What is A/B Testing and How Does it Help? [A/B Testing for YouTube Thumbnails]

A/B Testing

A/B testing, by my definition, is where you are trying to advertise one thing, but are showcasing it two different ways, and figuring out which way of advertising brings in the bigger audience over the other.

This helps in a big way because you may like sticking to one way of advertising something because that is always the way you have been doing things or it may just be because you like how it looks. In this instance, that's not always the case. Sometimes, different visuals appeal to the audience in different ways than one might think. For instance, I have been making YouTube videos now for almost 10 years and I've never stopped doing it because it is fun and exciting! There have been some times where I can't choose a thumbnail and I will end up having two different versions that I like, but can't choose by myself.

TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy, which is a great source to use on YouTube, gives some more insight into what you should look out for when doing an A/B test. One important thing to note that they mention is that even if you do an A/B test with the same video and different thumbnails, you will definitely get different results every time because every person is active different times of the day and different days of the week which will change your results a lot.

So, when making a YouTube thumbnail, each part of the uploaded video gets put into consideration: The title of the video, the description you added that most of the time describes what the video is about, and the tags. By tags, I mean short terms that a person searches for on the search bar in YouTube that helps them to find your videos.

Take into consideration, if you were a YouTuber that makes videos that are focused towards younger kids, you would want to make the thumbnails colorful and have the cartoon characters they love somewhere on the thumbnails too. If you were to make a different thumbnail that did not have anything at all that kids liked on it, and it was black and white, there is no way that they would want to click on a thumbnail that didn't make them happy.

You may have thought that I forgot to mention how A/B testing helps. Well, don't worry, that's where I'm getting to right now.

 

How Does This All Help?

The way A/B testing helps, whether it is for digital marketing advertisements on websites or if it is for comparing how different thumbnails bring in different audiences on your YouTube channel's videos, they both basically are doing the same thing. They are comparing CTRs. A CTR is short for click-through-rate and that is determined by how many people out there see your ad and click it because they want to learn more about your advertisement. CTRs are the most basic thing A/B tests start analyzing. The next thing they look for is where and when your audience is clicking your ad from. Every person, as I said before, is active during different times and days of the week, so the results will still differ every time. Say, if your main audience on YouTube watches your videos mostly on Friday nights at 5:00 PM CT, then that's when you would want to upload your videos because if you were to upload your videos any other time of the day or on a different day, even with the thumbnail that would have grabbed their attention, it won't bring in as many people because they are not expecting you to release anything on a different time schedule than what you have already planned.

Lastly, I know I have not mentioned this at all yet, but the last thing that gets put into consideration is the different traffic sources that your advertisements get put on. Not only do my YouTube videos send out notifications to my subscribers that I uploaded a video, but it also sends out a tweet to my Twitter too for anybody that follows me on there so they will also know I just uploaded new content. Continuing the A/B test through different sources, you will still get different results because your audience won't know what to think right away since they usually know how your thumbnails are designed and if they look different from usual, there will be less CTRs.

If you take all of these considerations into mind, then you will be able to successfully create an advertisement (or YouTube thumbnail) that will appeal to your audience the way you want.

How to Create Successful Blog Posts [5 Important Blog Post Recommendations]

When a person starts off thinking about creating a blog, they will usually come to the conclusion that it will take forever to make one, and on top of that, it will also be impossible to keep up with the content that they are creating. I'm here to tell you how you can create a successful blog with my five best recommendations on how to catch a reader's attention.

1. Create an Eye-Catching Blog Name

In order for a person to attract attention, the first thing you need to do is create a name for your blog that readers will remember. The name of my blog is "Jacob's Corner". I think it's best if you keep your blog's name simple because if it's hard to remember it yourself, then your readers will only have an even harder time trying to remember what it was called also.

2. Write about Things People Are Unaware Of Yet

It might sound strange to mention something like this, but no one in the whole universe knows everything about everything. The only person, and by person, I mean superior being, that should and does know about everything ever is our Almighty God!

To start off, do some research on what is currently trending right now on the internet. Not one thing stays trending on the internet forever. Most items or ideas will go through a fad and then disappear forever. For instance, virtual reality devices, like the Oculus Rift S, aren't as popular right now because it costs too much money for the public to afford. If they were able to find out more on what those VR devices offered, then the public would most likely be more receptive of the price and be more willing to give them a try.

3. Narrow down Your Blog Post Topics

Just like with the blog name being eye-catching, you need to look from the readers' perspective and ask yourself if the topic you chose for your post will make readers want to read more after just reading that. To give more insight into what I mean, HubSpot Academy gives us this idea: When you pick a topic, do not just use a generic one like "running shoes", you need to narrow it down to even better titles like "best running shoes for marathons" or "lifetime of running shoes". It gives more character to your post and it also shows that you spent your time doing research for your blog's post and did not just put something together thoughtlessly because you felt like you had to.

4. Slow Your Roll on Trying to Solve Everything Right Away

Once you find your topic that you would like to talk about in your blog post, make sure that you slow down and take your time explaining what exactly it is that you would like the reader to know and learn. If you try and tell them everything all at once, it will start to get confusing and the reader will not know how to interpret what it is you are saying to hem and they will most likely look elsewhere for insight on the topic they are researching.

Try to explain what you would like to get across to the readers in thought-out steps. For instance, on my YouTube channel, Mariojacob7red, I have tried making my own How-To videos because the ones I have researched and used before were not very detailed on what I should be expecting to see when doing what I was doing. What I did was I decided make videos of the same type that those other YouTubers made, but I wanted to make sure I added the needed details that they left out and thought was unnecessary to show and tell us and it still helps viewers to this day.

[My example of a video where I explain in detail what to do.]

5. Make it Look Good!

Lastly, you need to make your whole entire blog look amazing and to where it will draw in more people to read your blog and its posts. What I do for anything I make is I love using vibrant or vivid colors! An example of where I utilize this is my YouTube channel. Along with making sure I get my point across in the thumbnails, I believe adding color to those posts will draw in more viewers. This is also how I think blogs and YouTube videos work in a similar way.

Besides using colors, the way you have your blog laid out is also another key factor in attracting new readers to read your posts. I kind of like how the old Google Sites website worked because you used to be able to set your website up however you wanted. Designing it the way you want is what makes your blog and the content it has unique from everyone else's and nobody can copy you exactly because you are you!

If you follow these five simple steps, then I guarantee that you will be able to create a successful blog!

Happy blogging!

Sources used for research in this post:

https://www.theminimalists.com/blog/