Something I learned about custom thumbs and text

[Ross]

I felt like sharing something. So I got the custom thumbnails and was very excited. I made custom thumbs for 50 videos already uploaded. My first problem was that I made them all look to similar by having a fairly fixed idea of the brand in my head. This allowed for no design growth and all those other things that help with differentiating your videos from each other. Having 50 videos that look quite similar can lead to viewers thinking "oh hey I think I've seen that one before".

The second thing I learned was that if you have a sizeable non-english speaking audience then you should avoid putting english text on the previews. I noticed a pretty sharp viewership decline after my first batch of custom thumbnails and I think this was one of the reasons.

My current thumbnail setup is reasonably simple in the design sense. I just wanted to make a 'more clickable' version of what the default preview looks like. This meant increasing brightness/contrast and using some shine effects (like an icon button or something). I also kept the little green boarder around the videos to help with the branding side of things.

What do you guys to with your thumbnails to make them different/clickable/branded?

 

[Ishan Sardar]

I felt like sharing something. So I got the custom thumbnails and was very excited. I made custom thumbs for 50 videos already uploaded. My first problem was that I made them all look to similar by having a fairly fixed idea of the brand in my head. This allowed for no design growth and all those other things that help with differentiating your videos from each other. Having 50 videos that look quite similar can lead to viewers thinking "oh hey I think I've seen that one before".

The second thing I learned was that if you have a sizeable non-english speaking audience then you should avoid putting english text on the previews. I noticed a pretty sharp viewership decline after my first batch of custom thumbnails and I think this was one of the reasons.

My current thumbnail setup is reasonably simple in the design sense. I just wanted to make a 'more clickable' version of what the default preview looks like. This meant increasing brightness/contrast and using some shine effects (like an icon button or something). I also kept the little green boarder around the videos to help with the branding side of things.

What do you guys to with your thumbnails to make them different/clickable/branded?

Wow I never really thought of it that way and you are actually right...custom thumbnail does create confusion in some cases. But if you have good amount of active subscribers they'll know what to look for and where to find it. For new viewers I think all we can do is make the thumbnail easy to get, ex clear numbering if its a series/episodes/walkthrough, clear view of what the video contents and most important of all it should be really simple. That's how I do it and it's working pretty well for me.

 

[ViciousCritic]

As fiction, mine are naturally differentiated by the content, but I am now able to select the best frame grab and zoom/crop the image to select the best part. I still haven't figured out what branding, if any, I want to add.

As I look at your 'Browse Videos' tab, I see a bunch of images of a guy sitting on a cajon. The images where you are wearing darker pants and bright colored shirts look best. You might try varying your wardrobe and wearing vivid, high contrast (but not neon) colors. I like the green semicircles. You might try varying the color of that graphic to differentiate your series.[DOUBLEPOST=1350196476,1350196319][/DOUBLEPOST]P.S. Page 45 of the YouTube creator handbook has some good advice on creating good thumbnails.

 

[Ross]

@ViciousCritic Thanks for checking out my thumnails, I reckon the clothing will be a good thing to work on. The problem I've had is filming in the same location for many videos and or not having enough clothes. One other thing that's held me back is fitting the cajon in the frame as a focus as well as my head. When I do that it just feels pretty distant, I can't really just do a close up of me talking I don't think because people need to see the instrument too. Anyway thanks for the tips! I'm sure something good will come from the process of trial and error.

 

[Gus Monkeyton]

For the longest time I tried not to make thumbs with neon colors and bubble text, but it seems that's what a lot of people are accustomed to.
I hadn't really thought about the language barrier via the thumbnail. I'll definitely consider that in the future. I did read that closed captioning your videos also helps improve SEO.

 

[DeantheDinosauce]

Custom Thumbnails needs to be clear, bright, smooth and fitting with itself. I do use text with my thumbnails, but my problem isn't different langues, its finding a way to say something in the smallest possible section of the thumbnail:

Here's an example:

 

[Ross]

I'm starting closed captions today. I think that sounds like a good idea to hold on to audiences that might normally bounce (maybe more subscribers too). And I can imagine it having influence on SEO as that text must be bundled with the video data somewhere.
Cheers.

 

[delstacy24]

I felt like sharing something. So I got the custom thumbnails and was very excited. I made custom thumbs for 50 videos already uploaded. My first problem was that I made them all look to similar by having a fairly fixed idea of the brand in my head. This allowed for no design growth and all those other things that help with differentiating your videos from each other. Having 50 videos that look quite similar can lead to viewers thinking "oh hey I think I've seen that one before".

The second thing I learned was that if you have a sizeable non-english speaking audience then you should avoid putting english text on the previews. I noticed a pretty sharp viewership decline after my first batch of custom thumbnails and I think this was one of the reasons.

My current thumbnail setup is reasonably simple in the design sense. I just wanted to make a 'more clickable' version of what the default preview looks like. This meant increasing brightness/contrast and using some shine effects (like an icon button or something). I also kept the little green boarder around the videos to help with the branding side of things.

What do you guys to with your thumbnails to make them different/clickable/branded?

Good stuff to keep in mind, though since all my videos are going to be in English, I'm not sure how important it is to avoid English text in my thumbnails.