Change It or Leave It
“If the team is winning, don’t touch it.” Sometimes that is the right call. A lot of the time the team is not winning. The memory of a good week is not a scoreboard.
Winning
impressions now, plus retention
Not yet
a strong graph, a dead shelf
A guess
a new cover with no test
In short. Leave a cover alone when the video is still being sent out and the people who enter still stay. Change it when the only thing “winning” is an old click, or a graph nobody is being shown anymore.
The saying
Coaches leave a winning side alone. Creators say the same thing about a thumbnail, and then refuse to touch a video that has not been recommended in months. The saying is about the current score. It is not loyalty to an old picture.
When it really is winning
Leave it when the video is still being sent out, and the people who enter still stay.
Impressions are arriving
This month, not in 2022. The shelf is still using this picture.
Retention holds
For this length, the graph is at or above your normal line.
The cover still matches
The first five seconds, as they are today, are the thing on the image.
A test already picked it
Replacing a proven picture with a feeling is how a winner becomes a guess.
When “winning” is a story
Three situations look like a winner and are not.
Great graph, empty shelf
People who entered loved it. Almost nobody is being shown it. The package is not winning distribution. That is the one to repackage.
High click, short stay
CTR can look like a win while the video disappoints. That cover is winning the wrong game. Change it, or the system will stop sending the video.
The channel moved on
The picture looks like another channel, or the open was recut and the cover still promises the old scene.
Don’t panic, and don’t get sentimental
Cooling off is normal
A video that popped last month and is easing down does not need a new cover this afternoon.
Flat for months is not
High retention, no impressions, for a long stretch. That one has earned a new picture.
Change one thing
Use Test & Compare when you can. If you change the face, the object, and the color, a win still will not tell you why.
Three questions before you touch it
1
Are impressions still arriving?
If the shelf is still using this picture, you are not looking at a dead video.
2
Is retention above your line?
For this length. A pretty average is not a trophy.
3
Does the cover match second one?
The first five seconds as they are today, not as they were when you exported the JPEG.
Three yeses: leave it. The team is winning. Impressions no, retention yes: new cover. Retention no: don’t blame the art first. A new picture on a video that still breaks its promise only finds a new group to disappoint. The exception is when the current cover is the lie. Then you change it so the picture tells the truth.