You spend a lot of time storyboarding, filming, editing, grading, sound designing, and polishing your next viral video before uploading it to YouTube. But how do you know if it will be good, great, or even flop? Well, it seems there's a game-changing tool on its way, and it's coming directly from YouTube.
As a filmmaker myself, I have gone through all of the above and more. While I understand why some videos do well, I still have to navigate the algorithm's complexities when releasing a new video. It appears that the clickability of your thumbnail is a crucial factor in determining whether your video will rise or flop.
The challenge lies in knowing what exactly constitutes a good thumbnail and what your audience will want to click on. In this video from the team at VidIQ, they reveal a potentially game-changing tool that is soon coming to the platform.
It involves A/B testing of thumbnails, but with an interesting twist. You can upload up to three thumbnails for a video. When the algorithm pushes your video out to the world, it will randomly use one of the three, ensuring that all three are seen by a wide variety of potential viewers.
YouTube will then provide you with a report on how well each thumbnail performed, enabling you to choose the one that performs best. Voilà ! You have removed the mystery from knowing what works or what could work.
This feature is being rolled out in phases, and I can't wait until it becomes available.
If you're a YouTube content creator, does this update excite you?
Would be even better, if Youtube, after showing the three Thumbnails to enough viewers, singles out the best one itself and only shows it subsequently.
It does.