How to Size Your Videos: YouTube’s Best Practices Unveiled

Best YouTube Thumbnail Size: How to Make a Thumbnail for YouTube in 2024

Benjamin Arango

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You must have heard the phrase, Never judge a book by its cover. But actually, we do judge everything by its cover. The same is the case with Youtube videos. No matter how good the content of your video is if you are unable to convey that with the thumbnail of your video, it will not bring any good to your channel. If you are looking forward to growing your channel and attracting more viewers, then having an appealing and eye-catching thumbnail is one of the most important factors. There are several things to be considered while creating a custom thumbnail if you want to make your videos look stunning and engaging. By following all these points, you can increase the chances of your channel’s growth.

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In this article, we have 5 chapters for you：

• Best YouTube Thumbnail Size
• How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?
• Best Practices From Experiences
• How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail
• How to Add a Custom Thumbnail to Your Video

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Best YouTube Thumbnail Size

Being a content creator, you never know which device is being used by the viewer to watch your videos. It can be a smartphone, laptop, pc, or smart TV. It is very important to keep all these devices in mind while choosing a Youtube thumbnail size. For the best possible results, consider the following points while making a thumbnail for your Youtube videos.

• To cover all the devices perfectly, set the thumbnail resolution to 1280x720
• Save the thumbnail in JPG, GIF, or PNG format
• Try not to cross the 2MB limit
• Make sure to use a 16:9 aspect ratio for perfect results throughout the devices

Click here


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How Important is a Custom Thumbnail?

Custom Thumbnail is a tool through which the viewers can understand everything about a video. It tells the viewers what to expect from a video, what not to expect, and what the video is all about. no matter if you create amazing content, if the thumbnail is not good enough to covey that to the viewers, all your hard work will be of no use and will not bring any good to your channel and its growth. According to Google ,90% of best-performing videos have custom thumbnails. It shows the importance of custom thumbnails.

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Best Practice From Experiences

Now, since we know the importance of having a custom thumbnail, it is important to know how to make a thumbnail for Youtube look perfect, appealing, and eye-catching at the same time. There are some points to be considered while creating a thumbnail for Youtube. We will provide you with the best practices that we have learned throughout our journey of using Youtube and growing it from zero.

7 best practices can help you make your Youtube thumbnail stand out from the crowd and make its way out.

1. Show your face

In a world full of machines and computers, people love to listen and interact with people instead of computer-generated voices and a voice without a face. Showing your face on a Youtube thumbnail makes it more appealing to users to click and listen to the person who is being shown in the thumbnail. Humans are more inclined towards faces. When there is a human element in a video, it increases its effectiveness. Check out the pics below, which one are you most likely to click through?

1. Use Simple Fonts

With your face, it is necessary to put some text on your Youtube thumbnail to let viewers know what this video is all about without clicking or watching it. Don’t use fancy fonts on Youtube thumbnail. It makes it hard for the viewers to read and understand what to expect in the video, especially for those watching YouTube on their 5 inches screen smartphone, ultimately decreasing the chances of your video being clicked and watched. I personally recommend you to use give these fonts a go while making YouTube thumbnail.

1. Use Phrases, not sentence

If you have ever noticed, Youtube thumbnails are very small in size, making it hard for viewers to notice any small elements. According to YouTube , more than 70% of Youtube watch time comes from mobile devices. While adding text in a thumbnail, instead of using sentences, make sure to use only words and make them large in size that can easily be noticed on small screens. Summurise your video in no more than 5 words.

1. Put every stuff on left side

When we navigate to a Youtube thumbnail and place the cursor on it, it shows us two icons, “Watch Later” and “Add to Queue,” located on its right size. Come on, you don’t want your beautiful thumbnail that cost you a few hours be covered. To avoid these icons from hiding your important stuff of thumbnail, make sure to put everything on the right side of your thumbnail.

1. Have a unique and Consistent style

Try to make all your thumbnails follow the same style. Following the same style for all your Youtube thumbnails will make your channel look unique and all your videos identical. It will be easy for viewers to identify your videos when they see them. It gives your channel a touch of its unique brand.

1. Use elements to grab the attention

To make your Youtube thumbnail more appealing to the viewers, add circles and arrows to grab viewers’ attention to something very important in the video. It will increase the curiosity in the viewers and make them click your videos to learn more.

1. Choose the right tool

This whole process seems to be very hectic and time taking, but do you know, you can do everything on just one software? There is no need to edit a video in a different software then make a thumbnail in another software. With Filmora X, you can perform all these tasks on a single platform with so many amazing features. Whether you want to remove the background of your image or add attractive titles to it, Filmora X has got you covered.

1. Avoid clickbait and irrelevant pics and title

It is one of the old tricks that so many people on Youtube use. It undoubtedly brings you clicks and more views, but once the viewer realizes that you have used irrelevant pictures or texts to attract them**. I**n reality, your video doesn’t contain any information related to it, you are going to lose their trust. They are never going to click on your videos again. Even if you don’t use such a trick anymore. Try to avoid such activities. Avoiding such activities can make your channel grow in the long term. Only use the text and images that are relevant to your content and stick to that.

1. Choose your preview window wisely

Do you know that Youtube can show a 3-second preview of your video when someone hovers the cursor over it? It is one of the best ways to show the viewers the content of your video even when they don’t click on your video. These three seconds will help them decide whether to click on your video or not. This preview is selected by the system from the first half of your video according to its relevance and similarity with the topic. That’s why it is very important to add related information in the first half of the video, otherwise, Youtube will choose it randomly. If the preview is not selected for two days, it means your video is not eligible for it.

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How to Make a Fortnite Thumbnail Super Fast and Free?

Many of you might be interested in how to make a fortnite thumbnail, so here it is. To make a Fortnite thumbnail for free, we are going to use Filmora X. Filmora X contains all kinds of features and elements that are required for a perfect and eye-catching thumbnail. To get started, make sure to download and install the latest version of Filmora X.

1. Before we start making Fortnite Thumbnails, we have to take a screenshot of the gameplay. Open Fortnite and go to the Career tab. Here you will find Replays.

1. It contains all your recent gameplays. We can use it to take a screenshot. If you are using a console, you will find 10 recent gameplays here. But if you are a PC user, you can find the last 100 gameplays. Select the gameplay you want to take a screenshot from.

1. For our preferred angle, choose “Drone Free Camera” mode from the bottom right corner of the screen. It will allow us to use our preferred angle without any restriction. Choose an angle and take a screenshot.

1. Open Filmora X, make sure to select the 16:9 screen ratio. Import the screenshot that you have taken from Fortnite.

1. Place it into the timeline to start working on it.

1. Now to separate the character from the background, go to the Effects. Under effects, you can find a tab named AI Portraits. Click on AI Portrait. Now drag the Human Segmentation and drop it on the screenshot in the timeline.

1. It will ask you to purchase it. But there is no need to do that. Just hit Try It.

1. This effect will remove the background of your screenshot.

1. Now you can add a background of your choice. You can upload an image or choose a simple color from Filmora’s Media tab and drag it below the screenshot in the timeline.

1. To add text to the screenshot, go to Titles. Here you can find a wide range of different and unique titles to choose from for your Fortnite Thumbnail. Choose any of the titles and place them accordingly.

1. To make it more attractive, we can add icons and other elements from Filmora’s Element tab. You can also download the stickers from the internet and use them.

1. After completing the thumbnail, click on the Snapshot icon located below the preview tab of Filmora. Or press “CTRL+ALT+S”. It will save a screenshot into the media panel of Filmora.

1. Right-click on the screenshot and navigate to “Reveal in Explorer”. It will open the folder that contains all the screenshots taken from Filmora. Now you can use it as a Fortnite Thumbnail.

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How to Add a Custom YouTube Thumbnail to Your Video in YouTube

Once you have successfully created a custom thumbnail, you can use it in your videos on Youtube.

1. Open Youtube Studio and upload your video. While uploading the video, you can see a section named “Thumbnail”. Under this section, click on “Upload Thumbnail”.

1. Select the thumbnail that you have made. Just like the one Fortnite thumbnail that we have created using Filmora X.

1. The thumbnail will be uploaded and attached to the video. Now you can process all the settings and publish the video.

Conclusion

Thumbnail is the first thing that helps the viewer decide whether to click on a video or ignore it. Which increases the importance of having a well-structured and attractive thumbnail. By following the above guide, you can make an astonishing and clickable thumbnail in no time. For better and quick results, we recommend you using Filmora X. It allows you to perform all the tasks from video editing to thumbnail creation on a single platform.

Benjamin Arango

Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Benjamin Arango

The Power of Politeness in Growing Your Audience

How to Get People to Subscribe to Your YouTube Channel

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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The following is a step-by-step tutorial on how to get more subscribers by asking the right way. People are more likely to do something if you give them a bit of a nudge, and that includes subscribing to your YouTube channel.

There are people who think that if people like their videos they’ll subscribe, so they shouldn’t bother people by asking. This is, simply put, wrong. When people are browsing YouTube their minds are on what video they want to watch next, not whether or not they want to subscribe – unless you remind them.

1. What is a ‘Call To Action’?
2. A More Effective Way of Asking for Subscribers
   1. Step 1: How to Hook the Viewer
   2. Step 2: Get to The Point Quickly
   3. Step 3: Create a Moment - Make Subscribing Part of the Experience

What is a ‘Call To Action’?

It has become the norm for YouTubers to ask viewers to subscribe in their sign-offs. A typical CTA (‘call to action’) goes something like this:

“Thanks for watching. If you liked this video, make sure to subscribe for more!”

That’s great. At the end of a video is a good place to ask people to subscribe, but is it the best and only place you should be reminding them? If you take a peek at your analytics and you might find that most of your viewers aren’t watching to the ends of your videos (people have short attention spans).

A More Effective Way of Asking For Subscribers

Collins Key is one YouTuber who has mastered asking for subscribers early on, and given that he has over 7 million subscribers himself I’d say it’s working out. Check out the technique in this video collab with Brooklyn and Bailey:

Step 1: How to Hook The Viewer

As you can see, the video starts with a ‘flash forward’ to one of the twins saying the heater is on fire and then a reminder of what’s going to happen later – the heater catching fire – is written in the top left of the screen so it stays on the viewers’ mind. This is one way in which the viewer is immediately hooked.

Step 2: Get to The Point Quickly

Shortly after, while still in the first 30 seconds of the video, Collins gets right to the point and introduces the Twin Telepathy Challenge promised in the title of the video. The hook with the heater catching fire is effective, but it’s not essential. It happens to suit Collins’ style, and it happens to have happened. Getting to the main point of the video quickly – usually in the first 15 seconds, not the first 30 (it’s in the first 15 seconds that most viewers click away) – is vital. People click on videos for a reason, and if they don’t see a sign of that payoff quickly they’ll leave.

Step 3: Create A Moment - Make Subscribing Part of the Experience

It’s only after hooking the viewer in and reiterating the promise of the title that Collins asks viewers to subscribe. The really clever thing about how he asks is that he carves out time in the video for the viewer to comply with his request. He gives 5 seconds and does a countdown.

Collins Key has been one of the fastest-growing channels on YouTube. He does not implement this strategy in every video, but it’s not a stretch to think it’s had something to do with his success. Instead of simply asking you to subscribe at the end of the video, he creates a part of the video early on – before people who don’t watch until the end will have clicked away – where you feel as if you’re ‘supposed to’ subscribe.

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

Even with the above tricks, you may not get the subscribers as you wish unless you can make sure your videos and contents are of high quality. As YouTube is getting more and more popular and more YouTubers are competing for subscribers, you will need to polish your YouTube videos.

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora video editor provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Its features like motion tracking, audio ducking, keyframing, color matching and effects will help make your video impressive enough to get pepople to subscribe to your channel.

Here is a tutorial video about how to use Filmora to edit your YouTube video. Check it out and try Filmora if you are interested.

That’s how you can get more YouTube subscribers by asking the right way. You may follow the instructions and try it yourself. Do not forget to track your YouTube subscribers in real time to make necessary adjustments.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett