video had a 6.9% click through rate.

[Co-host]

A huge jump.

[Kevin Michael]

But here's the thing, the video didn't.

[Co-host]

Have more views yet.

[Kevin Michael]

So he was like, what the heck? You told me to change my titles.

[Co-host]

And thumbnails and your views didn't increase.

[Kevin Michael]

I said, yes, but your click through rate did. Your click through Rate4X, which is an amazing leading indicator and tells me that if you keep doing it this way, it's only a matter of time before you get more views. Sure enough, two weeks later I get.

[Co-host]

A message in Slack where he said.

[Kevin Michael]

Holy crap, it worked.

[Co-host]

And in just a couple of weeks.

[Kevin Michael]

He went from 30 to 300 views. And I know the goal is to get more than 300 views, but to 10x your views in two weeks is a really good sign. And that would not have been possible if we couldn't first look at the leading indicator, which was click through rate. If that was an audio Podcast, we'd be making guesses on what to change. Not so on YouTube. YouTube gives you real feedback with real metrics that you can use to reverse engineer growth. And then finally, the big kahuna. Reason number six, why I'm all in on YouTube and why this is going to be the place that I grow my podcast from now on is that YouTube is the only platform that reliably pays you to market your own business. YouTube actually rewards growth not just with reach, but with money. And if you get to a certain point with your channel, if you get a certain amount of videos, a certain amount of subscribers, and a certain amount of watch time, you literally make money. You can make up to $25 or.

[Co-host]

More per 1,000 views.

[Kevin Michael]

And for a lot of business podcasts, it's between 10 to $25 per 1,000 views. Think about that. If you have a video that gets 100,000 views, you can make $2,500. And some podcasts get way more than that. There is no other platform, to my knowledge, that pays you at this level. Now, what's funny about this is none of this is new information. It's all just new to me. And if you're consuming this episode still, it's probably new to you. So I'm excited to share that I'm going all in on YouTube. You're gonna hear me sharing what I'm learning in real time about YouTube. And I highly recommend that you consider taking the leap.

[Co-host]

Come on in, the water's fine. It is time.

[Kevin Michael]

If you're still trying to grow your podcast the old way through engagement hacks or hoping a big guest move the needle or something like that, stop.

[Co-host]

Start treating YouTube like your primary platform.

[Kevin Michael]

And here's the thing, your audio platform is going to grow faster because you're actually growing your audience. So that's going to do it for this video. Real quick though, before I go, if you are ready to go all in.

[Co-host]

I am launching a brand new cohort of the Grow the Show accelerator this July.

[Kevin Michael]

This episode's coming out in 2025. So if it's before July 2025 and.

[Co-host]

You'Re a business owner making over 10k.

[Kevin Michael]

A month, and you've started publishing your podcast on YouTube, but your show is not growing yet. This cohort is going to be for you. It's going to be a 12 week program where we get your show growing. What's cool about this is that I'm doing a lot of this stuff in real time. So I'm going to be a couple chapters ahead of you in YouTube growth, which actually is better for your learning. I have a couple examples of clients that I've worked with recently who've gotten explosive growth, more growth than I have so far on YouTube. So I know this stuff is going to work for you as well. So if that's interesting, click on the link in the description and apply. Now, we're starting in July 2025, and everybody who joins before that gets a really, really big discount because this is the beta cohort for the YouTube accelerator. All right, my name is Kevin Michael.

[Co-host]

I'll see you in the next one.

[Podcast Boutique Representative]

Real quick, before you go, if you're a podcaster trying to grow on YouTube and you're still spending hours editing, or you're working with a team that just.

[Kevin Michael]

Cleans up the audio and calls it.

[Podcast Boutique Representative]

A day, you need to check out Podcast Boutique. They've been my go to production team for over five years and now they've built something that's tailor made for YouTube first podcasters.

[Kevin Michael]

It's called record and forget, and it's exactly what it sounds like.

[Podcast Boutique Representative]

You record your episod, send them the raw files, and they take it from there.

[Kevin Michael]

High quality audio and video editing, YouTube.

[Podcast Boutique Representative]

Optimized titles, thumbnails, description, show notes, uploads, clips, everything. But here's what makes them different. They don't just polish the content. They help you script your content, trim the fat, shorten your episodes, and increase viewer retention, which is the number one factor in YouTube growth right now. And because they're in lockstep with me, anytime I uncover a tactic that helps podcasts grow and monetize, especially on YouTube, they implement it for their other clients too. So if you're still diying post production or you're not seeing results from your current team, go to podcastboutique.com and tell them that I sent you. All right, I'll see you next time.