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Content Creator Advice: Tips For Making An Attractive Thumbnail For Video Content

Content creation is bigger than ever right now and making sure your audience is engaged in your content is key to helping your brand get noticed and grow. What draws others in to interact with your content? A thumbnail. An attractive thumbnail can mean the difference between your audience clicking on your content or never seeing it in the first place.

Whether you’re posting on YouTube, TikTok or Likee, if your content doesn’t stand out immediately, you could miss out on impressions and interactions. Here are some tips to help catch your audience’s attention with a thumbnail:

 

• Picture Size Is Important

This is the first step and one of the most important. Instead of downloading a photo resizing app because your cover photo isn’t the correct dimension, do some research first. Each platform has different ratio and sizing requirements that will take your cover photo from cropped and or blurry to the perfect dimension and crystal clear! For example, YouTube thumbnail dimensions are generally 2560 x 1440, depending on what you need it for. The resources at the bottom have more information on dimensions.

 

 

• Choose Fun Colours

 Fun colours in your thumbnail can really pop, which makes it easily seen by your audience. Try to add colours that are trendy like pastels, but are still in tune with your brand or product such as colours your audience would normally see in your background or the colour of your logo; the idea is to stay consistent so your audience will recognize your style, but don’t be afraid to have some fun too!

 

• Use A Picture Of Yourself Or A Product

Thumbnails can get lost easily in the thousands of other videos if they’re not eye-catching. Using a photo of yourself or the product you’re showing is a great way to catch the attention of your audience immediately; the audience could be looking for your videos specifically or they may be looking for the item or product you’re featuring in your video. You can click here for examples.

 

• Words Words Words  

Adding words in your thumbnail is the next best thing to showing a picture. Words combined with pictures give a snapshot of what your video has in store for the viewer, as shown in the link above for examples. It adds a quick description to your video without the viewer needing to read the title of your video first, if it has one. Make sure that the font is attractive, large enough to read quickly and that the words you’re adding are relevant to the content of the video.

Here are the resources and tutorials that we found useful that helped us and can help you create thumbnails:

Making A Thumbnail

Text Effects

Do you have any additional tips for creating a thumbnail?  Let us know!