How to Make VIRAL YouTube Thumbnails

How to make the BEST YouTube thumbnails & go viral! You can spend several days writing a killer script, recording a perfect voiceover, and editing an engaging video. .

. but all these efforts will go to waste if you make a bad thumbnail. Because, of course, until people click on a video, they are not going to watch it.

. . and yet, most people have no idea how to create a clickable thumbnail!

If this is You, then this video is very important for your channel! Because today, I'm going to share literally everything I know about making the most clickable YouTube thumbnails! I will explain how to find viral concepts for thumbnails, regardless of your niche.

We'll discuss the psychology behind the thumbnails of the biggest creators on YouTube, and then we'll also talk about the 5 core principles necessary for an eye-catching design and much more! ! !

This video is going to be very interesting, let's begin! ! So whenever the topic of creating thumbnails comes up, everyone says to make a clickable thumbnail!

Thumbnails should be clickable. But what exactly is a clickable thumbnail? ?

? To understand this, let's take a look at this example. We have a cool image, bold text, and a clean background.

. . design-wise, this thumbnail looks good.

. . but let me ask you.

. . Is there anything clickable about it?

I don't think so. We already knew what the video was about from the title, so this text is repetitive. Even the other element, the student's picture, is not adding any special value to the thumbnail except telling us that this video is about students.

. . So overall, this thumbnail looks good but it's not creating a story or evoking any emotion in the viewer's mind.

. . On the other hand, look at this example.

Even though this thumbnail might look very simple at first, BUT, it is secretly telling a story. We have a picture of Ali Abdaal holding study notes where different lines are highlighted. .

. And we know that highlighting notes is a very common study technique that many students can relate to, who are the target audience of this video. And this is where the fun begins.

. . In the text above, it clearly says, 'Don't Do this.

. . '.

This immediately makes viewers curious because they want to know why they shouldn't do this. How will this affect their studies? What are the repercussions?

. . .

And it's because of this curiosity that viewers click on the video. Now, do you think the first thumbnail could do the same job? Absolutely not!

There is no story, no psychology, no curiosity, and that's why it is not clickable! A clickable thumbnail is one that tells a story and hence makes the viewer curious. All successful thumbnails on YouTube create a story in the viewer's mind.

. . and make viewers curious.

. . Take a look at this thumbnail from Ryan Trahan.

In the screenshot of the theme park review, it says, 'Don't try yellow slide,' and in the picture 😄, it is clearly visible that Ryan is on the yellow slide. This makes viewers curious about what will happen with Ryan when he goes down the yellow slide, which makes them click. '8 Psychological Tricks that actually work!

' In this thumbnail, we have this humanoid character eating a banana. . .

Notice the red circle highlighting the banana, and the bold text which says, 'They Actually Work. ' We also have this character looking a little nervous because of the action of character 1 eating a banana. Overall, this thumbnail tells a great story and makes us wonder what this Psychological Trick is and why we should click on the video.

Now I'm sure that after seeing these examples, you will also try to create a thumbnail that tells a story in the viewer's mind. But the problem is that most of the time, it is difficult for us to come up with such concepts. .

. especially if you're a new creator. To tackle this problem, I explored different channels on YouTube from 45+ niches and found 5 most popular thumbnail formats that perform very well on YouTube.

. . .

So, if you're finding it difficult to think of a clickable concept, you can try one of these 5 formats: Starting with no. 1 & my favorite: Transformation format. In these types of thumbnails, there are 2 parts, where one side shows the start of the story, and the other side shows the end result.

The starting image is usually very relatable and common. . .

and the end result is something that viewers desire or something that is very shocking. . .

So overall, this creates a story in the viewer's mind that there's a process by which we can go from this to this. . .

. And it is this process that creates curiosity in the viewers, leading them to click on the video. Another favorite format of mine is the Prime Text Format.

These types of thumbnails can be used in almost every niche, and they create a powerful story in the viewer's mind when combined with text and title. . .

For example: the title is 'dumbest lottery winners of all time,' and the thumbnail says 'bankrupt after 84 days,' which triggers curiosity and makes us wonder how did this happen? The next format on this list is the Best Moment format. These thumbnails are mainly used on vlogs, pranks, challenges, and similar channels, where the best moment of the video is used as the thumbnail.

For example, Sourav Joshi's video 'Glass Tut gya, piyush Bach Gaya. . .

' You can see in this thumbnail that there is no fancy editing, just a spontaneous shot from the video. But still, this image alone tells a great story because it raises many questions in our minds, like how did the glass break? Was it Piyush's fault?

What was the reaction of other people when the glass broke? And many such questions that lead to curiosity and make us click. And there are many more examples like Surprising parents with their Dram House and anti-gravity boxes prank, where the best moment of the video is used to make us curious.

. . The fourth format on this list is Closeups.

As simple as it sounds, in this type of thumbnail, there is only a closeup shot of whatever the video is about. This format is mainly seen in cooking, art, and makeup channels because the whole purpose is to show the end result as clearly as possible and grab the viewer's attention. And finally, we have the Blurred Result format.

This is similar to the transformation format, but the difference is that in this, the result is partially blurred. This creates curiosity in the viewer's mind to see the blurred image, making them click. And even this thumbnail format can be used in many niches.

So yeah! Different niches, different formats, but one thing is common among them all, that they make viewers curious. .

. and to satisfy that curiosity, the viewer has to watch the video. Now that you know how important a clickable concept is, next time you go to make a thumbnail, draw at least 3-4 completely different concepts in the copy, draw their variations as all creators do, and eventually, you'll get your ideal concept.

Okay! Now that we have the concept of the thumbnail ready, it's time to convert it into an actual design. .

. And this part is extremely important because even the most clickable concepts won't work if they are not designed well. .

. I often see that creators have very good ideas for thumbnails, but their designing skills are poor, which is why views don't come. .

. So! What is considered a Good Design?

After studying dozens of successful thumbnails, I found that all designs have these three qualities. . .

No. 1 - a great design grabs attention. No matter how clickable your concept is, if people's attention does not go to your thumbnail, if people do not notice it, then, of course, you will not get any views.

That's why your design should be such that it stands out in the crowd and grabs attention. . .

. No. 2 - a great design is easy to understand.

It's 2024, and people don't have so much time to carefully look at every thumbnail and try to understand it. . .

No, our eyes just scan those thumbnails. . .

And that's why it's important that the thumbnail design is so simple that it is understood at a glance what the video is about. . .

And No. 3 - a great design looks professional. This is also extremely important because nobody values an unprofessional thumbnail.

Immediately, in our minds, the perception is created that if the thumbnail is so unprofessional, then, of course, the video will be at a beginner level, and we won't get any value from it. So yeah, if you want your thumbnail to be perfect design-wise, then it must have all these qualities. .

. . and that will happen when you master the 5 core aspects of thumbnail designing.

Starting with the first core aspect: Colors. When we open YouTube, our eyes are presented with dozens upon dozens of thumbnails. .

. So, not only should our concept be clickable, but our design should also stand out in the crowd so that people can notice it. .

. And exactly, colors play a very important role in this. .

. If you can create CONTRAST between the colors of different elements in your design, your thumbnail will instantly become eye-catching. For example, take a look at this thumbnail.

. . Very eye-catching, right?

Yes! But let's say this YouTube studio screenshot was in dark mode instead of light mode. .

. Is the thumbnail still attractive? Hmm, I don't think so.

. . .

Earlier, when the screenshot was white and the background was black, the contrast was created in both elements because of the light and dark shades being together. But as soon as we used a dark mode screenshot, the contrast between these two elements disappeared, making our design unattractive. .

. And that's why it's very important that there is contrast between the colors you use for thumbnail elements. Using black and white together, or using highly saturated colors on black, or using white on colors with low saturation.

. . These are all examples of contrast in a design.

Speaking of contrast, I want to tell you one more secret: The Magic of Complementary Colors. Complementary colors are those that are opposite to each other on the color wheel. .

. For example, red's complementary color is green, purple's complementary color is yellow, and blue's complementary color is orange. And the secret is that when we use complementary colors together, high contrast is instantly created in our design.

. . Maybe you don't notice it, but viral YouTube thumbnails also use this secret a lot.

. . .

Take my last video as an example, where I have used the complementary pair of red and green because of which this thumbnail looks really attractive. Next is the complementary pair of purple and yellow, which we can see in Mreast's Golden Ice Cream video thumbnail. Another fundamental complementary pair is blue and orange, used in Mike Shake's thumbnail, making the design very eye-catching!

After this, the next core aspect is Text. There is a big mistake that 95% of creators make when using text. .

. Especially when I see videos from new creators, literally everyone is making this mistake! !

What is this mistake? To understand, let's take Dhruv Rathee's video as an example: The Apollo 11 Moon Landing Mystery. .

. . Look at the thumbnail; there is text saying, 'Was it Fake.

. . ' which instantly, when combined with the title, raises the question in our minds: Was the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Fake?

And it's because of this curiosity that we click on the video. . .

So, a good use of text has been made here, but most people make the mistake of repeating the title in the thumbnail. . .

making the text much less effective. In fact, now the title and thumbnail together are not creating any story or curiosity in the viewer's mind. .

. So, the next time you add text to your thumbnail, always remember one rule: Text should never be repetitive. Only use it to add more context to the story of the thumbnail.

After this, you must have noticed that in all successful thumbnails, the length of text is very short, ranging from 2-4 words on average. And design-wise, this clearly makes sense because the fewer the words, the faster the viewer can process the thumbnail, making it easy to understand. Also, fewer words mean you can increase the text size, giving clarity to the thumbnail.

Speaking about clarity, another thing that affects thumbnail clarity is the font. Using a font that is easy to read is crucial when designing thumbnails. .

. In most niches, a bold sans-serif font works best. .

. Due to their simplicity, they are easy to read, and that's why most thumbnails use them. But of course, there are exceptions.

. . For example, if you want to create a classy or aesthetic vibe in your thumbnail, you can also use serif fonts.

. . But yeah, in any case, avoid using a font that is too fancy.

(Beep) The third aspect in this list is focus. When we design thumbnails, there are multiple elements we can have in the frame, like our face, objects, text, graphic elements, and of course, the background. A common mistake creators make is that they put too many elements in their design, making the simplicity of the thumbnail disappear, and it looks unprofessional.

. . Remember that the more elements on the screen, the more the viewer's focus will be divided, and your thumbnail will lose its main character.

When designing thumbnails, I make sure that my design has only as many elements as necessary to tell the story of the thumbnail. . .

And that's why I remove all the useless elements. A basic example is this thumbnail. Initially, when I made it, there was this arrow indicating the transformation from point a to point b.

But then I realized that there was already before-and-after text, which is enough to indicate the transformation and tell a story. So yeah, I removed it. But of course, just removing useless elements is not enough!

You have to make sure that your design draws enough attention to the main character of the thumbnail. Whatever your video is about becomes the main character of your thumbnail (or main focal point). That is the element toward which you want to direct the viewer's attention.

. . For example, 'I spent 50 hrs buried alive.

' Here, there is only one element, a picture of Mreast in a coffin. . .

so obviously, all the attention goes to this single focal point, creating a story in our minds. 'How the comfort zone is ruining your life. ' Again, there is only one element here, a picture of a guy playing video games.

. . so this becomes our main character or main focal point.

But of course, nowadays, most thumbnails have more than one element in the frame. . .

Example: 'I didn't eat food for 30 days. ' Here, there are 2 elements. The first is a picture of Mreast looking hungry, and the second is text.

But here too, the main character is Mreast, and the other element is providing additional information about the main character. . .

In this case, text is telling us that Mreast has not eaten food for 19 days. . .

. After this, we have another example where there are a total of 3 elements. .

. The first is a picture of a boy who has done an insane trickshot. The second is Mreast's face.

And the third element is an arrow. And you must have guessed it; the main character here is the picture of this boy doing the trickshot. And the other 2 elements are supporting the main character.

. . The arrow is directing our attention toward this trickshot.

And Mreast's face is conveying emotions coming from this trickshot. So, what I want to say is that no matter how many elements there are in the thumbnail, in every case, our attention is going towards that one main character, which is very important to tell a great story in thumbnails. After this, the fourth aspect of thumbnail design is Alignment.

No matter how contrasting your colors are, how eye-catching your text is, how focused your main character is. . .

If your alignment is bad, then you're gonna mess the whole thing. Take a look at this thumbnail. .

. What if I write its text like this . .

. It doesn't look good, right? Why?

It's because now there is wasted space in the design, causing our composition to look unbalanced. That's why, when making thumbnails, make sure that every element in the canvas is properly aligned, and no wasted space is created. Finally, the last aspect of thumbnail design is Optimization.

When designing thumbnails, we often forget that our design will appear in different sizes to different viewers. If someone is a laptop user, they will see your thumbnail differently compared to someone who uses YouTube on a phone or tablet. Apart from this, there are different traffic sources.

For example, the suggested section on the desktop, where your thumbnail looks much smaller. That's why it becomes very important to optimize your design for every device type and every traffic source. For this, you can go to a thumbnail testing website like ThumbnailPreview.

com to see how your thumbnail will look on different devices and traffic sources. Check if every element of your design is clearly visible or not, and if not, fix it. Also, you'll get to see if your thumbnail stands out compared to others and if it is eye-catching.

And these are the 5 core aspects of Thumbnail design. If you master them, your thumbnail will grab attention, be easy to understand, and look professional. .

. Now, for the next topic I'm going to cover, I want you to look at a few channel pages. .

. . See how consistent and clean their thumbnails are.

. . Consistent thumbnails make a channel page attractive, but along with that, it reduces viewers' decision time when choosing your video.

This means if a viewer likes video A from your channel, the chances of them choosing video B are higher if both thumbnails are similar. . .

which means more views. On YouTube, all top creators make sure that their thumbnails are consistent, and you can do this too with the help of colors, fonts, layouts, and various design elements. If you repeat any aspect in every thumbnail, it helps achieve brand consistency.

Mostly on YouTube, creators repeat the color palette and fonts to maintain consistency. You can take my channel as an example. .

. I have used the same font, Uni Sans, across all my thumbnails. And my color palette mainly consists of 4 colors.

. . Black for the background and red, green, and white for other elements.

Another example is YouTuber Tom Scott, whose thumbnails have white text over a red label. And, of course, the same font. .

. It's important to mention here that even if you don't use the same colors in your thumbnails, using the same font is extremely crucial for brand consistency. After this, you can also achieve consistency by repeating a particular layout.

An example of this is Mreast Gaming. You can see he has used the same layout across every thumbnail, with the face on the left side and a game screenshot on the right. Finally, we have logo consistency, where channels place their logo in every thumbnail.

An example would be The Food Theorists and Great Big Story. So, whether you repeat color palette & fonts or repeat the same layout, the main point is that you need to create a visual identity in the viewer's mind so that your channel and its content become memorable. Alright!

So we've learned so much about making the best YouTube thumbnails, from psychology to design to branding & more. . .

and I'm sure that if you apply these points to your thumbnails, your CTR will skyrocket! But there is one more thing that is even more important than thumbnails for making people click on your videos. And if this is not good, you won't get views no matter how good your thumbnail is.

. . .

To know what it is, click on the video on the screen, and I'll meet you there. . .

Bye!