Do YouTube Thumbnails Increase Engagement?

Do YouTube Thumbnails Increase Engagement?

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Before we touch base with the topic at hand, we want to make sure everyone knows what we are talking about. For those who don’t know what thumbnails are.

What Are Thumbnails

Thumbnails are images that preview what the file is about. It has been around for quite some time and you may have encountered this when you’re exploring your computer or your mobile phone.

And this doesn’t exclude videos on YouTube.  Thumbnails give the viewers an idea of the contents of the video . Generally, YouTube system-generates a thumbnail for you when you upload a video. It lets you choose among a series of screengrabs of the video that you think would best describe it. But what most new users don’t know,  you can actually upload a custom thumbnail . Examples below.

Use creator studio to change old videos thumbnails
This applies to new uploads and old uploads alike. You just have to go to the YouTube Studio and you can see the option from there. This means for older uploads, you can still help them gain more views by changing their thumbnails.

Thumbnail dimensions and full instructions here

Why Thumbnails Are Important

Going back to the topic. Do thumbnails increase engagement? Evidently, they do.Buzzfeed.com says thumbnails increase your channel’s engagement by 154%, and custom thumbnails helped 90% of the best performing videos on YouTube.

Suggested thumbnail size is 1290×720 pixels
Suggested to be at 1290×720 pixels, when searching through YouTube for videos, thumbnails take a considerable amount of real estate or area around one’s screen. And since YouTube is primarily a visual platform,  the video with the most attractive thumbnail stands out  among the search results. They are more likely to see your thumbnail first before they even read your video’s title.

But just like titles, you have to stay true to your video though. Do not mislead your viewers with a thumbnail that doesn’t match the content of your video. If your viewers disengage from your video after they watched it for a few seconds, it’ll hurt your search rankings.

More of this is explained by Augie in this IGTV video.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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