Do You Really Need a Video Podcast? Let’s Look at the Data

Are you feeling the sudden pressure to turn your audio show into a video podcast? With Apple Podcasts recently announcing that they are optimizing their platform for video content, many audio-only podcasters are left wondering if they are about to become obsolete. The fear of "missing the boat" often leads to rushed decisions and creator burnout. In this episode of Podcasting Unlocked, Alesia Galati dives deep into the "audio vs. video" debate. We explore the latest industry data, discuss Apple's platform shifts, and walk through a critical capacity audit to help you determine if you have the resources to make the transition without losing your mind. This week, episode 267 of Podcasting Unlocked is about whether you really need a video podcast! 

In this episode of Podcasting Unlocked, I’m sharing the importance of considering your capacity before adding video to your podcast workflow and actionable steps you can take right now to explore video options for your podcast. 

I also chat about the following: 

• Analyze the Apple Podcasts Video Shift: Understand the implications of Apple’s latest optimization for video podcasts and why this doesn't mean your audio-only feed is dying, but rather that the discovery landscape is evolving.
• Conduct a Capacity Audit: Before you buy a new camera, perform a thorough audit of your current production process. Determine if you have the time, energy, and budget to handle the extra layers of video editing and production required for a quality show.
• Document Your Workflow: Learn why having a clearly documented process is essential before making any major changes. Whether you are staying audio-only or shifting to video, your podcasting strategy must be repeatable and sustainable.
• Align with Audience Preferences: Use data to drive your decision rather than trends. We discuss how to evaluate where your specific audience is hanging out and whether they truly want—or need—to see you on screen.
• Plan for Intentional Transitions: If you decide to go video, learn the key adjustments needed to your hosting, SEO, and content creation workflows to ensure a smooth transition for your listeners.

You get to decide what your show looks like. Don't let a platform update bully you into burnout. This week, I challenge you to sit down and do a capacity audit. Look at your documented processes (or start documenting them today!) to see if you truly have the room to grow.

Be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of practical tips on turning your podcast listeners into leads and to hear even more about the points outlined above. 

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me! And don’t forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!

Learn more about Podcasting Unlocked at https://galatimedia.com/podcasting-unlocked/ 

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Transcript

Alesia Galati: 0:00

To video or not to video? That is the question, or at least that seems to be the question in the last few weeks, as Apple podcasts announced that they are going to be optimizing their platform for video podcasts in the very near future. Now, if you are like many of my clients, or many of the people that are connected with me, you might only have an audio podcast, and you might be asking yourself the question, do you really need a video podcast? Today, we're going to go into my recommendations, the data, as well as the fact that I have a video podcast and what I specifically use it for all right, let's get into it. Welcome to podcasting, unlocked the show for purpose driven podcasters. I'm Alesia Galati, founder of Galati media, and I'm here to share actionable strategies to help you amplify your message and grow your audience. Hey, friends, welcome back. It's Alesia today. I am really excited about this topic. I just got off of a client call, so I'm feeling a little bit fired up about this, because she has hit over 300 episodes, and her podcast is entirely an audio podcast. And this is a concern, this idea that Apple podcast is now pushing video, that a lot of the different platforms are pushing video. What does the data say? What are my options? What is best for me? That was her question. And so first and foremost, I want to acknowledge that right now there is a lot of hype around video, and you're going to have every guru under the sun screaming that if you're not on YouTube, your podcast is dead. I also understand that you are an extremely busy individual. You're probably running a business. You might have a family that you're taking care of, whether that's kids or parents. You might be married or have a partner you are trying to protect your own mental health and peace while the world feels like it's kind of burning around us, this idea of adding video might feel like just another thing to do, and for many of you, it probably would be Just another thing to do with no actual ROI I believe strongly that there is no universal right way to podcast. You get to decide what's going to work best for you, and you get to decide that based on your current capacity and your business goals. If your current capacity does not allow you to do video, Nix it. End of Episode. But if you want to have more information behind it, let's get into it all right, what are the stats actually saying about video and how podcast listeners specifically use their information. Now this information I pulled was from the Edison Research's infinite dial. I pulled it in 2026 early 2026 so if you're looking at a future Information Industry Reports, they might be a little different. But as of right now, let's talk about YouTube. YouTube, in the last year or two, did create a better podcast specific platform after sunsetting Google Play Music, which is where you were able to listen to podcasts before, via the Google ecosystem. Now, YouTube has become one of the number one destinations for podcast discovery. A lot of listeners do prefer to have the video playing in the background. That is part of it, and I think that's why a lot of people are pushing for video. I moved to video at the beginning of 2024 so I've been doing this for two years now, and I have spent a lot of time, effort, money, mental space, trying to make sure that my podcast was video first for YouTube, but also had the element of I want an incredible audio experience for my listeners. And going back to what is your capacity and what is your goal, I have had the capacity over the last two years to hire the work out. I have one of my team members who does the video editing for my podcast. I do not personally edit my podcast because I have other clients that I need to be working on who are a little more time intensive or spaciousness intensive than my podcast. And so one of my team members handles editing it so capacity wise, check business goals wise, this was the priority I wanted. 2024 and. 2025 to be focused very heavily on SEO. So I knew even before YouTube pushed that we are going to be moving the podcast over there as an option. I knew that I wanted to ensure that my show was showing up everywhere it needed to, and that people were able to hear it or watch it wherever they were. So that was really important, and that has paid off for me. But that was my goal. My goal was SEO. Now another part of the data that we need to talk about is the intimacy of audio. So while YouTube is a really great place for finding new podcasts, YouTube videos are still seeing a massive drop off after five to 10 minutes of the video where audio podcast listeners are actually listening to 70 to 80% of the episode, because they're listening as they're doing other things, which I think is the focus here, when we think about podcasts, or when we think about how our listener is consuming content, it's important that we think about what their life is like. Are they someone who puts it up on their screen at home and then just goes and does maybe dishes or cooks and kind of has it in the background. Or are they someone who goes for a run and listens to the podcast then? Or maybe they're someone who has a longer commute, and so they have space during their commute to listen to your podcast. These are all things that you have to consider, the type of content you're creating, the type of name and brand that you're trying to establish, but also, what does your listener actually want? And this might be worth sending an email to your listeners or your subscribers and finding out. Hey, I would love to know, how are you listening to this podcast? What are the ways that you are enjoying it? Does video make sense? Are you someone who would watch videos of the podcast, or do you tend to listen to audio? We also have to consider that podcasts actually predate YouTube by a year or two. There were also some audio blogs that were happening in 2003 and around 2003 to 2004 we have the very first actual podcast as we understand it today, and then YouTube came out in 2005 so podcasting has always, at its core, been an audio Medium. Now people like Joe Rogan have normalized this idea that we have to have a video podcast as well, but that works for certain people. I don't think that it works for everyone. Another thing that we have to consider when we're looking at the data and understanding whether a video podcast is right for us is that statistically adding high quality video to a podcast is going to increase your production time two to three times what you're already doing. So you might be editing video, correcting the color, if that's something that you want to do, formatting it for all the different platforms, uploading it to all the different platforms, adding in that extra element of, okay, if I'm going on YouTube, then I need to make sure that I'm also adding in the YouTube title, the YouTube description, which are going to be different than your podcast title and your podcast description. Now, the caveat here is that some of these platforms, you're going to be able to take the video from your podcast hosting platform where you currently already house your audio and then they are going to push it out. I'm gonna call it now. I actually don't think a lot of these hosting platforms are going to go that way. And I think the reason is because of capacity, the video files are so much bigger than your audio files, and that means that these smaller businesses, like Captivate like Buzzsprout hosting platforms like that. I'm even thinking substack also has its own hosting as well. Transistor. I don't know that they have unlimited capacity for storing this information. And I know, as someone who has been using Buzzsprout from the very start of my podcasting journey, back in 2018 that Buzzsprout is very likely to just say audio. They have been very open that they are an audio first platform. They want their podcast to be audio first. So I think that it's important that we're considering where we're hosting our podcast, what kind of capacity we have this extra tax of time that it's going to take you to do it now. This is not to deter you, and if you're interested, I will do another episode. Later that talks about the pros and cons of having a video podcast, and we can talk about the SEO and the different platforms, how to optimize them, how to upload them, etc. But what I really want to hone in in this conversation is that you have to make this decision for yourself. Do not let this idea of flash in the pan excitement push you to make a decision. So we've talked about the production tax, the intimacy that happens with audio, how you're able to connect with your audience. On a deeper level, what's actually happening on YouTube. So we talked about the intimacy of audio and how YouTube videos, we're seeing that massive drop off after five to 10 minutes, and that podcast listeners who are listening to the audio are going to be listening to more of the content. But I also want to note, according to pod news, that we are seeing a shift in people wanting to watch video that 80% of US listeners are saying that they're consuming both audio and video. 13% are sticking to audio only. 7% to video only. And what I think is interesting here is that while we can look at the data, while we can understand the stats and say, Okay, this is maybe the direction I need to go. If your audience wants to hear you, they will find you. They will find a way to connect with you. They will find a way to hear whatever it is you have to say, if that is you writing a blog, if that is you showcasing it on video, if that is you having an audio only podcast your audience, once they get to know you, will be fine. So if you want your strategy to be all right, I'm going to show up on a bunch of video podcasts. I can reach new audiences and then redirect them to my audio podcast. That's a great option for you, because once they get to know you, like you and trust you, they're going to follow you where you go. So how do you decide if it is right for you? First and foremost, I want you to do an audit of your time. You can use any type of time tracking tool to figure this out. But how many hours a week do you realistically spend currently on content creation, if it's less than five hours, then video might not work for you. If you're spending more than five hours, then it might be worth checking out to see if video will help you streamline or maybe if there's different things that you can do on the video element that will take you less time than fixing or adjusting or tweaking on the audio element if you are creating video shorts, but doing an audio podcast, what tools are you using? Are you using Riverside to create those shorts where you don't have to edit the full video? What are you using to record your podcast episodes. Does that mean that you have to change your current process? If you're already recording in Audacity or in garage band, then it doesn't make sense to willy nilly just switch over to a video podcast. But if you are someone who's considering, hey, this is a business goal I have, by all means, move over to video, but do it strategically, and that's something that I can talk you through. If you need support around that, or if you want some help in identifying if this is the right step for you, you can book a free consultation. We can talk about this and so much more. Go to helpmypod.com and you'll be able to see the link for a free consultation right there. You also don't have to do a ton of video editing, and this is where I think people get hung up, is that they think they need transitions and they need sound effects, and they need photos flying in and out and added to the background. And you don't need all that for a video podcast. Sure there are shows that do that and do that well, we even help and support clients who have those types of elements to their podcast, where they record and then we handle all that extra stuff. But there is a middle ground, especially if you are someone who is doing it yourself, and this is what my show looks like, where there is not a lot of overlay, I have templates and processes in place. We use tools that are in our editing software, which we use descript to edit the video. And you can just do minimal editing. If you're already doing minimal editing on your audio, do minimal editing on your video and throw an intro and an outro on there. You can create those fairly easily on Canva and then throw that up on the platforms. Or you could do an audio only podcast, but then grab those two minute clips. Like I mentioned, if you're recording in Riverside, you can easily grab those clips. Or if you're recording in streamyard. It as well, I believe does those clips for you using their AI tools, so you can grab those. If that's something that you want to use for social media promotion. You could also go the route of the static audiogram, but I actually don't recommend that, because I don't think that that works well on YouTube. And even though you might think, well, it at least gets a video up there. I don't recommend it. I think with video, you can decide how much editing you do if you want to do a little bit or a lot, or you can find this middle ground of the video clips. But the audio podcasts, I want to remind you that a consistent, high value audio podcast is always going to outperform an inconsistent, very stressful video podcast that leads you to burn out. So always go back to your capacity. If you have the capacity financially to hire someone like myself, like my team, to support you in making this transition, then that's awesome. But if you don't, don't give yourself the headache and don't let this be the thing that makes you burn out from your podcast. So I want to give you permission to choose yourself and your capacity over whatever the algorithm and whatever the gurus are telling you to do. Like I said at the beginning, this show is all about showing you and encouraging you that there's no one right way to podcast. If you want to have a video podcast, awesome if you want to have an audio podcast, awesome if you want to do a limited series, because you don't have capacity to be podcasting for the next three years. Awesome. You get to decide what that looks like. But if you are feeling a little overwhelmed by all these different changes, and you would like someone to bounce ideas off of or to kind of help you come to the decision, then we can talk. I would love to chat with you about your specific podcast needs, where I can support you, whether that's through my agency with a one off strategy session, or simply through the free consultation, where we can talk about what you're struggling with, and I can direct you in the right way if you are deciding that you want to take video seriously and shift from audio to video. The first thing I want you to do before you even begin is do that capacity audit. What does your current process look like? Do you have that documented in a way that you could easily follow or someone else could follow? And then what are some things that you're going to need to adjust based on changing from audio to video podcast. I truly hope that you take me up on the offer of that free consultation, because I know that this can feel really overwhelming, and when I finished talking to my client earlier today, she was like, Alesia, I feel so much better. I feel like I'm doing the right thing, and I so appreciate you kind of guiding me on what the next best thing is for me to ensure that I don't burn out and I have the capacity to keep showing up for my audience, and I want that for you as well. All right, friends, until next time happy podcasting. You.