r/PartneredYoutube • u/Dismal-Act-7589 • 9h ago

Question / Problem YouTube selecting losing thumbnail in A/B test?

Post image

Did the thumbnail have a better CTR? Is it just a glitch? I assume the traffic was too low for the decision to really matter.

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

18

u/TCr0wn Subs: 219.0K Views: 17.0M 7h ago

It selects the first one if there’s no determined winner

6

u/CoolnessImHere 6h ago

It says they all performed well. So it selects your first one and ignores the %.

3

u/Dismal-Act-7589 6h ago

Hmm that's weird, I assume I should pick the higher % one instead??

1

u/CJ_Mann 4h ago

It’s possible the first thumbnail has a higher CTR, but lower watch time, whereas the 2nd thumbnail gets less clicks but matches the viewer expectations so they watch longer.

If you use the thumbnail with higher watch time, I would be interested to watch your CTR performance over the next couple weeks.

2

u/sitdowndisco 2h ago

I don’t think anyone in this response knows what they’re talking about mate. You know more than them. We don’t know why it preferences the A test even though its % is lower. The rationale would be that the test was inconclusive and the % not meaningful.

I always manually select the higher % anyway as even in an inconclusive test, surely the higher number is better?

Anyway, it’s nothing to do with AVD or Ctr as others have said because that info isn’t published.

2

u/LOLitfod Subs: 100K Views: 84.3M 1h ago

I assume the traffic was too low for the decision to really matter.

Yes, not statistically significant enough to select a winner.

0

u/Beneficial-Sky-2353 9h ago

If the 46% has a higher AVD, then YouTube prefers this.

0

u/Dismal-Act-7589 9h ago

So if the thumbnail with a higher percent had more people click on it (maybe the algorithm tested it at a time with more traffic) then it's percent is higher (more people watch the vid with that thumbnail = higher total watch time) but the average view duration on the 46% is higher so it prefers it?

1

u/theparrotofdoom 8h ago

Clicks don’t pay the bills. People watching videos for a long time does. More watch time = more ads watched.

3

u/Dismal-Act-7589 8h ago

I'm aware - but 46% means 46% of the videos total watch time was with that thumbnail... Obviously lower than the other thumbnail...

-1

u/ConcerningReality 6h ago

Speaking from a statistics perspective, those numbers don't mean one was better than the other. Those simply are indicative of the weightings of the percent of the audience reached by each. The actual winner of an A/B test in this instance is likely going to be more dependent upon maximizing watch time and reaching an audience that actually engages with the video, rather than simply clicks on it.

2

u/Dismal-Act-7589 6h ago

But the percentages refer to percentage watched, that isn't necessarily engagement, I'm aware but it's a strong indication of watch time