YouTube Adds Video Title Testing Option in YouTube Studio

YouTube’s announced the next stage of its thumbnail testing rollout, with more users now able to access the feature within the “Test and Compare” element in YouTube Studio, adding another means to optimize your YouTube content performance.

And it’s also now adding video title testing into the mix.

As explained by YouTube:

“We’re starting to experiment with a feature that gives creators the ability to test titles as well as thumbnails using our ‘Test & compare’ feature in Studio. We’re rolling this out to a small percentage of creators at first, but we’ll keep you posted on our plans to expand it to more creators.”

So YouTube will now let you try out titles as well, as a means to determine the most engaging, attention-grabbing elements for your video uploads.

That could be a valuable addition, providing more means to glean feedback on optimal content approaches before full publishing.

YouTube originally announced that it was developing its thumbnail A/B testing feature in June 2023, and then launched an initial test with selected creators last year.

As you can see in this example, YouTube’s thumbnail comparison testing enables channel managers to upload up to three thumbnail images, which are then sample tested with YouTube users.

As explained by YouTube:

“YouTube will show your chosen thumbnails evenly across your videos viewers and will select a winning thumbnail based on which one generates the most watch time share.”

YouTube says that it’s optimizing for watch time on this element because it believes that this metric is the best way to guide your content strategy decisions, and “support your chances of success on the platform.” In other words, YouTube wants you to focus on this element to grow your channel, which means that it’s the key thing that drives exposure and reach.

The same process will seemingly now be applied to video titles as well, giving you another feedback option to better align your content with your audience.

It could be a valuable addition, especially when you consider that top YouTubers like MrBeast spend significant amounts of time and money on thumbnail and title development, in order to maximize their video performance.

Indeed, Mr Beast claims to have a team of six people that develop and test his video thumbnails, trying out up to 20 variations for each of his clips.

Titles testing adds another aspect to this, ensuring more data-backed approaches to maximize your YouTube clips.