How to get a health podcast recommended on YouTube and rack up views in 4 months

Context

Vadim Danylchenko, co-author and lead methodologist of the state program "Active Parks," approached TD HUB with an idea to promote a healthy lifestyle among Ukrainians through a YouTube podcast format.

The goal was to create a media project that not only provides knowledge but also inspires, motivates, and builds a culture of active living. Through candid conversations with coaches, athletes, doctors, psychologists, and veterans, we aimed to show that health is not just about sports, but a conscious daily choice.

Our objectives

Launch a YouTube channel from scratch and get it into the platform's recommendations.

Handle the preparation, filming, and editing of the podcast.

Prepare scripts and select relevant guests for each episode.

Develop a visual studio concept that highlights the channel's theme and creates a recognizable visual environment.

Create a cohesive graphic style for the channel that sets it apart from other healthy lifestyle podcasts.

Adapt content for TikTok, Shorts, and Reels, tailoring it to the specific requirements of each platform.

How we did it:

Phase 1 – Strategy

We conducted an in-depth analysis of the audience, competitors, and formats that perform well on YouTube within the health, motivation, and science niches.

We identified our target focus: men and women aged 25–44 who prioritize maintaining their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

We centered the podcast themes around key interests: medical facts about the body, nutrition without taboos, fitness as a lifestyle, human psychology, the role of physical activity for all Ukrainians—including military personnel—and behind-the-scenes insights into sports in Ukraine.

Phase 2 – Production

We filmed 4 pilot episodes to launch the one with the highest potential to hit the recommendations feed.

The focus was on:

• conversational dynamics and the chemistry with the guest;
• questions that reveal the person behind the expert, rather than just providing information;
• visual literacy—colors, background, and decorative elements.

After analyzing the initial episodes, we made the following changes to our editing process:

• removed the intro announcement typically used in similar formats;
• shortened the intro sequence to just 3 seconds;
• trimmed unnecessary length (reducing 2–2.5 hour conversations down to a final 60–90 minutes).

Result: we increased average retention from 8 to nearly 18 minutes, with 61% of viewers still watching at the 30-second mark.

Phase 3 – Launch

We established a publishing schedule of one video per week and prepared a full branding kit: logo, banner, channel description, and links.

The content plan included:

• regular podcasts;
• daily Shorts (except on full episode release days);
• YouTube community posts to drive engagement.

The YouTube community tab deserves special attention—many creators underestimate it, but even basic interaction through polls and announcements brought us over 30,000 impressions for the channel and 16 subscribers who became part of our core loyal audience in the first 4 months.

The Shorts format became a powerful growth driver: short videos provided a steady influx of new viewers. We later reduced the posting frequency to balance the algorithms.

Thumbnails and titles are constantly A/B tested—we change the style, searching for the perfect fit for our audience and fighting banner blindness.

Stage 4 — Promotion

Even before launching the podcast, we planned how the audience would find the channel. The main sources of views were: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube partners, and social media advertising. This, of course, yielded visible results:

What we definitely ruled out: direct YouTube advertising. The key goal: to get into the video platform's recommendations, which would organically promote the videos. Result: over 80% of impressions came from recommendations.

We created a separate TikTok account, "AkTYvni," which garnered over 242,000 views.

We partnered with the "Active Parks" project for cross-promotion on Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram.

We secured organic media mentions.

Results for the first 4 months only

In the first four months of launching the "AkTYvni" YouTube channel, we fully implemented the project from scratch and achieved significant organic results:

• 3.7 thousand subscribers
• over 520,000 views, with more than 219,000 of those on long-form podcasts.
• YouTube displayed our content 3.6 million times.

The channel reached monetization in its first month of operation.

The majority of video impressions came from YouTube recommendations, and individual episodes with guests gained significant media reach, went viral on social media, and laid the foundation for the channel's long-term growth.

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