When people hear “podcast,” they think about an audio experience. When people hear “YouTube,” they think of the world’s largest source of video. But these two worlds are not as disparate as most think, and Ad Results Media believes the future of creator partnerships is the blending of both.

Exploring the current situation

There are currently over 2 million active podcasts being produced by a variety of talented creators, with a total of 48 million available podcast episodes.¹ But would you believe that YouTube is actually the top destination for people to consume their favorite podcasts? In fact, 70% of all podcast consumption occurs on YouTube. Spotify and Apple are a distant second and third with 33% and 32% respectively.²

This means that podcasts are actually not an audio-only experience. Podcasts are often the blending of both audio storytelling and the video of the conversation itself, and YouTube itself is doubling down on this momentum. The platform recently launched its own podcast, “The hosted by Brittany Luce (cohost of the For Colored Nerds podcast) and produced in partnership with National Public Media.

The podcast discusses the future of the creator economy and provides actionable advice to creators on maximizing their channels, including how to distribute podcasts through YouTube. The company also created a new leadership role within the organization tasked with “organizing and managing the vast trove of podcast content on YouTube.” ³

A powerful podcast destination

Why is YouTube the top destination for podcasts? First, it’s the YouTube algorithm. Podcasters are able to tag their episodes with specific topics and guest names to help aid in the discovery of their episodes. For example, if you’re a host of a true-crime podcast you can tag your episodes with locations, similar crimes, special guest hosts, and popular related books. All of these tags will help in the discovery of your podcast and grow your subscriber counts.

Further, YouTubers who start podcasts often do it to reach new audiences, which in turn can directly benefit your brand. YouTubers can be typecast, and in response, some create adjacent channels for their podcasts that tackle new topics and appeal to new and different audiences. And of course, podcasters are able to augment their income from advertisers or show sponsors with the revenue from YouTube ads.

The opportunity for brands

The blending of podcasts and video on YouTube is also opening up a number of opportunities for brands. Here are three:

1. 360 campaign activation. When podcast advertisers find a few hosts that really perform for their brands, their appetite to do more can be endless. Creating a 360-campaign plan with these hosts, assisted by the additional opportunities unlocked by including YouTube and other Google properties in the mix, can be just what the ROI doctor ordered.

2. Say-and-tell creative. You know that old advertising advice, “Tell them what you’re going to tell them; then tell them; then tell them what you told them.” Sounds like a lot of talking about yourself. One of the best ways for brands to not be the only ones talking about themselves is to partner with creators who love the brands and tell their own version of the brands’ stories. This is one of the reasons podcast advertising is so effective. Now, add in the ability to also support those brand messages with visual overlays or product images on YouTube, and your ad creative becomes even more memorable.

3. Incremental analytics. While the measurement solutions for podcast advertising continue to get more and more sophisticated with the uptick in programmatic placements and adoption of pixels, advertisers can never have enough performance data. The YouTube platforms provide advertisers the ability to augment their core reporting data with video views, comments and sentiment. The information is publicly available and free for the advertisers to collect.

Needless to say, we love the incorporation of video into the world of podcast advertising and look forward to partnering in the future with you on a creator campaign.

Sources:

¹ ”10 Powerful Podcast Statistics You Need to Know in 2021,” July 5, 2021, Oberlo: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/podcast-statistics

² “Why You Should Turn Your Podcasts into YouTube Videos ASAP,” Oct. 29, 2021, Rev: https://www.rev.com/blog/turn-podcasts-into-youtube-videos

³ "YouTube Is Seeking An Exec To Manage Its Podcast Business,” Oct. 5, 2021, Tubefilter: https://www.tubefilter.com/2021/10/05/youtube-seeking-podcast-exec/

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Link to original Ad Age article.