So, you’re helping your clients get serious about podcasting. Smart move. And you’ve correctly identified the 800-pound gorilla of podcast discovery: YouTube. It’s no longer just a video platform; for many listeners, it’s the primary search engine for new shows. Turning a podcast into a video series and publishing it on YouTube isn’t just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy for audience growth.
But here’s the hard truth that many podcast agencies learn too late: simply uploading a video file and hoping for the best is a recipe for frustration. The platform is crowded, the algorithm is complex, and "going viral" is not a business strategy.
Growing a podcast on YouTube requires a deliberate, data-driven approach that looks beyond vanity metrics and focuses on attracting the right audience. It’s about building a tangible asset for your client, one that justifies its budget and contributes to real business goals. Let’s break down the essential do’s and don’ts that separate the thriving YouTube podcasts from the ones that never take off.
The Do's: Your Playbook for Strategic YouTube Growth
DO: Define Your YouTube Goal Before You Start
Before you ever run a single promotion, you need to answer a critical question for your client: Why are we on YouTube? The answer dictates your entire strategy, from content format to how you measure success.
- Is the goal credibility and social proof? In this case, your primary metric might be growing a healthy subscriber base. Having a channel with 10,000+ subscribers acts as a powerful psychological trigger for potential high-profile guests and partners. It says, "This is a serious show with an engaged audience."
- Is the goal top-of-funnel brand awareness? Here, targeted views might be more important. The aim is to get your client's brand and message in front of a specific ideal customer profile (ICP) that might not know they exist.
- Is the goal lead generation? This is the hardest to achieve directly but can be a byproduct of the other two. Success here is measured by click-throughs to a website, a lead magnet download, or another conversion action.
For most B2B podcasts, chasing massive view counts isn't the most valuable play. A robust subscriber number often provides the most long-term value, signaling a committed audience and building a durable asset for the brand.
DO: Focus on Subscribers as a High-Value, Durable Metric
Views are fleeting, but a subscriber is a vote of confidence. When someone subscribes, they are actively inviting your client’s content into their feed. This is why focusing your growth efforts on acquiring subscribers is one of the smartest moves you can make.
Unlike views, which can be easily inflated with low-quality traffic, a subscriber represents a real person who has raised their hand and shown interest. It's a "durable" metric that grows over time and serves as a foundation for a loyal community. When pitching growth to clients, framing it around guaranteed subscriber acquisition is a much more powerful conversation than promising a temporary spike in views.
DO: Treat it Like a Video Show, Not Just an Audio File with a Picture
YouTube is a visual-first platform. While you can get away with static images or simple audiograms, the podcasts that truly succeed embrace the video medium. This doesn't mean you need a blockbuster production budget, but it does mean paying attention to the details:
- Good Lighting and Clear Audio: Non-negotiable basics that signal professionalism.
- Clean, Branded Graphics: Use professional-looking lower thirds, backgrounds, and thumbnails.
- Dynamic Shots: If recording remotely with multiple people, ensure the production looks more like a polished live show than a standard Zoom call.
Investing in a professional look pays dividends in viewer engagement and perceived credibility.
DO: Use Paid Promotion to Guarantee Targeted Growth
Let's be direct: relying solely on the YouTube algorithm is "hope marketing." To achieve consistent, predictable growth and truly promote a podcast effectively, you need to add fuel to the fire with paid promotion. This isn't about casting a wide, expensive net. It’s about precision.
Modern podcast growth services allow you to run targeted campaigns to attract subscribers from a specific demographic, industry, or interest group. Instead of just buying impressions, you can invest in guaranteed outcomes, such as a set number of new subscribers per month. This transforms your client's YouTube growth from an unpredictable variable into a reliable deliverable, giving you a powerful tool for proving ROI.
The Don'ts: Avoiding the Pitfalls That Stall YouTube Channels
DON'T: Rely on a Single "Leg" for Your Marketing Stool
Many agencies treat podcast marketing as a three-legged stool: earned media (getting featured), shared media (social posts), and owned media (the podcast itself). They completely ignore the fourth and most stable leg: paid media.
Relying on your client to consistently post on social media or hoping for a lucky press mention is an unstable foundation for growth. Paid promotion adds stability and acts as a force multiplier for all your other efforts. It ensures your client's excellent content actually gets seen by the right people, rather than getting lost in the algorithmic void.
DON'T: Buy Empty, Low-Quality Views
There are countless services that promise thousands of views for cheap. Be wary. These often come from click farms or bots, resulting in extremely low watch times (e.g., a few seconds per "view").
This is actively harmful to a YouTube channel. When YouTube’s algorithm sees that viewers are abandoning a video almost immediately, it interprets this as a signal of low-quality content. As a result, it will be less likely to recommend that video and future uploads to organic viewers, effectively killing your channel's long-term growth potential. It’s a classic vanity metric that does more harm than good.
DON'T: Fall for "Black Hat" Subscriber Schemes
Similarly, be skeptical of services that promise to get your client’s podcast ranked on the charts or deliver subscribers through shady tactics. Many of these use incentivized systems, where users in developing countries are paid pennies (or in-game currency) to subscribe to a channel they will never watch.
These are not real fans. They are not your client's ICP. They will not engage, convert, or contribute to any meaningful business goal. A truly effective growth strategy focuses on white-hat tactics that attract genuine, interested viewers who have the potential to become loyal community members and, eventually, customers.
DON'T: Ask for a "Paid Ads" Budget
This is a crucial tip for agencies. When you ask a B2B client, "Do you have a budget for paid ads?" the answer is often "No," or worse, "We have a paid media team for that, and you can't touch it."
Instead, reframe the conversation. You are not selling "ads"; you are providing guaranteed distribution and audience growth as an integral feature of your high-tier packages. Build the cost of promotion directly into your retainer. This positions growth not as an optional, risky add-on but as a core deliverable of your service. You are the podcast expert who knows how to build an audience—and this is how it's done. Check out our case studies to see how leading agencies are packaging this for their B2B clients.
From Vanity Project to a Verifiable Asset
Growing a podcast on YouTube is an incredible opportunity for your clients to expand their reach and build authority. But it requires a strategic shift—away from organic hope and vanity metrics, and towards a predictable, data-driven system.
By focusing on high-value subscribers, investing in targeted promotion, and packaging growth as a core feature of your service, you can transform a client’s YouTube channel from a cost center into a verifiable asset. You provide them with business-class reporting that proves the show is reaching its intended audience, giving them the confidence and the data they need to secure long-term funding and support for the show. This is how you stop the cycle of churn and become an indispensable growth partner.
Ready to stop guessing and start delivering guaranteed, targeted growth for your clients' podcasts on YouTube? Explore our podcast growth services and learn how we can provide the data and results you need to retain clients and grow your agency.
Want to see how this approach can be tailored to your specific clients? Schedule a free, no-obligation strategy call with our team today.
