[0:00] I've just been given access to 
a new YouTube feature that is  
[0:02] going to create so many extra 
views for so many YouTubers,
[0:05] and that is title A/B testing.
[0:08] Now, if you don't know, for about a year 
now, YouTube has had thumbnail A/B testing.
[0:12] This means you can put two and up to three 
different thumbnails on the same video,
[0:16] and YouTube will tell you which is 
giving you the highest watch time.
[0:20] Now, I've used thumbnail AB testing a lot,
[0:22] creating various different 
thumbnails with minor changes
[0:25] so that I can work out which one 
is actually best for my video,
[0:28] and it's been very useful.
[0:30] But one thing that has remained a mystery through 
my entire YouTube career is YouTube titles.
[0:36] When I've had a video not perform 
very well, I've updated the title.
[0:40] But I've never known if that title change has 
actually helped or hindered my video performance.
[0:46] So recently I did a Geoguessr in real life video  
[0:49] where I was blindfolded and 
taken to a random location;
[0:52] I had to try and work out where I was.
[0:54] So this is the original title that 
I had when the video came out.
[0:56] And also you can see I had a 
different thumbnail as well,
[0:58] but the video didn't perform that well.
[1:00] So yes, I was trying different thumbnails,
[1:02] but I also tried changing the title and the 
video still wasn't performing how I wanted.
[1:06] So I changed the title back to 
what I had it as originally.
[1:09] And then I changed it one more time.
[1:11] This time going with Geogessur 
in real life all caps.
[1:14] Now, each time I changed the title, 
I was kind of just having to look  
[1:16] at the video's views and guess 
whether or not it was helping.
[1:20] I had literally no idea.
[1:21] This is something I've always done.
[1:22] So, the end of 2023, I released this 
video where I did a little collab with  
[1:26] KSI and I helped him get a Guinness World Record,
[1:29] and I also got him to sign my diamond play button.
[1:31] Once again, the video didn't do that well, 
so I tweaked the title ever so slightly.
[1:35] Then, I changed it again trying to 
like get a bit more drama involved.
[1:39] Then, I changed it back 
because it didn't really help.
[1:42] And then months later, I changed 
it to something totally different,  
[1:45] and I updated the thumbnail as well.
[1:46] And you can see this is a process 
that took place over many months  
[1:50] of me just stressing about what 
I should be titling my videos.
[1:53] So, this is just something I've always been doing.
[1:55] But finally, after years of YouTubers 
like me requesting this feature,
[2:00] I have been given early 
access to AB title testing.
[2:04] So, in this video, we are going some old 
school JackSucksAtLife analytics content,
[2:08] and I'm going to be running a bunch of different  
[2:10] title AB tests and then getting 
the results in 2 weeks time.
[2:14] So, let's start off with this recent video: I 
trained like a professional athlete for 30 days.
[2:18] If you haven't seen it, it's 
fairly self-explanatory;  
[2:20] I just did a load of cardio and strength 
training every single day for 1 month.
[2:25] Now, this video had a promising start and it was 
doing quite well after the first couple of days.
[2:29] But then, for whatever reason, after the 
first week, things really slowed down.
[2:34] So, let's see if we can bring 
things back to life with an AB test.
[2:37] Now, it is pretty cool this feature 
because it's not only titles,
[2:41] you can also test different 
thumbnail and title combinations.
[2:45] Like, that's really useful.
[2:46] But for now, I am quite happy with 
this minorly obnoxious thumbnail.
[2:49] Now, I think what would be really 
interesting to see is are we actually  
[2:52] getting anything out of these little 
brackets that I sometimes put in titles.
[2:56] So, let's literally find out today by having a 
title that doesn't have anything in brackets.
[3:00] And then I'm also going to try a 
totally different title as well.
[3:03] So, let's go with... what should I say?
[3:05] "What happens when you do strength 
training and cardio every day?"
[3:10] Is that how you spell every 
day? Or is it its own word?
[3:13] I really should know that.
[3:14] Yeah, it is all one word actually.
[3:15] Instead of "and", let's go all caps and like that.
[3:18] See, this is just so totally different.
[3:21] But it'd be really interesting 
to see if a title that sounds  
[3:23] a little bit too niche and like blah blah blah.
[3:25] Maybe that would actually 
help the video perform better.
[3:28] So, let's set up the test, I am 
pretty excited to see what happens.
[3:31] So, let's click save and let's do our next one.
[3:34] All right, next up is the 
"Geogussr in real life" [video].
[3:36] So, you can see I already have 
an AB test with my thumbnail,
[3:40] and it does seem like this one is 
significantly better, so I think we'll use it.
[3:43] And now, let's do a title test.
[3:44] So, we'll leave the all caps really simple, quite 
old school YouTube "Geogussr in real life" title.
[3:49] And now we'll try something totally different 
that might go with the new thumbnail.
[3:52] "Blindfolded and abandoned":
[3:54] Quite dramatic already, I admit.
[3:56] "Can I find out where I am?"
[3:59] Oh, I don't like that title, but 
at least I'll definitively know;
[4:03] maybe it would actually be better.
[4:04] Maybe let's say, "can I find out my location?"
[4:08] Nah, that doesn't sound - 
that's a terrible title, Jack.
[4:10] Let's try "I played Geogesser, but in real life".
[4:17] Yeah, get a little exclamation point on the end.
[4:19] And this is the original title that I went with, 
but I'm not sure it works for my new thumbnail.
[4:23] But you know what? Seeing as we 
can, we're shoving it in anyway.
[4:25] And then maybe I could mess with the 
thumbnail again if it does seem to work.
[4:29] Okay, there you go.
[4:29] So, this next video is a video where 
I explored London landmarks and I  
[4:33] walked to every single one of them in one day.
[4:35] You can see I did a thumbnail test where 
I add a little timer to the top left;
[4:38] It didn't really make much of a difference.
[4:40] So, now we're going to do a title test.
[4:41] "I walked to every London landmark in 
24 hours". That is the current title,
[4:45] but now we're going to do quite a simple change.
[4:47] Instead of walked, we're going to say "I visited".
[4:51] I'm just curious, maybe people 
don't care about the walking aspect.
[4:54] Maybe people are just 
interested in London in general.
[4:56] But then we are going to pause 
a question title as well.
[4:59] "Can I walk to every London 
landmark in 24 hours?".
[5:06] Okay, set test, baby.
[5:07] Don't know why I said baby. Sorry, guys.
[5:09] All right, here's another 
video that didn't do very well.
[5:12] This was my worst performing video in a while.
[5:14] But in all fairness, it is just me trying 
to jump over a fence for 10 minutes.
[5:20] I had an AB test running 
where I had a little timer.
[5:23] It does turn out that this one 
actually performs slightly better,
[5:26] but it looks like the new one has been 
set, so let's swap it to this one.
[5:30] This is another video where I 
tried a couple of different titles,
[5:32] but I didn't know at the time if they helped.
[5:34] So, let's bring some of those back.
[5:36] So, we have the current one, "Can 
I learn to parkour in 1 hour?".
[5:38] Then, we have "learning how to 
parkour over fences in 1 hour".
[5:42] And finally, "I learned how to jump 
over fences like in the movies".
[5:45] Because if you actually watch the video 
at the beginning, I do reference Hot Fuzz.
[5:48] "What's the matter, Danny? You 
never taken a shortcut before".
[5:51] Now, this is such a weird, nerdy little title,  
[5:53] and normally I wouldn't be bold enough 
to actually set it as the only title,
[5:57] but when I actually can literally experiment, 
it's quite freeing to know that I can just  
[6:01] give something a try, and YouTube will 
just get rid of it if it doesn't work.
[6:05] Here's another AB test I did.
[6:07] So, this is a video where I did only 
push-ups and pull-ups for 30 days.
[6:10] Now, these thumbnails are so unbelievably similar,  
[6:13] but I think the difference is I enhanced 
some of the features on my body in this one.
[6:19] Like you can see there's just a little 
bit more definition around my upper peck.
[6:22] It's such a minute change, but I was just 
curious to see would that create more watch time.
[6:26] And apparently it did actually 
create like 2 to 3% extra.
[6:30] But anyway, we're now going 
to do a new title test.
[6:32] So I do think this title is quite good.
[6:34] And the video did get I think like 
700,000 views, which is great.
[6:37] But hey, maybe it could get a million views 
with a new title, so it's always worth trying.
[6:40] So let's get rid of "And 
this happened to my body".
[6:43] And instead, let's bring back
[6:45] "amazing results".
[6:47] And then I'm just going to leave it at these two.
[6:49] But if this one wins, well,
[6:50] let's get a little exclamation 
point in there. There you go. Nice.
[6:52] But if this wins, I'll test it again,  
[6:54] but I'll put "amazing results" and 
then I'll put "surprising results".
[6:58] So yeah, once you've got a winning title, 
that doesn't mean you stop there. You can  
[7:02] then try that winning title with 
a variation on that winning title.
[7:05] Oh, it just goes forever.
[7:06] So I have another video I'm incredibly proud of.
[7:09] "What happens if you walk 100,000 steps in a day?"
[7:11] This did well. 600,000 views, but it 
was like such an adventure and such  
[7:16] an accomplishment that I would love 
to get closer to a million views.
[7:19] So, let's do a title AB test.
[7:21] Oh, you can see, look at my thumbnail 
test that I've been doing as well.
[7:24] So, I was trying different text next to it,  
[7:26] but it didn't seem like any of 
them made much of a difference.
[7:28] So, the original is "what happens if 
you walk 100,000 steps in a day?",
[7:31] but we'll also have "can you 
walk 100,000 steps in a day?" and
[7:35] "what happens to your body if 
you walk 100,000 steps in a day?"
[7:38] because the "happens to your body" meta that I've 
had in a few other titles has done quite well.
[7:42] So, I thought I'd try in this one, too.
[7:44] All right, now we're going to try an older 
JackSucksAtLife video that is still getting views.
[7:48] So, this is "I bought a $1,500 
YouTube channel and earned [blank]"
[7:52] So, you can see I've done a 
thumbnail test on this fella as well.
[7:55] I tried having an arrow and not having one.
[7:57] And we can see without the red arrow, we 
generated an extra percent or so of watch time.
[8:02] YouTube's an amazing job and 
it's obviously a lot of fun,
[8:05] but I can understand at the same time how 
people get bogged down in these kind of  
[8:10] analytics because, you know, there is 
so much to fiddle with if you want to.
[8:14] So, this is the current title, which has 
brought us a colossal amount of views;
[8:18] It's one of the most popular videos on my channel.
[8:20] So, this is a working title.
[8:21] There's no reason to try anything 
different. But hey, who knows?
[8:25] We might think that we're at 
the the peak of the mountain,  
[8:28] but maybe the peak's all the way up here.
[8:30] So, what title variation could I try?
[8:32] What if instead of it being 
blank, I actually put a number?
[8:36] Yeah, we're doing it.
[8:37] We are changing it to $15,000.
[8:40] I mean, I think the blank one would be 
better, but I'm curious to find out.
[8:44] So, let's set the test up.
[8:45] Okay, I now have title test running 
on seven different YouTube videos.
[8:49] So, I guess we will leave it about 10 days or 
so and then we can take a look at the results.
[8:55] Okay, here we are 10 days later and I'm 
excited to take a look at some data.
[8:59] Did that - it rhymed, didn't it?
[9:00] So, you can see we've got a few AB tests still 
running - let's just go from top to bottom.
[9:04] So, starting with my athlete video 
and here are the current results.
[9:07] And there is actually some differences; 
It's not just an even 33% split.
[9:13] This is almost a 6% higher watch time share.
[9:15] And the only difference is that I've 
put in brackets "amazing results".
[9:19] So it just shows that that 
kind of style does work.
[9:22] Now what we can also see is that my totally 
different title has also performed quite nicely.
[9:27] So rather than just letting this 
continue for the next 4 days,  
[9:30] I'm actually going to go ahead and 
remove the worst performing title,
[9:33] so that we can just let these 
two remaining ones battle it out.
[9:36] Oh, it's deleted it. What - what was me 
good title? I've genuinely forgotten it.
[9:41] I think it was something like that,  
[9:42] I'll check once this recording 
stopped and I'll change it if not.
[9:45] So, let's go ahead and set this up as a new test.
[9:48] Now, my Geogessr in real life video I am curious  
[9:50] about because I've been struggling 
with that one a bit as I mentioned.
[9:54] So, we do have some discrepancies again.
[9:56] We have Geogessr in real life 
all caps, the really simple one  
[10:00] has performed with an extra 3% watch time 
share compared to both of these versions.
[10:05] Now, these are two titles that I tried 
originally and then I did change to this one.
[10:09] This was before the test, so that means I 
must have made the right decision there.
[10:13] Now, I'm once again going to do a 
new test with the winning title.
[10:16] And what we'll do is we will try these brackets 
that I've heard such good things about.
[10:20] I'm going to go ahead and put "Lost in the UK".
[10:24] It's a bit of a weird one, but 
hey, I've got title AB tested now.
[10:27] I can just throw as much as I want at 
the wall and see if anything sticks.
[10:30] Next up was my walking to every London landmark.
[10:34] So, let's have a look. All right, 33%,  
[10:36] 34%, and 31%. So, which is the 
one that performed the worst?
[10:40] "Can I walk to every London landmark in 24 hours?"
[10:43] So, it seems like people aren't as 
interested in the question mark.
[10:47] Okay, we'll see if that's a 
running theme with my other tests.
[10:50] And we can see that these two are very 
close, so it's not made a huge difference.
[10:53] However, saying visited instead of walked 
has actually added about an extra percent.
[11:00] So, we'll keep the walked and visited, 
but we'll get rid of the question,
[11:03] and instead I'm adding an "I tried" to visit 
every London landmark in 24 hours. Let's
[11:09] whack an ellipsis on the end as well. Very nice.
[11:11] So, that's a new test. We'll see how 
things are looking in a few more days.
[11:15] Next up was my push-ups and pull-ups video.
[11:17] And we can see not very much of a difference.
[11:20] This is so close that it doesn't feel 
like there's any kind of correlation;
[11:24] It just feels like stuff's been 
split in two kind of equally.
[11:27] So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to 
go ahead and introduce a third option:
[11:31] "I did only push-ups and pull-ups 
for 30 days. It changed everything".
[11:37] Oh, let's put a full stop on 
the end. Let's go crazy with it.
[11:40] And this is not clickbait,  
[11:41] by the way. It was actually a very effective 
and simple workout, you can watch the video.
[11:45] So, let's start that new test.
[11:46] Next up is my 100,000 steps in a 
day video. And here are the results.
[11:51] There is definitely a loser, 
and that's this middle fella:
[11:54] "Can you walk 100,000 steps in a day?"
[11:56] No one cares.
[11:57] But "what happens to your body if 
you walk 100,000 steps in a day?"
[12:00] We've got an extra 4% compared to this one. And 
then this one's also somewhere in the middle.
[12:06] I think this is the title I had originally, right?
[12:08] So, we do have a new winner. So, let's do a 
new test and get rid of this middle fella.
[12:12] Yeah, I'm just going to leave it on these 
two and we'll let them battle it out.
[12:15] Isn't it interesting how these 
minute changes are actually  
[12:19] equating to a minute or two extra watch time?
[12:22] Like a 5% difference is kind of 
significant when all I've done is  
[12:25] inserted the words to your body in 
the middle of an existing sentence.
[12:29] All right, next up, my parkour video. So, 
I tried a few weird titles on this one,
[12:33] and it looks like there's another case of them  
[12:34] all being quite close and none 
really making a big difference.
[12:37] What could be happening here is this video hasn't 
really been getting many views for a while.
[12:42] So, potentially there's not enough people clicking 
on it to really get much data back from it.
[12:47] So, we do have a winner currently. It 
is just the plain simple original one.
[12:51] And for now, as I can't think of anything 
else to try, we will just leave it there.
[12:55] But let's not forget, we still have this video,  
[12:57] which is one of my most 
popular at 5.3 million views.
[13:01] And this is still getting like 
about 50,000 views a month.
[13:04] So, our test report should come 
back with a nice amount of data,  
[13:07] all we did was add an actual number 
as opposed to leaving it blank.
[13:11] Ooh. Okay. So, we do have a winner, 51%,  
[13:15] and it is actually the one with 
the money included in the title.
[13:20] So, as these percentages are too close,  
[13:22] I think I'm just going to leave this to 
run and maybe we'll see a fluctuation.
[13:26] It is interesting that the 
non-blank one is currently winning.
[13:28] But it has reminded me I have another video from  
[13:30] a few years ago that also has this 
similar blank finance title format.
[13:36] Now, you can see I did a thumbnail 
test on this well over a year ago,  
[13:38] and it turns out that the badly pixelated 
money as opposed to it being completely  
[13:43] blank actually contributed quite a 
significant amount to extra watch time.
[13:47] So, I'm going to start a new test. 
And I'm actually going to add the  
[13:51] exact amount that is featured in the thumbnail.
[13:54] There you go.
[13:54] And now we'll be able to have two 
different case studies where I'm  
[13:57] testing this blank number versus actual number.
[14:01] And we can see does the 
actual number win both times.
[14:04] So, there you go. Let's set the new test.
[14:06] Okay, we've settled on a few titles. 
We've done a few further tests. So,  
[14:10] I'm once again just going to give it another 
few days and see if there's anything new.
[14:14] All right, it's time for 
the final update on results.
[14:17] And I've actually left it an extra two weeks 
since the last recording you've just watched,
[14:21] because I really wanted to give 
the data time to do its thing
[14:24] and it was worth it.
[14:25] My athlete video test has ended 
with a significant winner and it's
[14:29] "what happens when you do strength 
training and cardio every day?".
[14:32] I thought this would be a way less 
exciting title than "training like a  
[14:35] professional athlete for 30 days", but you 
can see the results are quite significant.
[14:40] Look at this, we have a winner. How exciting.
[14:42] This has been a great example 
of just doing multiple tests  
[14:45] a few times in order to get the 
most efficient title possible.
[14:49] Like I'm almost thinking maybe I 
should hire somebody to just do  
[14:53] constant AB title tests across all of my channels.
[14:56] And speaking of my other 
channels on JackSucksAtStuff,  
[14:58] I've been running some tests as well.
[15:00] So I did a video playing a new neil.fun game.
[15:03] I tried slightly different titles 
and even a different thumbnail,
[15:06] but there was still a clear 
winner - 35% watch time share.
[15:10] And then I did a Reddit video 
also on JackSucksAtStuff and  
[15:12] you can see once again these 
two they're, you know, fine,
[15:16] but this title definitely contributed 
to quite a bit more watch time.
[15:20] I absolutely love AB title tests, It is 
an amazing new feature, it is so useful.
[15:26] In the end, my "Geoguessr in real life" 
test finished with an inconclusive result,  
[15:29] so trying the brackets didn't really 
seem to make much of a difference.
[15:32] Now the walking to every London landmark 
video has had very interesting results:
[15:37] 23%
[15:38] 24%
[15:40] 51% - this is the biggest difference by far,
[15:43] and it is basically a hybrid of 
the previous tests that I did.
[15:46] This is a massive difference, 
it's like twice as successful.
[15:50] We got rid of the word "walking"; we added 
the word "tried"; and we've got a great title.
[15:54] Now, here are the final 
results for the parkour video:
[15:57] It finished without a conclusive result,
[15:58] but this is still a winner, so 
I'm going to choose this option.
[16:01] I'm not sure why I didn't 
pick that one automatically.
[16:02] In the end, my push-ups and pull-up video under 
the titles didn't really change very much.
[16:07] There's still a winner, but it's pretty close.
[16:09] I'm going to set it as this one anyway.
[16:10] Oh, the 100,000 steps video 
has had a big difference.
[16:14] I added the phrase "to your body ",
[16:15] and it's created a 60% watch time share.
[16:19] That's the biggest we've had so far.
[16:21] All right, let's get an update 
on our numbers in the title test.
[16:24] Okay, so once the test had enough time to run,  
[16:27] there wasn't very much of a 
difference: 49 compared to 51.
[16:30] However, the one with the actual 
amount in the title did win and  
[16:34] YouTube has now chosen this as the winning title.
[16:37] Let's see if that also is the 
case with our other video.
[16:40] Uh, no, it isn't. It actually 
is the opposite result.
[16:43] 52% with the blank title, compared to 47% 
with the one where I actually put the amount.
[16:50] So, that's opposite results across those two.
[16:52] So, no conclusive info on that one.
[16:55] But on that note, I am 
going to end off this video.
[16:58] And you better believe I am going to be doing some  
[17:00] serious title tests on this 
video that you've watched.
[17:03] So, I'm excited to see the results, maybe 
I'll do a community post, look out for that.
[17:07] I'm going to continue doing title 
AB tests across all of my channels,  
[17:10] I think it's one of the best new features 
that YouTube have released in years.
[17:15] Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed this good 
old-fashioned JackSucksAtLife analytics video.
[17:19] hat's that? There's a play button 
video coming up next. Is it 2023  
[17:23] again? What? All right. Thanks 
a lot, guys. I'll see you later.