- You guys know that one of the most important things
for growing your YouTube channel
is having enticing thumbnails that people actually click,
because it doesn't matter how amazing your video content is
if your thumbnails don't entice people
to watch it in the first place.
Jeremy Vest is going to join us here today
to talk to you guys how to optimize those
to get the most traffic, most views,
and most clicks on your thumbnails.
(synthesized music)
Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer
and welcome to Video Creators.
This channel is all about helping you guys
grow your YouTube audience
so you can spread a message that reaches people
and changes their life.
This is Mr. Jeremy Vest
from the YouTube channel Vidpowbam.
Link down below.
Tell us about that real quick.
- On Vidpowbam, we chop up and break down
the success science
of popular YouTube channels every Friday.
- [Tim] And he actually did my channel
and he pointed out everything that's wrong
about what I'm doing.
(laughing)
It was actually really helpful.
So, there's a link to that below.
You can go check it out
if you want to subscribe to his channel.
This is one of the guys a few years ago
that gave me some good tips for thumbnails
that I have been following and using ever since then.
And I want him to share some of those things
with you guys here today.
So, what should they know?
- Well, first off,
most people don't realize
that their right hand side suggested video area
is the most organically clicked area for most channels.
So, having very good optimized thumbnails
is really important.
It actually could be the most important optimization piece
of your channel.
The biggest thing,
when it shrinks down really small,
saturated colors.
So you really need to pump up the colors,
the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
Exaggerate them by 20% or 30%
so that when you shrink them down it still pops.
And you want to make sure that your thumbnails
pop in color more than the competitors
so that someone has a reason to click on it.
Another thing is when you scale down these videos
in something like photo-shop,
you are going to lose a lot of sharpness.
So, actually increase the sharpness.
It looks weird at a full sized thumbnail right?
But it looks really crisp and the colors are saturated.
Another thing is the eyes really are subconsciously
the window to the soul,
and it's a way a lot of people connect with another human.
And if you have a face,
you probably want to make an extreme close-up
so people can really see the eyes.
So they subconsciously connect with that thumbnail.
- [Tim] And if you don't have a face
there's something weird about you.
(laughing)
- [Jeremy] Another thing is,
you want to show as much action as you can.
If it's just a person,
maybe they're running
or maybe there is something behind them,
or maybe it is the most exciting part of the video.
You definitely want to show as much action as possible.
- [Tim] It has to be that most enticing part of the story
where people are like,
Ooh, what happens next?
Or that looks like something is about to happen.
It teaches a story,
or if you are doing content like Jeremy and I do
where we're just sitting down talking with you guys,
you still want to make it look like
there is some sort of action.
(camera click)
It's a better still frame for a thumbnail than just.
(camera click)
Right? (laughs)
So, make it look like
you are talking like this or something.
And then put other graphics around to complement the title
so that people know
oh, this is a video about thumbnails, right.
- Yeah, and Tim does a great job with having other elements
of color and pop and text sometimes.
You just need to make sure that you realize
they are looking at a static image to see
if they're gonna select your video or not.
So, you want to make sure that you tell a story
as much as possible in a single image.
- [Tim] One of the things that I also do.
On my family's channel is a high mobile audience.
97% of our viewers on that channel are watching
on either a phone or a tablet.
So, because of the smaller screen size,
it's important that your thumbnails look very good
when they are really small.
So when I make my thumbnails,
I take my 1080 piece still frame
or picture that we took for the thumbnail,
but I edit the thumbnail.
What is it?
By 123 x 72 or something?
Really small.
I forget what the actual dimensions are
but I edit that really small size.
So if I can still see what the facial expression is
or what the main subject of that thumbnail is at this small,
then I know that it is a good thumbnail.
Because what looks big at a full sized thumbnail
doesn't usually look good.
- It looks like and elbow or something small.
You have no idea what it really is.
- I actually edit them that small.
I don't resize them.
I just zoom all the way out and photo-shop until
it's about that big.
- Yeah, that's smart.
Another thing is the supporting title is very important.
My favorite thumbnail of all time is from Vsauce,
and it is literally just a yellow box.
The title is This Is Not Yellow.
So, the combination between the title
and the intrigue of the thumbnail makes it phenomenal.
So don't forget to have what the video is about,
but also give someone a reason to actually click.
Another idea is to have what we call branded thumbnails
or having the same color, logo, or visual scheme
on each thumbnail you have.
What this does is it creates a pattern.
So, if you have two, three, four,
maybe even six or seven thumbnails
on the suggested videos on the right hand side,
our brain loves patterns,
and it will actually start popping out visually in our mind
and your videos will stand out above the crowd.
We did this for Gillette and some other brands
and it increased their suggested videos by a lot.
By 20%, 30%, 40%.
- [Tim] How about text on thumbnails?
Especially when they repeat the title of the video
as text on the thumbnail.
Yay or nay?
- I think text can work quite well,
but you can't have a lot of text.
It needs to be very bold
and it needs to be very strategic.
It's not like a sentence.
One or two, three words tops.
You put text on some of your thumbnails.
- I use text
but I always use text that compliment the title.
I don't put text to repeat the title.
That's pointless.
- Yeah, I would never. (laughs)
- That text in your thumbnail is not indexed.
They might know what it is depending on how nerdly they are
but it doesn't influence anything
algorithmically or anything.
For example, if I do a video
of how to hook a viewers attention
to get more watch time,
I have a thumbnail as you guys can see right here.
I'm using text on the thumbnail but it's just like,
(high pitched voice) ahh, I'm so hooked.
It compliments the title in some way.
And I have plenty of other examples
on that here on this channel.
There is a difference, I feel,
between text on an entertainment channel
where you're doing storytelling of some kind.
Those tend to work better from what I've seen
just with no text,
a really good clear visual
of whatever the story that is being taught
and the title is,
as opposed to using text.
Typically from what I've seen
it works better on more educational type of content.
Like how to tutorial, D-I-Y, stuff like that,
like I'm doing here on this channel.
Jeremy and I are looking forward to learning from you guys
because we know
that you have a lot of experience in this as well.
So, comment down there.
Let us learn from you.
Share your best tips that you found
that really helped you make really extremely enticing
and effective thumbnails.
And the rest of you guys,
read what other people are commenting with down there.
You are going to learn a lot from them.
You can also find links
to Jeremy's channel in the description below, Vidpowbam.
And if this is your first time here at Video Creators,
we'd love to have you subscribe.
This channel is all about helping you guys
grow your YouTube audience.
Not just for views, not just for more subscribers,
not just for popularity.
All those things are fine,
but they are great tools to the ultimate goal
which is to reach people and change their lives.
So, thank you for letting Jeremy and I
be a small part of that here with you guys.
Subscribe and we'll see you guys again next week.
Bye.