YouTube’s upcoming dynamic thumbnails will move impressions toward whichever image performs best with each audience segment instead of splitting traffic evenly, Todd Beaupré, YouTube’s senior director of discovery and growth, said in an October 27 “Creator Insider” episode with Chucky Appleby, head of virality for MrBeast.

“In the current thumbnail A/B, it’s pretty much an even split randomly who sees it,” Beaupré said. “The new algorithms we’re developing for dynamic thumbnails, not only is it not random, there is some randomness introduced to make sure that we learn new things, but ultimately we’re going to start shifting the traffic in the direction that is working.” He said that approach should lower the risk creators take when they test a weaker option, because the system will be “smarter and faster” at cutting impressions for images that fail.

Segments Start With Location and Channel History

Beaupré said the system starts with some randomness and then uses what he called segment features. He named a viewer’s location, and said the one he is “most excited about us testing” is how much a viewer has watched the channel before, separating newcomers from core fans. He said YouTube will iterate on the segments with creators and that the goal is a “set it and forget it” tool where creators upload several options without swapping images by hand. YouTube said at Made on YouTube in September that creators can upload up to three thumbnails for the feature.

Appleby said MrBeast’s own testing already shows the split Beaupré described. “In the beginning, Jimmy’s face typically wins in the A/B thumbnail test,” he said. “But then later on, when we test the back catalog, because we’re big on always testing, we notice that the ones without his face sometimes win. But it always flip-flops based off the audiences.” He suggested a segment for viewers who have seen a thumbnail repeatedly without clicking, who might respond to an image without the creator’s face.

Rene Ritchie, YouTube’s creator liaison, who hosted the episode, said YouTube is also building back catalog optimization, which flags older videos that are performing well and prompts creators to replace or test their thumbnails.

Video A/B Testing Moves to Shorts in 2027

Appleby called video A/B testing, which lets creators test up to three cuts of a Short, “one of the most wonderful announcements I’ve ever heard.” He said the simplest use is filming three hooks, which “takes us a few seconds,” and that creators can also test video length or whether to open with a voiceover. TechCrunch reported in September that the feature arrives in 2027. YouTube said creators have run more than 40 million title and thumbnail experiments since A/B testing launched in 2024. TechCrunch also reported that Studio will begin automatically monitoring thumbnails and swapping out underperformers later this year.

Appleby, who also co-founded the analytics company Viewstats with Jimmy Donaldson, said small creators should skip most of these tools. “Do I have to do all that to be successful? The answer is no,” he said, explaining that MrBeast tests heavily “because we’re spending a lot of money on videos.” In a 2024 interview with YouTube, he said the team develops around 50 title and thumbnail concepts per video, according to Social Media Today.

He also pushed back on creators who say they have been shadow banned. “The algorithm doesn’t decide if your content is good or not,” Appleby said. “The only way the algorithm decides it is if it’s not right for a certain audience.” Beaupré said YouTube runs a process it calls exploration, which shows viewers occasional videos from channels the system knows little about, including channels with no subscribers, and widens distribution when those viewers respond.

YouTube has not given a public launch date for dynamic thumbnails or said which segment features will be available at launch.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Check Out Our Podcast