How to Run a Youtube Thumbnail A/B Test

To run a thumbnail test using YouTube's native thumbnail feature, first go to Content over on the left side. This is from inside of YouTube studio. Find the video you want to run the test for. Click on the little pencil icon. And then from inside of here, here's where you can add thumbnails if you haven't already. Click on the Options button, click on Test and Compare. And here's where you can add your different thumbnails. So I'm going to add a second one by finding it on my computer, dragging it in and dropping it, and I'm going to add a third one. And you can also click on that arrow and browse through your computer to find it that way. And once you've gotten three thumbnails set, click Done. And you can see that it's got the three different thumbnails. A little preview of all three. And this test is going to run for 14 days, two full weeks. So you're not going to get results until then. You will get some results in the meantime, but it won't pick a winner until the test is completed. The other thing to know is this test might not start right away. Sometimes it says your video is ineligible for a few hours, but it will start within a couple hours. And then the last step is to come up and click the save button in the top right. And once you've done that, your test will go live.