YouTube Thumbnails: Text or No Text?

[Kevin Muldoon]

ok, i agree at least I hope to increase my 77 subscribers as well

haha what a loser. I have 78!!!

yeah for me it depends, If the thumbnail is jsut me sitting there, ill try put in a bit of text or a logo or something
but for stuff like tutorials i try not to so the focus is on what it looks like

Cool. I'll check out your thumbnails to see how you are doing it.

That still doesn't mean they need to worry about thumbnails and other aspects as much as us, as I mentioned earlier they are already established and due to search algorithms, most at the "large" mark are already growing organically, through search ranks (thanks to the fact they're probably getting better watch time), and word of mouth, and social media.

Their journey from 1 Million to 2 Million is not as much as an adventure as a small channels 0 to 1000, you can't compare a large channel and say they're on the same boat as us, we're new, they're the regulars, they don't need to worry about how their thumbnails look as much as us, they can put very little time into their thumbnails and still see the same results and get a decent return.

We will have to agree to disagree on this issue

I do agree with you that large YouTube channels will continue to grow in an organic way that ours will not, but I don't think that means they are not as concerned about thumbnails. A 30% increase for us could mean adding a few dozen or a few hundred subscribers over a month. For them, it could be tens of thousands more every month; which would correspond in a significant increase in revenue.

You are stating that they will still see the same results if they put little time into thumbnails. That suggests that thumbnails do not matter when it comes to click throughs; which is obviously not true.

Yes, large channels can gain traffic and subscribers easier than us, but the principles of whether someone will click on a video or not remains the same. Search for anything on YouTube and you will notice that search results shows the number of views each video has, it doesn't show the number of subscribers. Though obviously the videos from channels with many subscribers inevitably have more views than others.

My point is that when a YouTube user is searching for something, the popularity of a particular channel if irrelevant when you are actually searching for something. It's not until you have actually clicked on the video that you can see how many subscribers the channel has.

It varies. Sometimes it's necessary, others it isn't. Also I guess it kinda depends on what type of videos you do

What types of videos? For example, in the @Tim Schmoyer video, his associate said that you don't need text for vlogs. However, who is to say that text in thumbnails wouldn't convert in vlogging videos too.

I'd really love to see some evidence about this. Does anyone know of any case studies that have been performed? i.e. a top channel who has added or removed text and seen an increase in click throughs (all other things such as description, titles etc remaining equal).

I get the impression that most YouTubers are just going with what they feel is right. Nothing wrong with that at all, though it would be good to see a proper case study that proved or disproved everyone's theories on this issue.

Ironically, if we all started adding text to thumbnails and saw an increase in click throughs, it could became the norm. At that point, you could find that thumbnails without text would start performing better [DOUBLEPOST=1432486259,1432485912][/DOUBLEPOST]

Those big Youtubers are too big to fail. They can upload a picture of a turd on their channel and they still get millions of views.

That's the difference between small Youtubers and big Youtubers. The small ones needs the attention of people who are searching for videos. The big ones doesn't need to, if a random viewer stumbles upon that thumbnail, they just think, oh it's PewDiePie

The principle of attracting clicks is the same, regardless of whether you have 10 subscribers or 10 million. Yeah they could upload a turd and get one million views. They could also upload a really good thumbnail and get five million views.

There are YouTube channels that have over one million subscribers and I have never heard of them. If I search for X, Y, or Z, I don't know who these popular YouTubers are when looking at search results. Therefore, their popularity does not influence my decision to click on a particular thumbnail.

 

[Furry Gurus]

haha what a loser. I have 78!!!

Well, thanks...

 

[Squeal Cat]

The principle of attracting clicks is the same, regardless of whether you have 10 subscribers or 10 million. Yeah they could upload a turd and get one million views. They could also upload a really good thumbnail and get five million views.

There are YouTube channels that have over one million subscribers and I have never heard of them. If I search for X, Y, or Z, I don't know who these popular YouTubers are when looking at search results. Therefore, their popularity does not influence my decision to click on a particular thumbnail.

I'm not disagreeing with you about that. Having a good thumbnail gains them more viewers then having literally a sh!tty one. However, having a good thumbnail seems to be a must for starting Youtubers if they want to grow. That does not apply much anymore for those huge Youtubers, they can keep using mediocre thumbnails and still grow. Yes off course excellent thumbnails are better, but it's not a must anymore for them.

 

[Furry Gurus]

I'm not disagreeing with you about that. Having a good thumbnail gains them more viewers then having literally a sh!tty one. However, having a good thumbnail seems to be a must for starting Youtubers if they want to grow. That does not apply much anymore for those huge Youtubers, they can keep using mediocre thumbnails and still grow. Yes off course excellent thumbnails are better, but it's not a must anymore for them.

I also agree with this. They have their brand that convinces people to watch alongside the thumbnail.[DOUBLEPOST=1432487042,1432487012][/DOUBLEPOST]This thread is going deeper than intended I think

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

This thread is going deeper than intended I think

I'm enjoying the discussion. Thumbnails are something that some people don't really bother with and just use an automated thumbnail, while others spend hours creating unique thumbnails to make their videos stand out. And both types of thumbnails can be successful.

I appreciate everyone taking part in the discussion so far. It will help me get a clear picture of what I want to do in my future videos and how I should amend my older ones.

 

[Furry Gurus]

I'm enjoying the discussion. Thumbnails are something that some people don't really bother with and just use an automated thumbnail, while others spend hours creating unique thumbnails to make their videos stand out. And both types of thumbnails can be successful.

I appreciate everyone taking part in the discussion so far. It will help me get a clear picture of what I want to do in my future videos and how I should amend my older ones.

You are right, thumbnails are, together with the title, the first impression people get of you and your videos, so they are more important than lots of people think...

 

[Squeal Cat]

I'm enjoying the discussion. Thumbnails are something that some people don't really bother with and just use an automated thumbnail, while others spend hours creating unique thumbnails to make their videos stand out. And both types of thumbnails can be successful.

I appreciate everyone taking part in the discussion so far. It will help me get a clear picture of what I want to do in my future videos and how I should amend my older ones.

Yes, it's good to see everyones opinions. You might not agree with all of them, at least they give you some thoughts to think about.

About thumbnails, I think they are very important. They are key in growing channels. What I not necessary agree with is spending so much time with Photoshop creating a shiny good looking thumbnail. I think too many new Youtubers are trying to create the perfect thumbnail, that the catchy inscreen screenshot catches more attention nowadays...

I felt some of my videos lost momentum in views when I changed my bad thumbnails into proper ones... But it's something I have to try experiment with. My point is; Try to create one which catches as many viewers attention as possible, instead of creating the most beautiful one

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

Yes, it's good to see everyones opinions. You might not agree with all of them, at least they give you some thoughts to think about.

About thumbnails, I think they are very important. They are key in growing channels. What I not necessary agree with is spending so much time with Photoshop creating a shiny good looking thumbnail. I think too many new Youtubers are trying to create the perfect thumbnail, that the catchy inscreen screenshot catches more attention nowadays...

I felt some of my videos lost momentum in views when I changed my bad thumbnails into proper ones... But it's something I have to try experiment with. My point is; Try to create one which catches as many viewers attention as possible, instead of creating the most beautiful one

I agreed. I do enjoy listening to the opinion of other YouTubers, even if I have a different viewpoint.

Text is the one thing that I find hard to get right. Too large and it is overbearing, too small and it is difficult to read in smaller thumbnails. I do think I have been doing it all wrong up until now.

 

[Squeal Cat]

I agreed. I do enjoy listening to the opinion of other YouTubers, even if I have a different viewpoint.

Text is the one thing that I find hard to get right. Too large and it is overbearing, too small and it is difficult to read in smaller thumbnails. I do think I have been doing it all wrong up until now.

Hi, text is pretty hard. I'm having a look at your channel. It's my personal opinion, and I'm telling you what I think. First I see progress from older thumbnails to your latest one. I see you're using black borders in your latest thumbnail, that's much better. I think the text in your latest thumbnail is about the right size (Unboxing the Zoom H6 Audio Recorder). About that image, unfortunately is just matte. I feel trying to edit your images with high contrasts works best. About your other 2 latest Panasonic videos (Why I Bought the Panasonic Lumix G6) & (Unboxing the Panasonic Lumix G6), I think you could try to cut off text to see more of the image. Panasonic isn't necessary because people could read it in the title. And that word distracts me from the main message.

Why I bought
The Lumix G6

I think the main distraction for me is using CAPS. Using that seems to me as "noisy" and distracts even more form the image. Did you try creating a thumbnail without caps? What do you think about regular letters instead of Caps?

Unboxing the
Lumix G6

For me, I created a template for thumbnails I think it works pretty well. I have little objective opinions from other viewers, but I think they do their jobs. See my channel for the examples . text just the right size and a picture what could catch attention of the viewers due the colorful high contrasts.

Good luck!

 

[Kevin Muldoon]

Hi, text is pretty hard. I'm having a look at your channel. It's my personal opinion, and I'm telling you what I think. First I see progress from older thumbnails to your latest one. I see you're using black borders in your latest thumbnail, that's much better. I think the text in your latest thumbnail is about the right size (). About that image, unfortunately is just matte. I feel trying to edit your images with high contrasts works best. About your other 2 latest Panasonic videos () & (), I think you could try to cut off text to see more of the image. Panasonic isn't necessary because people could read it in the title. And that word distracts me from the main message.

Why I bought
The Lumix G6

I think the main distraction for me is using CAPS. Using that seems to me as "noisy" and distracts even more form the image. Did you try creating a thumbnail without caps? What do you think about regular letters instead of Caps?

Unboxing the
Lumix G6

For me, I created a template for thumbnails I think it works pretty well. I have little objective opinions from other viewers, but I think they do their jobs. See my channel for the examples . text just the right size and a picture what could catch attention of the viewers due the colorful high contrasts.

Good luck!

Thanks @Squeal Cat. That's the sort of objective review of my thumbnails I was looking for.

I know what you are saying about having text too close to the borders. I also think I am using too many words. Instead of saying "Unboxing the Panasonic Lumix G6", I could place the word "Unboxing" at the top and then write "Panasonic G6" down the bottom. That's maybe the best way for me to go down.

I can look at a different font too. That one just happened to keep all text in capitals. I will try some different fonts today and see how they look.

Thankfully, I have a backup of the vast majority of my thumbnails. So I can simply reopen the Photoshop PSD files and then make the appropriate changes.

Thanks again for the feedback. Much appreciated.