Do videos get more views if the creator shows his face?
- Thread starter Acerthorn
- Start date
mirrorlessNY(youtuber)
I Love YTtalk
I do plenty of both, it's okey to stick with 1 or a mix of both, you can start with no face & then see when you get comfortable to show up
HandedDownKitchen
New Member
It would be hard to get any real data on this but I would say that it is easier to 'retain' viewers if you show your face, depending on the type of videos you are making, as it's easier to make more of a connection with you as a person. I recall Casey Neistat once said that he wore sunglasses in his videos because it makes it seem like he is looking at you but not staring at you by staring into the camera. If you're going for blog style content or gaming commentary, etc I think showing your face can be beneficial.
I personally don't think this translates over into getting the initial view or click though as that's more to do with title/thumbnail.
I personally don't think this translates over into getting the initial view or click though as that's more to do with title/thumbnail.
GoldenOgreGames
Member
I'd have to say it does help. Think about all the videos you clicked only to get a screencast video with someone typing in a text editor instead of talking. I don't even bother with those anymore. Make a thumbnail, slap your face on it to brand it and make it feel more personable. People want to watch a good video and feel connected to the youtuber. Have some commentary, make people watch for you, not just the video. THere's too many plain faceless videos out there and you won't stick out. That's just my opinion though. I've been around since the dawn of time lol
mirrorlessNY(youtuber)
I Love YTtalk
great point, also if your face is in the video it's probably less likely to be stolen & used by someone somewhere
The Healthy Investor
Member
Agree with Ater, if you do makeup videos for example then definitely need to show your face...
My personal experience though, is that if I have my face in the thumbnails, it generally does better.
My personal experience though, is that if I have my face in the thumbnails, it generally does better.
Alvan
Youtuber, Improviser, Dinosaur, and Student
Building on this, there is actually a reason why having a face in the thumbnail does better. Humans are naturally pulled to look at faces, so when they are scrolling through YouTube they are more likely to notice a thumbnail with a face than without one. But also that doesn't meet no face thumbnails are obsolete, if designed well they can be effective too
Tito Tims Videos
Loving YTtalk
You would think so... but I had 6 vids stolen - intro and outro even! All they did was add their own link to the description. And unfortunately marketed (spammed?) it better. They got over 100k views, while I am doing good to get 500 ha ha
As for facing or not, I do not know. I think it really depends on your niche and style. There is a card trick teacher with over 1 million subs, and I have never seen his face, he averages 4 million views per video. But my vids perform better if I face the camera. Different genre, though.
Nicekid76
The Bostonian YTtalker
I agree with @Tito Tims Videos
I personally click on videos with faces UNLESS if I'm looking for a skills video, then I look for a detail shot of the skill.
If I want to learn about clearing water from my scuba mask, then I want a video of a mask in the thumbnail. I as the person looking for the video don't care who shows it to me as long as I learn the skill.
Card trick - then I want hands and cards in the video.
MKBHD makes tech videos mainly about phones and only like 40% of his thumbnails has his face in them
ps. most large channels use a program called tubebuddy to do A/B testing on their thumbnails. You can also do with without Tubefilter it just helps automate it. I Never personally used it but many of my old youtube friends have.
The video switching thumbnails everyday for the first 3 - 14 days and which every thumbnail got the most views stays as the thumbnail.
All that to say, test and collect your data based on your video, channel and your target audience
I personally click on videos with faces UNLESS if I'm looking for a skills video, then I look for a detail shot of the skill.
If I want to learn about clearing water from my scuba mask, then I want a video of a mask in the thumbnail. I as the person looking for the video don't care who shows it to me as long as I learn the skill.
Card trick - then I want hands and cards in the video.
MKBHD makes tech videos mainly about phones and only like 40% of his thumbnails has his face in them
ps. most large channels use a program called tubebuddy to do A/B testing on their thumbnails. You can also do with without Tubefilter it just helps automate it. I Never personally used it but many of my old youtube friends have.
The video switching thumbnails everyday for the first 3 - 14 days and which every thumbnail got the most views stays as the thumbnail.
All that to say, test and collect your data based on your video, channel and your target audience