Here’s how you can A/B test YouTube Thumbnails with ease to help you create better thumbnails
that win the click and earn you more views!
[Tips & Tricks]
Hello TubeBuddies!
A/B testing (also known as split or bucket testing) is a method of comparing two versions
of an image in this case, Two YouTube Thumbnails against each other to determine which one
performs better.
A/B testing does require our highest level of TubeBuddy, Legend.
However, we will include a link for a free trial in the description where, if you have
never had a trial, you can try legend for 30 days!
With TubeBuddy A/B Testing we make it easy for YOU to upload and compare two thumbnails
so you can create the best thumbnails possible!
A lot of times a great video could be showing up in search, and ranking but isn’t getting
viewed because of a bad performing thumbnail, this lets you test and see if changing the
thumbnail can help!
To help your thumbnails get better, let’s get an A/B test started!
Head to tubebuddy.com/account and select A/B Testing here, or head to YouTube and click
on the TubeBuddy drop down menu, under website tools select A/B Tests, to head to TubeBuddy’s
A/B Testing!
If you haven’t created an A/B test yet, you'll see your screen like this.
However, since we have created A/B test you can see them here.
You can choose to filter them here!
You can filter for the ones that are in progress, the tests that are complete, or all A/B Tests
you’ve run thus far.
You can see at a glance the CTR % of the tests you’re running.
This shows you the score of your original thumbnail, and the variation you are testing.
You can see the difference in score here.
You might also see on the right a button that says “Gather CTR Data” this is just here
so we can make sure our A/B Test’s data are up to date.
Click on it, and it will open the YouTube studio and gather the data!
To create the A/B Test click here!
If you’re A/B testing an older video it’s important to have the link ready to go!
Now how to create the test!
When you’re creating your test you will see your six most recent uploads here!
You can also search for a video based on your title, or if you copied the link to your older
video like we mentioned you can just paste in here.
If you’re unsure which video needs to have an A/B test we give you a link that can help
you find low performing thumbnails here.
However, once you’re happy with your video selection you can choose which type of A/B
test to run.
Here you can run a THUMBNAIL ONLY CTR Test, this is just going to focus on improving your
ctr and doesn’t affect video ranking or discoverability!
CTR stands for click through rate, and all that means is the likelihood it is for someone
to click on YOUR VIDEO when it’s displayed on their device’s screen.
For example if your video shows up 100 times, or gets 100 impressions and people click on
it 7 times that would give you a Click through rate or CTR of 7%.
The higher the CTR the more people are clicking to watch your content when YouTube shows it
to them!
HOWEVER, the other option is a FULL METADATA TEST!
This allows you to change the videos title, description, and/or tags.
We only recommend doing this if you have an older video that isn’t getting traction.
BE careful with this one, it’s only to be used for bad performing content, and not videos
that are doing well.
We’re just going to do a Thumbnail A/B test that doesn’t have that much risk.
Now that we have selected the thumbnail A/B test we can choose to set it for a set number
of days.
The default is 14.
The reason for this, is to allow the video a chance to be presented to viewers in a way
that each thumbnail shows up on a Monday, a Tuesday, a Wednesday, etc.
However, you can set it to any even number of days, OR You can run a test until there
is another data to reach statistical significance.
This just means that you’ll know FOR SURE with the data collected which thumbnail not
only is better, but is earning you more click throughs, and views.
We’ll go ahead and run our test for 30 days!
Then you can choose when you want the test to start.
You can start the test IMMEDIATELY on the same day at midnight.
OR you can schedule your test to start later!
This could be useful if you want a thumbnail YOU KNOW your audience would click on, and
then want to change it to be more appealing to a broader audience, and see which one is
better!
We’re going to choose to start this test immediately at midnight!
Finally we let you upload the thumbnail you want to test against your current one.
If you haven’t created a thumbnail yet, you could use our thumbnail generator here
to do so.
If you need tips, you can click on this tips and tricks button here to see what we recommend
for testing!
We already have one made so we’ll upload it now.
Once that’s done, just select start testing to start your test!
You’ll now have to wait four days for the initial results.
We want to show you a few examples of tests we have already run, and so you can see what
it looks like when a test is done!
The first one we’re going to look at is a Test where the new thumbnail beat the original!
Here you can see that this test is complete, and we have learned that the variation out
performed our old thumbnail by 31%!
We found this thumbnail to be statistically significant OR as we said early, essentially
guaranteed to be better, with the data we’ve collected.
Once the test is complete, TubeBuddy takes no action and allows YOU the Creator to make
the decision whether to switch to the variation with a click of a button!
Let’s break down each of these data points!
We explained Click through rate earlier in this video but if you’d like a reminder
you can click on this tool tip anytime it’s shown to get more info!
Let’s look into Impressions to clicks!
This shows you how many times YT showed your content, and how many times people clicked.
SO WE can see Youtube showed our original thumbnail 1,225 times, but only 84 people
clicked through and watched.
We can also see that YouTube showed our Variation thumbnail 1,191 times and while the amount
of times they showed it is less, MORE people clicked through!
So the number on the left is impressions, the number on the right is click throughs!
Next is watch time per impression, this is how long each person watched based on them
clicking through.
You can learn even more detail by clicking the tool tip here.
Daily impressions shows you how many times your thumbnail was shown each day, and similarly
daily clicks shows how many times your thumbnail was clicked through to watch your video each
day!
Then we show you the total views between the two.
You can see in our explanation here: Although the Original gained more views during the
course of this test, the Variation is actually performing better because it has a higher
Click-Through Rate.
The only reason that the Original got more views is because it happened to get more impressions
on YouTube during this time - but people are actually clicking to watch the Variation more
often when it's displayed.
We then show you the difference in AVD which matches what we saw earlier, and the total
minutes watched of the views you got earlier.
Then we show you the daily views each different thumbnail got here.
Now let’s look at the Traffic sources.
Here you can see that our variation drove more clicks into views in both search, and
browse.
However the original did do better in suggested.
Although, looking here we made this video for search since people were wondering how
to install TubeBuddy.
Seeing it’s getting clicked on more in search, and when people see it on their homepage with
browse is a good thing, because that’s what WE intended this thumbnail to do!
Finally we give you access to the Engagement rates, but this doesn’t really change based
on the above metrics, we just show it because users asked to see it!
Here’s a test we’re running now, and you can see that the variation in almost all ways
is performing better!
You can see this in all the data points we ran through before!
However, sometimes even if YOU like a thumbnail more, it doesn’t mean the audience likes
it more.
Here is an example of a thumbnail we are testing, but because the first one reiterates the five
we believe more people are tending to click on it, compared to the new one!
We could retest this with me showing a five, and seeing how that goes.
A/B testing is a great way to find a thumbnail style that works for you, and helps get your
content clicked on!
We don’t want you to put in all the work in SEO to ultimately not have your videos
get clicked on.
With A/B testing you can know which thumbnail is better and drives more clicks to views!
If you need more information we’ll link a support article on A/B testing.
We do know that YouTube is working on their own native A/B testing and we’re excited
for this!
Like our other tools, we’ll use this information to make our product and your results even
better!
We’ll make an update video whenever they finally release A/B testing.
Until then though we are working on new products that can help with your CTR, so subscribe
and ring that bell to stay updated!
Want to see more legend features check out that playlist!
What do you think about A/B Testing?
Let us know in the comments below!
I’m Andrew Kan from TubeBuddy, now go out and run some A/B Tests!