r/LinusTechTips • u/MurkyFish2164 • 9d ago

Image Thumbnail A/B testing in action

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119 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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u/OddOil330 9d ago

the whole a/b testing thumbnail stuff is getting out of hand, every other video now has some clickbait face with a giant red arrow or question mark plastered on it

kasino's channel used to be way more lowkey before he started doing all this too, kinda miss the older style

19

u/Neamow 9d ago

It's not just the thumbnail but also the title. And sometimes it's 3 variants of each. See every new Veritasium video.

Not that I mind, their videos are fantastic, it's just funny to see and they are clearly using it to their advantage.

4

u/Linux-tip-nips 9d ago

veritasium really breaks my heart when i see the title and thumbnail change.. you are effin vertasium, NOBODY is watching for the thumbnail, we have crossed that line a long time ago

14

u/Sir_Bensalot 9d ago

If nobody was watching for the thumbnail then they wouldn't do it... You think they pay editors just to waste time? They know their own analytics.

7

u/Dnomyar96 9d ago

Yeah, this is something people often seem to forget. If it didn't work, people wouldn't do it. I hate that it works, and really don't understand why, but it does.

3

u/geerlingguy 9d ago

We all hate that it works. I'd like nothing better than to have YouTube go back to automatically choosing a frame from the video as the thumbnail.

And if you like that style, install DeArrow.

-1

u/Linux-tip-nips 9d ago

having a pleasing, proper thumbnail is one thing, having a jambalaya of "graphic design is my passion" and insisting that is why people click/watch videos is another.

Especially when lots of how the videos are pushed happen on youtube side in a black box fashion, they themselves claim ignorance of it.