Thumbnails are the very first thing a potential viewer sees when they’re scrolling through YouTube — and making a good first impression is crucial, or else your video will get scrolled right past.
Why am I saying this?
Because someone asked me to review THIS thumbnail today:
I mean, sure… Content must always be king. It doesn’t matter how good your titles and thumbnails are if your videos suck.
But thumbnails must be perfect. Otherwise, your awesome content won’t be seen.
Let’s take a deep dive into thumbnails:
BAD THUMBNAIL linked above is horrid because it just simply doesn’t work.
- It uses too much text to describe the video
- Doesn’t have image assets
- Black text on a colored background doesn’t create enough contrast to stand out
On the other hand, you have the IM-A-PRO-YOUTUBER-AND-I-THINK-I-KNOW-HOW-TO-MAKE-A-GOOD-THUMBNAIL thumbnail, but guess what? he/she actually doesn’t.
I’m talking about these kind of thumbnails (I just jumped into this one):
Why is it terrible?
First of all, this kind of “thumbnail style” is all over the F**KING FEED. These thumbnails just happened to be “the new meta” or “the new industry standard” that they just don’t stand out anymore.
Take a quick look at it. And I mean like a REALLY QUICK LOOK (as if you were scrolling through the feed).
What happens is that this kind of thumbnail style uses too many visual elements that picture gets lost.
I mean, I had to look at it like 8 secs to understand that there are 4 people but they are the same 2 persons in different positions; I still don’t know where they are becuase of the white clothes and the white background; it’s good to have an emoji accompanying the picture, but it’s completely unnecesary when having already too many visual saturation and when you already have like 3 faces making expressions.
Ok… hope you get the point: sometimes less is more.
Try to keep it simple (but not TOO simple as the first example I showed you). It’s all about finding balance.
So, what is a good thumbnail then?
Well, take this one for example:
It just does a lot of things right:
- it uses faces that show emotions
- it asks a leading question
- it uses bright colors to add contrast
- it has an harmonic background
If you are one of those who prefer to go more like the IM-A-PRO-YOUTUBER-AND-I-THINK-I-KNOW-HOW-TO-MAKE-A-GOOD-THUMBNAIL kind of style… it’s ok, but remember to find the perfect balance.
You can walk that path and have a perfect thumbnail. Just look at this example:
To sum up:
- Make sure your thumbnail reflects accurately what’s actually in your video
- Grab attention. Remember that anyone browsing on YouTube has an almost endless amount of content options.
- Focus on faces. Close up shots, especially if the faces you are using convey emotion.
- Keep text to the minimum so it’s easy to read at a glance.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SmallYTChannel/comments/emilf5/something_you_dont_get_about_thumbnails/
F(AWXM) 