YouTube Thumbnails: Evergreen Tips From the Pros

I've been thinking about getting back into YouTube recently. However, I'll be honest, I've had so much fun and engagement with Instagram Reels that I fell out of love with YouTube for a long time. That said, I took a long time to build an audience on YouTube, and I've always believed in giving your content as much of a broad reach as possible.

Having been out the game so long I wanted to know what the current YouTube trends are in particular, Thumbnails. If you're like me I judge videos by their thumbnails. If the thumbnail is good, I'm coming in, if it looks bang average despite the video looking like it's the one I want to see, then I just won't bother.

TIP 1. I've found this myself with thumbnails but glad someone has confirmed this for me. When I searched on REDDIT I found this answer compounded my theories. Avoid putting anything important in the top 1/8, bottom 1/8 and lower right corners of the thumbnail. YouTube will add overlays — title across the top (if embedded), progress bar (on YouTube) and duration (all usages).

TIP 2. I was looking for an APP that did FREE DELETE BACKGROUNDS. I know Canva has a free tier, but only the PRO version allows you to delete backgrounds with one-click. Adobe Photoshop is not free and I find a lot of the tools there a bit archaic. Luckily I found this one, InPixio. I deleted a background in seconds, it's free to use also. There is a paid version that gives you better quality. What’s more it allows you to add your own backgrounds. A complete game changer, still waiting to see what the catch is.

TIP 3: Don't have the text in the Thumbnail, be the same as the title of the Vlog. Have only a couple of words of text in the thumbnail. According to Thumbnail Test:

You don't necessarily need to have text on your YouTube thumbnails. Add only if the background image doesn't tell a bit of the story and raise curiosity.

TIP 4: I've found a lot of good points in forums, but then also good counterpoints. Like do what the big players do, study their thumbnails and copy them. But then what's the fun in that? If the video is creative, then be creative with the thumbnail too. I'm seeing a lot of Joe Rogan esque Thumbnails of late. That freeze frame of someone shocked and speechless.

My opinion is, only if I really care about your reactions, will I care if you're speechless or not. I would say 99% of people will be clicking on your video if they want to learn something or have their own value system confirmed. It would be great if we could do away with people looking shocked for the sake of clicks. Turns out many videos if not all of them, are not shocking whatsoever.

TIP 5: What is the next trend in Thumbnails? I found an article online with Vidiq that showed a viral thumbnail I love; Personalised Headshots.

“I Tried $600 Smart Glasses for a Week.” The thumbnail shows her face, but it also shows some hologram-like images projecting from her glasses. It’s more engaging than a bare headshot!

TIP 6: Don't forget the humour part. I'm a big believer that you have to inject a bit of humour into everyday life where you can. Take for an example an image I did of my friend who did a cover of a James Bond song. With a little bit of editing I cropped an image of him into band line that was already on the record sleeve.

If it doesn't work for YouTube, use it for stories, LinkedIn or wherever. The rule of seven is that if people see something for the seventh time they are more than likely to click on it.