California: Video streaming platform YouTube is going to introduce a new ‘Thumbnail Test and Compare’ feature for all its channels in the next few weeks.
Using this feature, creators will be able to use up to three different thumbnails in any of their videos, allowing them to determine which thumbnail performed best.
The ‘Thumbnail Test and Compare’ feature will offer creators the option to upload multiple thumbnails when posting a new video.
During the trial, YouTube will show different thumbnails to different viewers. Later after a reasonable amount of data has been collected (which should take approximately two weeks) YouTube will analyze which thumbnail had the highest ‘watch time share’.
After which one of three results will be declared for the thumbnail.
1) Winner: The clearly winning thumbnail that will beat everyone in terms of watch time.
2) Preferred (indicated by preference): The thumbnail that may have performed better than the others, but statistically the results will be less conclusive.
3) None: No thumbnail will be declared a winner.
Thumbnails that don’t pass the test can only be manually applied to selected videos by users.
