Thumbnails for youtube have never been more important to your marketing strategy. When someone searches for a video on YouTube, they get a list of thumbnails with titles. In essence, your thumbnail becomes your video’s selling point, and having an engaging one is your first step to increasing your Click Through Rate (CTR).
If you opt not to create a custom thumbnail, YouTube will use a random frame from your video. This frame will most likely not be very complimentary, nor will it fully describe what it is that you’re doing in your video. I’ve made over 100 videos in the past two years, and I’ve experimented a lot with custom thumbnails. Today, I’m going to discuss the pros and cons of the three types that I’ve previously used, and include a template of my most recent and favorite one.