- So how do the biggest YouTubers in the world
generate millions of views
through the power of thumbnails?
(cash register dings)
Well we decided to ask one.
(upbeat electronic music)
Hello I'm Rob welcome back to vidIQ,
the YouTube tool and channel
that aims to educate you on your YouTube Journey,
and today you are watching another video
in the series all about
how to make better thumbnails
that will get you more clicks.
For the full playlist click over here.
Today we take our advice from some of the very best
thumbnail artists in the business and share them with you.
V, along with her partner Chad Wild Clay
are the team behind the wildly popular
YouTube Hacker series.
Creating stand-out custom thumbnails
for their content is an integral part of the process,
and V gave us a sneak peek into what works
across their YouTube channel.
For the full interview you can check out our blog post
at our brand new vidIQ website,
but we thought we'd summarize the key points in a video,
because well you know that's what we do here.
Over the past few years, V and her team
have been testing and refining the types of thumbnails
that drive viewers to click through to watch.
It's a strategy that's worked to generate a combined
12 million subscribers and over 2.4 billion views
across three main YouTube channels V manages.
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Take a look at any of V and Chad's
YouTube channel's,
and the first thing that hits you
about the custom thumbnails is
the extraordinary use of color.
As experts in the game, this is absolutely intentional.
V explains that the content they create
appeals to a younger demographic
who respond really well to bright and vibrant colors.
In order to maximize the appeal of the thumbnails,
V and her team play with, enhance and even radically
change the colors on the image,
until they get the results they know will work.
Using just Photoshop, colors are saturated
and backgrounds are blurred
to make the foreground objects stand out.
And drop shadows and outer glows are used
to further make those objects or text really pop.
V will also separate out the background
and the foreground on different layers
for added image clarity and depth.
To break this process down further
lets take a look at the thumbnail
V and her team created for
I was defeated by project Zorgo Hacker.
(electronic music)
You can see the image editing expertise
fully in action on this thumbnail.
V has used a fairly blurred, two color background
on one layer, with herself and the hacker on another layer.
The two figures have been outlined,
using the outer glow tool, so they stand out,
drawing the viewers attention to V's bright jacket
and the white mask of the hacker.
The jacket is actually blue denim,
but V changes the color for every thumbnail
she wears it for, based on the other colors she's using.
The team mix and match complimentary colors,
based on the background and objects in the thumbnail.
And V will often change the color of the jacket,
so it is the opposite of what everybody else
in the thumbnail is wearing.
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V and the team also use colors
to create a sense of consistency across their thumbnails
with splashes of the same color popping up
across different images.
This creates a motif that runs throughout their thumbnails
and reinforces the branding and familiarity of the channels.
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Another thing you'll notice from the thumbnails
created across V's, Chad's and the Project Hacker
YouTube Channels,
is that text is kept to an absolute minimum,
Or not used at all.
Obviously this creates extra pressure on the designer,
who has to get the focus of the content over
without spelling it out for the viewer.
V and her team are world-class experts at this
and know exactly when to use text, only when necessary.
When they do, it's big and bright and it counts.
V's team have concrete rules for text use.
Use three words or less for any thumbnail.
Keep that text precise, and only ever use it
if it makes the story complete.
And of course, pretty much rule 101 of thumbnails,
Never repeat text in the title in your thumbnails.
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Another component of successful
customer thumbnails that V and her team create
is the use of emotion to draw viewers in.
If just one person is in the thumbnail,
they will use the face that shows the stronger emotion.
And there if there are two or more people,
each will have a slightly different emotion
to force their attention.
This is incredible important for capturing
the eyeballs of the younger audience
scrolling through the YouTube feed on their mobile devices.
Another very effective way of conveying
a strong emotion in a person,
is to actually show the whites of their eyes.
In this thumbnail, V accentuated Chad's green iris,
and the whites of his eyes, with Photoshop saturation tool,
to make them really come alive.
This really helps when it comes to the human connection.
But V goes even further to create
a sense of emotion with viewers.
Not only does she want to attract viewers
with facial expressions,
but also with a sense of action and purpose
from the people featured in the image.
As this is rarely achieved from someone just standing still,
she makes sure that Chad, herself or The Hacker
are in some kind of motion,
like running or fighting back.
The aim is to create a need
for the audience to find out what happens next.
(electronic music)
The art of a thumbnail
is something V's team considers
before shooting even begins.
The topic of the video and the story around it
is a critical starting point for the graphic.
The base image isn't taken from a screenshot from the video,
it's shot separately and taken from one of the many images
created during the photo shoot.
The team will take multiple shots from multiple angles
so they have a wide range of creative assets to work from.
Thumbnails are never an after thought for the team,
and are as important as creating the main video content.
(soft piano music)
V and the team monitor click-through rate
very closely after uploading their video,
and is quick to respond if she feels
a thumbnail isn't working as well as she expects.
V tracks the CTR of all of their custom thumbnails
in a spreadsheet and analyzes the data
for performance insights.
But even with the data, as an expert,
V will use her experience and instinct
to change up a thumbnail within the first 48 hours
if the video isn't getting the views.
Even before she can confirm the click-through rate.
Talking of click-through rates,
V aims for a astonishing figure of around 15%.
Seven principles from the experts
that's helped them gain billions of views.
Of the tips, tricks and advice given to you
by the experts in this video,
which one do you think is most important,
and which one are you gonna concentrate on next
to improve your own thumbnails?
Let us know in the comments below.
As I've already said, we've got more awesome
thumbnail videos on the channel,
they're all over here and we've got more awesome
vidIQ content to help you grow your channel,
get more views and more subscribers.
Videos down there,
will see you on either of those right now.
Of course, enjoy the rest of your video making day.
Click! (mouse clicking)