While scrolling on your YouTube feed, what’s the first thing about a video that catches your attention? While you search for something on YouTube, what’s the first thing which you see about a video? Undoubtedly, the answer to both these questions is a thumbnail. Did you just realize how important are YouTube thumbnails?
With tons of content flooding the platform, you need to catch your audience’s attention and hook them to your video from the first glance on the search results page to the last minute of your video. Keeping them until the last minute might sound easy once you drive a user to your video; keeping them till the last minute might sound easy. However, driving that potential user to you might sound tricky. However, with a perfect first impression via your thumbnail, you will undoubtedly win the hearts of your users with the first click.
So, let’s get started on a journey with Vidtechy to understand exactly what YouTube thumbnails are. Then, we shall explore various essential facts about YouTube thumbnails, finally discovering some of the best tips to create scroll-stopping YouTube thumbnails.
What Is A Youtube Thumbnail?
A YouTube thumbnail refers to a still image that functions similar to a preview image for your video. A YouTube thumbnail is quite similar to the cover page of a book. These small clickable images actually help your user decide whether or not to click on your video. The reason why it’s called “thumbnails” because they are like the nail of your thumb finger, encasing the beauty of the thumb finger. Similarly, your YouTube thumbnail is a small still image that provides a preview of the entire content present in a video. Now, let’s understand why you should use YouTube thumbnails.
Why Should You Use YouTube Thumbnails?
A YouTube thumbnail is the first opportunity where you have to persuade a user to click on your video rather than other videos. It’s your thumbnail that sets the first everlasting impression on your audience on your video, thus dragging them into your content. To set your first basic impression perfectly, you need to spend enough time and creativity experimenting with various aspects of thumbnails to figure out which perfect combination actually works for you.
Why Should You Go For Custom YouTube Thumbnails?
Whenever you upload a video, you’ll find some default thumbnail options suggested by YouTube, from which you can choose one from your video. However, many people prefer creating a custom YouTube thumbnail. These custom YouTube thumbnails take time and effort from you but trust me, they are really worth it. Let’s explore how.
About 90% of the top-performing videos on YouTube are backed up with custom thumbnails. Custom thumbnails often contain a high-quality image followed up with 2-5 simple main elements. They are very eye-catching and will catch the audience’s attention quicker.
Custom thumbnails are far beyond simple still images. They consist of professionally shot and edited images well crafted to tease and excite someone to know what the content contains inside. Custom thumbnails contain the perfect blend of all the essential ingredients where a creator not just reaches the users’ pain points but also provides a possible solution to it. It’s why they earn more clicks than default thumbnails.
What Is The Appropriate YouTube Thumbnail Size?
According to YouTube’s algorithm, the minimum dimensions for a YouTube thumbnail should be no less than 640 pixels wide. However, when used as thumbnails, smaller-sized images will appear hazy, blurry, or pixelated when viewers see them.
The most appropriate and ideal YouTube thumbnail size is 1280 pixels wide x 720 pixels tall. These dimensions may look too large for a YouTube thumbnail, but they help maintain flexibility even when the video is played on external websites. Moreover, the large size of the thumbnail also ensures that it stays crisp, sharp, and unaffected even on Retina screens and other high-density displays.
The ideal aspect ratio for a YouTube thumbnail is 16:9. Moreover, your image file should not be more than 2 MB. Files greater than 2 mb are rejected. Your image file should be in either of the following formats: GIF (non-animated), BMP, JPG (or JPEG), and PNG.
Best Fonts Which You Should Use In YouTube Thumbnails
Fonts are also an important factor in deciding the quality of your YouTube thumbnail. Your YouTube thumbnail should contain an easy to read, stylish, and attention-grabbing font. Here are some fonts which you can consider using while creating your YouTube thumbnail: Dustin Font Quartet, Traveller typeface, Caribold, Herona, Horsemen, Quantum Profit, Chucklesome, Wolfskin, The Tide, Frisky Puppy, Vandalism, etc.
Here are some common fonts which you’ll find used more often on YouTube: Impact, American Captain, Cooper Black, Myriad Pro Bold, Obelix Pro Bold, EA Sports, and Evogria. Moreover, choose your font according to your niche. You’ll find various niche-specific fonts. Niche-specific fonts really go with images of that particular niche.
Best Color Which You Should Use In YouTube Thumbnails
While choosing colors for creating your YouTube thumbnail, go for complementary colors. Complementary colors refer to those colors which are positioned opposite each other in the color wheel. These colors are well known to create a contrast, thus making a design that stands out. Moreover, try to include some yellow color in your thumbnail. It’s because human eyes are more sensitive to yellow color.
Moreover, you should also prefer colors like green, red and blue. They also catch the audience’s attention well. Green symbolizes trust, and blue symbolizes peace, whereas red symbolizes danger. So, use these colors according to the type of video you’re making. However, always refer to the color wheel for getting the perfect combination.
Features Of An Effective YouTube Thumbnail
Your YouTube thumbnail is your way of presenting yourself before potential users. Thus, an effective YouTube thumbnail must possess the following characteristics:
- It must connect with the users.
- It must convey the message of the creator.
- It must be optimized for all devices.
- If you include a face picture, make sure to keep an inviting and flattering expression.
- It must include the identity of your brand.
- The title or text must be clearly visible and easy to read.
- Give a clear value to your users regarding why they should watch your video.
- Don’t forget to add a CTA (Call-to-action) such as “Watch now,” “Click Here,” etc.
Why Should You Use Patterns In YouTube Thumbnails?
Did you ever think of including patterns in your YouTube video thumbnails? While some people prefer adding patterns, some don’t. Here’s why the pattern must be a part of the Youtube thumbnail:
- The human brain connects well with patterns: Your eyes will automatically search for patterns and connections as you focus on a thing. Moreover, you must have noticed that you understand a concept well when someone teaches them to you through a logical sequence of patterns. Similarly, a thumbnail provoking a sequence of correlated patterns will force a potential user to click on your video.
- YouTube Neural Network Algorithm also appreciates patterns: Just like the human brain, YouTube’s neural network algorithm also finds and understands patterns. Thus, you can keep a similar element in all of your videos so that your videos are listed in the users’ suggestions.
- Patterns help you build your brand presence and consistency: Your patterns help your brand in building its own presence. Between, the repeated sequel of inter-related videos also helps establish your brand consistency, making your videos more recognizable by your name.
- Patterns are simple and can be easily created: Patterns mean you need to use the same element in your video thumbnail over and over. Thus, you can easily create it or copy and paste it from one thumbnail to another. Moreover, when people start using your videos either on their social media page or on their blogs, they become an interactive advertisement, thus bringing the audience to you.
Top 10 Tips To Make Your YouTube Thumbnail Stand Out
As you already know the basic information you must keep in mind while creating a YouTube thumbnail, here are some more tips to spice up your game to help you create a scroll-stopping thumbnail. Let’s get started without any further delay!
1. Your YouTube Thumbnail Must Be Of The Ideal Size
Ensure that your YouTube thumbnail doesn’t less or more than the ideal dimension of 1280 x 720-pixel size (16:9 ratio). Try to include high-resolution images. However, keep in mind that your file size shouldn’t exceed more than 2 MB and should be of the appropriate format. Take care of the basic necessities first.
2.Your Background Image Should Resonate With The Content Of Your Video.
Your background image should be clear and not sophisticated or busy with lots of elements and unwanted elements. Keep it clean to clearly carry the message you want to convey to your users. Thus, your background image should reflect the message and content of your video.
3.When To Overlay Your Background Image With Texts?
In case you wish to enhance the background image and wish to add some text as an overlay, use only your branding-related texts. You can also include your title with the primary keyword in it. Moreover, keep your text and font clear and legible for the common man. Thus, choose the font and the color combination wisely.
4.Select An Appropriate Image
You need to choose the perfect image to get the maximum clicks. Your image must be memorable and enticing enough to make the users click it. You can also use a close-up image of the subject or the person. Make sure that the image is bright, includes highly expressive facial expressions, and is clicked on with perfect lighting.
5.Go for The Rule Of Thirds
In photography, the rule of thirds is used to create more engaging and balanced images. It’s a composition guideline where the image is divided by 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines. These lines help you in proper positioning of the elements. You can use this rule to place important elements either at intersections or along the lines.
6.Your Brand Must Have Its Identity
Remember to maintain your brand identity consistent throughout all your video thumbnails. You can use an icon or any element that must signify your brand and be present in all your thumbnails and videos. You’ll not just create your brand identity but also gather a loyal family for your brand.
7.Go For Faces
Recently, faces have dominated the new trend of YouTube thumbnails. It’s natural human nature to focus on the faces of individuals. Thus, Youtubers have experimented by creating a YouTube thumbnail including the picture of the person it describes.
8.You Can Include Some Emojis Also.
Emojis and emoticons are playful recognizable cartoon images that help a potential user recognize and anticipate the video content with much ease. Youtube has also seen the booming of videos that have emoticons in their thumbnails.
9.Play Your Game With The Perspective.
Perspective becomes useful if you’re trying to represent 3-D objects on a 2-D surface, thus giving the perfect impression of the images’ width, height, depth, and position in correlation. While creating thumbnails, you can also add in your creativity and distort normal measures of objects to make them appear small/big or either far/close. This game with perspective has proven to catch the attention of the audience.
10.Try To Show Progress
You can also include a before/after preview in your thumbnail. Such thumbnails will often catch the eyes and minds of the audience, thus making them curious. You can also spice up your user’s attention by blurring out the final result. For example, you have image editing video content. You can show the thumbnail representing a contrast between before and after the preview, thus making the audience question, “How?” This question will ultimately trigger them to click on your video and watch it.
Top 7 Thumbnail Mistakes Which You Must Avoid
Every creator wants to create the perfect click-winning YouTube thumbnail. However, it’s common on our part as humans to fall prey to mistakes. Here are the six blunders which you need to avoid while creating YouTube thumbnails. I wish I had read this blog earlier; I would have saved lots of effort and time and gained many more views and clicks.
1. Use Of Excessive Text
One of the most common mistakes which Youtubers commonly make while making custom YouTube thumbnails is adding too much text. Remember, you just need to convey your message through the thumbnail. Adding too much text leaves no space, thus making the thumbnail unclear and illegible at times. “Busy” thumbnails with lots of content are not appreciated by the users. Thus, always try to keep your text short, simple, crisp, and convey your message.
2. Using A Boring Or Fake Expression
YouTube creators who use a person’s face in their thumbnail should keep in mind this point. While capturing the person’s snapshot, go for a flattering and pleasant facial expression. Your facial expression shouldn’t be boring and must not reflect a fake smile or scared look. Such facial expressions don’t go well with the reader’s mindset and piss them off straight away. It’s why you should choose many snapshots and choose the best one from them.
Moreover, also try to avoid a fake or boring candid. Candid expressions notifying intense happiness and surprise look good. However, candid expressions with your eyes closed don’t excite your audience well. Go for a friendly look instead of a weird expression.
3. Use Of Boring Thumbnails
Your thumbnail should be interesting enough so that people click on your video. Using dull-lit images, low-resolution images, or making a thumbnail filled with graphs and charts will not catch your users’ attention. Instead, try creating a contrast. You can also create a contrast by editing the pictures and images you’re about to use in the thumbnail. Moreover, never go for a mono-color image as your background image. Also, try to avoid images with dull colors. Instead, go for pictures with rich and multiple colors. They are eye-catching and will really give great results.
4. Keeping The “Play” Button In A Hard To Detect Position
Another common mistake often committed by Youtube creators while creating a thumbnail is that they put the thumbnail button within the picture. A potential user will often mistake it as a part of the image, thus not really focusing on the play button. He may also face the problem of not finding the button quickly. Thus, here your play button is hard to detect, due to which you’ll lose a huge chunk of traffic who tried to reach you. You can try placing the play button in conjunction with the play bar to solve this problem.
5. Including Too Much Motion
Excessive use of motion videos or action content in your video will also degrade the quality of thumbnails, thus making them appear foggy and blurry. Hence, use the optimum and required amount of motion videos as necessary.
6. Eye Mask
Often, we place our main subject or element in the center of the frame. However, if you are adding a play button in the thumbnail, make sure that the play button doesn’t cover the eyes of the image of the main subject or person. The eyes start the game of conversation. So, you can try another frame where the person’s eyes are more clearly visible even after the placement of the play button. Otherwise, you can also skip using the large play button and instead use the default one, which YouTube suggests.
7. Using Same, Similar, Or Slightly Modified Thumbnails
You must be thinking that using the same, similar, or slightly modified thumbnails will help you create your brand presence and awareness. However, remember that your users always want to try something new. Thus, using the same or similar thumbnails won’t excite them or invite them to click on your action. Moreover, using the same thumbnails will also bore your users. So, keep experimenting with various forms, formats, colors, and fonts.
What’s A YouTube Thumbnail Creator?
A YouTube thumbnail creator helps you create a free thumbnail according to the standard dimensions. These creators contain pre-made templates which you can use to create your thumbnail. The best feature about these tools is that they contain a plethora of tools, elements, and images, thus making your task super easy. Vidtechy also offers a free “Thumbnail Maker,” which you can use to create amazing thumbnails for your YouTube videos.
How Can You Create Scroll-Stopping YouTube Thumbnails With Vidtechy?
Vidtechy provides a one-stop solution to all your YouTube marketing needs. To make you more productive and help you focus more on the content of the video, Vidtechy comes up with another productivity tool, i.e., “Thumbnail Maker.” It’s a free tool that contains various elements and pre-made templates to make your thumbnail-making task a cakewalk. Here’s how you can do it.
1.Open and refresh your browser.
2. Navigate to https://vidtechy.com/login . Login using your appropriate login credentials.
3. On your dashboard, scroll down to the “Productivity Tools” section and click on “Thumbnail Maker.”
4. In the new screen, you can choose the desired YouTube thumbnail size. Otherwise, you can also browse files and select your desired and appropriate image.
5. Now, you’ll see a blank canvas where you can create your design. Click on the pen icon present on the top left corner of the page. If you are using desktop version you may not spot any pen button, as all the option will be automatically visible on the screen.
6. Choose your background image and texture. You can customize and create your own thumbnail here by using the various elements and objects it offers. Moreover, when you click on Templates, you’ll see a list of pre-made templates, which you can choose and edit slightly, thus creating your own version of the thumbnail. Isn’t using the tool super-easy? Let us know your experience in the comments section below.
A Word From VidTechy
YouTube thumbnails are like proposals that you need to pitch in the best possible way to gather more clients and users. I hope we have provided you with all the necessary information related to YouTube thumbnails and how you should create them for maximum optimization. Moreover, we would love it if you would go and check out Vidtechy’s “Thumbnail Maker” tool. So set your first impression right with Vidtechy! For any doubts, queries, comments, or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comments section below. We’ll reach out to you at the earliest. Happy reading!