Publishing your video podcast on YouTube is a great way to engage your audience with both visuals and audio. With Zencastr’s YouTube integration, available on the Grow plan and higher, you can easily upload full video episodes directly to your YouTube channel, eliminating the need for manual uploads. This guide will walk you through using Zencastr’s integration to get your video episodes on YouTube and explain how YouTube’s approach differs from other podcast directories.
In this article:
Key Considerations for YouTube Distribution
Methods for Publishing to YouTube
When deciding how to get your podcast on YouTube, the method depends on whether your content is audio-only or includes video.
For video podcasts, Zencastr’s YouTube integration is the ideal choice. It uploads the video files for each episode directly to YouTube, saving you the time and effort of manual uploads through YouTube Studio. This approach ensures that your full visual content is presented exactly as intended.
For audio podcasts, YouTube supports RSS feed distribution. This method converts your audio episodes into static image videos, using your podcast’s cover art or individual episode artwork. It’s an easy way to share your audio content on YouTube and YouTube Music, but keep in mind that the RSS feed option doesn’t support video uploads, even if your RSS feed has video enabled.
Choosing the right method comes down to the type of content you’re sharing. If your content includes video and you want to showcase those visuals, Zencastr’s YouTube integration is the way to go. But if your focus is audio, and a static image video meets your needs, connecting your RSS feed to YouTube is a simple solution.
Show and Episode Updates
Unlike many podcast directories, YouTube imports your show and episodes only once and then caches them. While new episodes published via the integration will be sent to YouTube automatically, edits to show or episode details won't alter what was published to YouTube. Instead, YouTube requires all edits to your show or already published episodes to be made directly on YouTube.
Analytics
YouTube's analytics differ from traditional podcast directories, measuring views rather than downloads. Therefore, YouTube view counts cannot be aggregated into your overall podcast analytics and won't reflect in your hosting provider's numbers. If you want to monitor your podcast’s performance on YouTube, you will need to access those analytics on YouTube. For further insights into hosting provider versus YouTube analytics, see this Podnews article.
Before You Start – Preparing
To submit to YouTube via the Zencastr integration, you will need to have:
Access to your Zencastr account
Created a Google account
Created a YouTube channel
Connecting Your YouTube Account to Your Zencastr Account
To connect your YouTube account to your Zencastr account:
On your Dashboard, click the Episodes tab on the left sidebar menu.
In the ‘Destinations’ list on the right side, click the + Connect button next to YouTube.
Result: You are directed to a social media authentication dashboard.
Click on Click to Link for YouTube.
Select your Google account and sign in if prompted.
Click Continue on the authorization prompt.
Click the checkbox next to Select all for Ayrshare access permissions.
Click Continue on the authorization prompt.
Click the Close button a the social media authentication dashboard
What happens next: You are taken back to the Episodes tab where your YouTube account show as “Connected” on the Destinations tab which indicates that the integration is active.
Publishing Your Episodes on YouTube
After you complete the above process of connecting your YouTube account, Zencastr will automatically send any new episode you publish to YouTube.
Related Questions
Can I upload my past episodes to YouTube via the Zencastr integration?
Due to YouTube’s API limits, which restrict how many videos can be uploaded per channel every 24 hours, only video episodes published after connecting your YouTube account will be uploaded. Unfortunately, due to these YouTube limitations it is not possible to send previously published video episodes to YouTube via the integration.
I have video RSS enabled, but my video episodes are still showing on YouTube with just the podcast/episode cover art. How do I fix this?
YouTube doesn’t support video uploads through an RSS feed. Even with video RSS enabled, episodes connected to YouTube via RSS will be converted into static image videos using your podcast’s cover art or episode artwork. To upload full video episodes, you’ll need to use the Zencastr YouTube integration or upload the videos directly to YouTube instead.
If I replace the video for an episode that I already published to YouTube, will it update there?
No, if you replace a video file in Zencastr, it won’t be reflected on YouTube because YouTube doesn’t accept edits from outside their platform when a podcast is distributed via an API. Additionally, even within YouTube, replacing a video isn’t an option. If you need to update a video that’s already published, you can either use YouTube’s editor to make changes to the existing video, or upload the new file as a separate video, then delete or set the original video to unlisted. For more details on this, see this YouTube article.