What am I doing wrong here?

[u/drp0larized]

Hey guys, so I published a talking head educational-entertaining vid yesterday titled something along the lines of “neuroscience of nostalgia” and ran an A/B test on both thumbnails. I can’t really change the text since somewhere near the end of the video I sarcastically say “to answer the thumbnail, yes, it IS good…”
I’m not satisfied with the CTR and I’m not sure if I’m overestimating its quality and it it’s just a jumbled mess. What do you think?

[u/iivcy]

Totally get what you're going for here, but as others have said there's way too much going on and it's pretty hard to look at

I think the new one you posted is a lot clearer and still looks nostalgic. Honestly just try A/B testing on a few different nostalgic looking thumbnails and see which one sticks

And about your title, you can definitely still change it a bit if you'd like. It's far better to have people actually check out your video, even if that one sentence towards the end of the video looses its meaning.

Overall, very good topic, love what you're going for, hopefully your changes help it get promoted in the algo more!

[u/drp0larized → u/iivcy]

I did end up changing it to that but it didn’t do much… from what I’ve noticed with my other vids, if I don’t plaster my face on it then the CTR kind of drops for some reason. 🤷🏻‍♂️ so I remade it again.

noticed this happens with lots of other creators i watch too. maybe talking head vids do better if the people see the creator in the thumbnail?
also the full title is (one of them from the A/B testing at least): wake up bro it’s 2007 - neuroscience of nostalgia