YouTube Thumbnails are the most important part of your YouTube strategy. In fact, they can even be more important than your title!
YouTube Thumbnails directly affect your click-through rate (CTR), and therefore, your video’s overall performance. That’s why it’s important to know exactly what goes into making a great thumbnail, and how to continuously improve them.
A low click-through rate will send negative signals to YouTube’s algorithm, resulting in fewer recommendations for your video. So, don’t overlook the importance of how you’re packaging and presenting your content!
Your thumbnail needs to be enticing enough to gain that click. It’s prime real estate that you should be using to its fullest potential to convince viewers that YOUR video is the one to watch.
So how do you make a scroll-stopping YouTube thumbnail that gets clicks? Let’s break down the best practices and tips to upgrade your thumbnail game!
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Why you should use a custom thumbnail
Have you ever used the auto-select thumbnail feature that YouTube provides? The feature uses fancy machine learning to identify a few potential frames from your video that could be used as a thumbnail. But… they’re not always great, are they?
Sure, these auto-selected thumbnails are easy. However, we suggest avoiding these! In most cases, they’re just not interesting enough. The thumbnail is the first thing your viewer sees. So you should use this as an opportunity to showcase the value of your video. These thumbnails should be carefully crafted with your audience and goals in mind!
A custom thumbnail is one of the best ways to immediately increase your CTR. Users on YouTube scroll through a lot of content, so your thumbnail needs to stand out and draw interest.
Viewers rely on thumbnails for context clues when looking for a video to watch. They want to know what to expect from the video before they click on it. What will your video provide that others won’t?
Let’s take a look at the most important elements and strategies that you can use when making thumbnails.
Best practices for YouTube thumbnails
In this section, we’ll go over what makes your thumbnail engaging, convincing, and scroll-stopping! Use these tips as your guide to creating great thumbnails for your future videos!
Use the right YouTube thumbnail dimensions
- Resolution: 1280 × 720 (minimum width of 640 pixels)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Max File Size: 2MB
Take high-quality photos
Don’t forget to take high quality photos when filming your video. If you wait to do this until later, you lose the energy of the moment and may forget to circle back. This leads to opting for an auto generated image from YouTube which won’t perform as well.
With these photos, use a close-up of a human face. Even better, add an expressive facial reaction, displaying some sort of emotion that makes sense for the topic of the video. The facial reaction helps to grab attention and build intrigue. Also, ideally make sure the subject or the host of the video is properly lit and framed.
We’ve got a blog post on how to upgrade the quality of your videos while filming. Many of these rules and practices mentioned there can also apply to thumbnail photos! Check it out here to learn more about framing with the rule of thirds, lighting techniques, and how to get the most out of your camera settings.
Make sure to use bright and contrasting colors
Make your thumbnail pop! Bright colours catch the eye, and contrast helps visual elements like graphics and text stand out. Especially once your thumbnail shrinks in size to be used across the YouTube platform.
Stay consistent with colors that suit your brand, and don’t use too many in one thumbnail. Try sticking to two or three colors. One main color, and two contrasting colors is ideal here.
Use visually compelling imagery
Add visual elements that communicate the video’s message. Use graphics or additional photos to highlight themes, transformation, and storytelling. You can also use them strategically to create intrigue and curiosity.
Examples:
- Graphs/data/references
- Before and after photos
- Images of products or people the video mentions
- Symbolism
- Something controversial
Interact with elements in your thumbnail. Play around with the subject posing with, or pointing towards specific elements to emphasize them.
Lastly, don’t over-clutter the thumbnail; keep it simple. You don’t want potential viewers to get confused or overwhelmed. Don’t just cram visual elements in for the sake of being “trendy” or “fun”. Every choice should be intentional and purposeful.
Add text to your thumbnail
Text can be incredibly valuable in your thumbnails. Even just one word can do wonders for engaging potential viewers! That’s why it’s important to be picky about what kind of copy you’re using.
Don’t just copy and paste or slightly alter your title. If users want to see your title, they can just look – it’s right there. How do we get them to move beyond the thumbnail?
Use text to add more descriptive context for what to expect in the video. You can also use text to create curiosity, spark a debate, or evoke emotion that encourages clicks.
Most importantly, make sure your text is bold and easy to read.
Ensure your design has balanced composition
We already mentioned keeping your designs simple. However, even decluttered thumbnails can look messy. Remember to balance visual elements and text. Spread things out, and play with size and positioning.
Stick to your Branding
As a brand, you want to create YouTube thumbnails that align with your company visuals as a whole. This includes your logo, brand voice, fonts, and colors that match your brand’s guidelines.
You should be trying to create patterns in your thumbnails that are easily recognizable. You can use different designs for specific series, but use a similar style for all of your thumbnails. Make them just different enough that they capture attention.
The human brain looks for patterns, even without us noticing. If a user isn’t subscribed but still casually watches your videos, easily recognizing your content can encourage them to watch. Not everyone on the platform uses the subscription feature, and it’s mostly a vanity metric. So focus on making your brand recognizable across the website.
The YouTube algorithm also looks for patterns. It identifies similar thumbnails and will suggest content by considering design. Take a look at what formats and elements your competitors use, and create a similar style to gain more suggested traffic from them.
Do the “squint test”
Remember that your photo will be much smaller when seen across YouTube. It might look great at a larger scale in your editing software, but how does it look at thumbnail size? It may not be as cohesive.
It can be hard to tell if your design will be effective as a thumbnail while editing. To help with this, try squinting your eyes and check if it’s still clear what the thumbnail is conveying. Ask yourself questions like:
- Can you see all of the crucial elements?
- Is the text still legible?
- Does it look cohesive?
Another way to test this is by minimizing the window or stepping away from the computer for a better look.
Effective YouTube thumbnail examples
Here’s an example of a before and after thumbnail in action. Why does this work? Because it tells a story. It shows the problem/ pain point, very clearly. Then you see the intended result the video will provide you.
Example one: David Bangean
Time is being used to showcase the difference. Color is being used to subtly hint that one is unappealing (red), and the other is a better option (green). Even the way the photos were edited shows a transformation. One is gloomy with cold hues, the other is warm and brighter.
Wouldn’t you rather be like the “now” guy? Click!
Example two: Ali Abdaal
This thumbnail uses graphic elements to provide context, and create curiosity. The purpose of the video is to explain the 9 ways this creator earns passive income. The 9 graphics tease each income stream. The user can get a general understanding of what some are – YouTube, podcast, courses… but what are the other ones?
Additionally, highlighting the monetary value is a great way to attract an audience. It’s psychology! Anyone could tell you what ways you can make passive income. But 27k per week… that seems like it could be worth watching!
Real stats like this weekly income figure is a tangible result, and it suggests that this guy knows what he’s doing. Ok, click!
Example three: Yes Theory
This one uses graphics to intrigue the audience. We talked about adding text to your thumbnails earlier, but take a look at how graphics can add a lot to your thumbnails even without text. A great design goes a long way.
The video is clearly about the “worst” country in the world, but it doesn’t say where. They use a map to represent the location, but there aren’t any names. The geography isn’t easily recognizable, and the image on the left doesn’t give anything away. The only visible attribute is graffiti, which presents it in a bad light.
Top it all off with that human face expressing confusion and–BAM! That’s a thumbnail that will drive clicks.
Just where is he going? What could possibly make a country the “worst”? Ok, click!
Example four: Skip the Tutorial
This one’s an example of using an unpopular opinion or statement to create intrigue. For those of you who aren’t into Minecraft, these wooden tools are the weakest in the game. Why should I keep weak tools? Once I make stone or iron upgrades, I’m tossing these! Why is this guy suggesting we save them?
One look at the title from there, and the point is pushed even further. A beginner player might be eager to learn how they can avoid mistakes in the game. An advanced player might click out of disbelief or disagreement just to hear the point. Either way, you’ve succeeded! Click!
Free tools for creating YouTube thumbnails
You may already have your favorite design tool you like to work with. If not though, we recommend trying out one of these helpful tools. Each of these will provide you the necessary design functions needed to put all the best practices we’ve shared into action.
Increase CTR with split testing
Once you’ve started making custom thumbnails that speak to your audience, your CTR should increase. But we don’t want to settle there. Here are a few other things you can do to further improve:
- Understand exactly what is working
- Get to the bottom of what drives your audience
- Keep improving your thumbnail designs to get the best results
- Refresh your thumbnail design every so often to keep your audience interested and engaged
This is also where split-testing (or A/B testing) can be extremely beneficial! Split-testing is the process of comparing the performance of two or more versions of something and seeing what resonates most with your audience over time.
For YouTube, this means switching between different thumbnails every 24 hours to collect data on the effectiveness and performance of each variant. We can use metrics like CTR and view duration to give us insight into which thumbnails are converting clicks into views, and whether they stuck around to watch the full video.
Though you can see metrics like views, we recommend always focusing on the thumbnail with a higher CTR rather than the view count. This is because a higher CTR means a higher potential for more viewers overall in the long run.
You can use a few methods to split-test your thumbnails, but here at Vireo, we use TubeBuddy. If you want to learn more about split-testing your thumbnails, check out our blog detailing the process we use for our clients.
Conclusion
Ok, you’re ready to go out and design the perfect thumbnail. It may take some practice and continual improvements over time, so remember to take it slow and focus on all the elements you’ve learned.
As always, if you’re looking for even more assistance with your YouTube strategy, that’s our jam! Drop us a comment or get in touch with your questions.
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