A newly-introduced Chartbeat feature to test images is finding special value at a US TV station.

News-and-weather station ABC13 Houston expects to find learnings from image testing on its website which it can apply to other platforms such as newscasts and social media.

Longtime users of Chartbeat's headline experimentation tool, ABC13 was among the first digital publishers worldwide to adopt image testing. In the same way as for headlines, unlimited images can be tested to see what visuals resonate most with readers.

Senior manager of data strategy Keaton Fuchs says the system helps them understand how behaviour changes lead to an increase or decrease in audience engagement.

Having seen double-digit CTR increases from experiments with headlines, he says they have come short of mandating that every piece of homepage text be optimised - "it's sort of an unwritten rule".

The new image optimisation tool provides an opportunity to take their testing capabilities further, and integration between the two means the newsroom can experiment with headlines and images together on their homepage to find ideal combinations.

"It's not 'do it once and forget.' It's 'keep testing so you understand where your audience is'," he says.

Given the real-time visibility into reader preferences, Fuchs and his team have experimented more with content and seen long-held assumptions refuted, while having fun in the process. "It's fun for us to watch the horse race," he says. "We get excited predicting what is going to happen and seeing what actually does."

With reader behaviours changing rapidly, they can adapt on the fly. "As our audience has changed, specifically in pandemic times, we can adjust in real time.

Being a broadcasting - and inherently visual - organisation means ABC13 can apply these learnings to other platforms. "Image testing is a business decision that is about real dollars, which is critical for publishing, more than ever," says Fuchs. "There's money for us in making sure our content is optimised."

with Chartbeat/Kendall Kalagher