Using a thumbnail and customizing it to your requirements is one of the best ways of getting your videos noticed. A well-placed thumbnail captures eyeballs instantly. Therefore, a thumbnail is as important as the title of your video.
In this post, we take a look at the importance of thumbnails in videos. We also discuss the perfect youtube thumbnail dimensions. And, if you are looking for some useful tips on creating thumbnails, read on!
Recommended Dimensions for YouTube Video thumbnails
Although you may not always get the exact dimensions, here are the thumbnail dimensions you can aim for, with other critical parameters:
Why Do Thumbnails Matter?
What's the hype about thumbnails? What benefit do you get? Here are a few points that highlight the importance of thumbnails:
Attention Grabber
The first thing a viewer sees while searching for videos is the thumbnail of a video. So if your thumbnail is relevant to your content and it is what the viewer is looking for, you've got a viewer and a potential subscriber.
Connect With Your Viewers Better
Your video thumbnail is a clickable item that provides your viewers with an easy call to action (CTA). Click on the thumbnail to view the video.
Increases Your Number of Viewers
People are more likely to watch videos with attractive, attention-seeking thumbnails rather than nondescript images that don't tell us anything.
Improves Rankings
If your thumbnails bring more views, your videos will automatically get highly ranked, as Google favors videos with the maximum number of views.
Easily Accessible
The links contained in your thumbnails help viewers to access your videos easily. Similarly, it is easy for them to share your videos with others.
Best Practices for YouTube Thumbnails
With so much going for YouTube thumbnails, let’s take a quick look at some best practices that will help you make good thumbnails:
Maintain Correct Dimensions
The ideal dimensions for thumbnails on YouTube, as we mentioned above, are 1280 pixels X 720 pixels.
Consistent Style
Develop a thumbnail style consistent with your brand and stick to it. It will give your videos a brand identity.
Color and Contrast
Choose thumbnails with contrasting colors, like dark colors on a light background. You can create some captivating thumbnails from Invideo, a cloud-based video platform that helps you create great videos.
View Your Thumbnail on Different Devices
Ensure that the thumbnail is clear not only on your PC monitor but on a tablet, laptop, TV, and most importantly, on a smartphone. Your thumbnail needs to be particularly clear on mobiles, as most of your traffic comes from there.
Use Text
Thumbnails with text are more clickable than those without. It is because the human brain tends to pause and read text so that you can take advantage of that fact.
External Images
You don't need only to use screen grabs from your video. You can curate eye-catching images for your thumbnails relevant to the content of your video.
Avoid Clickbait
Avoid using attractive but irrelevant images to get a view. If your thumbnail isn’t relevant, you could end up with a lot of negative feedback.
Conclusion
We use a thumbnail to give an idea to potential viewers about the content of a video. So stick to that concept and follow the tips provided here to create thumbnails of perfect dimensions to enhance your YouTube views and subscribers.
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