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YouTube Academy calls video thumbnails “billboards to help viewers decide to watch your videos”. Incredibly increasing video’s click-through rate, a compelling thumbnail plays a crucial role in ranking your videos higher with the Youtube algorithm which further helps you to grow your channel, drive your target audience, increase the number of subscribers and generate a good source of income. People are now so curious to grow their channel that they buy YouTube subscribers, who are real and legit Youtube users.
Now let us understand how adding custom thumbnail on YouTube, optimize your videos
- Makes your videos more discoverable and recognizable
- Provides better user engagement by increasing the click-through rate.
- Plays as space saver cards- By presenting a summarized, overview of various media content in small space, thumbnails attract organic traffic to your channel.
- Builds user excitement, friendliness, interactivity, and attention by presenting strong visuals from small captured and well-modified images.
- Showcase and advertise your products/service/skills
Let us explore deeply how to make a thumbnail for YouTube
- SELECT AN APPEALING IMAGE THAT WORKS- to formulate a relevant design/image which compels the viewer to click-through to the video for your thumbnail you can use-
- Brand logo, differentiating your brand(branding) to increase recognition
- An amusing facial expression
- Screenshots/snapshots from your video
- Action shots to capture the viewer’s attention conveying the subject of the video content
- Still images- It is a brief snapshot of your video's content
- Meaningful animations / graphics/ colours
- Add bold, beautiful & designed text and various fonts
- Product image to advertise it
- Brand name
- The high-quality picture acts like a teaser and grabs the audience's attention.
2.ADD READABLE TEXT AND ATTRACTIVE BACKGROUNDS – To grab the viewer’s attention and engagement, use bold and highlighted keywords in your title and bring it together with your video thumbnail to attract organic traffic to your channel. You can also-
- Use contrasting colors as your background.
- Add sticker effect to your thumbnails to make them look more eye-catchy
- To establish identification and recognition, you can create a thumbnail template for your YouTube channel and attach a similar thumbnail to each video.
- If your text is brighter, then use a dark background.
3.DOWNLOAD AND PREVIEW THE FORMULATED THUMBNAIL- Download the thumbnail and preview it to analyze its visual impact. Then upload your video relevant to it and solve the mystery of how to make a thumbnail for YouTube.
4. KNOW THE IDEAL SIZE FOR A THUMBNAIL- According to Youtube’s creator academy an ideal thumbnail lies between,
- 1280x720 pixels
- Minimum width-640 pixels
- Recommended ratio 16:9
- Maximum file size 2MB, accepted in JPG, BMP, GIF, and PNG files.
5. YOU CAN CREATE THUMBNAILS USING YOUR MOBILE PHONES TOO- If you are curious to know, how to add a thumbnail to a YouTube video on android, stay tuned!
Go to the play store of your android phone and install the Youtube creator app for free, go to the video you want to attach the thumbnail on, select the pencil icon, you will explore the custom thumbnail option here. Then confirm your thumbnail selection and tap Select and save it. To make thumbnails on the iPhone you can use free tools like Canva, PicMonkey, Fotor, Fotojet, Backgrounds, etc.
Following these 5 steps well you can easily learn how to create a thumbnail for YouTube and understood the concept of thumbnail well. Share and teach others too!