Episode 61: YouTube for Podcasters: Why Just Uploading Your Podcast Isn’t a Growth Strategy with Auret Esselen
How Podcasters Can Use YouTube to Grow Their Audience, Email List, and Revenue (with Auret Esselen)
Listen on Apple Podcast | Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube
If you’re a podcaster who’s uploading your episodes to YouTube and hoping for the best… this conversation is going to be a wake-up call—in the best way.
In this episode of Podcast Growth Tools, I’m sitting down with YouTube strategist Auret Esselen to talk about how podcasters can actually use YouTube as a growth engine—not just a place to park video versions of their podcast episodes.
We’re breaking down what’s really working on YouTube right now, how podcast hosts should be thinking about video strategy, and why simply repurposing podcast episodes without intention is leaving growth (and leads) on the table.
This episode is especially important if you’re an expert-led business owner who wants your podcast to bring in aligned leads, grow your email list, and support your offers—without chasing trends or trying to go viral.
In This Episode, We Cover
Why uploading your podcast episodes to YouTube without optimizing them is a missed opportunity
How YouTube works differently than Apple Podcasts or Spotify—and why that matters
What podcasters should focus on first if they want YouTube to support business growth
How to title, package, and position podcast videos for YouTube search
The real role of YouTube Shorts for podcasters (and what they’re actually good for)
How thumbnails and titles impact discoverability more than content quality
What metrics actually matter inside YouTube Studio
Why sending YouTube viewers to Spotify or Apple Podcasts usually isn’t the best move
How to use YouTube as a top-of-funnel lead generation tool
What an optimized YouTube channel homepage should include
How SEO works on YouTube—and how podcasters can leverage it for long-term growth
Timestamps:
02:48 - Maximizing YouTube for Podcast Growth
05:47 - Setting Goals for Your YouTube Channel
09:01 -Optimizing Links and Descriptions
12:02 - The Importance of Titles and Thumbnails
14:54 - Understanding SEO on YouTube
24:16 - Optimizing Content for Audience Engagement
26:16 - The Role of YouTube Shorts in Content Strategy
29:41 - A/B Testing Thumbnails for Better Click-Through Rates
33:06 - Scheduling and Planning Content Effectively
35:10 - Enhancing Your YouTube Channel's Presentation
40:08 - Emerging Trends and Features on YouTube
Why Simply “Repurposing” Your Podcast on YouTube Isn’t Enough
One of the biggest mistakes podcasters make is treating YouTube like a storage shelf—uploading full episodes with generic titles like Episode 42: Interview with X and hoping the algorithm does the rest.
As Auret explains, YouTube is its own ecosystem with its own rules.
If you want YouTube to work for your podcast and business, every video needs to be aligned with:
A clear goal
A specific audience
A defined action you want viewers to take
That means thinking differently about titles, thumbnails, descriptions, and calls to action—especially if your goal is list growth or lead generation.
How Podcasters Should Be Using YouTube SEO
One of my favorite parts of this conversation is how deeply we go into YouTube SEO—because yes, SEO still matters.
Auret walks through:
How YouTube search differs from social algorithms
Why evergreen podcast content is a huge advantage on YouTube
How to identify searchable video topics your audience is already looking for
Why the language your audience uses matters more than your internal frameworks
If you already understand podcast SEO and ideal listener language, you’ll love how transferable this strategy is to YouTube.
YouTube Shorts: Helpful or Distracting for Podcasters?
We also get into the reality of YouTube Shorts—what they’re actually good for, and where podcasters should be cautious.
Shorts can absolutely support discovery and awareness, but they’re not where conversions usually happen. Instead, they work best as a bridge to your long-form content—giving new people a reason to click deeper into your world.
If you’ve been wondering whether Shorts are “worth it,” this section will give you clarity.
A Smarter Way to Think About YouTube as a Podcaster
What I love most about Auret’s approach is how grounded it is in business outcomes—not vanity metrics.
This isn’t about going viral.
It’s about using YouTube intentionally to:
Build authority
Attract the right audience
Nurture trust
Support your podcast-first funnel
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by YouTube advice that doesn’t translate to real growth, this episode will feel refreshing.
Free Resource for Podcasters Using YouTube
Auret generously shared her YouTube Authority Checklist, a step-by-step guide to setting up your YouTube channel as a true authority asset for your business.
You can grab it here: https://essetinomedia.com/youtube-authority-checklist
Your Next Steps
If you want weekly insights on podcast growth, marketing strategy, and turning listeners into subscribers, join the newsletter at:
Resources & Links
Connect with Auret
Website: essetinomedia.com
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/auretesselen
Connect with Kylee
Website: podcastmarketinghub.com
Podcast: Podcast Growth Tools
Instagram: @kyleejchandler
Let’s Connect!
Share your favorite trend from this episode or ask questions by DMing me on Instagram at @thepodcastmarketinghub.
Subscribe & Review
If you loved this episode, don’t forget to hit subscribe and leave a review! Reviews help more podcasters like you discover this show.
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Kylee Chandler (00:00.11)
Welcome to the show. I read it is such an honor to have you here. I have been so looking forward to bringing this to my audience.
Auret Esselen (00:16.529)
I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me on, Kylie.
Kylee Chandler (00:20.46)
Well, and it's so fun because we both spoke at Selena Sue's Rich Relationships, one of her virtual meetings that she does. And I was just so impressed by your conversation about YouTube. And of course, the YouTube conversation and the podcast base is so big. And so I thought, okay, we have to get you on the show. And we're going to dive into all of it. So I'm known to not be too fluffy. So let's get right to it. I want to know.
If somebody is recording their podcast with video and they're pretty much just putting the podcast up on YouTube and they're not doing much else, that's kind of it. That's the bare minimum. Like, what are your thoughts on that? Is that working? Is that okay? Is there a better way to go about it? What are your thoughts?
Auret Esselen (01:06.459)
Yeah, I see this a lot. mean, podcasts are so popular now, right? So the kind of clients that we work with are very expert led business owners. Like you wanna be known and respected for a particular area of expertise. So most of the time you will have some form of like a podcast where you invite other guests and then you're using the channel mostly as a storage shelf, I would say.
Because hey, it's long form. Why not throw it up on YouTube and see if it gets more views, right? And that like could logically make sense. But YouTube, you have to really understand that YouTube is its own platform in terms of, I mean, every single platform has its own way of how it works and how you're able to get traction on that platform. So with YouTube, especially if you're using your channel,
to be an asset for your business, meaning you really wanna attract the right kind of a client and you are using it intentionally to feed people into your offers or into an email list. Those videos or podcast episodes that you're repurposing on the channel, they need to be packaged in a way that attracts that type of person. And so what I see quite often is like, you know, people will put the episode on there and it'll be like,
episode four interview with Joe Smith or whatever right or it's like labeled in a way that you label like files on your computer you know what I mean like so it's not like titled in a way that
Kylee Chandler (02:42.808)
Sure.
Auret Esselen (02:50.659)
attracts your person, tells them that you're going to solve a particular problem by them listening to that episode or gives them what they desire or leverages off of a specific search phrase that your person types into the search, right? So, yeah, to answer your question, I don't like that. I don't like just repurposing, just throwing up videos because it's not effective. And, you know, you're putting in all this time and effort.
into creating those podcast episodes, you really wanna leverage YouTube as a platform for new eyes so that you could get your stuff out there more and attract the right person into your community.
Kylee Chandler (03:32.43)
Okay, so what if somebody came to you and they said, this is kind of like what I can do right now. This is what I'm doing. And I'm, you know, repurposing my podcast, I'm putting it on in YouTube, probably not adding too much extra fluff to it. Or I shouldn't say fluff, because I know that's beneficial for YouTube. But what are like three things that you would say, okay, that's fine, we can do that. But we're going to do x, y, and z to make your channel work better for you.
Auret Esselen (03:58.542)
Yeah, sure. And I actually want to comment on the fluff piece because YouTube, it doesn't benefit YouTube for you to fluff around. Absolutely not. Because when you think about when a video pops up in the feed and someone's clicking on it because the thumbnail and the title speaks to them, you want to deliver on that topic right away. Even like the first point, getting into the first point right away.
or getting into the topic right away or getting into your story related to that topic right away because you don't want to waste people's time. And also like today's day and age with fast pace, people just they want to get what they came there for. So if you are someone who you don't necessarily have a lot of resources, whether that's time or team or whatever, you have these podcast episodes
The very first thing I would do is taking a look at that episode, what is a way that you can title it that would speak to your person? Let's just say, let's just use you, Kylie. You also speak to expert-based business owners, right? So it's like podcasting for experts. So if you did an episode specifically around where you need to upload your podcast,
Kylee Chandler (05:11.64)
Right,
Auret Esselen (05:22.053)
for experts, right? And in the episode itself, you were talking about many different things. Maybe you were going through all of the different platforms. Maybe you were speaking about like, you know, which platforms do you use? And like, there's many different things in there. In that one episode, I would say to you, can we pull out one particular piece and optimize it around that topic? So in the section of the episode where you're addressing
all like here are the different types of platforms that are available to you. Maybe we can title that as best podcast platforms for experts or something like that and just extract that piece and upload that. So this really not like crazy complex editing. You're just basically cutting that piece out, but you're packaging it in an intentional way. And then depending on how long the episode is, and if you're talking about multiple topics,
you can extract multiple videos potentially from that one episode. And that would do, that would basically put more feelers out there. If you think about like fishing, right? They'll put like more hooks and more lines in the water, more opportunities for people to find you and bring you, bring them back into your world. So that's really like one of the main things.
the other thing too is if you, like I said, using the channel intentionally, like you want to feed people into a lead magnet that you have, like a free down, like a downloadable freebie, right? In exchange for an email address, be very intentional about like putting that link at the very top of your description. And I would even say if you have the resources, you know, you might not, but, filming a separate
Like a separate ending with that called action being like, know, so you're let's you've cut that episode out and you could do something like a separate little clip saying So I hope you've enjoyed that episode You know, we do have a guide on XYZ If you found that helpful, you can click on the link in the description below and that's it like just super simple but it's really about We teach a framework a strategy framework that has three main pieces and it's
Auret Esselen (07:43.218)
It's aligning the video with your goal for what you want the channel to do for you. It's attracting the right person. How are you? What's the title and the thumbnail that you're doing to attract the right person and what action are you giving them? What's the call to action? And so like doing that consistently across video after video that you release on the channel is really going to work to your favor.
Kylee Chandler (08:05.6)
Okay, this is so good. And one thing you just said that I'd love to have you kind of workshop with us is like, when you say what's your goal for the channel? What are some goals that podcasters might be thinking? I mean, in my world, we're always talking about like, how can we turn podcast listeners into leads, so subscribers and eventually sell to them. So I'm thinking you might be kind of around the same kind of plan for YouTube. But I'd love to hear kind of what comes up with that.
Auret Esselen (08:16.838)
Yeah.
Auret Esselen (08:27.942)
Yes.
Auret Esselen (08:34.927)
Yeah, so we have, so I'll share a few goals from various different clients that we've had. So one person may want to use the channel to get more leads for their offers. when I say leads, it's like, you want to attract the ideal person into your email list so that they could potentially go and purchase one of your offers down the road, right? So someone might have a goal of like, want to get more people on my email list.
So with that, it would be the landing page to the opt-in page that you're using, Lead Magnet or what have you. Sometimes it's even like request a call with you or someone else had like opt-in for a private podcast as well. So you can use different ways of Lead Magnets in terms of getting people into your email list. But that's the main one that we see.
It's not to say that you can't make a sale directly from YouTube. We've seen that happen many times. But that's, I would say, is the best way to just get them on the email list, because most of the time people aren't necessarily ready to buy from you right away. So that's one thing. The other thing is if you are wanting to sell a particular product, also a way to filter the right person if you want them to get like,
to do a commitment in some sort of a way, like maybe buying a $47 offer, maybe it's attending a live webinar, that kind of thing. You can also link directly to that. And that's another way that you're getting people into your email list, but just like revenue-wise, it's also contributing that way. And then some people just wanna grow their community on YouTube. Like they wanna be, they really want to use the channel as a legacy asset.
for them, like I said, they wanna be known for a particular area of expertise and they wanna grow their viewership and their subscribers on the channel because they know, know, like that's number one, a good authority piece for them. But number two, it could lead down to like sponsorships or brand deals or that type of a goal later down the road.
Auret Esselen (10:55.397)
I mean, we have all of these things embedded in our channel. The channel produces brand deals, sponsorships, ad revenue, feeds people into our email list as well as sales as well. People landing in our email inbox because they've gone from a video to the website where it's like request more information on this product to our email inbox. And then by the time I get on a call with them, they're already, like the video's pre-sell already.
They have already generated that trust. So yeah, those are a couple of goals or objectives for your channel.
Kylee Chandler (11:35.31)
I love it. And you actually answered my question. I was going to say how does selling even though ticket offers on there, you're so right. Video and podcasts are such a beautiful way to nurture people and then they're ready to buy. So what are your thoughts? Cause I see this a lot. And I love that you said it's so important to have the right link in the description. Cause I've been seeing a lot of likes links to Spotify links to, you know, that
Auret Esselen (11:43.344)
Yeah.
Kylee Chandler (12:04.522)
Apple. So what are our thoughts with that? Like somebody who's watching a video on YouTube, do we want to send them to Apple and Spotify? Does that make sense?
Auret Esselen (12:15.557)
Yeah, so this is my take on this. My take is they're already on the platform of YouTube. This is how they're digesting content. This is how they're listening to your episodes. So it doesn't make sense to send them off to another platform unless they prefer to listen to podcasts on that particular platform. So because of that thinking,
I actually downgrade the priority of those links and push them further down in the description box. Because you can have a separate section that says, to this podcast on your favorite platform, and then you can put those links. But again, that's not priority links in my mind. Priority links is, again, what do you want the channel to do for you? Send them there. That's the top link. That's the main one that you should be focusing on at the very top.
And if you don't really care about, you know, them to a Spotify or whatever, then don't even put the links. You know, I have people who like, they just put the links there because they think they're supposed to. But it's just like, even sometimes people link to a social media platform that isn't even really active. Like you don't want anyone going there, so don't link to it, right? So it's kind of like that same mindset.
Kylee Chandler (13:41.972)
I get it. That is no it's so nice to hear because I do think that and as somebody who is podcast first and like, well, we should probably have them there. But what's the right thing to do? Because again, I'm very marketing minded. So I'm like, they're already on the YouTube platform. Why are we so I get that
Auret Esselen (13:52.016)
Yeah.
Auret Esselen (13:56.484)
Right. And they're also because it's like you really want to be intentional with what links you put in that description because you want to place high priority on the main one that you want people to go to. The more links you add, the more opportunity you're giving people to try to make a decision themselves on where they want to go. And sometimes that leads to them not going anywhere from the description box. Right. So you just want to be mindful of that.
Kylee Chandler (14:26.496)
Okay, I have so many questions that I'm just having to like slow myself down. Okay, how important are, I think this might go in a couple directions, but titles and then cover images, which I feel like is gonna lead us into talking about SEO on YouTube versus other platforms. So let's get into it.
Auret Esselen (14:47.013)
Yeah. So when you say cover images, I just want to double check you mean thumbnails, right? YouTube thumbnails. Okay. Okay. It's just semantics. I know it's the same thing, but like, okay. So thumbnails and titles are very important. And if you're just starting out on putting your content on YouTube, even if you've already had a channel that hasn't really been doing much for you and then you're just starting to post your episodes and stuff there,
Kylee Chandler (14:52.578)
Yeah.
Kylee Chandler (14:56.661)
Okay.
Auret Esselen (15:16.561)
This is going to be one of the main skills that you want to hone and like be in competition with yourself. So I'll explain a little bit more about what that means. So your thumbnail and your title are basically the reason why people click on the video. So your title and your thumbnail are what's called the video packaging for that video. You can have the best content in the video.
but people will not find it and will not even know it exists if you don't have the right thumbnail and title. So it is very important. And you can see this in the analytics in the dashboard. I don't know if you've had a chance to, like I geek over the numbers. in the analytics.
Kylee Chandler (16:05.198)
I do podcasting and email this stuff, so I get it.
Auret Esselen (16:08.483)
Yeah, yeah. So, I like I always look in the back end. I'm like, is this video even getting any reach? Right? Like the metric for reaches impressions when you're looking back there, it's looking at how many impressions did your video or your channel get? Because that tells you whether or not YouTube is pushing it out and showing it to people. And if you're seeing that your video is getting
a lot of impressions, like, you know, let's just say over 1500 impressions, like in the thousands or what have you, but it has like 10 views, then that's telling you, you need to focus on your title and thumbnail, on improving your title and thumbnail because the metric for that to like kind of gauge whether or not you're, you know, how you're doing is the click through rate. I know we're getting a little bit technical here, but this is literally
Kylee Chandler (17:00.63)
No, it's all good. I love it.
Auret Esselen (17:02.481)
I'm glad, I'm glad. This is how you know how you're doing, right? Because it can be like so exhausting and like disappointing when you're just like throwing stuff out and you have no way of knowing whether it's doing well or not. And if it's not doing well, that's not a bad thing. That's data. That's like, here's what I need to do to improve it so that we can move the needle to have it do better. Right. So I always tell people,
To know whether you're a thumbnail and title, you're doing well with those, go look at your click-through rate because that will tell you, if let's say it's like, you see some videos with a 1 % click-through rate and other videos with like 3 % click-through rate, go pay attention to the 3 % and like see if you can duplicate that and see if it works for other videos. I will say there's a lot of nuance to this. So like if you, if there's,
you know, the video isn't getting very much reach. There's like 10 impressions with a 20 % click through rate. That's not really good to gauge, right? Cause you want something that is being out there in front of a lot of people. So you can get an average that can then you can take that data and be like, okay, this thumbnail is doing, you know, pretty good. Let's see if we can use a similar style on other ones. So yeah, we went deep into that, but, but that's.
Kylee Chandler (18:29.583)
loves that like my episodes where I talk about metrics, love it. it's
Auret Esselen (18:30.992)
Okay, good.
Amazing. Good. Yeah. So, so that's how you can kind of gauge, in terms of like the thumbnail. I will say like the thumb, if you're talking about the two thumbnail is more important than the title. because again, what, even what, if you think about like browsing behavior on YouTube, when someone's typing into the search, all those videos pop up, typically people will look at the thumbnail first and then the title.
And then even like when you're watching other videos, let's say on YouTube and you know those thumbnails that pop up at the end of the video for other suggested videos or even on the side, again, you're more likely to see the thumbnail, right? So you really want a way to capture attention, not in a clickbaity way, because that will hurt your channel. If YouTube sees that people...
Like a lot of people are clicking on it, but then they leave right away. That's not good for your channel. Because YouTube's, name of the game with YouTube, they always want to serve the right videos to the right person so that they can keep people on the platform for longer. So you want to have that thumbnail speak to, you want the viewer that you're targeting to really identify themselves in that thumbnail. So whether it's visually, whether it's something you say in the text,
Maybe it's promising, like overcoming a particular pain point that they have. I mean, that's an entirely, thumbnail design is entirely different masterclass, but like, yeah, those are sort of the high level main points there that I would say.
Kylee Chandler (20:17.422)
Well, you're such a wealth of knowledge. And that's so funny because I was like, do I ask her like what's trending right now with thumbnails? And it's like, it's just so hard to say depending on the industry. OK, so what about how does SEO work into the platform?
Auret Esselen (20:27.269)
Yeah.
Auret Esselen (20:33.753)
Yeah, SEO has, it's changed a lot with AI coming into play, as I'm sure you've but like, it's not dead, it's just evolved, right? So if you, there's different algorithms to YouTube, okay? There's the search algorithm, there's the browse algorithm, there's suggested algorithm, there's a YouTube shorts algorithm.
All of these are different algorithms that your video has the potential to be found, right? So with our channel, we like to focus mainly on search, and that's where SEO comes into play, because those videos typically can be found like for years and years later down the road, the...
we still get comments on videos from 2016. It's wild. And that's so cool. When you think about other platforms, like Instagram or LinkedIn or whatever, those posts fade right away. And so with our videos, we like to create evergreen content, meaning it's stuff that can continue to be valuable years down the road.
And then when we're optimizing it for search, we use a tool called TubeBuddy. I don't know if you've heard of TubeBuddy. Okay, cool. it's, mean, there's vidIQ, there's other platforms there too. It does many things. It's a channel management tool, like, or an extension that embeds itself into your YouTube channel. And like I said, it does many things, but we mainly use it for the keyword tool. And with the keyword tool, you could do research.
in terms of what keyword phrases can my channel rank for? And that's the piece that I really like about it, because it's not like from a general sense of like, oh, lots of people are searching for this and, you know, and the videos that are already ranking on this don't really have a strong optimization. So it's an opportunity to rank, but it's like literally telling you based on your YouTube channel, your activity, your what
Auret Esselen (22:55.629)
what you are creating content around all this kind of stuff, it'll give you a score. So we do initially keyword research. So like with the example that I was talking to you about, like podcast platforms for experts, right? So I would like go and research a bunch of turn or phrases that I think some, like my person will be typing into the search to find a good score. And based on that, I would optimize
the entire video around that. So that would be, that phrase would go in the title, that phrase would go in the description. It would also ideally be spoken and said in the video as well. Say I can read all of that, right? Like everything is metadata to support the fact that like this video is about this thing. So bring it up, rank it higher.
when someone types that in. there's, again, there's a lot of nuance to that. Like YouTube will rank it higher if it knows that it's been popping up in the algorithm for that phrase and people are clicking on it and they're watching for a long time. Because again, that signals to YouTube that this video like aligns with what this person's searching for. So let's show it to other viewers with similar viewing behavior and it'll just like kind of boost out, boost your video a bit more. So again, it really comes down to like
give people what they came there for, like create good content around that particular thing that you're optimizing the video around.
Kylee Chandler (24:29.696)
Okay, this gets me so excited because a lot of the work that I do with like my clients and if the people have listened to the podcast know I am all about talking to your ideal customer, hearing the words they're saying and they're using and typing in. So if anyone has done that for the podcast, you can use that for your YouTube channel, which is exciting.
Auret Esselen (24:44.442)
Yeah.
Auret Esselen (24:51.565)
Yes, 100%. And you always want to be mindful of the language that they're using, because the language that you might be using to describe your thing is totally different. No one knows it exists, right? If you have a framework called the client engine, but it's like, what does that mean? Let's optimize that around how to get high ticket clients, something like that.
Kylee Chandler (25:07.884)
guys.
Auret Esselen (25:20.261)
You got to translate it for them, at least in the video packaging side of things. In the video, you can go in depth into your stuff. But like, you want to, like I mentioned, like translate it, not in the, not just the thumbnail and the title, but also in the first few, like what you say in the beginning. And then you can go into like your frameworks and stuff. And that's where the juiciness comes out. They really resonate with that. They're going to stick around.
Kylee Chandler (25:50.486)
I love that we were just having this conversation because in my mastermind I have a few doctors and they were talking about the medical term versus what they're really wanting to you know, so I love that all my podcasters can just take that strategy and use it with your YouTube. Okay, this is so good. You mentioned shorts. Now I have been seeing that shorts have been doing really great for podcasters. So what's going on with that? What is it worth it? Like what's the strategy for us behind that?
Auret Esselen (26:00.295)
Yes.
Auret Esselen (26:05.509)
Yes.
Auret Esselen (26:19.951)
Yeah, so shorts is a very like, I will say divisive topic in the YouTube world, because many people have a certain opinion of shorts in terms of long form videos. However, this is my take on it. So I'll just share my take on it. We use YouTube shorts, like when I say we, like our YouTube channel as well as our clients channels that we manage. We use YouTube shorts mostly as, again, those little hooks, those little feelers.
out in the water, the lines in the water, to bring people back to the long form. So we don't depend on them like as solo standing pieces, because I know some people will create shorts, like specifically for YouTube shorts, like little film like unique YouTube short videos, right? Because like that algorithm is quite fast paced. It has the potential for you to get a lot of views on the short clips, just
Just because like if you again think about the nature of how people browse shorts It's super quick fast-paced right like people don't even look at the description or anything It's kind of hard to even click to find the description of a YouTube short. You know what I mean? So For that reason like and also based on like the years of working on YouTube. We haven't really seen Getting leads from YouTube shorts as a thing
Kylee Chandler (27:29.872)
Auret Esselen (27:45.138)
It's mostly been from long form videos. That's why, like I said, we will use the YouTube shorts, connect them. There's a way to connect it to the longer form video. And when I say like, so what you create for YouTube shorts, what you can do as podcasters is extract these like little moments from the podcast episodes. Maybe it's like a really good quote, like a.
quotable moment, really engaging story, or a great value piece, or what have you. And when you're uploading that short, there's a way to link it to the longer episode. So that's why we release the longer episode first, and then release the shorts afterwards so that we can link them.
Kylee Chandler (28:33.216)
Okay, very cool. so in those shorts, the description is hard to even get into, but what's worth putting in the description then and focusing on? Are we doing a CTA? You can't link in them, right? So.
Auret Esselen (28:42.171)
Yeah.
Auret Esselen (28:48.889)
Yeah, they're not clickable. you can, again, we just, we keep it super minimal. Like we'll just sometimes even just copy and paste the long form thing, like just not even have a unique description in there. But again, we haven't really like, cause we track clicks and everything we haven't really seen. So we've started not even putting anything in the description to be honest, cause we just want people to watch the video and click.
on like click on the option to go watch the long form. Because they, I mean, they can see like what channel it's from if that's your concern of like brand awareness, like they can see like who the channel creator is. And again, because it's super fast paced, it's mostly like for top funnel brand awareness. Yeah.
Kylee Chandler (29:39.086)
Yeah, okay, that makes a lot of sense. So what about A-B testing for thumbnails?
Auret Esselen (29:44.634)
Yeah, so we do this a lot because, so I said earlier, you got to be in competition with yourself, right? Like do not look over at that person here or even the channels in your home feed where you're like, how the hell are they getting like thousands of views and my video is getting like 10 views, right? None of that. Because when you do that, you will, you'll just quit. I know you will because it's going to be really
disheartening because it's already work to put your episodes up on the channel, right? So always be in competition with yourself. So what do I mean by that? You again want to look at what is your average click-through rate because again, that's the metric for thumbnails, how you know whether you're doing, whether like basically where you are on the scale and how you can improve. So when you're doing maybe
thumbnail test, and you can actually test up to three on the back end, three thumbnails. There is an option now where you can also test titles, by the way, but you don't want to be testing titles and thumbnails at the same time, right? I just want to say that. As I've seen that, I'm like, no, we don't know. We don't, we can't tell, right? So just do a thumbnail test. And basically it will run for two weeks and will present the data to you.
Kylee Chandler (31:01.4)
with that.
Auret Esselen (31:14.105)
A lot of the tests are coming back as not conclusive on our end, but there are some where they're clear winners. And so I'll address the, because if you're listening to this and you're kind of experiencing the same thing, there could be a number of reasons why it's coming back inconclusive. Like for example, the video isn't getting enough impressions, so there's not enough reach for YouTube to say,
this is a clear winner or not, because it needs a lot of reach. Another thing too is your thumbnails have to be very distinct and very different. So when you're doing AV thumbnail tests, don't just switch out one word or add punctuation to it or change the color of one element. Try testing in a completely different thumbnail design.
to see if that will help in terms of the testing. And I really do encourage you to do, like I know it's work, you gotta create another thumbnail. But if you have the resources to do it, definitely do it, because again, this is the way that you can get data faster to know what move you need to make next, and that will positively impact your progress. Because otherwise you'll just continue shooting in the dark.
And that's not fun.
Kylee Chandler (32:44.972)
That's so interesting about how just thinking how different they have to be because it is very easy to just tweak a little a word here or something like that. So that's such a good point. What what about scheduling? Like is it if we have is it better to schedule? I've heard 24 hours in advance only or can you schedule further ahead? Do you get like a penalty for that?
Auret Esselen (33:10.243)
No, yeah, not at all. I'm like curious to know who's saying that because that scares me. Someone's like, yeah, definitely. There's no penalty to scheduling out in advance. We schedule sometimes a month out in advance for our own channel, for our clients. It does not negatively impact. The impact is when the video comes out and how is your video doing once it comes out.
That's what will determine what YouTube does with it. So yeah, absolutely. Schedule stuff in advance. And that's really how you're able to stay on top of things. Because if you're scrambling last minute to get a video up, that's stressful, man. I don't want to be doing that. Life happens all the time. Our business is busy, right? Like we have so many things going on.
And it's the last thing on our minds. We want to have to get a video up. So really think about this in advance. What's the strategy for your channel? What are the content pillars? What can you create around those videos that will align with your goal, attract the right person, give them the call to action, and do it in batching. Batch film your videos. Batch planning first. Batch filming.
then if you're editing them or passing them along to someone, give them the whole batch for editing and then batch scheduling at the end. yeah, that's how you stay on top of it.
Kylee Chandler (34:43.542)
You're speaking my language and you're clearing everything up. Look at this. This is so good. Okay. now when I heard you speak at Selena's event, you talked about creating almost like video or videos to like introduce your, your channel or something. So let's say a podcaster is like, you know, I want to take this a little bit more serious. I want to pour into it a little bit more. What are just a few things that they can do to make their channel
Auret Esselen (34:47.045)
Yay.
Kylee Chandler (35:13.476)
stand out or be enhanced a little bit more.
Auret Esselen (35:16.707)
Yeah, absolutely. So your channel homepage is basically like a landing page for people. It's an opportunity to immediately communicate what you want to be known for and how you help and who you help your person. So use that real estate. And so what is involved in that? Your YouTube banner, your channel name, your about section, there's the links there as well.
And also, can optimize your home channel layout to have either a channel trailer or some sort of a video. could pick a channel trailer for new subscribers, and you can also pick a video for people who already subscribed. So filling that piece out. And then you can also put your playlists. And so I'll kind of talk briefly about each one of those things.
So with your banner, what is a really short way, like some people know this as your USP, right, like your unique selling proposition, what is a really clear statement that calls out to who you wanna attract, what problem you solve, and what the channel's about as well. It's gotta align with all of those things. So you gotta put that statement on the banner.
And what we also like to do is if you have any sort of like authority signals, like maybe you've been featured on like Forbes or like other places, or maybe you have certain certifications, or maybe you host events and you have like a large community, there's photos of that, anything that speaks to your credibility, your work, incorporate that on the banner. And the other thing too is your call to action.
So if you are going all in, your main call to action is a particular lead magnet that you offer, put that on the banner. If it's, just wanna grow your subscriber base on the channel, put that as a call to action. So really use that real estate. And then like your channel name, your about section needs to be consistent in terms of that same positioning, same language of what you stand for.
Auret Esselen (37:33.778)
Maybe a little bit about your work as well in the about section. Some of those keywords as well that attracts your particular person. And then again, in the link section, your main call to action, your lead magnet, in this example, put that as the first link. Because that link is going to show up as the first link in the, like when you're going on someone's homepage, even on mobile, there's one link that shows up. You want to make sure that's at the top.
because again, it aligns with the banner, right? You're telling them about the lead magnet and the lead magnet link should be right there. So that's some quick things on the top of the channel. And then I'm just gonna comment on the playlist piece. You wanna be intentional about the playlists that you create on your channel for a couple of reasons. One is like, playlists can be found in the search. So optimize the titles of those playlists.
around keyword like search term keyword phrases. And there's also way to like add descriptions for your playlist as well. Again, that's more metadata that supports search. So when you think about like, okay, if you're teaching podcasting for guests, sorry, for experts, right? So if you're thinking about the main pillars of the work that you do, I'm just gonna make this up. Podcasting for beginners.
can be one particular playlist. Another one can be like podcasting tutorials, like the how-to of podcasting. And then like maybe another one on the business of podcasting or using your podcast to attract clients, right? Like what are those main topics or themes that you like to talk about over and over again? Create playlists around those topics and feature them on your homepage so that
But like immediately when someone lands on your homepage, they can see what you're about. Like they're like, ooh, yeah, I wanna dive into some of those topics. That's a lot that you're speaking to me. You're speaking my language, right? And so they're more likely to engage with your content and stick around.
Kylee Chandler (39:46.638)
Okay, this is so great. I had like dogs barking in the background. So I had to mute myself for a second. So I'm like, I? Okay, I might buy like as you're walking me through the exercise. I'm like in my mind, I'm saying the things that I would I would say, so I hope my listeners are doing the same. All right, all right. What are some trends or updates that are coming to YouTube that you're really excited about this year?
Auret Esselen (39:52.529)
it's all good.
Auret Esselen (40:13.327)
Yeah, so they have been playing with some e-commerce features. they released, it's like this education piece. Basically, if you're an educator or you create educational content, you can embed some of those products into your channel. And similar to how you might have seen YouTubers selling merch, I don't know if you've seen the merch shelf, like t-shirts and stuff.
you will now be able to feature some of your digital products and courses and that kind of thing. So that will be really interesting. And yeah, to see how that plays out. Again, we're gonna start to see AI even more so embedding itself into everything, right? Something that already exists that I'm...
pretty excited about is like in the back end YouTube studio, there's this, the AI called Ask Studio. And the reason it's like you chatting with the AI, but the thing is it already has all of the data from your channel. So you can ask it questions like based on my, based on the videos that I've released in the last 90 days and their performance, what types of videos should I create next?
So it's going to factor that in and it's going to be like, well, I see this video did really well for whatever reason, and then it'll pop out some suggestions for other topics. So yeah, we've started using that more because again, it's informed on your data in the channel. So that's huge. And honestly, like,
we kind of stay away from like trends, like what's going on like trends wise, because we play YouTube, we play the long game of YouTube. And so like, yeah, it's great to kind of hop on a trend or something and get a lot of views. But again, because I'm using it for business, mainly I'm using YouTube for business. I don't care about being a viral influencer. I care about, you know,
Auret Esselen (42:34.609)
being known for my knowledge, for my area of expertise, as well as if it's a good fit, attracting the right person to go check out my offers. So that's what I care about. And because of that, you know, doing some of like hopping on these broader trends and stuff like that isn't necessarily gonna attract the right person. It attracts more of a broader audience, which is why like, you know, we've been doing YouTube for, since 2015, like, and,
Kylee Chandler (43:03.33)
Gosh.
Auret Esselen (43:04.145)
So we've been on the platform for a long time and we're like, if we did a niche channel and like did like trends and stuff like that and everything, we would have way, we know we would have way more subscribers and way more views on the channel. But like I'm totally fine with where we're at cause it's optimized for revenue and it's been really great to us on the revenue side of things.
Kylee Chandler (43:06.262)
Yes!
Auret Esselen (43:32.37)
And that's what we love to share with people because I know there's like there's so much content out there on like get views fast and grow your channel fast and I feel like sometimes that can be misleading because yeah, we all want views but for what purpose like To sell something is it the right view the right view matters not necessarily of you So I think having like we just love educating people like just on the nuances of YouTube because there's there's so there's so many so many
Yeah.
Kylee Chandler (44:04.078)
of that point, I think it's such a great, great point to make. And then it kind of comes full circle for us. What we talked about at the beginning is like setting a goal for your channel. What what is the objective that you want? So I love this conversation. Thank you so much. I feel like there are so many clips from this and I'm like, Oh, that could be a YouTube, you know, piece. It's so good.
Auret Esselen (44:16.72)
Yeah.
Auret Esselen (44:26.341)
A YouTube short, a YouTube video? Yes. Yeah.
Kylee Chandler (44:30.678)
I know this is something my audience is going to just absolutely love. So Ari, how can people learn more about you, work with you, all the things?
Auret Esselen (44:40.047)
Yeah, so you could head over to escetinomedia.com. That's our website. You can find out more about how to work with us or what we offer. And then also, if you just want to DM me, you have a question. LinkedIn is the best way. I'm so not good on Instagram. I try to be, but I'm not. I'm trying to be better with LinkedIn too. Again, you don't have to be good on all the platforms, right? Just go all in on one.
Kylee Chandler (45:07.234)
No!
Auret Esselen (45:09.937)
But if you do want to send me a message, I'm happy to answer there. I'd love to Kylie, I'd love to gift your people as well, the YouTube Authority Checklist. Basically, it's a PDF that walks you through how to set up your YouTube channel as an authority piece, like as an authority asset, and also if you're a business owner to attract the right lead or person into your community. And it goes through like...
the 10 non-negotiable things that you need to do. So yeah, I'll shoot over that link to you. And yeah, I'm happy to provide that.
Kylee Chandler (45:46.53)
Thank you. my gosh. Is that the one that you did with Selena's crew? Because I think I got it. So good. So good. Yeah. you guys are gonna love this. Okay, we will link that up for sure in the show notes on my website, all the things on YouTube. Thank you for being here. All right. I hope that this you know, really served my people. I know it's going to and I just love what you do and I think you guys are such a great
Auret Esselen (45:51.557)
I think so. I think that's the one. you saw it? Okay, yay! Okay, good.
Kylee Chandler (46:16.632)
just brand and authority in the YouTube space. So thanks for what you do.
Auret Esselen (46:20.652)
I appreciate you, Kylie. Thanks so much for having me. And thanks for listening, everyone. And hope to chat with you soon. Bye for now.
