9 Tips for Killer Custom Thumbnails on YouTube

While your video itself is your most important piece of content, your video thumbnail – also known as the video poster-frame – is the increasingly valuable still image that helps your audience discover your video.

Thumbnails, along with your video title, act as mini-marketing posters for your content on YouTube. Below are a few tips about the kinds of images that work well.

1. An action shot is great, but make sure it is clear and in-focus
2. Think about what will stand out against YouTube’s white background and compared to other thumbnails in the search result or sidebar. Brightness, contrast and color are elements to consider.
3. We are all naturally attracted to the human face. A close up is especially compelling and will be discernible no matter how small the thumbnail is.
4. Don’t be afraid to use photo editing software to overlay text or combine images.
5. Create dimension by having the foreground stand out from the background.
6. Images That “Compel You To Click” – Whatever you do, do NOT be a thumbnail cheat – using an image that will entice people to click but is not actually related to the content. Some of the summer movie trailers were on the edge of this.
7. Always use an image that accurately represents the content – A bait and switch will have terrible impact on your engagement stats, and YouTube doesn’t like that.
8. Don’t just use your logo. Just don’t.
9. Make sure it works well with your title. Your thumbnail and title need to be like peanut butter and jelly.

For other suggestions, you can always check out the YouTube playbook. And our friends at ReelSEO have more to say on the subject of custom YouTube thumbnails.

If you are a uStudio customer, upload your custom thumbnail image to uStudio and it will travel to YouTube along with all of your other metadata when you publish. Never have to pick among 3 pre-selected thumbnail options on the YouTube Video Manager ever again!