- You guys know that one of the primary factors
that goes into a successful YouTube channel
is having thumbnails that people want to click.
Today, I wanna introduce you to a friend of mine
who is a data scientist when it comes to thumbnails,
and he's gonna give you guys
some little-known hacks and tricks
for how to make your thumbnails more clickable.
(upbeat electronic music)
So let me introduce you to a friend of mine named Justin.
I've known him for many years.
He has quickly grown YouTube channels
of 15 million views a month just by having great content
and really amazing thumbnails.
This guy has studied them and knows what he's talkin' about.
CustomThumbnails.com was cool enough to sponsor this video
so I could tell you guys about them.
He's gonna give you a few tips here, and at the end,
we're gonna give you a coupon code
for how you can get 50% off your first order
with them as you test them out.
- Hey, hey, what's up?
It's Justin Evans from the internet!
Today, I'm gonna give you five thumbnail tips.
These tips are gonna help you design
better thumbnails for your YouTube videos.
This is gonna be a lotta fun, buckle in.
Are you ready?
Our first thumbnail design tip
is think about the process.
As you think about that flow or natural process
that a potential viewer would go through to find your video,
ask yourself if you think your thumbnail design
adequately reflects those keywords and phrases
that they typed to find your thumbnail.
Tip number two, be a tease.
That's right, tease your audience
as to what your video's about in your thumbnail.
As you follow the logical process
that we talked about in tip one,
make sure that your thumbnail design teases
as to what your video's about,
and it's okay for your thumbnail
to leave some lingering questions
in the potential viewer's mind.
And I say potential viewer 'cause they're not a viewer
until they click that thumbnail.
If your thumbnail design makes the viewer ask a question
as to what the video's about,
then make sure that that question's answered
once they click and watch the video.
Tip number three, know your audience.
You know, there are some huge YouTubers out there
who do really well with basic thumbnails.
They might take a screenshot of the video,
crop it a little bit, and call it good.
And those basic thumbnails work really well for them,
but there are other huge YouTubers who do really well
with beautifully designed, elaborate thumbnails.
Know your audience; figure out what works for you.
There isn't a once-size-fits-all solution
for thumbnail designs.
Test different designs on your audience.
See which one works the best, and go with that.
Number four, honesty is the best policy.
I know, you've heard it before.
But it's true, not just in life,
but with YouTube thumbnails as well.
Don't mislead people just for short-term gains.
The worst thing you could do is to mislead people
with your thumbnail design, get clicks,
just to have those people abandon your video
after figuring out that you lied to 'em.
Tip number five, make it beautiful.
People wanna watch quality content.
No matter what category of YouTube it is,
people wanna watch content
which the creator put their heart and soul into.
If it's gaming videos or vlogs,
if it's product reviews or anything else,
people wanna know that the video creator
put some time and effort into the video
that they're about to watch.
Your thumbnails are a direct reflection
of the time and effort you put into creating your video.
So ask yourself, does the production value of your video
match the production value of your thumbnail?
I have to completely honest.
You don't need to hire someone
to create your thumbnails for you.
If you have Photoshop or not,
you can create your own thumbnails.
There are free online services like Pixlr and PicMonkey
that you can use to design and create your own thumbnails
that will perform just as good as anyone else's thumbnails.
And when you use these programs,
there's a few things you need to know.
YouTube requires that your thumbnails are 1,280 by 720
with a minimum width of 640 pixels.
YouTube wants thumbnails that are saved as jpg, gif, bmp,
or png and make sure your file size is under two megabytes.
So the coupon code is VIDEOCREATORS,
and I'll tell you where you can use that coupon code.
The first 100 people to use it
can use it on CustomThumbnails.com.
It's a website I created because I love business,
I love YouTube, and I love the YouTube community,
and I guess more importantly than all of that,
I think it's really important
to have beautifully designed thumbnails.
- Thank you, Justin; that was so helpful.
Here's the deal guys, there's three big things
that really go into growing your YouTube channel.
And that is, one, having good titles;
two, good thumbnails that entices someone to click;
and then you need a good story, good content.
So, good videos that holds their attention,
gets you the watch time you need.
So you need all three of those things.
Justin serves with the custom thumbnails,
knocks it out of the park.
I'd love to hear from you guys in the comments.
What tips and advice do you have
for creating custom thumbnails
that have helped your channel perform better?
And if this is your first time here,
I would love to have you subscribe.
Here at Video Creators, we're just all about
helping you grow a YouTube audience.
You can spread a message that reaches people
and changes their lives,
and your thumbnails are a huge part of that.
So thank you for letting Justin
and I be a small part of that.
Subscribe, and I'll see you guys again on Thursday.
See you then, bye.