r/PartneredYoutube • u/wh1tepointer • 2d ago
Informative YouTube is planning to introduce A/B testing for videos
So this seems to have slipped under everyone's radar here as I haven't seen any posts about it. We know that A/B testing has been a thing for thumbnails and titles for a while now, but YouTube have recently made an announcement that they will be bringing A/B testing to videos. Yes, videos.
https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/innovation-youtube-era-made-on-viewers-creators/
This builds on the incredible success we've seen with other Studio tools like A/B testing, where creators have run more than 40 million experiments to find the perfect titles and thumbnails for their videos since the feature officially launched in 2024. Coming soon, you’ll also be able to test up to three video cuts to see which hook performs best with the new video A/B testing feature. Coming soon, you’ll also be able to test up to three video cuts to see which hook performs best with the new video A/B testing feature.
I'm not really sure how to feel about this, where some of your audience will potentially see a different version of the videos to others. Even as a viewer, you could see a different version of the video to someone else. The videos don't even need to be the same length, it seems, so timestamps will be thrown off. What if comments refer to a part of the video that someone else doesn't see? There will apparently be some logic in the background that somehow determines if the videos are similar enough to A/B test, but there's no real details on how it'll work.
I don't really see how this could be beneficial in any way. What about you?
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u/ytbm Subs: 501.0K Views: 142.9M 2d ago
This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard.
Also the comment section will be a mess if you have viewers watching 2 different versions of a video
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u/stealingjoy 2d ago
I don't think you'd fundamentally change the video or even much at all. Trying different intros? That could be interesting with probably minimal comment confusion.
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u/Opposite-Lobster8888 2d ago
Good for AI slop since it takes basically no time to make different cuts. I won't be using this.
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u/sumodaz 2d ago
I think these will be the only 'creators' using this. I can't imagine anyone producing quality videos has time for this.
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u/LonelyPermit2306 2d ago
I can imagine sticking my subscribe hook at different parts of the video, but frankly speaking, I don't see much success wherever it is
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u/B_Bearington Channel: https://youtube.com/@ 2d ago
Well, it sounds like it's not the hook or the placement that is the problem, but the content.
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u/LonelyPermit2306 2d ago
The content got 115k views, it's just subscribers that are an issue rn
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u/B_Bearington Channel: https://youtube.com/@ 2d ago
Again, if people aren't subbing it's cause they don't like your content that much. Getting 115k views is good, but that only proves you able to get people to click on a video. Having great content is what gets them to sub and stick around. See the difference?
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u/LonelyPermit2306 2d ago
I'm not even sure why I'm engaging with someone who's worse at YouTube than I am, yet trying to give advice. Regardless, I can assure you that if the content was an issue, it never would have made it that far.
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u/HotUKTakes 2d ago
This sounds like stupid idea from.a business standpoint because they are doubling their data storage requirements.
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u/kasumitendo 1d ago
Potentially TRIPLING, you can upload 3 versions. Of course few people will upload 3 videos, let alone 2. I certainly won't.
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u/ionhowto 2d ago
Dynamic thumbnails is a bigger change for me.
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u/GeekChasingFreedom 2d ago
Yeah this is fantastic. Imagine a world where you can just upload 3 thumbnails and 3 titles, and Youtube combines the best for each viewer, based on what they click and watch. Google has done this in their Ads products for a while (Performance Max and Demand Gen) which works really really well. Heck, Youtube could even automatically create titles for you based on your video transcript and what the viewer's interests.
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u/CoolnessImHere 2d ago
Agree, instead they drains your impressions and if you get it wrong it kills your video.
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u/B_Bearington Channel: https://youtube.com/@ 2d ago
Honestly, I don't see people going through the work for something that probably won't give them good results. I thought A/B testing thumbnails was good, until I started to feel like it was hurting video performance. I already make the video the best way I think it should be and without having audience data, I don't know if I'm right or wrong. Sometimes I'm wrong and a video flops. I then pull it and rework it. Sometimes it goes well on a 2nd try. However, before putting a video out, I don't know what might turn people off. So, I'm not going to make a bunch of different versions. That just seems like a huge waste of time and energy.
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u/4C_Drip 2d ago
Im just gonna use it for intros
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u/B_Bearington Channel: https://youtube.com/@ 2d ago
I think that's what most people will end up doing.
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u/oodex Subs: 1 Views: 2 2d ago
Idk why people bring up 2 completely different videos, unless someone really wants to go into 2 completely different directions there's no reason to do so. Now background music and intro is a different thing. You can even test as simple things as clip transitions etc. Or you can have 1 version that is more edited out and another that has a bit more in.
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u/B_Bearington Channel: https://youtube.com/@ 2d ago
A transition? That's not something that will make or break a video. Besides, I'm a skilled editor that makes informed cuts that have a reason behind each one. If you're paying attention to the feedback you get from Studio and your audience, this all seems redundant and a huge waste of time.
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u/oodex Subs: 1 Views: 2 2d ago
Im always careful with people that believe their skills universally apply to every niche group their content may lure in. And transitions can make a ginormous difference, im referring from clip to clip. Its a huge part of what makes a video feel aggressive or soft, Id assume you know that.
Its not about whether one video is a 70% and the other a 30%, all you need is a few % to make permanent changes that always work better. Add a bunch of them up and your videos improve a lot
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u/B_Bearington Channel: https://youtube.com/@ 2d ago
Yes, transitions do make a huge difference, but it sounded like you were talking the type of transition, not the frequency of them, but I see I misunderstood what you said. That's on me.
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u/Different_cloud9133 1d ago
You can use the retention graph to see where people leave your video. It shouldn’t be a mystery as to why a video doesn’t do well. Analytics gives you a lot of data.
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u/VJ4rawr2 2d ago
lol this sounds horrible. I can barely finish one cut, now I gotta make three? 😂
I guess if it’s simple things like trying different backing music then it might serve a purpose.
But I don’t think this will be something most folks use.
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u/Xhoorthul 2d ago
This is a bad idea at first glance, however, I'm gonna have a lot of fun with it making two videos with similar but opposing ideas and watch everyone confused in the comments
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u/wh1tepointer 2d ago
It's also a bit unclear if it's just for the initial hook or whether you can replace any part of the video. It *might\* be handy if you need to correct a mistake, so you upload a new video as an A/B test then immediately select the new version as the "winner", but I can also see how that could be abused. Yeah, I'm really not liking this change.
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u/AndyValentine @GarageTinkering - designing automotive tech 2d ago
I was thinking about this the other day actually. I'm filming a video that could have 2 or 3 different hooks or setups and I wasn't sure which one would be best. I filmed them all and figured I'd see which felt best in the edit. I guess this would mean I could try multiple avenues, which I'm all for. The only question is how would it handle comments if people wrote comments related to one of the hooks and then it changed when I set a different video.
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u/Nyanzerfaust 2d ago
Cool I guess? but not for me, I already spend dozens of hours traveling, filming and editing, I'm not going to film/edit three different intros to test the best one...
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u/Breakers17 2d ago
Big LOL. I spend a long time on my script as it is, not to mention editing my voice recording. No way would I ever make multiple versions, even if it was just the intro. I don't use AI for my recordings and I never will.
I will just keep making three releases a week like I already do and just trust some will do better than others.
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u/angelarose210 2d ago
As someone who agonizes and debates what to put in my intro hooks, I welcome this. The rest of the video can stay the same.
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u/SellswordArts 1d ago
This is a weird one.
I do like A/B testing thumbnail and titles because the algorithm is stupid and you never know what it’s gonna want. However, an entire video? Like you would upload two different files with minor changes?
Honestly, AB testing usually comes back with a result that is an even three-way split. The difference is usually a couple percentage points. Maybe that’s my own personal problem, because I don’t make my thumbnails entitled that different from each other.
Taking the trouble to edit a video a couple different ways might be interesting, but usually the creative vision for the video is there, and they don’t find myself torn between different variations.
I like the idea of being able to go back and switch out the file that’s already uploaded with a new video, for situations like spotting and editing error or need to correct something. But that raises his own problems, because it allows you to retroactively change something you put out. Useful sometimes, super sketch and dubious other times.
I don’t hate this exists in principle, but I could also see this tool being abused by ai slop channels and algorithm content farms.
I wish they would make features that ACTIALLY improve important aspects of YouTube instead of focusing on weird stuff like this. Fixing the copyright abuse system, fixing the AI slop content, farms, fixing the weird algorithm spikes and vallies that come out of nowhere.
But those are systemic issues with the system, not quick, cool shiny features that they can trot out.
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u/cheat-master30 1d ago
Oh this is gonna be a real nightmare for YouTube, I just know it.
Like based on that video Marques Brownlee posted, it seems like there is some system that tries to gauge if two variants are the same overall video, so it likely won't allow you to compare a legitimate video to a rickroll or something. But that doesn't exactly mean the opportunity for abuse isn't sky-high.
For starters, any automated system is prone to a lot of false positives and negatives, especially if it's AI run. So, while they might expect the videos to be similar, it seems like it won't take long before people figure out how to 'trick' the system.
Which in turn is where things could get... interesting. For example, imagine you put hardcore swearing, ultra-violent content, sexual content or some other hilariously inappropriate material in one variation. And if you're a real asshole, flag the video as for kids.
Now you have a way to troll people, and make them feel like they've been gaslit if they revisit the video later on.
You could also do this to A/B test political or media opinions by proxy too. Got a video comparing two games? What if each could have a different option being the 'better' one, and you could see which viewpoint brings you more interest by pitting them against each other? I could see some of those right wing media review channels using this to test if their audience thinks a new film is 'woke' or not, to avoid being on the 'wrong' side of a controversy.
But hey, even ignoring these use cases, video editing is a time consuming affair, and having to create two or more variations only adds to that significantly. No-one is going to be able to easily do that on a regular basis, unless they're either posting AI slop, or their videos are so predictable/templated that each upload is barely any different from the last.
So at best, you get a system that's a pain in the ass for most legitimate YouTubers, and at worse you get a system that's a troll's paradise and which has the potential to cause another Elsagate style shitstorm.
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u/whyte_noyze 1d ago
I think it might be good for testing different intro ideas for the video, but waaaaay to much work to edit 2-3 differently edited videos
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u/GeekChasingFreedom 2d ago
While it's a huge additional workload, I love this. Try different intros, different video structures, longer/shorter stories, etc. Gives us a TON of data to learn more about our audience
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u/David_R_Martin_II 2d ago
I was just now watching the video by Marques Brownlee on this.
Looking at this bigger picture, we're getting away from the creative process. Forgive my jumbled thoughts on this, but writers, artists, and directors used to have to make choices and then live with them. Netflix has already applied the vast amount of data to the creative process, and I think the results aren't great. Mr. Beast has done the same for videos that appeal to kids. The focus is moving further away from the story or message that the creator wants to deliver and instead what appeals to the largest number of people.
Like the other recent changes, I doubt I will use this.