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Time to optimize your YouTube content performance
Last June, YouTube teased its upcoming A/B thumbnail testing feature, which will provide artists another way to optimize their content performance.
As illustrated in the clip, YouTube’s thumbnail testing capability will enable artists to upload three thumbnail versions for each video, then run them in a comparative test for up to two weeks. From there, you can select the best-performing attention-grabber, which could be another method for increasing video engagement.
When’s it coming?
The app stated at the time of the initial announcement, as shown in the video above, that the option would be generally available in 2024, but there has been no information on when the tool will be made more freely available.
Until today, YouTube Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie provided a brief update on thumbnail A/B testing.
Ritchie Says
“Thumbnail testing is still in testing. As of late last year, the testing ramped up to 50K channels of various types, sizes, and regions across YouTube (which is still a tiny number given how many channels are on YouTube). That’ll continue until team feels like the product is delivering what it needs to for creators, and then it’ll start moving into launch mode. No timeline yet, because it’s hard to predict how fast or slow tests of this size will go, but as soon as it’s ready to launch, YouTube will absolutely let everyone know.”
So it’s not quite ready, but the app has increased its testing and will make it available soon.
It has the potential to significantly benefit creators, with thumbnails serving as a crucial drawcard to maximize audience attention, and it will be interesting to see how effective the option is once it is implemented.
Which, again, should occur soon. We’ll keep you posted on any progress.
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