Great Thumbnails for YouTube
Why are Great YouTube Thumbnails Important
Many people think that if you create great content in a video then that should suffice. However, this is NOT true. Whenever people are searching for something on YouTube, the first thing that catches their eye is the thumbnail. So you really want your thumbnail to stand out in a crowd!
If say for example we do a YouTube search for, “How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube” you will be presented with lots of thumbnails. We more often than not will click on the thumbnail that we think will most help us.
As you will see from the snapshot below there are three different thumbnails to choose from. Even though they all show a Rubik Cube, we are most likely to click on the one that says “How to Solve”.
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Importance of YouTube Thumbnail Branding
So we now need to take this a step further and incorporate some form of Branding! Why do we need to brand our YouTube thumbnails? By branding our thumbnails we are not only making a thumbnail stand out, but we are now making a thumbnail that is recognised as being YOURS! This way, if a viewer watches one of your videos and likes them, they will then start to recognise your thumbnails in a crowd of thumbnails.
Here is a great example of YouTube Thumbnail Branding: If you look at the image below you will see that most of Dixie’s thumbnails have great Branding. However, if we look closer, there are 4 thumbnails that do not have branding. When you look at those 4 thumbnails, you will also see that they have had far less views than those that are branded!
Brand All Your YouTube Thumbnails
The thing is, you really need to ensure that not just the new videos are branded, but also the old ones. As you never know which video will suddenly take off. If one old video does take off, then you want it to reflect the whole look and feel of your channel.
The image below shows how one of my videos does nothing for over 100 days. Then all of a sudden it is getting 8K views a day. So that is why all videos need branding!!!
Quality YouTube Thumbnail Branding Example
Lets now take a look at Om Shaanti Meditation. On 13 October 2018 Stephanie celebrated 100 Subscribers. On the 12 June 2019 Stephanie has got 9,968 Subscribers (9,868 in 8 months). This channel is in a very competitive niche, making it extremely difficult to succeed. However, Quality YouTube Thumbnail has probably played a role in Stephanie’s success. Quality Sound, Quality Videos, Quality Content etc have to be taken into account, but you can be sure that Quality YouTube Thumbnail Branding also played a part.
Subscriber v Non Subscribers
The other thing you need to consider, is that many of your views will come from Non Subscribers. Some people are just searching for a little piece of information and then they are gone! However, when they are searching for their next piece of information and they see a thumbnail they recognise, you stand more of a chance that they will click on YOURS!
The graph below shows as of Today, how many views I am getting from Subscribers v Non Subscribers:
How to Create Branded YouTube Thumbnails
Branding a thumbnail can range from; your face in every video; using the same colour and style of fonts; including a logo; or a particular style and layout. How you brand your thumbnails is up to you. Look at other YouTubers and see what you like and then go ahead and create your own thumbnails.
A great tool to help you with your thumbnails is Canva. You only need the free version to start with!
The Best Type of Thumbnails
So branding is good as viewers will easily recognise that a particular thumbnail came from your channel. As well as maybe some form of branding, consider; Curiosity, Desire and Fear, or a combination of two. Create Curiosity to make someone want to click, to see what your video is about. Desire, is used to draw in viewers who want something. Fear can be used also as a great way of drawing people into watching your videos. Look at some of the great performing thumbnails and see if they have used Curiosity, Desire or Fear to get you to click.
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Never do Sub4Sub or any variant!! Only follow people you want to watch!
Hello! We’ve met on facebook and you’re giving me great advice so far!
I would eventually like to monetize my channel but am aware it’s a long process – my expectations are realistic. Don’t worry, I’m not tempted by dishonest ways of getting subscribers like sub4sub and will never be. I’ll edit my old videos and fix the hashtag issue, also it’s good to know for the future. I’ll find more ways to use my face in the thumbnails more- the reason I haven’t is that frankly, it’s hard to get a flattering shot of my full face (I’m just not symmetrical, and it’s hard to compete with so many others who are much more polished than I am), haha but I’ll do my best. You’re right about the font – I didn’t think of viewers watching on a mobile device.
Hello Julie,
If you create your own logo, to go into the top left of your thumbnail maybe? Photos don’t necessarily need to be of you, you could use one of the cards that you are talking about, with your logo of course. It will all fall together as you go along. Also when thinking about your thumbnail, optimum size is 1920 x 1080.
Do you have a smart TV that is spending time doing nothing? Then why not get it to play your videos whilst you are doing other things? This will up your watch time!!!
Future videos to fill your channel: Maybe do short videos on each card, then put them into their own playlist. This will also fill your channel with more videos in a shorter period of time.
Good of you to contact me again, John.
I do have a graphic designer friend who told me a few days ago he would help me out for free if I was keen, but at that time I was thinking of the bigger picture – creating my own tarot deck (long term project)…I completely missed out on the most obvious thing, though! I’ll look into a logo and get in touch with him about that. I can also suck it up and figure out face pictures for the meantime and add the logo to all the thumbnails after the logo is sorted.
About the thumbnail size…it was an accident at first, but I’ve found out I have a higher than expected click-through rate, even though the size of the thumbnail isn’t correct. It’s around 4% for my numerology video. Is it possible that it’s partly because of the unusual size of the thumbnail that makes it stand out a little more? I’ve been mulling over the size problem and if the weird size works to the video’s advantage or not. What do you think? Reply wherever you prefer, I’ll see it.
I don’t have a smart tv – at the moment I’m making do with my laptop which likes to shut down in the middle of editing long videos, but I’ll get a new one in August/September so I won’t be delayed with posting videos, and I’ll have a posting schedule.
I have a rough plan for my videos now from now until September. I’ll be adding short, bite-sized videos about each tarot card to a playlist with a surprise after the Major Arcana (big important cards) are uploaded. In addition, I’ll be making longer ones about numerology and how it plays out.
Reply at your leisure, I’m grateful for your help so far and don’t want to take advantage.
The problem with stats in the early days, is that they can be very misleading. You will find that the numbers will bounce all over the place. Gradually as you get into a routine and you have a few more videos, you will have more accurate figures to work from.
One very useful tool in your analytics is the Traffic source: YouTube search, this will show you what is most searched for. This can also be used to produce more videos on the more popular searches.
Watch Time: You are looking to get this as high as possible! So, whenever you can, play your own videos. Maybe, but not sure, watch whilst logged out of your account??
Did you get my email?
Hey there,
Email is better for me to be able to track what I’m doing.
Hello Lisa, eMail it is then 😉
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