How crucial are good thumbnails?

[Boki]

I will share my opinions based on a large YouTuber I'm a huge fan of.
She (self-admittedly) doesn't put a lot of effort into thumbnails, she just picks one YT offers - she only makes a good thumbnail if YT offers all the bad examples (all three are mid-blinks etc).
Anywhoo, if I weren't binge watching her videos, I'd totally skip on a couple of really great clips because the thumbnails were so mediocre. So, yes, I'd give a resounding yes to good thumbnail. I don't think it will make a huge difference, but it just might tip the scales to a viewer who's not really sure whether to click on a link or not.
Also, I just think that good looking thumbnails look more professional at clean.

 

[iGM]

Hi,

Just wondering how important it is to have really good thumbnails. Do they need to always be “clickbaity”, or can they just reflect what the video is about. I’d assume a little bit of both, but I’d like to hear your opinions.

Click bait is something you may want to avoid in creating thumbnails. Creating ones that are interesting an stimulate interest in the content but don't make them click bait or even 'click baity'.

You want people to click onto your video and enjoy the content. Make the thumbnail catchy, with contrasting colours but make it relevant to the content. Making things even slightly 'click baity' can generate a lot of hate very quickly.

I made a video title that was unintentionally click baity due to the way I worded it (purely a matter of interpretation, I interpreted it a different way from the majority of the video's audience). This caused a lot of un-needed hate towards the video and content.

It is a very fine line between eye-catching and click bait.

 

[ChristinefromParanormalTV]

I'd say pretty important. I've had a decent amount of people tell me in the past they clicked on my video because of the thumbnail.