How to Craft Standout Videos: Mastery of YouTube Thumbnail Dimensions

Best YouTube Thumbnail Size You Should Know[The Ultimate Guide]

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Around 300 hours of video is uploaded to Youtube in every single minute. Then content creators need to be more innovative and creative than others in the market. A thumbnail is worth a thousand words that show its real meaning in the case where every month YouTube records a whopping 2 billion active users. To create an impressive and tempting thumbnail, you should set a perfect youtube thumbnail size first.

So you may be wondering what the best youtube thumbnail size is, and how to create a attractive thumbnail for your YouTube videos? Don’t worry I’ll explain everything here. You will learn:

• Part 1: The Ultimate Guide of YouTube Thumbnail Size
• Part 2: Upload and Change a Custom YouTube Thumbnail to Your Video
• Part 3: Q&A– About Creating YouTube Thumbnails

Part 1: The Ultimate Guide of Youtube Thumbnail Size

Every content creator needs to select the right youtube thumbnail size for any given video.

1. What’s the Best YouTube Thumbnail Size(Dimensions)?

According to the YouTube guidelines , the best-suited youtube thumbnail size is 1280x720 pixels with a minimum pixel width of 640 pixels. Also, the custom thumbnail image must be as large as possible as it will be utilized as a preview image in the embedded player.

2. What Are the Compatible Formats for YouTube Thumbnail Image?

The recommended thumbnail image formats are .JPG, .PNG, .GIF, .BMP

3. What’s the Maximum YouTube Thumbnail Size?

The maximum YouTube thumbnail size must be below 2MB. Keeping the limit in mind design your thumbnail image as high-resolution as possible. This will ensure your custom thumbnail doesn’t get rejected by YouTube.

4. What’s the Recommended Aspect Ratio of YouTube Thumbnail?

Usually, the 16:9 ratio is deemed an ideal choice for any YouTube video aiming high view volume. As it is most widely used in YouTube players and previews.

Part 2: Upload and Change a Custom YouTube Thumbnail

With a verified account, you can upload custom thumbnail on new videos as well as change the thumbnail of uploaded videos.

1. For New Video

YouTube makes it very simple and easy for any content creator to publish custom YouTube thumbnail on their video while uploading the video onto the platform. Here’s the method to do so:

• Upload your desired video to YouTube in the Upload section.

• When your upload to the YouTube is completed a section will appear at the down portion of the browser screen showing Video Thumbnails. Here YouTube automatically creates some thumbnail images from your uploaded video and shows them here. These are the screenshots from your video, and you can select any one of them to be your thumbnail.

• You will be able to see a button right next to the image – Custom thumbnail. Click on the button and you can upload a set of images of your choice as the thumbnail of your video.
• Once done you can see the custom image just uploaded as the thumbnail of your video.

• If you want to update the image or change it with another one you can just click on the same image in the video thumbnail section and swap it with any other image.

2. For Already Uploaded Video

To change the thumbnail on an already uploaded video you need to follow these steps:

• Sign in to YouTube Studio associated with your YouTube channel.
• From the menu go to Videos and then select the video you want to upload a custom thumbnail to via its title or thumbnail

• Now in the thumbnail section if you already haven’t uploaded a custom thumbnail, click Custom thumbnail.
• Select your intended thumbnail file and click Save.

Part 3: Q&A– About YouTube Thumbnail Images

You may want to know:

• Question 1: How do I make my youtube thumbnail less than 2mb?
• Question 2: How can I create an attractive youtube thumbnail?

1. How do I make my youtube thumbnail less than 2mb?

YouTube will not allow you to upload a custom thumbnail image if it is bigger than the 2MB limit. So, you need to make sure the file size is below the limit to be able to successfully upload a custom thumbnail. To reduce the image size you can follow the steps below:

• 1. Open Microsoft Paint and open the thumbnail image that is above 2MB size
• 2. Now go to the File menu and click Save as then select JPEG picture
• 3. Select the location you want the file to be saved to
• 4. The thumbnail picture will be reduced to Kilobytes only while maintaining the image quality

2. How can I create an attractive youtube thumbnail?

Utilizing online platforms and software tools to make your thumbnail image informative and attractive can potentially increase your views and traffic. You can use any advanced tools like Wondershare Filmora, Wondershare PixStudio, or Canva to create an aspiring and luring image that will get more views on YouTube just because of the thumbnail image. Here we will show you how to do it with Wondershare Filmora, Wondershare PixStudio and Canva:

1. Try Wondershare Filmora>>

Wondershare Filmora is an outstanding tool if you want to make a perfect thumbnail image. Consider and optimize your thumbnail for mobile devices to offer the best experience to your users on every possible device. Make it stand out as the thumbnail can be the very first thing that might attract a viewer.

Let’s see how you can create your thumbnail using Wondershare Filmora:

2. Try Wondershare PixStudio>>

Wondershare PixStudio provides you massive pre-designed templates which help you to create attractive YouTube Thumbnail. Let’s see the video below and see how you can design your YouTube Thumbnail easily.

3. Try Canva>>

With Canva you can make a distinct and stand-out YouTube thumbnail image. Canva hosts a number of readymade designs that you can use to design and customize it for your use.

Note:

To download the image without the watermark you’ll need to sign-up for a premium account on the Canva.

To sum up

YouTube thumbnail plays an important part for the audience’s first impression on your video. And it is of essential essence as it can attract more viewers to your content. So you should get the right youtube thumbnail size before you start customing your thumbnail. We’ve gone through all the detailed requirements of youtube thumbnail size and how to make the best thumbnail by using the best software solutions. Please leave your comments below if any suggestions. We’d love to hear them!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Elevate Engagement: Natural Ways to Popularize Your Videos

How to Promote YouTube Videos (Without Paying)

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Getting a unique idea for your YouTube video is great and implementing it is even greater. But what about promoting after creating the video? This is the biggest concern for many YouTubers especially those who are freshly entering the YouTube world. To work on marketing strategy is way too important than uploading video which many people don’t think of.

Since YouTube stands as one of the well-known video-sharing website and nearly 300 hours (estimated) of videos are uploaded every single minute, how would you make your video a storm of hype thereby reaching the essential target audience? Among the chain of YouTube channels, popularizing yours to let people know you; you need some smart tips to be a pro on this matter. And this is what today’s article stressed upon. Have a look and learn how to promote YouTube videos without paying to drive incredible traffic.

You may also like: YouTube to WAV File: 4 Best Free Convert Solutions >>

Part 1: How to Promote YouTube Videos Free

1. Come up compelling titles

To promote YouTube video the right way, focus firstly on the title of your video . As this is what viewers will notice first and your notable title will only encourage users to play the video further, try to keep it simple and on-point. Avoid providing long titles as Google automatically shortens it up to 66 characters on search results. Moreover, a great YouTube video promotion is nothing without keyword research. Make sure to go ahead for it to keep the video on top in search results.

2. Pay attention to description and Tags

While thinking how to promote YouTube videos, it is important to pay heed on the video description and tags . The motive of YouTube description is to expand on the main title and putting more detailed information to it. You need to make sure to keep the description long and incorporate the maximum keywords possible (don’t be stuffy) while writing the description. Besides, when you add a web address in the description, ensure to begin it with “http” to make it clickable. Viewers will then easily be redirected to it on clicking. A yet another tip to promote YouTube video is to add tags that can describe the video purpose.

3. Make high quality content

High-quality content is the key to have great and exceptional results out of your video. Make sure to keep the video highly informational and once you’re ready with the content, work on the YouTube SEO . Start looking for the relevant keywords and put these in the title, description, tags and wherever needed.

4. Connect with YouTube community

Connecting with the viewers and YouTube community is the next step for promoting YouTube videos without paying. You create video, upload it and now people like it and make time for commenting on it. How would your audience feel if you won’t respond them back? They will obviously feel ignored. Therefore, try to be actively involved with the audience by replying to their comments as this will keep your audience intact.

Furthermore, make time to find the similar niche community and get engage with them. Watch their videos and activities and drop comments on their videos. Also, try to share useful video links through comments section.

5. Run a contest in your video

Why don’t give your best shot on contest strategy to fascinate more audience? Well! This is an extremely interesting technique to engage the audience. You should try to motivate viewers to subscribe your channel and provide with giveaways and prizes in return. They will willingly go for it and spread the contest thing to their friends as well. After all, everyone on this planet cherishes free stuff. Hence, use this promotion strategy and run contest thereby cheering your audience to step ahead. Remember to follow YouTube’s contest rules .

6. Cross-promoting your video

Do you know that over 500 years of YouTube videos are successfully watched on Facebook on regular basis? Also, Twitter users are involved in sharing over 700 YouTube videos every minute, according to YouTube. Therefore, using the other social platforms and marketing your YouTube channel there stand a great chance for your success. Cross-promoting YouTube video are likely to get viral quickly with top ways to promote YouTube videos .

7. Thumbnails is a must

Thumbnail is equally important as the title and content of the video. And to promote YouTube Video and make it success-deserving, thumbnail plays as an important aspect. There is no rule to create thumbnail. If you like, you can customize thumbnail with Filmora. You should be creative and think out of the box to make it more appealing. Play with image, layouts, designs and add understandable text on your video thumbnail.

8. Add Calls To Action

Do work on CTAs if you want your video to be YouTube video promoted in a better way. While people watch your video, remin-d them or ask them to like the video and subscribe to your channel. In addition, tell them to share the video as maximum as possible to help others too. Popular YouTubers have embraced this Call-to-action approach and they experience increasing number of shares by just asking the existing subscribers for it.

Part 2: Bonus Tip: How to Promote YouTube Videos with Some Money

Don’t forget email marketing

Use video on email marketing is never an outdated idea and here you can use it too in order to promote YouTube videos. To get to the loyal audience through this strategy, you can follow multiple ways:

• Have an email subscriber list already? Then make use of it and spread the news about your creative YouTube channel to the people in the list. You can do this every time you publish a fresh video.
• Also, make sure to keep the intro and outro of the playlist appealing rather than working on each video and adding CTA. By palying with intro/outro, make your viewers acquaint with your email list and tell them to subscribe.
• Above all, it is always suggested whenever you think about promoting your YouTubr video to always add a CTA. Here, when you use email as marketing platform, ask your audience to subscribe to your email list in the last.

Advertise

One of the golden tips – “Advertise and make your views rise”! YouTube offers numerous advertising options that can be of great assistance. Also, make sure of the following tips if you are thinking about advertising of your video and channel.

• Firstly, you should know that the duration of the ad matters. Keep the advertisement small, 30 to 60 seconds to be precise.
• Secondly and importantly, don’t forget to provide clear call-to-action. Let your viewers know what to do next. You can add subscribe the channel or sign up for email or simply share the video etc. as effective CTAs.
• The third tip says you to take help of TrueView ad format. TrueView In-display ads are evident in watch pages of YouTube where the viewers have their recommended videos and other suggested videos (on the right side). These ads go with the “cost-per-view” concept i.e. when users opt to watch your video by clicking on it, you will be charged. Overall, TrueView stands as great way to get your video marketed.

Conclusion

We enlightened you how to promote YouTube videos without paying and even shared some tips on promotion through money. Now that you’ve got a fair idea, work on the aforementioned methods and make your video known worldwide. Make use of the strategies and we hope you will surely make a remarkable name of yours. Hope you liked the tips we shared and started promoting YouTube videos.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

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