HOW BAD THUMBNAILS ARE KILLING YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
Many YouTubers make quality videos that people enjoy, what most YouTubers are not good at is making high quality thumbnails that get clicked.
Poor quality thumbnails hurt videos more than anything, since to get views and get subscribers you need to get those clicks, and nobody clicks on crappy thumbnails because they assume the video is just as bad.
I made the YouTube Starter Kit to give small creators an edge.
When I was a small youtuber, I had a big advantage:
I WAS A MASTER OF PHOTOSHOP!!! IT HELP ME GROW TO 275K SUBS!
The fact is that BIG YOUTUBERS have an advantage in the fact that they can hire photographers and graphic designers to make their channel look gorgeous. Or maybe like PewdiePie (the biggest YouTuber) they have a natural gift for it. After all, Felix was on track to be a successful designer if YouTube didn’t work out for him full-time.
SECRET TECHNIQUE (A thumbnail worth 1 Million Views…)
If you can rank for a video on YouTube on the first page, and you have the best YouTube thumbnail, you an eventually overtake the other videos.
NOT EVERYONE IS GOOD AT MAKING THUMBNAILS
So I made a graphics package to help YouTubers who are not Photoshop masters yet and still struggle with tutorials.
Obviously there are plenty of tutorials to help you get good at making your own YouTube thumbnails and channel artwork.
Yes, there are free tools and templates like Canva.com and you should definitely take advantage of them. I’m not trying to talk to you out of that at all if that is where you’re at right now.
Since I have a background in Graphic Design and Photoshop prior to doing YouTube, I know how valuable templates can be when you don’t know what to make or feel overwhelmed. Even you do know what you want they just make things faster. Saving time means working on your videos harder or uploading to YouTube more often.
SOME THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE ALGORITHM AND THUMBNAILS ON YOUTUBE…
The YouTube Algorithm is the blessing and bane of YouTubers unless you start to understand it. But there is a lot that is hidden even from YouTube analytics. Here are some things you may not have figured out about how Thumbnails can effect the performance of a video…
THE FIRST HOUR ON YOUTUBE…
The first hour that a video is public on YouTube is very important for how that video will perform. Most people already know that the first 24 hours are important, but they aren’t thinking about what they should be doing the second a video is published.
Sometimes a creator will upload a crappy simple thumbnail, and plan to change it later after taking a break as long as they get to it the same day. This is a mistake because if you can increase the clicks on a video and the watch time the first hour that it is live, it has a better chance of signaling YouTube that it should distribute it more. If you want evidence, look in the YouTube Creator App for Mobile under “REAL TIME VIEWS”, notice that it will prioritize that.
OVERALL CLICK THRU RATE
If you are familiar with Google and Google Analytics or have a website, you may understand the term Click Thru Rates, or how often something is clicked compared to how often is it is shown. YouTube and Google use this to figure out what is and is not relevant to people when they search.
If your thumbnail isn’t attractive enough to get clicked then eventually it will stop performing. YouTube does not disclose click-thru rates, but you should be thinking about it when you pick thumbnails since you know it impacts performance. Clicks, become views, views become subscribers.
COMPETING FOR ATTENTION
When you post a video to YouTube, you have to remember that people have other options. To stand out, having higher quality thumbnails makes a huge difference. The thumbnail that is the most visually interesting is the one most likely to be clicked on. You also have to keep “Recommended Videos” in mind on the sidebar. If YouTube is promoting your channel, you have to stand out among the other channel it’s recommending on related videos to get the attention of that new audience. This is going to lead to new subscribers.
GET THE YOUTUBE STARTER KIT
So now that you have a better understanding of how much thumbnails effect your YouTube videos performance, you might decide you need to step up your visuals. This isn’t limited to your thumbnails, you should care about all the graphics associated with your YouTube channel and brand.
That is where the YOUTUBE STARTER KIT CAN HELP.
CODE TO GET 50% OFF TILL THE END OF 2017: FORFIFTY
What you’ll get is dozens of templates based on the top YouTube channels and trends, fully customizable in Photoshop or GIMP or Affinity Photo. You’ll get not only templates for thumbnails but YouTube channel artwork, YouTube end cards and more. All for one price!
