4 Mistakes That Ruin Your Podcast Episodes Intros on YouTube

Lately I’ve been binge-watching content on what makes a good YouTube video intro. It’s a major topic because the biggest drop-off of any video most often happens within the first seconds.

So getting views for your podcast episodes requires 2 conditions to meet.

First, your thumbnail and title must drive enough curiosity to make people click. We’ve covered this point on my previous newsletter issue.

The second one is setting expectations based on your thumbnail and title. Any experimented youtube creator would tell you the same:

You must set these expectations within the first seconds of your video.

Some creators do it in the first 5 seconds, other take up to 60 seconds. The duration is up to anyone’s preferences.

But one thing is certain. The 4 ways described below don’t set the expectations required to give your episode a fair chance.

1) The podcast video introduction

10-seconds long for some podcasts, much longer for others. Corporate music (or jazzy), beautiful animations, voice over.

You may be discovering the podcast through the episode you are about to watch. So this is a nice introduction to the podcast.

The major problem is that as a viewer, you clicked on the thumbnail for the content of the episode. You clicked for what you’ll learn from the guest or the host. You clicked to figure out if the next 20, 30, 60 minutes are worth of your time.

And a video introduction of the podcast won’t give you this information. So you’ll have to wait. Or find a way to skip.

Not the best way to start an episode.

2) The sponsor presentation

Picture this:

You spot a thumbnail that seems interesting. The title confirms your first thought. So you click. But then starts an YouTube advert. You wait five seconds then skip. A second advert starts. You wait five seconds again then skip. The video you came for starts:

“Hi! Welcome to the Random Podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by Random Sponsor. If you struggle with podcasting, this tool helps find for ideation, planning…”

If you really need to see this episode, you’ll keep moving forward to where the episode actually starts. But if your curiosity faded away already, you may watch this later… or never.

Not the best way to start an episode.

3) The host’s podcast introduction

“Hi and welcome back to another episode of the Random Podcast hosted by me your host Loïc where you get insights on what makes a successful podcast on YouTube, the mistakes that hurt your channel, the best strategies that the biggest podcasts use, the success stories of your favourite podcasts and so much more”.

I’m caricaturing a bit but it’s not that far from reality. Now imagine me saying something similar at the start of every single podcast episode. How annoying! Not to mention that you would see me reading these lines.

In the meantime, what have you learned about that episode you came for? Nothing.

Not the best way to start an episode. And most often it’s often followed by…

4) The guest presentation

This is when the host starts telling you about what the guest has achieved. Or in some cases the host asks to the guest to introduce themselves.

On one hand, the purpose of this presentation is a good idea. It helps you discover the guest and decide whether they’re worth listening to.

On the other hand, it often starts with “before we get into why we’re here today”. Quite clear sign that you’ll have to wait before getting what you came for!

Not an ideal start but there’s some good in it.

Because the best way to start a podcast episode is to play a trailer made from that specific episode. And this includes some bits on the guest. But I’ll tell you more about trailers next week.

Until next time,
Happy podcasting.