How to Stand Out: YT Thumbnail Size and Engagement Strategies

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

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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

Bringing the Web to Reality: Embedding YouTube Videos in Slides

How to Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

There might be several instances where you want your audiences to watch a video so that you can elaborate your idea or explain your point more clearly. You may want to do this without leaving the presentation window in order to avoid losing focus from the agenda of the meeting. To make this happen, it is imperative to learn how to embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint.

When talking about PowerPoint, it is an efficient and powerful tool to prepare animated and static presentations, and embedding videos is yet another useful option that the app offers to its users.

That said, here you will learn a couple of methods to embed YouTube video in PowerPoint.

How to Insert YouTube Video into PowerPoint? (4 Methods)

After understanding the benefits of have a video embedded to your presentation, it is now time to learn how to add YouTube video to PowerPoint.

The four most used methods of getting this done are discussed in detailed in the following sections:

Method 1: Using YouTube Video’s URL

Because every YouTube video has a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that is unique for that particular clip, PowerPoint allows you to use it to embed the footage to any of its slides. The process is simple, and you can follow the steps given below to get this done:

Step 1: Copy the URL

Open your default web browser, go to the YouTube video you want to embed to PowerPoint, and copy its URL from the address bar at the top.

Step 2: Add URL to PowerPoint

Launch PowerPoint if it is not already open, go to the slide you want to embed the YouTube video to, click Insert from menu bar present above the Ribbon, click Video from the Media section at the right end of the Ribbon, click Online Video from the list that appears, in the Enter the URL for the online video field on the Online Video box, paste the URL that you copied earlier, and click Insert to insert YouTube video into PowerPoint.

Step 3: Position the Player

Once the video is added to the PowerPoint slide, drag its frame and reposition it to a suitable location.

Method 2: Embed a YouTube Video with Embed Code (For Microsoft PowerPoint 2016)

Unlike PowerPoint 2019 that accepts URLs and embed codes in a single URL field, MS PowerPoint 2016 lets you choose how you want to insert a video. The step-by-step instructions given below explain how this can be done:

Step 1: Obtain Embed Code

Go to the YouTube video you want to embed to your PowerPoint slide, click the SHARE icon from the left area under the video player, click the Embed icon in the Share box, and click COPY from the bottom-right corner of the Embed Video box that appears next.

Step 2: Get to the PowerPoint’s Insert Video Box

Launch MS PowerPoint 2016, click Insert from the menu bar at the top, from the Media section in the right of the Ribbon, click Video, and then click Online Video to open the Insert Video box.

Step 3: Embed the Video

Paste the embed code you copied earlier in the Paste embed code here field present next to the From a Video Embed Code option, and press Enter to embed YouTube video in PowerPoint.

Method 3: Insert YouTube Video into PowerPoint by Searching Names (For Microsoft PowerPoint 2016)

Microsoft Office 2016 has another lucrative feature that allows users to embed YouTube video in PowerPoint by searching its name. You can follow the steps given below to find the videos published on YouTube, and insert them to your presentation:

Step 1: Get to the Insert Video Box

Use the process explained in Step 2 of Method 2 to get to the Insert Video box after selecting the slide you want to add a video to.

Step 2: Search and Embed a Video

In the Search YouTube field next to the YouTube option, type the name of the video you want to search on YouTube, press Enter, select the video you want to embed, and click Insert to insert YouTube video into PowerPoint.

Method 4: Insert Video from PC

Another method to embed YouTube video in PowerPoint is by downloading the clip to your PC, and then inserting the footage from there. You can use any free YouTube downloader to obtain a video that is available on YouTube.

Once the file is on your computer, the following steps explain how it can be embedded to your PowerPoint slide:

WARNING: YouTube videos may be subject to copyright. Therefore, before downloading and embedding a video to your PowerPoint slide, make sure that you have proper rights to do so, or that the video can be used for the purpose without any written permission from its creator.

Step 1: Get to the Insert Ribbon

Open PowerPoint and select the slide you want to embed a YouTube video to. Go to Insert from the menu bar at the top.

Step 2: Insert the Video

Click the Video icon from the Media section of the Ribbon, click Video on My PC from the list, and use the Insert Video box that appears to select and insert the video to your PowerPoint slide.

Step 3: Resize and/or Modify the Video

Grab any of the six handles of the video you inserted, and drag it inward to decrease the size of the frame. It is advisable to use the corner handle and drag them diagonally to maintain proper aspect ratio of the player’s frame. Next, right-click anywhere inside the frame, click Format Video from the context menu, and use the options that appear in the right pane to make necessary adjustments to the clip like color correction, manage brightness and contrast, etc.

YouTube Embedding Supported PowerPoint Version Checklist

Depending on the version of Microsoft Office you are using, you may or may not be able to embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint. Also, if your version of PowerPoint allows you to do so, the interface and the options may vary from those you see on your friends’ computer or in some online tutorials.

That said, the following table gives a clear picture of which version of Microsoft Office has video embedding option, and/or what level of integration does it allow:

MS Office Version	Insert YouTube Via URL	Insert an Online Video with an Embed Code	Insert by Searching for the YouTube Video	Play Embedded YouTube Video Offline
Microsoft 365	Yes	No	No	No
PowerPoint 2019	Yes	Yes	No	No
PowerPoint 2016	No	Yes	Yes	No
PowerPoint 2013	No	No	Yes	No
PowerPoint 2010	No	No (Adobe Flash Player Support Discontinued)	No (Adobe Flash Player Support Discontinued)	No
PowerPoint 365/2019 for Mac	Yes	No	No	No

Frequently Asked Questions About Embedding YouTube Videos in PowerPoint

1. Why Can’t I Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint 2010?

PowerPoint 2010 uses Adobe Flash Player to play YouTube videos. Since support for Flash Player is discontinued, PowerPoint 2010 isn’t able to play the videos anymore. To resolve this issue, you need to upgrade your version of Microsoft Office to 2013 or later.

2. Why Can’t I Embed YouTube Videos in PowerPoint for Mac?

You can insert YouTube videos only in Office 365 and Office 2019 versions for Mac. If you are using Office 2016 for Mac, you are required to install an add-in called Web Video Player that can be downloaded from the https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/office/WA104221182 link. However, if it is PowerPoint 2011 for Mac that you are using, you can’t insert YouTube video to it, and you need to upgrade your MS Office to a higher version for that purpose.

3. Why Can’t I Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint 2013?

The version of PowerPoint 2013 that was released initially didn’t allow YouTube video embedding. However, with an update 4018374 that Microsoft rolled out in August 2018, the feature got enabled. You can download and install the update from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4018374/august-7-2018-update-for-powerpoint-2013-kb4018374 link, and then try inserting a YouTube video to your version of PowerPoint.

4. How Do I Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint without Being Online?

YouTube videos that you embed to your PowerPoint presentations can’t be played in offline mode. However, there is a workaround to this. You can download the video from YouTube to your computer using any YouTube downloader, and then use the process explained in Method 4 to insert the clip from your PC.

Conclusion

Although the above sections explain how to embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint, the process to do so may vary in different versions of Microsoft Office. Also, depending on what edition of the program you are using, embedding YouTube videos may or may not be supported according to the availability of the add-ins or updates that Microsoft has rolled out for that particular built of the app.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett