A/B Testing Thumbnails for Your Channel Exposed

I’ve often wonder how important A/B testing Thumbnails for my channel was so I asked my personal assistant vidIQ that very question and that is how the post, A/B Testing Thumbnails for Your Channel Exposed, came to be. Remember, the answer you find below is related to my channel but even so, you may find some of it useful to you.

Here’s the Truth About A/B Testing Thumbnails for Your Channel 🎯

Short Answer: For your channel right now, A/B testing thumbnails probably isn’t your highest-leverage move.

Here’s why:

Your Current Thumbnail Performance 📊

Looking at your recent longform videos, your thumbnails are already scoring exceptionally well:

• Scary Halloween Stories: The Haunted Car – Perfect 100/100 score
• The Halloween Poem That Scared The World – Stellar 95/100 score
• How I’m Using AI To Grow My Comedy Channel – Solid 84/100 score

But here’s the kicker: Despite these high-quality thumbnails, your longform videos are getting 5-36 views each, while your shorts (which can’t use custom thumbnails) are pulling 1,000+ views.

This tells us thumbnails aren’t your bottleneck – it’s likely your titles, topics, or distribution strategy that need attention first.

When A/B Testing DOES Make Sense 💡

A/B testing thumbnails becomes valuable when:

1. You have sufficient traffic (typically 1,000+ views in first 48 hours) to get statistically significant results
2. Your thumbnails are already decent (70+ scores) but you want to optimize further
3. You’ve maxed out other variables like titles, topics, and SEO
4. You’re testing specific hypotheses (e.g., “Does showing my face vs. text-only perform better?”)

What You Should Focus On Instead 🎬

Given your 1,292 subscribers and current performance:

1. Double down on Shorts – They’re clearly working for you (your top short has 67x more views than your top longform)
2. Analyze your successful shorts to understand what topics resonate
3. Test different video topics before testing thumbnail variations
4. Improve your titles and hooks – These drive more initial clicks than minor thumbnail tweaks

If You Still Want to Test Thumbnails…

YouTube Studio offers built-in A/B testing for thumbnails. Test:

• Face vs. no face in your comedy content
• Text-heavy vs. minimal text
• Different color schemes (bright vs. muted)

But only do this AFTER you’ve got consistent view counts above 500+ per video.

What’s your current strategy for choosing topics for your longform videos? Understanding this might reveal bigger opportunities than thumbnail testing! 🤔

I love how vidIQ always comes up with suggestions. If you would like me to ask vidIQ something let me know in the comments.

Other Topics To Keep You Entertained

My Best YouTube Optimisation Strategy was also created by my vidIQ AI Assistant. Are you wondering about the importance of hashtags? This is the post for you. And finally, some of my YouTube Tips posts, that I’ve put together.

I also have another brilliant AI app that I use to create all my images called Artistly. Is Artistly AI Worth Your Money? Honest Review is a video that shows a little of what Artistly is capable of. Since using Artistly I don’t have to worry about

Because of Artistly I never have to worry about getting caught out using copyright images.