According to YouTube, 90% of top performing videos use a custom thumbnail. This can be attributed to humans being visual beings and they can analyze an image in 13 milliseconds. Netflix states that people will view a thumbnail for 1.8 seconds before moving on. Your thumbnail plays an incredibly important role in the success of your YouTube video.
Netflix discovered that viewers will scroll for 90 seconds before they give up and don’t watch anything. A YouTube thumbnail is similar to Netflix and even if creators have millions of subscribers, the average views to subscriber ratio is 14 percent. Meaning the majority of the people watching your videos won’t be a subscriber, but they’ll see your thumbnail when they log into YouTube and decide to click and watch.
Thumbnails are an important part of the creator economy, so how can you edit the design to maximize the effectiveness? Here’s four proven methods to improve the quality of your YouTube thumbnail.
A great YouTube thumbnail will accurately represent the content of the video. A thumbnail should give viewers an idea of what they can expect to see in the video. If your thumbnail is misleading or unrelated to the content, it will likely result in a high bounce rate (viewers who leave the video after only a few seconds).
YouTube follows the same logic as Google search ads. Search ads are downgraded if the ad makes one claim, but when the user clicks and lands on a site that says something else, resulting in a bounced visit.
The entire UX of the title, the thumbnail, and video content are all interconnected. Misleading titles and thumbnails might work in the short-term, but eventually audiences are going to get tired of being trolled and stop watching your videos.
A digital advertising study discovered that ads that featured a person’s face are 11x more likely to be noticed. Same concept can be applied to thumbnails. This is a major reason why YouTubers create custom thumbnails in Photoshop and feature a photo of themselves. People subscribe to YouTube channels for the content creators. If you omit the creator from the thumbnail, then you miss out on a huge reason why people want to watch the videos.
The image of the YouTuber can vary, but Netflix also discovered that expressive images attract audiences. That’s why you’ll see both YouTube and Netflix thumbnails that feature an animated person, rather than someone just plainly posing.
The fact of the matter is, use a creator image to remind the audiences that this is a video from their favorite creator and attract viewers who might have otherwise skipped the video.
Your YouTube thumbnail is the equivalent of a headline in a social media feed. You have two seconds to make an impression. Adding a title to your YouTube thumbnail helps set expectations, so It needs to be clear and easy to read.
As people are scanning thumbnails for something to watch, clearly seeing the title in the thumbnail helps them know what the video is about. Remember, they’re scanning the thumbnail, not the default YouTube title text.
I say you should keep it to 4-6 words, but others recommend a maximum of 20 characters. Both are good guidelines to stay within.
Many thumbnails only use two words, like “Fried Chicken.” That’s descriptive, but not specific enough. Great thumbnails utilize 4-6 words to describe the video. Remember, you have 1.8 seconds. “Trying Spicy Fried Chicken” or “Eating the World’s Spiciest Fried Chicken” makes the same video more interesting.
Even if you follow all the above steps but the viewer can’t read any of the text or image is indistinguishable, then none of it matters. Contrasting colors will help your text and images “pop.”
How you use colors and images will depend on your channel’s brand guidelines and the feel for your channels. But no matter if you’re creating a goofy personal channel or thumbnails for your business, the concept of contrasting colors will still apply. Make sure your text and images clearly legible, 1.8 seconds!
Creating a good YouTube thumbnail takes time and effort, but it is worth it. A thumbnail is the first impression that a viewer has of your video, and it can significantly impact whether or not they decide to watch it. By following the above tips, you can create a thumbnail that is visually appealing, accurately represents your content, and encourages viewers to click on your video.
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