Okay, pop quiz. I am going to show you four sets of YouTube thumbnails. Tell me which ones you think performed better, A or B.
Set one, set two, set three, and set four. A or B, which ones do you think performed better? We have been split testing thumbnails and titles for months now on my YouTube channel.
And in this video I'm going to tell you everything we learned. And yes, I will reveal the answers to that pop quiz at the end of this video. So keep watching.
Hey Posse, what's up? It's Alex coming at you this week with a data backed video to help you get more clicks and views on your YouTube videos. Because when you get more clicks on your videos, this tells the YouTube algorithm that people like your stuff.
And when YouTube sees that people like your stuff, they show your stuff to more people and that my friends, is how then more people find you. And that is how you grow your channel from scratch. I know, I know.
It's not about being the best, the most eloquent or the most charming or having the best background, although mine is pretty rad. A lot of it really comes down to just having a great video title and of course a great thumbnail to go with it. Now I've been creating content on YouTube for over four years now, and I have been testing and tweaking and optimizing everything from the way I write titles and thumbnails to the format of my description below to where I place calls to action throughout my video script and how I deliver my intros and basically everything in between.
And so yes, I have a lot of hard evidence, but I've also developed a lot of circumstantial opinions on what I think gets my channel to actually grow more. But it hasn't been until more recently that I began split testing nearly every single video thumbnail and title to see what the data says works best when it comes to growing my channel. So that is what I'm going to talk about today.
I'm going to share some of that hard evidence with you so you can see what works best for getting more clicks, views, and subscribers. But hear me out, this video is not just for YouTube creators. The concepts that I'm talking about will help you write short form videos like reels and TikToks.
It'll also help you write better blog post titles, headlines, and so much more. So no matter what piece of content you are trying to get more eyeballs on, my channel is here to help. Which reminds me if you are not already part of the crew here on YouTube, you know what to do.
Go ahead and subscribe below and don't forget to hit that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. I have a whole bunch of even juicier videos coming for you very, very soon. So let's get into it.
So before we get into the data, I know you guys want to see that, but let me quickly explain really what the purpose of your YouTube title and thumbnail is, because I know it can seem pretty obvious, but they actually do different things, right? And what I'm sharing now will really help the data make more sense. So the number one purpose of your title is so your video can actually be found.
Remember, and this is so important and so easy to forget. YouTube is not just a social media platform. It is a search engine.
And that is why I love it so freaking much. And your title is really one of the main factors that determines if the YouTube algorithm will showcase your video for a specific search term or next to other related content. Whereas the purpose of your thumbnail is actually to capture the eyeballs of people who then come to that page.
So if they're searching a keyword and a bunch of videos come up, you want your thumbnail to really stand out. A great title might get you ranked on that first page of YouTube. But if your thumbnail is uninteresting or uninspiring or you know hard to read or just generally blah, then no one is actually going to click your video and then it doesn't matter, even if it's the most awesome video ever.
And on the flip side of that, right, an awesome thumbnail isn't really going to do much good if it's buried on like page 24 of the YouTube results. So these two things really need to work together to get your video found and to grab attention, right? But what you put in your title will actually be quite different from what you put in your thumbnail as text.
They should not be the same thing. If you're doing that, that is really wasted real estate, you're being really, really redundant. So those two things should be different, and that is exactly what we're going to talk about next.
So if the number one purpose right of your title is to actually rank on the first page of YouTube when someone searches for a particular topic or a keyword, this means you better make your title something that people are actively searching for. I mean, unless you're like a seasoned YouTuber with a fan base already and people are frequently coming to your channel just to consume your content, I mean, if that's the case, then you can basically just write anything there. Then your title isn't really so much about getting ranked on YouTube as it is about just writing something that is really, really click worthy.
But if SEO isn't important to you, then really you don't need a keyword, right? And that's why huge YouTubers like Mr Beast, they'll just use really fun and mysterious titles that don't really say anything. And you might think, oh great, it works for them.
So I'm just going to try something like that. Like "you'll never guess what I had for breakfast this morning", right? But then that video totally tanks.
And the reason that it works for them and not for you is because they already have a super loyal audience who is coming to their channel automatically to check out their new videos and probably really actually wants to know what they had for breakfast that morning when most of us just don't really care, right? So assuming that you are not in fact a YouTube star just yet, and the primary way that people will be finding your content is through the search functionality of YouTube, which is your best friend in the beginning, then you really need to be focusing on writing SEO rich but still interesting titles, right? We're copywriters after all.
So to show you how big of a difference SEO can make, take a look at these two videos. What I find really interesting is that they basically have the same hook, which is geared towards the exact same audience. And the desired benefit is pretty much the same too.
But I used a slightly different term. I used "marketing funnel" in one, which ranked so much better than "launch plan" in the other. So the results is that the marketing funnel video ranked better and has gotten hundreds of thousands more views.
And this is why proper SEO research is really, really important. And it means you need to understand what your ideal audience is actually searching for. Now, I am not an SEO expert and you don't have to be one either.
Thankfully, there are a lot of tools out there that can make this research super easy. And we primarily use just two tools to help us do SEO and write really great titles. The first is VidIQ, and the second is TubeBuddy.
And they essentially work the same and they help you find the best keywords and search terms for your videos. And they'll even suggest, you know, titles, they'll use some AI to come up with some generative titles for you that you can try. I never copy and paste word for word, but I do like VidIQ a little bit better when it comes to keyword research because I love how easy it makes it to see how you can take a specific keyword, like let's say "start copywriting" and then turn it into all of these SEO rich terms and questions that your audience might in fact be searching for.
Now, TwoBuddy is also awesome, and I use that mainly for, you know, split testing and other data features. And it's really, really handy for all of that. So you can see that my best performing videos have a very clear and obvious keyword in the title.
But, and this is really important, we focus on one keyword per title and we don't try to cram like as many words as possible in there or related keywords as possible in the titles because then it just gets like super long-winded and it might not even make sense anymore. So focus on just one keyword that you want to put in that title. Alright, now we can get into what I think is the most fun part, and that is thumbnails.
Alright, so once you figure out the best keyword and search term to put in your title and you've crafted a interesting and appealing title, it's now time to make your thumbnail, which is really what's going to make a user want to click and watch your video. Now listen, I'm not going to pretend like the thumbnails that I'm showing you are the be all and end all, and that they're going to work, you know, like gangbusters for every single type of channel, because truly different channels have different goals. And you'll notice that in more entertainment type of channels like Mr Beast, they tend to not have you know too many words or just no words.
And instead they focus on creating a really visually interesting story or thumbnail, something that communicates like you are going to be entertained by this video. And that can be easier to do sometimes when there are stories and there's actually a lot of visuals to pull in. But for educational channels like mine, I find that this approach is kinda difficult.
Like what kind of story can I tell when I'm talking about like YouTube, you know, split test results, right? People are not coming to my channel to be entertained, although apparently a lot of people do come for that. So thank you guys.
I'm glad you find me entertaining. But most of my viewers have a very specific goal in mind, something that they're trying to learn or achieve in their own business. Whether it's how to write better YouTube titles or thumbnails like this video, how to start and grow your email list, how to plan a profitable launch or build a marketing funnel or any other number of copywriting or marketing or branding related topics.
Which means our thumbnails need to really clearly communicate, "you are going to learn something valuable that you need to know in order to, you know, x, y, z, get some benefit in this video. " And, and this is where it gets really, really hard. It needs to be done in as few words as possible, which let me tell you is easier said than done.
So our thumbnails that clearly and precisely communicate the big benefit that our viewers are looking for for us are the ones that always get the best results. So let me show you some examples. Get more sales versus this always works, right?
Get more sales is a very obvious and direct benefit that our audience is looking for. And it appeals to both the copywriters who watch my channel and the business owners who are looking to get more sales. No one really understands the benefit of this always works, right?
I mean like, what am I trying to say? Unless you read the title of the actual video. But here's the thing, most people are super fast scrollers.
They are not reading the title, they are looking at the thumbnail and that's it. Alright, here is another example. $45,000 month is more obvious at a quick glance than $45K invoice.
It also implies making money as opposed to spending money even though it is about making money. So the eyes more easily translate that benefit. And once again, it appeals to both audiences, copywriters, and business owners.
Whereas using the word invoice might speak more directly to some sort of freelancer or service-based business owner who is in fact sending a lot of invoices. Alright, here's another example. Zero to 200K is a very clear benefit.
It's communicating that if you watch this video, I'm going to show you how we took our Instagram following from zero to 200,000 followers. Whereas five tips, right, with the Instagram symbol is like, okay, cool, you're going to need some Instagram tips, but why should I care? What are the tips?
How will this actually help me? What is the benefit? And one last example to really drive this point home $1 million launch plan versus launch checklist.
So yes, they both communicate something that our viewer will definitely learn something from when they watch the video. But getting a $1 million launch plan is definitely a stronger benefit than the checklist, which again is still valuable but just less strong. It's more of a feature versus benefit situation.
All right, now when it comes to the actual design of the thumbnail, I will say we haven't split tested the design as much as we have the text just yet for this round. We've really been opting to keep the background like the exact same so that we're only testing the text in just one variable so we could get a fair comparison of what's actually working when it comes to text. And then I can share it with you.
But we are planning to roll out a new phase of our thumbnail testing really, really soon where we will keep the text the exact same. And then all we're changing is the design. And so again, we're really getting clear split test results.
And if you guys want to see that next split test report, comment below and let me know and I'll definitely do a future video on thumbnail design. So here's the thing. Even though we haven't done a ton of testing, like split testing with significant results, I have done a lot of thumbnails and I can tell you that we've made some pretty notable observations about what tends to work best.
So things like having a less busy background without a lot of like pictures and things, right? Also, the bigger the face, the better. Large faces, we're naturally drawn to faces.
Keep the text as large as possible and make sure there's a clear contrast between the text and the background. Because remember, most people are viewing these thumbnails on like teeny tiny little screens, and the thumbnails are like this big. So you really want something that's easy to read.
And that's it. So now are you ready to find out the results of the pop quiz? Of course you are.
That is why you watched this far in this video. So tell me if any of your answers have changed after watching this video and let's find out what your results are. In this test version A beat version B with a 25.
3% higher click-through rate. Now, these are both benefits, but of course, make more money is a very clear and obvious benefit than raise your rates. So to me, this winner makes perfect sense.
Hindsight's always 20/20, right? All right, now in this test version A beat version B with a 41% higher click-through rate. And I find this one super interesting because the only difference in the text between the two is the question mark.
What this subconsciously does is open a loop in the mind of the viewer and asks a rhetorical question and makes you want to click to answer that question and close that loop. And literally all it took was a question mark. That to me is absolutely wild.
Now obviously there are design element differences here a little bit. The winner had much more contrast in the background, which as I said before, we do find typically works better. So that could have contributed to those results.
Alright, in this test version B beat version A with a 19. 8% higher click through rate. So these are basically the exact same hook, just worded differently.
480K is almost half a million, but half a million sounds better, right? So again, hindsight, that winner makes sense to me now. And finally, this test version B beat version A with a 19.
7% higher click-through rate. Now this one is a little bit different because neither thumbnail is actually using a direct benefit in the hook. Maybe we should have done that, but they are both playing on that curiosity factor.
And if you want to learn the top 10 mistakes that most new YouTubers make and what you should do instead if you are looking to start or grow your channel, then you're definitely going to want to check out the next video for me. I will link to that when this one is over. Until next time, I'm Alex.
Ciao for now. Alright guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one for me right here, and you can click right here to get a free gift. If starting a YouTube channel is a goal you have for this year, then you need to watch this video pronto because I am sharing the 10 biggest mistakes that new YouTubers make and what you should do instead.
If you want to start and scale a successful channel without wasting a ton of time, keep watching.
