Among the cooler features rolled out by YouTube in recent months has been the ability for partners to create and upload a custom YouTube video thumbnail.
The popular YouTube channels – such as Ray William Johnson – have been doing this for years. The feature is great because it helps your videos stand out on your channel, featured playlists, amid video search results, as well as amid related video sidebars.
So, basically, a good thumbnail will result in more views.
To get started on making our own custom thumbnail, we should consider YouTube’s guidelines: The custom thumbnail image should be as large as possible, as the image will also be used as the preview image in the embedded player, with a recommended resolution of 1280×720. The file should be saved in .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG image formats. The resulting image file size needs to be smaller than 2mb. View YouTube’s custom thumbnail guidelines.
You can see from Ray Ray’s thumbnails three characteristics that can be replicated in your own custom thumbnail:
- They have a clear image – Ray – at the center of attention.
- They have a colorful background (often bright colors)
- They have some branding (=3)
Focal Point
Prior to the custom thumbnail, we were forced to decide from three thumbnail selections YouTube offered after uploading a video. While they appeared to be selected randomly, the were actually chosen from the one quarter, one half, and three quarter parts of the video. However, more often than not, those choices featured someone with their mouth open or eyes closed – not exactly compelling. Your options were to choose among these selections, pay to advertise on YouTube (and thereby have the custom thumbnail benefit), or try to game the system (search for thumbnail hack).
Now you can grab a still shot from your video – do this while editing the video – and use it as the base of your custom thumbnail.
Color
Because the thumbnails are … thumbnails, a lot of the cinematic detail from your video is lost due to the small size and the result can be a bit dark. That is why adding some color can make your thumbnails pop. I have started adding a color bar on the side of the custom thumbnails I have recently made. I select colors that are connected to your existing branding (I’m using the same blue as the SEMpdx logo, or the same green from my Seven G Media logo).
Branding
In addition to using your own branded colors, you can also consider adding a logo or some other branding or text. The trick is that you have to consider the small size the thumbnails will be on YouTube. So test several size versions to see what works best.
Of course, you have to play by YouTube’s rules. All custom thumbnail images must follow YouTube’s Community Guidelines : “Thumbnails that are sexually suggestive, violent, or graphic may cause your video to be age-restricted. Age-restricted partner videos will not have advertising served against them and will not appear on browse pages.” YouTube also reserves the right to revoke your ability to upload custom thumbnails, and once taken can not be restored.
Send me an email if you have any questions about creating your own custom thumbnail.