YouTube’s Test & Compare to Find Your Best Custom Thumbnails

YouTube’s Test & Compare to Find Your Best Custom Thumbnails

One of the best ways to maximize views and clickthrough rate for your YouTube videos is A/B testing custom thumbnails. And YouTube’s built-in Test & Compare tool makes this simple – allowing you to experiment with different thumbnail options right within the platform.

At CustomThumbnails.com, we’re experts in creating high-converting thumbnail designs tailored for our clients’ unique brands and audiences. We also recognize that no two viewers are alike. So we’re equipped to produce multiple thumbnail variations for your videos to determine what imagery, text, colors, and style resonate most, details below.

Our Thumbnail A/B Testing Process
When you order a set of custom thumbnails from us, we’ll develop an initial direction aligned with video content and your target viewers. This explores different concepts with graphic styles, positional layouts, and textual focus.

Next, when you’re working within the specs of YouTube’s testing tool, can make any final refinements to thumbnail variations for upload – whether slightly altering background colors, changing graphic elements, trying different key phrases, modifying text placement, etc.

You then set up the split test within YouTube Studio, choosing the settings available in YouTube Test & Compare like:

● Video to test
● Thumbnails to compare
● Duration of test
● Percentage of traffic shown each option

As viewers interact with both thumbnails, YouTube gathers performance data tracking clicks and CTR. At the completion of your selected test duration, results reveal clear winners to implement and insights to inform future designs.

No Extra Fees for Minor Thumbnail Variations
We understand that experimenting with multiple thumbnails requires extra work on our team’s part. But we also know creators are often interested in testing very minor differences just to find that slight optimization to increase CTRs without wanting to pay for entirely new concepts.

So here is our clear policy:

You can request up to 3 thumbnail variations of a similar direction with no extra fees as part of your package credit. This means that choosing one of the following will be covered at no additional cost: changing background colors, swapping positions of elements, testing slightly different keywords or any other minor changes.

Of course for more involved directional pivots, entirely different concepts, or additional thumbnail options beyond these variations, we welcome the opportunity to develop more designs at reasonable rates tailored to your budget through our flat rate packages. Our mission is supporting creators in growing their channels, so please reach out to discuss custom tests.

The Power of Testing Thumbnails on YouTube
Leveraging YouTube’s Test & Compare feature to experiment with multiple thumbnails is one of the smartest optimization tactics creators have at their disposal today. Not only does it provide concrete data to determine highest performing options, it offers learnings to increase clicks long-term through informed design decisions.

At CustomThumbnails.com, we’re ready to help creators execute strategic split tests revealing what thumbnail styles truly stop the scroll for your unique audience. Let us develop customized designs dialed into your brand and niche viewers love with proven results.