Transcription
The girls are on YouTube. Honey, I am so happy to see so many people just either returning to YouTube or starting their channels. Even if engagement is kind of going like this, I promise you YouTube is worth staying the course with.
In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you my favorite YouTube features and just what's working on the platform right now because obviously so much is constantly changing on all these dog on platforms. I can barely keep up, but I'm hanging on by a thread so that I can give y'all the information.
Okay, first thing I am obsessed with right now, which I would attribute like a huge portion of my growth to this is the AB testing. So, what it is is you can test your titles and your thumbnails or both. I'm going to show you how the AB title and thumbnail testing works. When you get inside of YouTube Studio, instead of typing the title in, you're actually going to click AB testing right inside of the title box.
Now, there are three options of what you can test. You can test the title only. So, that means you're going to be using the same exact thumbnail for all three titles, but you're going to give three different title options. And then for the thumbnail only, you're going to use the same title for all of them, but you're trying out three different thumbnail options. And then for the title and thumbnail, this is different thumbnail title pairings. And I'll show you examples of what this is. Because with the title and thumbnail together, this pair is one pair. So you don't get to pick the best title if it's title one and thumbnail three. it tests them all together or like both together as a set.
So, for the most part, I typically have like lately I've been kind of having this thumbnail style. So, I haven't really been testing out thumbnails as much, but with titles that has always kind of been a thorn for me. I always don't know whether I should go more like conversational or like more emotional titles or more SEO friendly titles. So, this has really been helping me. So, I'm going to show you a couple examples of what I've used this for, but that is how you upload it.
So, for all of my latest videos, I have been doing some type of testing, whether it's title or thumbnail title, but I want to go inside of one and show you how it actually looks as the test is running. One of my most recent uploads is still running the test. And I actually did the thumbnail title pairings. So, for each one, I have a different thumbnail and a different title. So this one, the thumbnail is your life can completely change in 6 months. And then the title is watch when you're ready to take your personal brand seriously. This one is currently winning right now, but the test is still going. And these two are actually pretty close. Even with these, I didn't change the actual thumbnail. I just changed the text on the thumbnail to see which one worked better. And then I tried to make sure that the title was corresponding well with the actual text of that thumbnail.
So why this matters is because the way that YouTube analyzes this is two ways. So they call it watchtime share. And basically what that means is it's not about just getting viewers to click by selecting based on watchtime share. The winning AB test option is the one that gets viewers to both click and stay to watch. So they're not just measuring which video is getting the most clicks. They're measuring which video is getting the most clicks and is retaining the viewer for the longest. And usually, you know, the better the title and the thumbnail is, the longer people are going to stay. So, this is why I've really been loving this feature because it helps me get very clear on what people are gravitating to. And a lot of times the titles or the thumbnails that I think are going to win are not the ones that end up winning.
Um, another example is I did it for I mean literally all of my more recent videos, but um this one where I watched Kim Kardashian um Kim Kardashian's business master class and this one won with like flying colors. So, you know, you can get really clear insight. And what I'm learning with YouTube specifically now in 2026 is that titles and thumbnails are so different when than what they used to be back when I first started. Like you used to be able to make a thumbnail photo and be like and like do this just very dramatic face and then have like this very SEO driven thumbnail I mean title where it's like how to market your business on Instagram in 2022 and then like you might have a colon and put like Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok like and you know you're just like loading the title with all of these keywords. Now, you don't even have to add tags in your videos because the vid the YouTube is so so powerful at detecting like what you're saying, what the video is about. It can literally it literally knows what the video is about without you doing really much SEO at all.
So now what is working on the platform is optimizing for emotion. And you know, I've been learning that saying things like, for example, this video was about signature series um and how to create a strong signature series. Now, one of the titles is let's build a signature series that the algorithm loves, that one performed the worst. But when I did a video, um the title, treat your Instagram like a TV show and watch it explode, that one is the one that won with flying colors. Nothing with signature series or like you know any of that kind of marketing jargon performed well. And so it's really important now to start thinking like what do people care about? How can I emotionally pull them in with my title and thumbnail and that is what I'm finding works and that is what I've been testing. I've been kind of using this strategically to test out one title that's very like straightforward and one title that's very emotional and then one title that's kind of like a mixture of both.
Okay, so that's AB testing. Now, I feel like this is kind of a tried-and-rue tip, which is to get to the point quickly. But the difference is that I think it's even more important now than it was before because we are so conditioned to watching short form content that when you get on long form content and it feels like it's just dragged out and it's taking too long to get to the meat, then it's more likely that someone clicks off. Now more than ever. So I used to start my videos off with what's up beautiful people. As soon as I pressed record, like that was the first thing I'm saying. Now I am just kind of giving some type of punchy line that directly corresponds to what the video title is.
Now I also don't always know exactly which title is going to win when I do the testing, but I do try to kind of make the thumbnail at least be something that is emotional so that I can tie my intro into something like you know exactly what this video is going to be about as soon as you hear me start to talk. It's just kind of reinforcing the title and the thumbnail. That is very, very helpful in retaining people because they want to understand exactly, you know, what the messaging is that they clicked on this video for. So, get to the point really fast. If you want to do an introduction and tell people people to subscribe and all of that other stuff, do it further into the video once they're already hooked.
On that note, the first minute of the YouTube video is the most important minute, period. So, you are going to want to I'm not saying put like the best best best thing first, but if you have like a series of four or five tips, don't save the best tip for last and like try to tease people and say the best tip is the last tip, so you're going to want to stick around. You want to give them that like that fire first because the best the better you can like deliver quickly to them, the more likely they're going to stay to the end or the longer they're going to stay. So, um, don't feel like you have to reserve the best stuff for last. You need to put as much effort and energy into the beginning of your video. I always say like frontload your YouTube video.
So, if you're doing a vlog, like that first minute, it needs to feel like kind of action-packed or like it needs to really resonate. Maybe there's some voice over you're you you're using that is just like really deeply connecting with your community and you know people want to see how your day unfolds or there's some drama in the beginning that you preview and we kind of are excited to stick around and see what happens. It's not that you have to make it like super fancy edited and aesthetic and all of these, you know, bells and whistles and sound effects and animations and whatever. It's that we need to feel like we're in the plot with you or we're getting an extreme amount of value as soon as we start watching the video because think about how much it already took them to click the video and now you want them to watch the video and then you want them to subscribe and watch some more. So, you have to constantly be delivering those promises to them. The worst thing you can do is clickbait them into watching cuz they're just not going to trust you anymore.
The next thing that has really been working is picking a thumbnail format and just sticking with it. It has taken me a long time to get to this point. And I, you know, thumbnails have kind of always been like the bane of my existence. I just I would sit down to make a thumbnail and I'm like, "Ugh, it takes me hours." Because I want it to be good and I know how important it is, but it's also just like it was too time consuming. So, if you look, I'll put my YouTube channel up here, but you can kind of see like I had little phases and stages of thumbnails and fonts and stuff, and I feel like right now the the vibe that I've picked is very doable for me right now, and it's working. So, just find that thumbnail style. It can be very simple. You don't have to add a whole lot. I will say now, it's okay to add a little bit more text to your thumbnails. Um, before it was like three words, five words max. Make sure they're big and bold. And now you can kind of like get away with loading your com your thumbnail up a little bit more. So, you have to play around and find that style for yourself.
Another one of my favorite features is the comment summary. This is an AI feature that YouTube recently rolled out. They're also getting a lot smarter with comment responses. Like I can tell that it is understanding how I reply to comments and literally you can just click a button and reply to a comment and it really sounds very similar to my voice. So I can tell that their AI tools are really analyzing my voice so that replying to comments and engaging with your community is easier. I still like to just like type my own messages. I don't know. I'm just that type of creator where like if somebody took the time to reply to a comment, I do want to like I don't know, sometimes using things that are automated just feels very weird to me. I'm not saying I've never used it before, but I do like when you see me replying to comments, a lot of times that is me typing my response.
Back to what I was saying, the comment summary. So, you can get a summary of all the comments. So sometimes I'm getting hundreds of comments on one video and it's nice to have that summary to kind of give me the high takeaways of what the comments are saying. So for this video, it breaks down like strong topic appreciation like people are loving, you know, this video topic. Also platform specific questions and intentions. So people are frequently asking like it'll tell me like what are some frequent things that people are asking or next video ideas that people are suggesting. Um and then it says perceived decline of Instagram. A notable portion of the audience shares a strong sentiment of frustration and disentangle I mean and disengagement with Instagram. So um this was a video about like which platform you should focus on in in the year. But um just to give you insight on what it looks like because this is really big if you have a lot of comments and you really want to get a better sense of what people are saying but you don't necessarily have the capacity to read them all. Highly recommend using that feature.
And then another feature I am liking to play around with right now. I haven't like dived too too deeply in it. But when I went to made on YouTube back in September, everybody was super excited about this feature which is called Ask Studio. Basically, you can go in there. It's inside of your studio. It's like a little star button at the top and it kind of plays the role of like chat GPT but inside of your YouTube channel. So, it's like an AI assistant and you can ask them to summarize comments, to suggest new video ideas, to analyze your channel performance. If you really struggle with like understanding your analytics, then it does a great job at breaking that down and telling you what's working and what's not working. So, it's kind of like having your own little YouTube coach in your pocket. And it it is pretty good. Like I have tried it out and I'm like, "Wow, this is very it feels very like conversational and just like it breaks things down really really well." So I'm very impressed with that feature as well.
So if you are in your YouTube era because the girls are on YouTube, honey, I am so happy to see so many people just either returning to YouTube or starting their channels and feeling very encouraged to create here because when I tell you YouTube takes care of their creators. I I need to do a video comparing like how much I make on YouTube versus how much I've made on like Instagram because it's just no comparison. But it's not even about how much you make. I feel like creating community on YouTube. Like your YouTube people, your YouTube like family and and community, they're going to ride for you. Okay? And even if engagement is kind of going like this, I promise you YouTube is worth staying the course with because it is just one of those platforms that's invaluable. the search engine and creating things that are evergreen and searchable is going to just explode the leads that you can create and just the overall brand that you're building. Overall, I just love YouTube. It is my favorite platform to create on top of the fact that they just really take care of their creators.
Now, in my creator college, I do monthly audits and of course, I audit YouTube channels. I love giving feedback. So, all of this information that I gave in this video, these are like hands-on tips that I am giving to my Creator College members. When they want me to audit their YouTube channels, I can go in and tell them which tools to use, tell them what's working, what's not working. So, there's lots of opportunities for me to audit your content so that I can give you real time advice on your actual stuff. So, if you are starting your YouTube channel and you're just like, I don't know if this is good. I'm hearing your advice, Aaron. I'm think I'm implementing it correctly, but I'm just not sure. Getting in my creator college is one going to be a great community for you for support, but it's also going to be a great opportunity for you to get that hands-on support that you're probably needing in order to grow. I will leave the information for my creator college down below. Y'all are just y'all lighting it up in there. Okay. So, if you are really ready to take your YouTube channel seriously, I will leave the information for Creator College down below.
All right, you guys. I love you and I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.