How Important are Video Thumbnails?

Kevin Muldoon

Kevin Muldoon

Loving YTtalk
There's lots of articles advising YouTuber's to upload fantastic thumbnails for each of their videos.

This is an area I struggle. I'm great at creating thumbnails so the custom thumbnails I use don't look great.

Despite what the experts say, I'm leaning towards not using any.

I have noticed any difference in performance between videos with thumbnails and those without. In fact, my poor design skills may cause me to get lose views.

I have also noticed that many YouTube channels I subscribe to that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers do not use custom thumbnails; which to me suggests that they are perhaps not as important as many people think they are.

I did consider hiring a designer to do custom thumbnails for me, but to be honest it would just hold me back from publishing videos as I'd have to wait on them sending me the files. If I am to continue to use thumbnails, I need to do them myself.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

If someone like me is bad with thumbnails, do you think it is better to just use one of the default ones that YouTube generates or just upload a related picture for the video?

Thanks,
Kevin
 
Kevin Muldoon said:
There's lots of articles advising YouTuber's to upload fantastic thumbnails for each of their videos.

This is an area I struggle. I'm great at creating thumbnails so the custom thumbnails I use don't look great.

Despite what the experts say, I'm leaning towards not using any.

I have noticed any difference in performance between videos with thumbnails and those without. In fact, my poor design skills may cause me to get lose views.

I have also noticed that many YouTube channels I subscribe to that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers do not use custom thumbnails; which to me suggests that they are perhaps not as important as many people think they are.

I did consider hiring a designer to do custom thumbnails for me, but to be honest it would just hold me back from publishing videos as I'd have to wait on them sending me the files. If I am to continue to use thumbnails, I need to do them myself.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

If someone like me is bad with thumbnails, do you think it is better to just use one of the default ones that YouTube generates or just upload a related picture for the video?

Thanks,
Kevin
Click to expand...

Hi Kevin,

I personally wouldn't click on a video if the thumbnail looked poor. The way I look at things is, everyone is doing the same thing, you must distinguish yourself from them by putting out better content then them. A striking thumbnail is one way of making yourself stand out and get attention. Although i agree, sometimes a thumbnail can be worthless, I would recommend custom thumbnails.

That's just the way I feel, hope that made sense :)

Tim
 
Good to hear another point of view.

I see things a little differently. A custom thumbnail does not affect me clicking a video.

Take a look at Flossy Carter's channel; a YouTuber with close to half a million subscribers. He simply uses a screenshot from his video or a photograph. No text is used. I don't think it has harmed his growth.
 
Kevin Muldoon said:
Good to hear another point of view.

I see things a little differently. A custom thumbnail does not affect me clicking a video.

Take a look at Flossy Carter's channel; a YouTuber with close to half a million subscribers. He simply uses a screenshot from his video or a photograph. No text is used. I don't think it has harmed his growth.
Click to expand...

I just checked him out and I see what you mean. Perhaps it is specific content that requires custom thumbnails. For example, Gaming videos I think should have a striking thumbnail or something interesting. If it is just a screenshot of the game it looks weak. Ben Brown however is a Vlogger and he just has a photo of something he did in the day as the thumbnail, that works for me.
 
Timikinz said:
I just checked him out and I see what you mean. Perhaps it is specific content that requires custom thumbnails. For example, Gaming videos I think should have a striking thumbnail or something interesting. If it is just a screenshot of the game it looks weak. Ben Brown however is a Vlogger and he just has a photo of something he did in the day as the thumbnail, that works for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah you may be right. If there are thousands of people with the same screenshot of a game such as Grand Theft Auto V then the one that uses a custom thumbnail will stand out. Though if everyone was using custom thumbnails, not using one would make you stand out.

I just checked your thumbnails and they're really good. If you look at mine, you can see that mine are pretty poor. I think they're bad so I am sure viewers do too.

I'd be interested to hear whether a YouTuber here saw things change when they started or stopped using custom thumbnails.
 
@Kevin Muldoon You're comparing your channel to semi-giant / giant channels... You shouldn't. The only things you should be comparing your channel with bigger channels are SEO, Titles, and the quality of your thumbnails. Popular youtubers don't need great thumbnails because they already have channel authority and a huge following, but most still do it anyway. When your channel is small, you need great custom thumbnails to grab a person's attention. Think of it as seeing a magazine or book at a store. Which one are you going to pick up? The ones with the eye-catching pictures, titles, artwork, etc. The moment you publish a video, you are selling something on youtube. Whether you intend on making money or not, you want people to take a chance in watching content from a small unknown youtuber. You need attention grabbing titles and thumbnails.
 
KatyAdelson said:
I've moved this to the Branding and Channel Design forum because this is discussing thumbnail design. ^_^
Click to expand...

Thanks Katy :)

Painter said:
@Kevin Muldoon You're comparing your channel to semi-giant / giant channels... You shouldn't. The only things you should be comparing your channel with bigger channels are SEO, Titles, and the quality of your thumbnails. Popular youtubers don't need great thumbnails because they already have channel authority and a huge following, but most still do it anyway. When your channel is small, you need great custom thumbnails to grab a person's attention. Think of it as seeing a magazine or book at a store. Which one are you going to pick up? The ones with the eye-catching pictures, titles, artwork, etc. The moment you publish a video, you are selling something on youtube. Whether you intend on making money or not, you want people to take a chance in watching content from a small unknown youtuber. You need attention grabbing titles and thumbnails.
Click to expand...

I know what you are saying. I do agree that great custom thumbnails could help me.

I'm not great at designing them myself so I may be perhaps purchasing a good overlay that I use on all of my videos that they are branded in the same way.

With regards to popular youtubers, the ones who don't use custom thumbnails never did. So I'm not sure whether that is an appropriate analogy or not.

I do, however, agree with what you are saying. I don't have a big following yet and I need to make them stand out.
 
Hey Kevin! Thumbnails are massively important its how you will get people to actually click on your videos to watch them! lets just put it this way would you rather click on a video with big bold colourful thumbnail or just a screenshot of the gameplay, I know which I would chose. I wouldn't hire an artist tbh as sometimes they charge a lot of money for something you can do yourself. watch videos on YouTube and play around with it its easy once you get the hang of it! If you need a hand with thumbnails then I'm fairly decent add me on skype thegamerrybo and I can help you all I can :)

Ryan.
 
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