- I'm gonna show you the best YouTube thumbnail strategies
that's gonna help you get more views
and visibility for your YouTube videos.
And I'm here to tell ya that the only thing
that I did on this channel was change
the thumbnail strategy and we got three times more views.
Thumbnails are important.
I'm gonna show you exactly what you need to know.
Why wouldn't you wanna do that?
Don't you want the views?
If you do, let's do this.
Hello my people of the internet.
Now, if you are new to me and this YouTube channel,
we talk about all things YouTube.
So make sure you hit that subscribe button
and the bell notification so you don't miss out.
Now I can tell you, the number one thing that
you should focus in on to get more views and visibility
for your YouTube videos is the click.
There are over two billion active people
looking for videos to watch,
and the only way that you're gonna succeed
is if you grab their attention and they click on your video.
Now these strategies and tactics I'm gonna show you
are being used by the biggest and brightest
and most creative creators on the planet.
The biggest art that a lot of these content creators have
is really understanding how to get people to click,
and it is an art form,
and it has more to do with psychological triggers.
Now we're gonna give you the strategies and tactics
to really help you get that click, earn that click,
by leaning from the experts and what they do.
And at the end of the video you wanna stick around
'cause I'm gonna give you my best tips.
They're called the power tips,
and you don't wanna miss it because these are the tips
that's gonna help you get the most views.
All right, number one.
Curiosity earns the click.
I was actually on YouTube today,
and I came across this video,
and I'm tellin' ya, I was very curious.
Can he lift that much weight underwater?
What actually happens?
All right, Tyler, you won my click.
But not only that, you got a lot of watch time
'cause then I not only watched this video,
but I clicked on three others.
And I lost about an hour and a half
because I watched video after video after video.
Now a word of warning that you need to deliver
on the promise because this is a psychological trigger.
If that's what they clicked on they're curious about it.
If you don't do it in the video,
then that's just click bait.
The bad kind.
The bad kind of click bait.
Not click food, click bait.
Now number two.
You gotta do close ups.
Psychologically we evolved as humans
and we have the need to really connect.
And the best way to connect is through the eyes.
We're also pulled into a thumbnail
when it is a person and also an object.
Now this first one is a brilliant one.
It's from MrBeast,
and you cans see that this thumbnail right here
is emotionally charged,
you're seeing that face really up close,
and you can also see the object,
which is a credit card.
And for me I'm wondering
why is he giving a girl a credit card?
What's gonna happen here?
The next one is showing a lot of emotion.
You can see Sean Duras here riding a rollercoaster.
Look at that face (laughing).
I'm curious to see what's going on.
Just showing emotion in those closeups
and really connecting with their face.
Peter McKinnon has one right here,
that you can see that he's super excited,
and I wanna know why.
You know this right here, this is a strategy
is when you're like, why is he so excited?
He's holding a camera.
What is the video going to be about?
That's when the viewer actually looks at that title
and that reinforces that thumbnail.
So titles and thumbnails are really important,
and honestly, that one actually earned my click.
One of the creators that I really respect is Mathias.
Mathias has been around for quite some time,
owns a lot of different YouTube channels out there.
One of the strategies that he's done for DOPE or NOPE
is where he's actually just featuring a product.
Every thumbnail is pretty close to the same thing.
But it works.
His face
and his object.
His face
and his object.
His face and his object.
You can do this over and over and over again.
Next one is what if we actually
focused in on the object first?
When you focus in on the object first
it should be right in frame,
you should make it really, really big,
like this thumbnail, 30-pound burger.
You're able to see it right there.
And I'm glad that they add the text
because I didn't know if they just kind of enlarged that,
but now when they put 30 pounds
I'm very curious to see what that video is actually about.
Next is Collin Keys,
and you can see right here,
really interesting facial expression,
and a very, very cute Baby Yoda.
Now you can start to see some patterns here
of facial expressions pull you in.
You're showing the object.
Here's another one from Casey Neistat.
Look at his facial expression right there.
He's luck huh?
I wonder what his video is actually about.
Now having that right facial expression
with the object creates that curiosity,
like here with Guava.
You can see that it's pulling you in,
and you want to go ahead and glance
what that title really is.
Now if you're just doing a closeup of the object
without a person in the thumbnail,
then you wanna do it like this.
You wanna make sure that the object
is right in the center,
really big, really bold, really bright.
Now if you also have two people
in the thumbnail with an object,
you wanna do it like this.
Person on the left, person on the right,
object in the middle,
and you can see these examples.
And tip number three, use your thumbnail
to tell your story.
Now you can see the previous thumbnails
that we showed, it actually showed the story
of what's gonna happen in the video.
These next ones I really really like,
and it shows progression.
And progression is a really powerful way
to get people pulled into the story,
and you can do it very simply.
There are two different ways to do it.
You can do it with a three panel or a two panel.
Let's start with three first.
And you can see in this video right here,
ice plus salt equals ice cream.
That's a three-panel thumbnail,
and I'm gonna tell you,
I can click on that every single time.
I'm wondering what is going on here?
That curiosity is kicking in.
But you can see the progression
that's actually happening in that thumbnail.
Now this next one is a really powerful one
because it not only does the progression,
but it's also using colors to accentuate that progression,
and it's also the same color of a flag of a country,
Italy, which is the dish that's actually there.
Now, this next creator, ZHC,
is very, very good with his thumbnails,
'cause he's an artist,
but he really does it in a very powerful way.
You can see the progression
of 10 hour, 10 minute, and 10 second,
and it's pulling across that panel.
It's done a little bit differently,
but it's in his own little way.
Now don't always get stuck on knowing that it's time.
Time is progression.
What we need to do is use it as a progressive thing.
And you can see in this example of tacos
that you start as amateur, home cook, or expert.
That's a powerful way to show progression.
And the next powerful way to show a progression
is a two panel.
A before and an after.
You know that the video's gonna show you
what's gonna happen before and this is the result of after.
Before and after.
And even before and when after you shave your head bald.
(laughing)
This is powerful in its way to really say,
oh, I know the expectation of the video
because I can see what's gonna happen here
and that's when they look at that title
to go ahead and click on that video.
And here's another strategy
that actually pulls you right in,
if you can actually do a before and after
with your face in the thumbnail.
Take a look.
You an see right there that you show it before and after.
One of the most powerful ways to actually tell a story
with thumbnails is using a tactic
and a strategy called polarization.
The opposites.
A difference between right and wrong.
So in this example you can see this.
This happens all the time here on YouTube.
You have a green check mark, that is right.
You have a red x, that is wrong.
And you can see why is Jimmy Kimmel good
and Casey Neistat's bad?
That's that curiosity factor that we're talking about.
There's also a way without using a check mark or an x.
You can see right here in this example,
it's just side by side,
and you know, oh, okay,
that's the right way or the wrong way.
I can tell you that polarization type of thumbnails,
the right way, wrong way of doing things,
has been really effective,
but is really effective in this strategy
called real or fake.
This happens all the time with creators.
They're able to showcase something real and fake.
You gotta judge it as the viewer of the video.
As you can see here with Collin Keys,
is this a real donut or a Play-Doh donut, real or fake?
And this same strategy can be used
like what Good Mythical Morning did here
with the what's in the ad and then what's the reality?
This polarization type thing,
it really pulls people in every single time.
Here's tip number four, use text to amplify.
This one is a big one, and I can tell you
a lotta new content creators struggle with this.
They feel like they need to put
every square inch needs to be text in their thumbnails.
That's not a good idea.
What a great idea is is to use text
to really explain further what the video's gonna be about.
So this one is one of the most powerful thumbnails
that I've seen in a while.
Horrible photographer.
You can see that, that right there
is really, really powerful.
It draws you in to say why is he a horrible photographer?
What's going on here?
You're looking at the title,
and you know you're gonna click on that.
You definitely wanna keep it simple.
You can see right here in MrBeast's video
where it's number 801,
and it reinforces that title that
he went through the drive thru a thousand times.
There are some channels that actually give information
that's out there, and I wanna let you know
that sometimes when you can't tell a story
within the thumbnail,
it's okay to use text to actually amplify your message.
Here's a great example of Nick Nimmin,
The Keys to Channel Growth in 2020.
That's a great thumbnail, that's an amazing thumbnail.
Look at his face.
Nimminati. - Oh my gosh.
- And tip number five,
use hand gestures, arrows, and symbols.
Now when this is done properly,
this is one of the most powerful way
to re-divert someone's eye to look very quickly,
in milliseconds, to a specific person or object.
Someone that does this really powerfully
is MatPat, the game theorist.
FortNite is guilty.
You're able to see a hand gesture.
You also have some question marks that's there as symbols.
Very, very powerful thumbnail.
Now, keep in mind, these hand gestures could look like this,
like Stephen Sharer.
Hey, look what's going on, I'm super excited.
Who is this?
There's curiosity.
You have question marks, you have an arrow.
That is really powerful.
You can also use hand gestures or arrows or symbols
to really amplify or give perspective.
Here's one with JerryRigEverything
where he's basically cutting
a hole in his house for his wife.
And they're putting in an elevator.
You gotta realize that sometimes
when we are actually glancing as viewers on YouTube,
we do a quick glance and then move on,
those arrows will actually amplify us to take a deeper look
at what's actually happening in that specific thumbnail.
And you can see right here there's
a tarantula in that guy's mouth.
Oh my gosh.
I would never do that.
And two, where you're using text and arrows and gestures
to really amplify you can see here
that you're saying, oh wait, Oreo pizza?
What's goin' on with that?
That is curiosity.
That's a great placement of the individual, text,
and also the symbols where this is all coming together.
Tip number six, use perspective to amplify.
This can be the most powerful way to really pull people in,
and this works a lot.
And you see a lot of creators
that do really, really big things
because it shows really well in that thumbnail,
and it actually is pretty creative content.
You can see right here, this giant pizza,
and I'm curious how long did it take to make that pizza.
And you can see right here it is getting a ton of views,
just because of the nature of big
and that contrast of perspective of small.
Now this next creator has got millions and millions
and millions of views on pretty much every video
because they do this, they are a master at this
of big and small but also tall.
And it's How Ridiculous.
Check out, look at this out,
they're showing their facial reaction,
they're gonna drop something,
you see the arrow that's there,
they're up really tall, the object's big,
and you see the pool.
I'm tellin' ya, I'm watchin' that video.
Next one is good friend, Mark Rober.
You can see right here, 15 ton jello pool.
You have a really big object,
and you show that he's in a pool.
That is also perspective.
It works every single time.
Tip number seven, organize clutter.
Now you're probably thinking,
what is this organize clutter thing?
Well this is something if you have a lot of something
then you can organize in a way
that it really draws in the eye.
This is very powerful, especially with kids content,
because there's an organization and a process with this.
And clutter is not always bad, it can be good.
Let's look at the master of thumbnails himself, MrBeast.
Here he is, is sitting in Orbee,
here he is is sitting in Legos,
here he is sitting in pennies.
Organized clutter works.
Tip number eight, show action.
Now this one right here, when it's done properly,
can really pull in because it creates this emotion
of what's gonna happen next,
or oh my goodness, is this gonna happen?
When you're showing an action shot in your thumbnails
that is storytelling at its finest,
and you can see right here, I'm curious,
is he gonna be biffed out in surfing.
That's a very powerful thumbnail.
Also you can see Bryan with Team Edge here,
putting his face through the door.
I wanna know what's going on.
Is he freaked out?
You know that I'm gonna be looking at that title,
and more than likely I'm gonna probably
click and watch the video.
And tip number nine, use colors to draw in the eye.
Using the right color combinations
can really draw the viewer in
and really distinguish your thumbnail from other thumbnails.
A strategy here is using contrasting colors
as the color on the opposite side of the color wheel
or complementary colors, that is something that you can do.
Now in these examples right here,
you can see that your eye is drawn in
to really accentuate a person and an object,
and it all has to do with colors.
Colors are key.
That's what you need to do.
That will make your thumbnail pop.
Now this next tip is a really important one.
It's something that you really need to consider,
and it's tip number 10 design for mobile.
Every day more and more people are using their mobile device
to access YouTube and ultimately,
you've gotta design your thumbnail
so it is appropriate for mobile.
This is key, 'cause a lot of us
actually design our thumbnails on big monitors,
and sometimes those big monitors look really, really good,
but when you put that thumbnail on mobile
it doesn't turn out so good.
Now, for power tip number one,
spend more time on your thumbnails,
and it's actually quite appropriate
that I'm actually giving you this tip,
because I'm in MrBeast's studio,
and we're about ready to go outside to shoot a thumbnail
that we've been planning for hours.
And ultimately at the end of the day,
I challenge you guys to actually spend two times
or more time that you're currently spending right now
on the ideation stage of that thumbnail.
Also taking double the time that you take
to actually design the thumbnail.
Some of you are being reactive,
and I want you to be super proactive.
This is a power tip and it's right for you.
And power tip number two,
and it's something that I truly do love
is when you see what's working for you and your channel
you can go ahead and YouTube is giving us
a lot of great tools to analyze
to see if our click through rate's high on certain videos.
What I like to do is kinda group 'em together
and see what's working for me and my channel,
and I also love to make those small adjustments
and really test things out.
Now there's so many more tips that I can give you,
but the next time that you design your thumbnail,
make sure you tag me in socials.
I'd love to see if you followed my tips,
and ultimately, guys, if you wanna get more views
and visibility on your YouTube channel,
check out this video
and we're gonna see you on the next video.