YouTube thumbnail A/B test template

One row per test. You name the video, describe variant A and variant B in a few words each, and put in the date you swapped them. Then the numbers behind both: the impressions and the click-through rate each version was shown against. Two grey columns finish the row off, working out the lift between the two rates and calling a winner, with a B win picked out in green.

The last two columns are the ones worth filling in properly. What changed, written plainly, and the lesson you drew. Those are what turn a pile of tests into something you can read back. Three figures sit at the top of the sheet: tests run, how often B won, and your average lift.

1. 1Open the link below and take your own copy, with File then Make a copy. The original stays untouched and your copy is yours to change.
2. 2Read the Example tab, which has three tests filled in, including one where the tidier thumbnail won and one where it lost. The Tests tab next to it is empty and is the one you type into.
3. 3Log the numbers for both versions at a similar level of reach, then write the lesson in your own words. Compare a video against your own back catalogue rather than against anybody else's screenshot.

There is no target rate anywhere in the template, and that is on purpose. Raw click-through rates are not comparable across channels or across levels of reach, and they are awkward to compare even between two videos on the same channel, because the rate depends on who was shown the thumbnail. Your own back catalogue at a similar reach is the only fair yardstick.

A winner can also change its mind. The audience seeing a thumbnail in the first hour is mostly subscribers and notification followers, while a broader audience arrives weeks or months later, so an A/B result can flip over the life of a video. Date every row and read the old ones again later.

Why your YouTube CTR drops as your video grows has the full read, including the one pairing of numbers that does mean your packaging needs work.

Every number in this sheet arrived by you opening YouTube Studio, finding the video, reading two figures and typing them in. Do that for a year of videos and the typing is the job.

The video behind this test also has a cost, tracked in the Video Cost and ROI Tracker. It is one of five sheets at the template library.

Chewbr is being built to keep the packaging and the numbers behind it in one place, across all 47 steps of a video. The waitlist is at /waitlist. No date on it yet. You will know first.