How to Create YouTube Thumbnails That Actually Get You More Views In 2023
YouTube thumbnails are one of the two key reasons someone would potentially click on your video, with the other major reason being the title, so we can’t really overstate their importance in the success of your videos. A good thumbnail increases your clickthrough rate, which in turn helps your YouTube SEO, which leads to your videos being suggested to more users and therefore you get more views and subscribers. They provide a great visual summary of your video, so if you can tell the story of your content in your thumbnail, your video should most definitely convert into clicks and views. Creating thumbnails that convert isn’t an exact science, but there are some best practices you can run with that can help you step your thumbnail creation game all the way up. Let’s get into it.
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The first thing is to know what people who watch videos in your niche expect to see. Research your own industry or niche to see what other brands and other creators are doing with their thumbnails. Some industries may have a trend of bright colours, loud text and hyper-expressive faces, like most family channels, while others may have subdued colour palates, and sometimes even no text or faces, like creators such as Matt D’Avela. Every niche is different so you’d want to make sure that your thumbnails work for your industry and your audience, and by far the best way to do that is to sus out the competition.
Next, you’ll want to make sure that your thumbnails accurately represent the video you’re posting. Misleading people is never a good thing, and while clickbait is pretty commonplace these days, there’s only so far that you can take it. We’ve seen this a lot with overly produced thumbnails that contain images or places and people that aren’t even in the video, which can be frustrating for viewers. If you’re using a photo of yourself in your thumbnail and you’re making a super surprised face, for example, the content of the video should have some sort of surprising content or people will feel misled and close the tab. We’re definitely guilty of overdoing the expressive faces sometimes, but just keep that in mind when taking your photos. We’d also suggest that you take your thumbnail images while you’re shooting the video so that you’re in the same clothes as when you shot, which enhances the continuity of the content.
Now when it comes to thumbnails, faces get clicks, but that could differ based on your niche. People react well to other people in thumbnails, and if you just cruise your YouTube home page, you’ll find that most of the thumbnails there have some sort of body or face in them. Almost all videos have some sort of narrator, whether on camera or as a voiceover, so there’s almost always an authentic opportunity to include a photo of a human in the thumbnail that will accurately represent the video. If you’re a business owner and you’ve been a little apprehensive about putting your face out there, we’d highly recommend that you give it a try. We’ve spoken about this in the past but we never wanted to do it for High Season as our business was always about our clients and not us, but once we started sharing tips on social and YouTube, it changed everything. You can watch this video to learn more about our YouTube journey.
Another key element of a successful YouTube thumbnail is text. The text typically aligns with the title of the video and delivers some additional context as to what the video is actually about. Sometimes it can be funny and add a comedic element - if that’s a fit for your brand - while other times it just reinforces the subject and content of the video, which comes back to the original point as to why thumbnails are so important. Take a look at our YouTube feed to see how we use text to add some value to our thumbnails. When you’re adding text, make sure that you keep it aligned with your brand identity, fonts and colours, and always make it easy to read. Keep in mind that most people see your thumbnails as a 1-inch or less rectangle on their computer screen or phone, so making sure it’s as clear as possible is super important. We use Canva to make all of our thumbnails, and you can import all of your brand colours and fonts into the software to make it simple to stick to your branding.
And once you’ve created a few thumbnails, you can test them to see how they perform with our partner TubeBuddy! TubeBuddy is a YouTube analytics and growth platform dedicated to helping YouTube creators optimize their channels and grow their audiences. Their Thumbnail Analyzer uses AI to help you confirm your theories as to which thumbnails perform best, find the best style for your text, and essentially help you streamline your content creation to develop better-performing videos.
What TubeBuddy’s Thumbnail Analyzer does is allow you to upload multiple thumbnails for a specific video to generate a prediction score based on their AI insights, and these prediction scores represent the likelihood that viewers will click and watch your video. The more you use the tool, the more it learns about your channel and your thumbnails to give you more accurate prediction scores.
Here’s how you can use it. Head over to your YouTube Studio and hit the Content tab. If you hover over a video, you’ll see the TB icon, click that and then a box with a bunch of options pop up. Hit Thumbnail Analyzer, then in the Toolbox menu, select Thumbnail Studio. You can then drag and drop multiple thumbnail options for that video into the box, which also includes the current thumbnail that’s uploaded on the video, which is a really handy option. It’ll then generate a prediction score for each thumbnail and deliver the results in descending order, and the best part you can just hit “Use Selected Thumbnail” to immediately update your video. You can watch the video from here to see the process.
TubeBuddy is a free tool, but the paid plans give you access to a whole bunch of other great tools that you can use to analyze and improve your YouTube performance. TubeBuddy kindly has given you guys 25% off your plan if you use the code HIGHSEASONBUDDY at checkout, which is amazing! Head over to this link to take advantage of this fantastic offer.
Still struggling with your YouTube Thumbnails? Book a consultation for tailored guidance.
