Thumbnail Test & Compare

Found in Studio on a video that is already live, the tool serves up to three variants, splits the audience between them across a test period of up to two weeks, and reports back a winner. The result is settled on watch time rather than clicks alone, since a thumbnail can win the click and bring in people who then leave.

Two habits make the results worth having. Change one thing at a time, so a test is either three titles against a fixed thumbnail or three thumbnails against a fixed title. And make the variants obviously different from each other, because audiences rarely register a slightly different shade of the same design and the test then separates nothing.