Thumbnail Help Please

[PickleStar]

Thumbnails are the thing that people look at first in deciding rather they want to look at your video, or keep on scrolling. Right now I am stockpiling videos in order for them to release weekly starting in June. I am putting my best foot forward as far as upping the quality of the videos (in hopes of growing my channel some more), but I know that I still need help in making sure that my thumbnails POP, intrigue people so that they want to watch whatever I have in store for them.

Does anybody have any tips/examples/stories on thumbnails? I feel like this is an area I often neglect, and would very much appreciate some help.

 

[KatyAdelson]

I moved this to the Branding / Channel design discussion forum.

 

[HiEnergy]

Are your videos all similar in category and content? If yes, their thumbnails should be similar, too.
My thumbnails are mostly very simple, just a logo, some additional graphics and the video title in big bold text (think Impact font, white letters with black outline).
The logo should be the same in all videos that are thematically connected so people quickly recognize them as being connected. In my case all "Synfire" videos have the same logo somewhere in their thumbnail, as all "Ableton" videos have a different, but same-for-those logo, too... and so on.
Keep it simple but still interesting.

 

[Stike96]

As well as what HiEnergy said, make sure that the image in your thumbnail clearly communicates what your video is about and that the audience can tell what the thumbnail says. Also make sure that the text can easily be read in front of the image. Faces giving off a certain emotion also help if a person is the main subject of the video. Also make sure that the subject is clear and in focus, I personally also like to brighten and increase the saturation of the images in my thumbnail.

 

[Courtney Candice]

Your thumbnail should have something related the video and title.