Transcription
Today we're talking about thumbnails. If you want more views on YouTube, you have to make better thumbnails. This is such a critical piece that most people overlook. Because here's the truth that will really shock you. The game of YouTube, it's not about who can make the best videos. It's really about who can get the most people to click on their thumbnails and then watch a great video. It seems trivial, but it's actually the thumbnails that can make or break a channel.
Now, I've been studying the biggest YouTube channels in the world, and it turns out they're all using the exact same thumbnail strategy. So, in this video, I'm going to break the whole thing down. This is the five-step playbook for making irresistible thumbnails that will supercharge your views. And by the way, I'm Callaway. I have a million followers. I've done billions of views, and content is all I do all day long. All right.
Now, before we get into it, let me just quickly say, if you don't think thumbnails are that important, look at this. This is my best performing video of all time. 1.2, 2 million views, and that's the thumbnail. Well, it turns out I actually made that video 6 months before and posted it on a different channel with this thumbnail. And on that channel, it capped out at 1,700 views. Same exact video. The only difference was the channel and a different thumbnail. And this single thumbnail change has been responsible for six figures in revenue for my business. That's how important thumbnails are.
All right. Now, before we get into the five tactical steps for how to make a thumbnail, it's super helpful to understand the psychology of viewer behavior on YouTube. And when I say psychology, what I really mean is the process a viewer goes through to decide which video to click on.
Now, you'd think the viewer psychology would be pretty straightforward. They see a picture, they click a picture, they watch the video, they're happy. But that's not exactly how it works. The psychology flow for viewers on YouTube happens in three steps. The first thing that happens is what I call the visual stun gun. A viewer is scrolling the explore feed or browsing the sidebar and they see something visual that catches their eye, and this freezes their passive scanning brain and engages a more active target lock. Essentially, they switch into a comprehension mode, and they're actively trying to figure out what it is that grabbed their attention. So, step one is that visual stun gun. You need to make the thumbnail compelling enough to visually trigger that stun gun effect. And there's actually seven different things you can do in the thumbnail design to give yourself the best chance to create that stun gun reaction. And I'm going to walk through those in a minute. But step one is that visual stun.
Now, once the viewer is locked on and they've switched from a passive scrolling to an active comprehension mode, their interest is peaked. So then all they want to do is fully understand what the video could be about and what's in it for them. And here's a critical piece in the psychology flow. Typically, the viewer is not able to gather a full understanding of what the video is about from just the thumbnail alone. It may peak a ton of curiosity, but the image alone will not get them to click. And so, this is where step two happens, where they shift their attention from the image down to the title. And they do this because words are easier to concretely understand than images. Images give us more data, but they're often up to interpretation. Words are much clearer and more specific. So, in step two, the viewer then reads the title to get a more direct sense of what the video is going to be about. And I call step two title value hunting. The viewer is essentially looking at the title to understand if they should opt into watching because it's going to offer some value for them. This is why the title and thumbnail together are often referred to as YouTube packaging. You really can't win without optimizing for both, and the viewer consumes both at the same time.
Now, I'll explain in a minute how to optimize the clarity and clickability of the title, but just to reframe where we're at so far in the psychology flow. So far, the viewer started paying attention from the visual stun gun and then gut check the relevance of the video for them in the title value hunting.
Now, here is where things get interesting. After value hunting the title, they still won't click because step three is when the viewer goes back up to the thumbnail to more deeply comprehend what's in it. And this is called visual validation. Now that the viewer has a firmer grasp of the topic and the promise made in the title, they can anchor when visually trying to comprehend what's going on in the thumbnail. If the thumbnail does a good job of supporting the value promised by the title, and the viewer wants that value, they're going to click. So, the psychology flow is thumbnail to title back to thumbnail. That's how a viewer consumes the information and decides to click. It's visual stun gun to title value hunting, back to visual validation. And understanding this flow is so important because it explains why certain YouTube packaging works better than others. If you have a thumbnail design that's easy to understand, but it doesn't pop visually, then you'll never pass the visual stun gun phase. If you have a thumbnail that visually grabs attention, but the title promise is weak, then it's going to get somebody to look at it, but they won't click because the promise isn't compelling. If you have a strong title and a visually interesting image, but the elements in the thumbnail themselves don't support that title promise, then the viewer is not going to click because they'll be confused. When you make your thumbnails, you want to gut check through all three phases in the flow. And if you don't believe me that this works, go ahead and glance down at the sidebar right now. The first thing you did was look at one of those thumbnail visuals. I guarantee you did not read the titles first. Now, based on that first look, you probably didn't fully absorb what the video was going to be about; you just saw bright colors or a big face. So then before you click, you'd actually have to look at the title to try to figure out what's going to happen in the video. And after that, you'd look back up at the thumbnail to gauge if the elements indicated trust that the promise communicated in the title would be delivered. It's not a magic trick. This is how the brain comprehends video options on YouTube. And all of that that I just described typically happens in 1 to 2 seconds for the viewer. What a fun game. All right. All right.
Now, I promised I'd give you some tactical ways to improve your successes at each of those three psychology steps. So, here's what's on deck for the rest of this video. First, I'm going to break down the tactical enhancements that you can make at each of the three steps in the psychology flow that we just walked through: the visual stun gun, the title value hunt, and the visual validation. Then, I'm going to give you the full five-step formula for how to actually create a winning thumbnail for every single video. This will become your thumbnail playbook. Think of it like a checklist for how to approach making thumbnails. And then finally, at the end, I'm going to rapid fire a bunch of nonobvious but tactical lessons that I've picked up over the last couple months as we've grown on YouTube. All right, let's dive into it.
So, to revisit the three psychology steps that we just went through: visual stun gun, title value hunting, visual validation. Let's start with the visual stun gun. What can we do in the thumbnail to create this visual stun gun effect? Now, by definition, you need the thumbnail to grab the viewer's attention immediately. And like I said, they're not going to comprehend the full thing at this stage, but we just need something to pop to turn that passive scanning into active comprehension seeking. This is the red berries and the green leaf effect. Something visual has to grab their attention.
Now, as I mentioned, there's seven categories of things that you could put in your thumbnail to increase your chances that this effect occurs. The first one is to use specific color science to create visual contrast in the thumbnail. Now, this means you can either use contrasting colors within your thumbnail or make your entire thumbnail a color that contrasts with other competitor videos in your niche. Doing this within your thumbnail would be using vivid or bright colors that pop against the background. And this could be orange elements against a blue background or white elements against a dark background or vice versa. The best example of this is Ryan Tran's thumbnail from this video here. That orange jumpsuit pops against a black and white background so well. Now, color contrast against your category would be doing something like making a lighter thumbnail when all of your competitors use dark themes. And that's what we've done on my channel, which is why our thumbnails pop so well. Essentially, this tactic would be to use color to create some visual pop.
Now, the second way to trigger the visual stun gun is to use a large face on the image. And this can either be a recognizable face like a celebrity or a famous creator or a non-recognizable face with a recognizable emotion. The truth is, when you're starting out on your own channel, you're a relative nobody. And so, the recognizability factor of your own face is extremely low. And so, using yourself when you're small doesn't really help you. In fact, it may hurt you if people don't trust that you can fulfill the promise based on the way you look. But creating the right emotion on your face, typically shock or surprise, can supersede the fact that nobody recognizes who you are.
Now, the third option for creating this visual stud effect would be to use some visually compelling graphic; essentially some visual that draws attention because of the bright colors or the way it's designed. For example, this video on my channel about psychology, we used a phone graphic, but we put that optical illusion pattern to immediately draw your attention. The fourth thing you could add would be large text, big numbers, or dollars in huge font on the screen. And this works because people's brains are like magnets to words, especially if they're big, round numbers. And of course, I use this tactic all the time in my thumbnails. And you can see a couple examples of that here and here.
Now, fifth would be to use red circles or red arrows to literally aim someone's attention for where you want them to look. Sixth would be using aesthetic imagery, something cinematic or super soothing to look at, symmetrical or with balanced colors. I don't typically do this style on my channel, but this guy right here is a master at this type of thumbnail. And seventh would be to use some sort of design-based collage, either words or numbers all around the subject to create that kind of collage effect. And you can see an example of us doing this on our channel where it worked really well.
Now, in a second, I'm going to give you a lot more tips about how many of those elements you should use, where you should place them, and how to go about actually designing the thumbnail. But just remember, in step one, all you really need is to create that initial visual stun effect so that they look down at the title. All right, let's keep going.
Okay, so step two in the psychology flow is title value hunting. And this is when the viewer goes from the thumbnail down to the title to actively comprehend and try to figure out if this video is going to be valuable for them. Now, I'm not going to go all the way down the rabbit hole into titles in this video because it would just be way too long. But the secret to writing a great title is that you want to create a perceived value loop. A perceived value loop is when the viewer has clarity on the value they will receive if they click and watch. For educational videos, I call this a desire loop. And for entertainment videos, I call this an interest loop. A desire loop is when you use words to trigger a pain point that's preventing a desire they want. Maybe it's money, growth, or followers. An interest loop is when you use words to trigger their curiosity around a question that they have that's unanswered. And this could be broader. What happens next? How might this end? What might this character do?
So, let's look at my YouTube script writing video, which has 150,000 views, and kind of break down what we did to create this desire loop. The title for this was how to write a killer script that keeps viewers hooked. And of course, my content is educational, so I'm working with a desire loop instead of an interest loop here. And the desire I'm trying to trigger with this title is reminding you that you want your viewers to watch your stuff for longer. And the title directly triggers that desire by saying the words that keeps viewers hooked. Now, to make sure that I open that desire loop in your mind, I also reference the pain point you have, writing bad scripts, by suggesting a solution that I have, writing killer scripts. And at this point, if the viewer has that desire, getting people to watch and stay watching, and the pain point their scripts aren't that good, they're going to be extremely eager to want to click. And this is just base psychology at the most fundamental level. This whole thumbnail game is just a cat-and-mouse game of desire and trust. Does the viewer desire what you're saying or showing in the title thumbnail? And then, do they trust that you're going to be the one to deliver it based on what you show in the thumbnail? So tactically, if you're trying to increase the chances that the viewer goes from the title back up to the thumbnail and clicks, you need to make sure that title triggers the desire loop that you want to trigger. And we'll dive much deeper into that on a future video on titles specifically.
All right. Now, the third step in this psychology flow, visual validation, is really where the thumbnail design really comes into play. Because at this point, the viewer is ready to opt in and they have that written clarity on what the title is saying. So now they're going back to the thumbnail to try to confirm the comprehension of what the image is showing. And this is where we're going to focus on which elements to include, how many you should include, and why.
Now, at this point, you'll realize you don't want the thumbnail to repeat what the title is saying directly. And this is because you want to think of the thumbnail as an additional surface that you can add trust and clarity for when they click that they'll get the promise made in the title. So, in this case with my script writing video, I use that squiggly storyline in the background and then the words basically cheating to reinforce the perception that yes, I have a script writing method that feels like cheating that will solve your pain point of writing bad scripts and fulfill the desire you have, which is to keep viewers watching.
Now, let's break down the action steps and general guidelines for what you should include in your thumbnail so that you can increase this comprehension moment and get people to click. The first rule is that you want three elements max in the design. There's seven categories, but you only want to use three of them. And this is because thumbnails are actually pretty small when people look at them, especially on mobile. If you use too many small elements, they're not actually going to be able to see or comprehend what they're showing. Now, for me, in my thumbnails, we typically use a picture of me, some text, and then some graphic element. If you're using a face, make sure the emotion on the face matches the emotion that a viewer should feel when they watch the video. This is why the Mr. Beast shock face is so popular. He's trying to subconsciously trigger that you will be shocked if you click and watch. Now, if you use big text on the screen, you need it to complement and reinforce the promise made in the title. And again, for this script writing example, I use the words basically cheating. We could have written something like script writing masterclass, but that would have been redundant to what was communicated already in the title. It's always more powerful to describe the silent feeling or action that someone's going to have versus the redundant descriptor of what's going to go on. This title text plus thumbnail text needs to increase comprehension and trust, not be neutral or decrease it. And then lastly, if you use some graphic or visual element, it needs to be clear what this actually represents. For example, in this thumbnail, we knew the video was going to be about editing, and so we use this arc version of the timeline to represent that visually.
All right. Now, before I go on to break down the tactical five-step formula, I just wanted to mention if you're trying to get better with content and you're not currently a member of Wavy World, you definitely should be. Wavy World is my content community with over 19,000 entrepreneurs, creators, and business owners that are all working together to improve their content, and it's completely free to join. I've got an invite link for you in the description.
All right, now that we've done a full deep dive on the psychology, I want to break down the tactical five-step playbook for how to actually make thumbnails. Hopefully, this will become a checklist and guide every time you make a video.
Okay, now step one is the approach. You need to approach making your thumbnail as if it's the most important part of the video. And that's because it is. And Mr. Beast is famous for saying this: If they don't click, they don't watch. And if they don't watch, there's really no point in even making the video in the first place. So, this means you need to be taking a professional approach to making thumbnails. Now, if you're like me and you're a business owner that's trying to take YouTube seriously, that means you should be outsourcing thumbnails immediately. As soon as I realized just how important thumbnails were to winning on YouTube, I hired a pro as fast as I could. If you want the intro to my preferred thumbnail agency, I've got the link below in the description. You could also try to find and hire thumbnail designers directly using sites like onlinejob.ph or ytjob.co, or you could go to Upwork. We also have a bunch of thumbnail designers in Wavyworld that are always looking to partner with different creators. But I will say all of those other routes require a bunch of leg work because you have to sort through applications. But regardless of who you find or where you find them, I recommend hiring a thumbnail designer immediately. Now, don't worry if you can't afford to outsource this yet. I've got the full playbook coming right here.
All right, so let's move on to step two, the curiosity gap, desire loops, pain point, and solutions. Before you actually break ground on designing the image, you want to ask yourself, what is the desire or interest loop that I'm trying to create with this packaging? Now, for the rest of this video, I'm going to be talking about the playbook from an educational point of view, but the same thing works for entertainment. So, if I was going through this process, I would ask myself, what is the desire loop for this video? And typically for educational content, the core desire is going to be making money, saving time, or getting healthy. And each of these obviously can be achieved in different ways. For my content personally, I'm laser focused on helping business owners improve their content to grow their businesses. And so, the desire loop in my videos is helping people grow faster or make better content. So from there, once you have the desire loop, you then need to identify the specific pain point and solution that makes sense for this specific video. So let's take one of my recent videos as an example to break down this formula. This is a video where I talk about how I went from zero to 100K on YouTube in just 5 months. Now, the pain point I'm targeting for the viewer is I'm growing too slow on YouTube and I want to grow faster. And the solution is I have ways and methods that I use to grow faster that I can share with you. Now, the curiosity loop that I'm trying to build in your brain from this specific packaging is if I click on this video, will I be able to grow faster on YouTube? And of course, the desire loop again is I want to grow faster on YouTube. So, before you actually break ground on the thumbnail and title, you kind of need to have this dialed in your head. And now we can move on to step three, which is concepting the elements and composition of the thumbnail design.
Okay, so in step three, we're going to start figuring out the exact elements we want to use and the composition of the image. And now I already talked about those
Seven core elements and the fact that really you should only use three maxs in your design. And as a reminder, these are the core elements: faces with emotion, visually compelling graphics, large text numbers or dollars, aesthetic imagery, or maximalist design collages. We also mentioned red circles and arrows and color contrast. But those two things can kind of be used in conjunction with the first five elements because they're more complimentary.
So, when you're coming up with a concept for your thumbnails, I recommend coming up with the elements first, and then you can figure out the composition for layout in a minute. Now, I'll explain more specific tactics on how to make each of those better in a second. But just at this stage in step three, you're just concepting and sketching to try to get a sense for what those elements could be. This is the measure twice, cut once of the design process. What we like to do is make a list of the full graphic items or text phrases that we might be able to use, just so we have options to pull from.
Now, once you have that list and kind of a sense for what those elements could be, the next thing you want to figure out is the composition of those elements on the page. And again, we haven't designed them yet. This is just a low-quality sketch with pencil that takes a few seconds, but just to try to lay it out in your head for what it might look like.
Now, for composition inspiration, essentially what the image could look like, it's usually helpful to look at other competition in your niche that has done well. And you can do that with one of 10 or Vid IQ. There are typically three main types of composition. The first one is symmetrical, where the main subject is in the middle and then either side is relatively the same. The second is asymmetrical, where based on the rule of thirds, the main subject is either a third on the left or right, and then you fill out the remainder of the image. And the third composition is AB, where the screen is actually split into two, and you're showing a transformation from A to B. And I've had success with all three composition types on my channel. It just depends on what the specific design calls for and what we're trying to get across.
Okay, so that was step three. You've brainstormed and ideated what some of the right elements and text items could be. You've sketched the composition, and you have a general sense for what the image should look like. All right. Now, step four is to actually design the full image. And I'm not a pro graphic designer. That's why I partnered with a thumbnail expert. But here are some specific tips for how to increase the effectiveness of your thumbnail design. Overall, you want all of the graphic elements as high quality as you can possibly get them. You want the text easy to read and everything well spaced so it doesn't look too crowded. Make sure to apply saturation or color adjustments so that things look brighter versus duller. If you need to upscale an image because it's too grainy at the size you're dragging it, I like to use magnific.ai.
Now, if you're using a visual graphic as one of your three elements, you want it to be something that immediately represents the desire loop. And the desire loop is basically the transformation that somebody wants. So, there are four simple ways you can think about what that graphic could be. And I'm going to show you each one using a thumbnail from Ali Abdal. The first option is to show the end state of what someone wants. This could be like a PayPal screenshot showing the dollars earned in their account. The second option is to show some visual from a process or visualize the full process that they would go through in the transformation. The third option is to literally show the before and after. And this works really well with the split screen or an arrow from one to the other. And then the fourth option would be to use a graphic to show the anti-transformation state or the pain point. Remind them of the pain that you're helping them solve.
So that's for the graphic. Now, when it comes to selecting the text that goes on the screen with the graphic, you want the person to read the text and immediately remember either the pain that they feel or the solution that they'll solve after they watch. And these are basically two sides of the same psychology coin. So, for this thumbnail I just showed you, Ali uses the word alone to re-trigger the pain that it feels like when you're lonely. But for this one, he references the 108010 rule, which is a specific solution for managing your time. So, that's the text on the screen.
Now, when it comes to picking an image or a person, try this: If your video actually talks about some celebrity or personal brand, consider using them in the thumbnail. And this is because known figures with personal brands have words or terms that are already attached when you see their faces. It's like increased comprehension when you see them. But don't use someone that doesn't represent the desire loop you're communicating in the title, or it may backfire.
Now, if your video doesn't really reference anyone in your category, you could consider using yourself as the subject or face in the thumbnail. However, like I said before, if nobody knows you, this could backfire as a risk because they'll decide they don't trust you because they don't know you. Often times, if you're newer, it could be better not to use a face than to use one that's pretty unknown. Of course, the design part of this process takes a long time and a lot of reps to get good at, which is why outsourcing to a professional is recommended.
Now, just to give you one more example of my own videos breaking down the final design, here's what we were thinking through when we made the thumbnail for this video. Again, this is the one about my YouTube growth. So, for this one, the elements we used were a picture of me smiling, the YouTube plaque, and then text that said, "I did it in 5 months." Now, the reason we used me smiling in the photo is because we wanted to symbolize the feeling that a viewer would feel if they got their channel to grow faster, happy. And the text is pretty basic, but we underlined the number five to emphasize how fast the speed was. And then we included the YouTube plaque because that plaque is a representation for success on YouTube. All these elements were selected intentionally to trigger the desire loop of someone wanting to grow faster on YouTube.
All right. Now, step five, the last step in the process is testing. Once you have the thumbnail designed, you should use something like clickpilot.app to see how it'll look in the explore feed or in the sidebar. This software also lets you pick specific channels that you want to test your thumbnails against that are often competitors that will come up in other viewers' feeds. And lastly, and this is super important, you should not leave your video's performance up to chance with just a single thumbnail. And I know it's going to sound crazy after all the work you just did, but you really should be testing with at least three thumbnails. The biggest channels in the world run dozens of thumbnails against each other for every single video. Steven Bartlett apparently tests a hundred different thumbnails for every video of Diver CEO that he puts out. And just to be transparent about what actually goes on behind the scenes, for this video, zero to 100K on YouTube, we made seven different thumbnail designs, and we ABC tested the best three. We like to use YouTube's native ABC test tool, but if you want to get crazier with more options and title combinations, you can use thumbnailest.com to do that. Because the truth is, even though we were pretty sure we knew what would work in the thumbnail, we didn't want to leave it up to chance. And so that's why we pick three options and let the market decide.
All right, so there you have it. That is the five-step tactical playbook for how to actually make thumbnails. Step one is the approach. Step two is to define what that desire loop is. Step three is concepting. Step four is the design. And then step five is testing.
Now, before I end this video, I just want to rapid fire a bunch of non-obvious and tactical learnings that we've picked up over the last couple months really honing in our thumbnail process. Number one is to use green and red as colors to explain good and bad. Any other colors are not going to be as helpful because the comprehension is not baked in automatically. Number two, do not use a design element that gets covered up in the bottom right corner. If you look at your channel, you'll see the timestamp of all the videos overlaid here. And if that blocks a certain word, like it's doing on this video, it can be harder to understand what's going on in the thumbnail. Number three, if you want to make it easier for your thumbnail designer to make a ton of variations with high-quality imagery, you should have one photo shoot session, take your camera on 4K or record a video at 4K 60 frames per second and make a ton of different poses. Here's what I recommend: varying emotions, happy, sad, surprised, shocked, pointing up with the right hand, up with the left hand, down with the right hand, down with the left hand, open hand, closed hand, a bunch of different poses. It'll look crazy and seem insane for 5 to 10 minutes. Do this and then give them that file. All of a sudden, they'll have tons of different pictures to choose from, and you'll never have to photoshoot again. Number four, I've mentioned a bunch of times in this video, but just to reiterate, the emotion on the face in the thumbnail is actually a great way to subconsciously skew what the promise will be to the viewer. So, make sure you're using the right emotion and you're taking enough photos to give your thumbnail designer options. Number five, don't use design elements that are too small. Imagine your thumbnail shown as 1/16th on an iPhone 6 screen. This tiny little screen, tiny little image, don't make design elements too small. Make sure they're big and only include three in the frame. Number six, if you're struggling to create separation between you as your face and the background or text in the background, use shadows. Shadows and shading are a great way to create visual separation. Number seven is about clickbait. Everybody says you don't want to clickbait. That's completely false. You 100% want to bait the click. That is your job with the thumbnail. But clickbait is only clickbait when the content doesn't match the promise. If the content is good, then baiting the click is simply required to get people to watch. Number eight is about building a thumbnail swipe file. A good way to dial in your style over time is to just have a folder on your computer where anytime you see an interesting thumbnail, screenshot and dump it in. You can share that folder with your thumbnail designer and they can use that as a starter for ideas. You can also go on one of 10 and Vid IQ and use their thumbnail features to save these as well. And the last tip, and I'll say it again because it's so important, do not wait until the last hour to rush and try to throw together a thumbnail before you post a video. You're doing things in the wrong order. If people don't click, they won't watch. And then making the video is really worthless if you can't get them to click. This means you either need to start your process making the thumbnail or at least have a really good idea for it or hire a professional to do this for you. Like I said, the way I do this on my channel to make it completely stress-free is I have an ideas team that comes up with the ideas, comes up with the titles, comes up with a thumbnail design, and then I hand that doc to my thumbnail designer who will design seven options, and we can pressure test three. If you want intros to both of those parties, I've got links below.
All right, guys, that is all I've got for this video, and we covered a ton of ground. As a summary, first, we went through the psychology flow of a viewer on YouTube and how they decide which video to click on. We also broke down the seven different visual elements that you can use to create that visual stun gun effect. Then we walked through the five-step tactical thumbnail playbook that you can use as a checklist and a guide moving forward for every video. And lastly, we covered nine non-obvious tactical tips, little things here and there that would just boost your performance over time. As always, I try to put everything I have into making the best videos in the content creation space. So, if you like this, please like, subscribe, leave a comment, and let me know what you want to watch next. And also in the description, I have so many other free resources and guides. I really just want to see more people win. So check those out, and we will see you guys on the next video. Peace.