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What works for YouTube thumbnails has evolved over time to some extent. However, the principles are always going to be the same:
You need to stand out (on light backgrounds and dark backgrounds)
The decision to click is largely an emotional one - not a logical one
You’re competing against all of the other thumbnails on the page at any given time, not just ones in your niche
Starting with that as our baseline, we can dive into actual tips and techniques you can use to create great thumbnails that get clicks.
🎥 Watch my full tutorial on how to make great thumbnails in Canva* if you want to watch a masterclass on creating YouTube thumbnails.
*I’m not sponsored by or affiliated with Canva — but I 💯 wish I was because I genuinely recommend them wholeheartedly
How Much DOES a Thumbnail Matter?
The foundation of a good video is the topic.
But the packaging is what determines if anyone even starts to watch your video.
That packaging starts with the title and thumbnail.
Will a good thumbnail increase retention? No.
However, getting good at YouTube is just like anything else: In order to even get to the point where you can refine the hard things (retention, content), you need to take care of the foundations first.
A good thumbnail is that foundation.
Even though there are YouTube channels that go against some of the advice I give below (like Heather Cox Richardson’s channel), you’ll find that generally, they either had a much slower path to growth, or the were able to leverage reputation.
You may find other exceptions, however, these are generally best practices that I’ve learned over the course of making ~103 YouTube videos now.
How to Make a Great YouTube Thumbnail
In my experience, the thumbnails that look the worst and most hacked together…actually perform the best.
Take this one that ended up being our best video for this channel to date:
6.7% CTR After 2 months (Started at >8% for 1 month)
1. Contrasting Colors
If you didn’t know, you can set the background color on most websites by changing settings in your browser.
YouTube is no exception.
More often than not, you’ll choose between a “light” and “dark” mode as well as a “system settings” mode. System settings just inherits whatever the default is on your computer.
So in light mode, a thumbnail that’s got a white background will blend in more and in a dark background, the opposite is true. And so some portion of your target audience will see the thumbnail on a light background and some will see it on a dark background.
For the most part though, your thumbnail will stand out well enough on a white page naturally.
To make sure it stands out in dark mode, don’t use a solid black background. Here’s what I recommend:
Gradient backgrounds or a solid color that will stand out well with either black or white YouTube pages
I like having a solid color in the center with gradients fading to dark around the edges
Natural backgrounds of you in your “studio” or something else relevant to the video
Any text on the image needs to stand out by being a highly contrasting color
👉 I’ve found that having one word with a yellow background (black text) performs better than having all words white or black
Yellow works best for me when compared to red or blue
All other elements need to stand out
If an element doesn’t stand out but you want/need it (i.e. a logo), then you should add a border to the image, or put a contrasting colored shape behind the logo/image to make it stand out
2. Simple Composition
You don’t need to add a bunch of subtle elements to your image.
In fact, you shouldn’t.
Instead, keep it relatively simple, but I always recommend these three elements:
A person showing some kind of emotion on their face, or with a gesture that evokes an emotional response (throwing hands up, eyes wide, etc.)
Some text that piques the curiosity at a glance and that’s visible from ~20 feet away from your computer or phone
Some other element that either has an arrow or is circled, or otherwise grabs the viewer and pulls them in to want to dive deeper (and hence click), implying that there’s more to learn than just the title and thumbnail explain
Remember, your thumbnail’s job is to outcompete everything else on the page and get the viewer to think, “I want more info” or more directly, “this matters to me.”
3. Less Text is More
Since you should have large text, you’re naturally limited to a few words.
Remember, you should be able to look at your thumbnail (sized as it would be on YouTube) from ~20 feet away and get the gist of what it’s meant to convey.
That means your text should be largely readable from that distance too.
I’ve found that the more text I put, the worse my thumbnails do. So I try to stay between 1-3 words, and under NO circumstances should you have more than 6 words.
A benefit to this constraint is that it usually forces you to add just enough details to pique interest but not enough to explain anything.
That’s perfect.
Your video explains the connection between your thumbnail image, text, and the title — you want them to need that explanation.
And as I mentioned above, if my thumbnail has a dark background, the following works best for me so far:
Either having one word in yellow while the rest are white, or
One word with a yellow background (and black text), while the rest of the text is white
Use the “outline” effect on the white text with a dark gray or black outline
On a light background use black text or use a heavy black/dark gray outline on white text. The yellow background/black text for one word still works well here.
But do your own experiments. Some people like red instead of yellow, etc. I found yellow works best for my thumbnails.
4. How to Convey Emotion
You should be in the thumbnails if you’re growing a professional brand or personal channel.
And you need to show some emotion.
If you’re teaching something, then it’s fine for that emotion to be “confidence”. Cross your arms and have a confident semi-smile.
If your title/thumbnail is highlighting a shocking or surprising statistic, data point, or result — eyes wide, mouth open, look shocked or surprised.
If you’re worried…furrow your brow.
I’m terrible at emoting, so I used a picture or me and uploaded it to Nano Banana, and told it that I wanted to make a bunch of pictures of me with emotions like shocked, confident, unsure, worried, scared, excited, etc., for YouTube thumbnails.
You should do that too.
Your face should be surprisingly large…like, uncomfortably large…on the thumbnail.
Like it or not, you’re the feature of your channel. You need to own this and embrace it.
5. Thumbnail/Title Relationship
You can approach this from tons of angles and do so successfully. Here are a few ideas:
The title asks a question and the thumbnail offers an opaque answer:
Title: “How Did X Do Y and Get Z?” → Thumbnail text: “Possum Method”
The inherent questions here that the viewer wants answered are, “What is the ‘Possum Method’? How did it help X do Y? Can it help me do Y?”
The title makes a bargain and the thumbnail hints at how:
Title: “Give me X minutes and I’ll change the way you Y” → Thumbnail text: “How the $%#^?!” → Thumbnail emotion: disbelief/shock/excitement
The person clicking basically agrees to trust that you’ll deliver. If you’re using this title/thumbnail…then you’d better actually deliver.
The title starts a story and the thumbnail shows a dramatic moment:
Title: “I did X for Y days and here’s what happened” → Thumbnail: “It changed everything.”
The viewer knows what you did but has no idea what the consequences were/what you learned, so if what you did is relevant, they’ll want to lean on your new knowledge or experience
There are tons of other formulas and you’ll likely find that you try one combo for a video and it doesn’t work well, but they you change the title and/or thumbnail to take a different angle and it somehow clicks.
The key is to do everything with intention the more you create videos, and observe and learn what works for you.
We all have different styles, but hopefully this helped you!
Key Points
If no one clicks, nothing else matters. Retention, content quality, and “value” are irrelevant until your thumbnail wins the click.
The best-performing thumbnails often look worse — louder, simpler, and more obvious — than what creators feel proud of.
Your thumbnail isn’t competing with your niche; it’s competing with everything on the screen. Design accordingly.
More words = fewer clicks. If your thumbnail explains anything, it’s already doing too much.
You are the brand. Big face, clear emotion, high contrast — resisting this usually slows growth, not preserves integrity.