Most podcasts suck at YouTube. This one doesn't 👀
How To Grow Your Podcast Using YouTube (feat. My First Million)
Hey friends,
Most podcasts suck at distribution.
This one doesn’t — and you should probably learn from it.
My First Million, hosted by Sam Paar and Shaan Puri, has catapulted up the charts in 2021. Right now, it’s sitting in the Top 5 business podcasts on iTunes.
It was also my 5th most-listened-to show of the year (and would have been higher if I had found it earlier in the year).
Now, they do a lot of things right. And today I want to focus on one of them: YouTube.
But first...
Why are podcasts so difficult to grow?
Compared to other content platforms, podcasts have virtually no discoverability.
TikTok has the For You Page with a scarily good algorithm that’s pretty much reading your mind...
Instagram has the Explore page (and the ability to share posts with friends in-app)...
Twitter has retweets and an algorithm that puts (somewhat) relevant tweets on your timeline...
Podcasts have, well, nothing.
There is no opportunity for organic growth within the platform itself.
If your show isn’t on the charts already, chances are almost zero that a new listener will find your show in-app without a friend directly sharing the link.
TLDR: Podcasts alone have no organic distribution
Now, let’s bring YouTube back into the picture.
Unlike Spotify and Apple Podcasts, YouTube has significant organic reach, even for newer users.
By posting both full episodes and properly edited clips on YouTube, podcasts like My First Million have the opportunity to get in front of brand new fans every single day.
But, being on YouTube isn’t enough. Posting without following best practices and implementing proper strategy is just about equal to hoping someone stumbles upon your show in Apple Podcasts.
So, throughout the rest of this piece we’re going to break down 3 strategies My First Million uses on YouTube to get more views, increase CTR, and use YouTube to achieve overall podcast growth.
Btw, you can totally use these for your brand’s content (and probably should)
MFM Uses Fantastic Titles That Are Meant For YouTube
Well-meaning, rookie podcasters are notorious for posting a podcast episode to YouTube and literally copy-pasting the title they used for the audio podcast.
Usually it looks something like this:
“Generic Podcast Show Episode 169: Random Guest Name Here”
A few problems jump out here. Most importantly, it’s not compelling at all. It doesn’t give a new viewer any reason to click on it.
On top of that, YouTube cuts the title off after 70 characters. So if you waste that valuable Real Estate with information that a new video doesn’t care about, they’re not gonna click.
Third, the title isn’t optimized for discoverability on the platform (through search or suggested).
Let’s take a look at a 2 titles My First Million used on YouTube and dissect why they work.
How Brumate Made $20M with 0 Employees, Shahid Khan is the Billionaire of the Week, and More
Titling full podcast episodes for YouTube is hard. How do you condense every topic discussed on the show into a compelling 70-100 characters?
This example does it well.
Remember how YouTube cuts the title off after 70 characters?
Well, when we look at this title, it has the most curiosity-inducing piece of the episode at the front so potential viewers are sure to see it.
The title also uses specific numbers, involves money, and most importantly — opens a curiosity gap.
How did Brumate make $20M with 0 employees? Someone interested in startups and business — like MFM’s ideal audience — will at least be curious enough to seek an answer.
Hasan Minhaj - Comedy, Netflix, Haters, & Money
Interestingly, this episode was one of the most viewed full episode of the podcast, despite being one of the longest episodes.
I have a hypotheses as to why that is.
First of all, it was a damn good episode. And Twitter was flooded with social proof of people raving about the episode, which Shaan and Sam retweeted.
But, there’s a second part of this that has to do with the YouTube title.
This podcast title (and thumbnail) is perfect for bringing in old and new listeners. Habitual listeners will see the video and click because they love MFM. Nothing new.
But the emphasis on Hasan Minhaj in the title and thumbnail appeals to his fanbase.
He’s the centerpiece, not Sam or Shaan — since Hasan’s fans probably don’t know Sam, don’t know Shaan, and don’t know My First Million.
His fans will watch though, because Hasan is the focus here. And when they see how good Shaan is at interviewing, they might be intrigued to binge more episodes and join the cohort of habitual listeners.
They take a similar approach with the title and thumbnail in the episode featuring Rob Dyrdek — which happens to be the most viewed full episode on the channel.
TLDR: You can leverage the clout of another influencer in your title and thumbnail as social proof, which will encourage new viewers to click. If the video is high quality and delivers on the promise in the thumbnail, you have a chance to retain that viewer.
See how that works?
Now, titles aren’t the only thing that contributes to the click. Let’s talk about thumbnails.
Most Podcasts Don’t Put Effort Into Thumbnails. MFM Does.
Most podcasts get lazy with thumbnails on YouTube.
Perhaps it’s a lack of resources, perhaps is a misunderstanding of the role thumbnails play in driving the click. I’m not sure.
Usually, podcasts opt for a standard template thumbnail that “gets the job done,” but isn’t all that compelling.
Something like the older thumbnails MFM used:
Since then, they’ve had a massive glow up. And today I want to go over three principles that they’ve used in their thumbnails to make them more compelling.
Let’s look at this example from the video, Here's How Much MrBeast Made From Recreating Squid Games
1 - Emotional faces are included in the thumbnail.
This is one of the most well known thumbnail best practices on YouTube. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. But in general, including faces in your thumbnails will increase CTR.
Another important tactic here: the faces display emotion that’s relevant to the video title.
In this case, that emotion is shocked. It’s as if Shaan and Jimmy are shocked by the amount of money made from the Squid Game remake video. This helps create curiosity around the contents of the video. As you’ll see, that’s a key principle when constructing thumbnails.
2 - Minimal, but impactful text.
Text-heavy thumbnails usually don’t do to well. You want to minimize the work that the audience has to do to understand the premise of the video and why they should click.
The thumbnail should also build off of the title, not repeat it.
In this example, the text accomplishes just that. It’s one word, and it furthers the curiosity that the title initiated. The viewer’s asking themselves, Did MrBeast really make $5,000,000 from this video?
3 - They leveraged a relevant creator and current event to drive more traffic to their video
Like I mentioned in the Hasan Minhaj example, “clout jacking” is an effective way for newer YouTube channels to gain momentum.
What’s interesting about this thumbnail in particular is that MrBeast wasn’t even on the show. It’s a clip of Sam and Shaan discussing the viral video. And yet, the clip has racked up over 200K views so far.
Wild.
But really, when you think about it in the context of the 100,000,000+ views MrBeast got on the original video, 200,000 suddenly doesn’t feel as large.
Clearly, there’s an opportunity for newer podcasts (and channels in general) to tap into viral moments and reap the rewards.
Caveat: There are always exceptions to the rule. Some thumbnails break one (or multiple) rules, and crush. But these best practices will get you pretty far.
MFM Increases Discoverability By Pulling The Most Compelling Clips And Repurposes Into Short Form Content
No matter how good a podcast is, it’s likely not going viral on YouTube.
Achieving the CTR and viewer retention needed for the algorithm to push your video out to hundreds of thousands of new viewers is damn near impossible on long form content like podcasts.
The real magic of YouTube for podcast promotion comes with you pull the best clips from the longer show and repurpose them into shorter 3-10 minute clips.
Remember MFM’s MrBeast reaction video that got over 200,000 views?
Yeah, that wasn’t a full episode. It was a 4:17 clip that was carefully selected and repurposed to favor the YouTube algorithm.
Another example of this effective repurposing is this video, titled How I Retired with Over $20 Million by Age 31
Yes, it has an ultra compelling title that’s relevant to MFM’s business-oriented target audience.
Yes, it has a thumbnail that follows YouTube best practices (emotional face, minimal but impactful text, vibrant colors).
But, it’s not an hour long show. It’s a 8 minute clip.
And the combination of those three factors is why it took off to 140,693 views.
(Pro-tip: look for videos that significantly eclipse the subscriber count on a channel and study those. Why did they over-perform? What can you learn?)
Publishing these types clips increases discoverability for a few reasons:
1 - They’re more favorable to the algorithm, like we discussed.
2 - There’s less friction for a new viewer to consume the content.
It’s kinda like the sample stands you see at Costco. You’re not ready to buy the whole bag of mini hot dogs, but you’re will to try a free sample.
Costco hopes that the sample gets you hooked, just like MFM hopes the easily consumable clips get you hooked on the show.
If you’re serious about growing a show and aren’t creating clips... what are you doing?
Oh, and a bonus tip. Plan segments in your show with the intention of clipping for YouTube ;)
TLDR
Sam, Shaan, and the My First Million crew get more traction for the podcast on YouTube by using these three principles:
1 - MFM uses fantastic titles that are meant for YouTube.
2 - MFM creates compelling thumbnails that follow YouTube best practices and support the title in creating a curiosity gap that drives the viewer to click.
3 - MFM gets the show in front of new viewers by pulling the most compelling clips and repurposes into short form content.
I’d urge you to use these strategies for your own show.
Also, you can sub to the My First Million YouTube channel here.
If you’re a listener — reply to this email and let me know what your favorite episode is. Mine is the one with Hasan Minhaj that we broke down earlier. So good.
Pull up a seat, stay a while
Finally, if you're new around here and found this valuable, drop your email right here so I can get this in your inbox on time every week (and you can get better at marketing)
Talk to you on Thursday at 9am PST,
Tommy