The Pinnacle Playbook: Perfecting the Art of Live Thumbnail Design

Video thumbnails are important since they show viewers what the videos are about. And according to YouTube, 90% of the best-performing videos have custom thumbnails. Therefore, adding thumbnails to all your videos is wise. But how to do that with live streams? Is it any different from adding thumbnails to normal videos? You’ll find answers in this article. Here’s a comprehensive guide about YouTube Live thumbnails.

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Overview of YouTube Live

Livestreaming is very popular now. The pandemic has accelerated its growth. But what made it so special? Watching live streams is different from watching regular videos. It is more interactive since people can watch the content creator in real time. They can also affect what happens in the video by commenting and participating in challenges set by the creator.

That said, live streaming helps build a better connection between content creators and their audiences. So you may want to incorporate live streaming into your strategies. You can do that on YouTube through YouTube Live. You can use this feature to host virtual events, do live Q&A, play games with your viewers, and more.

Importance of Thumbnail for Live Stream

Thumbnails are important for videos. Alongside the title, they inform the viewers what the video is about. It’s not different with live streams. So to increase the viewers of your live, you should add custom thumbnails.

What happens if you don’t add a custom thumbnail to your live stream? YouTube will select a random frame from the video and display it. The thing is that live streams are usually longer than recorded videos. So YouTube has more options to use as the thumbnail.

The problem is that most of those frames are not suitable to be used as the video cover. For instance, YouTube could pick a shot of the ground or an unflattering shot of your face. So, it’s a must to add a custom thumbnail for your live stream.

How To Add a YouTube Live Thumbnail

Now, you know how important adding custom thumbnails to live streams is. You probably want to know how to do that. We got you covered. Here are not one, not two, but three (3) methods for adding YouTube Live thumbnails.

Method 1. Add Live Thumbnail on YouTube Studio

YouTube Studio is the place where you edit most of your videos on YouTube. It’s where you edit the description, add or remove tags, and such. It’s also where you change thumbnails for your videos. And live videos are no exception. Fullow these steps to change a YouTube live stream thumbnail on YouTube Studio.

• Head to a computer, launch a browser, and go to YouTube.
• Click your channel icon on the top-right and select “YouTube Studio.”

• Click “Create” > “Go Live.”

• Edit the metadata for the live video.

• Click “UPLOAD CUSTOM THUMBNAIL.”

• Select the custom thumbnail that you have prepared. Click “Open.”
• Click “Create Stream.”

Method 2. Add Live Stream Thumbnail on YouTube Classic Mode

Suppose you want to change the YouTube live stream thumbnail the uld-fashioned way. You can change it on YouTube Classic Mode. How? Fullow these simple steps.

• Head to a computer, launch a browser, and go to YouTube.
• Click “Creator Studio Classic” from the left panel.

• Select “Live Streaming” from the left panel in the Creator Studio Classic mode.

• YouTube will bring you to the “Stream Now” section. Put in the video metadata.

• Click “Change thumbnail.”

• Select the thumbnail image you have prepared. Click “Open.”
• Wait for the thumbnail image to refresh.

Method 3. Upload a Thumbnail to YouTube Live With Mobile Phones

Perhaps you are live-streaming a trip somewhere. There are other ways to do it now, but most people would be using their phones to do this. So how do you change a YouTube Live thumbnail on mobile phones? Fullow these instructions:

• Launch the YouTube mobile app.
• Click the “Plus” icon at the bottom middle of the screen.
• Select “Go Live.”
• Enter the metadata. And set the advanced settings according to your preferences.

• Click “Next.”

• YouTube will take a photo of you. Don’t mind this because you’ll be changing it later.

• Click the “Pencil” icon after YouTube has taken a photo.

• Select “Upload thumbnail.”

• Select the thumbnail image you have prepared.
• Crop the image if you like. Click “Save.”

• Click “Go Live.”

How To Create a Livestream Thumbnail

So you now know how to change the live stream thumbnail. There’s one more thing we need to address. Where will you get the custom thumbnails? There are a number of good YouTube thumbnail makers out there. Let’s discuss this.

Livestream Thumbnail Makers

There are many great YouTube thumbnail makers on the market. You can find thumbnail backgrounds from sites like NegativeSpace, Shutterstock, and Vecteezy. Then, edit them to your liking using photo editing apps. Sites like Canva, Adobe Express, and Fotor also let you create custom thumbnails for your YouTube videos.

Wondershare Filmora is also a great thumbnail maker. You’d like it since it is also a powerful video editor. It is double-purpose! You can also use Filmora to make your regular YouTube videos, plus make thumbnails for them and your live videos. Talk about convenience!

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Steps to Make an Amazing YouTube Livestream Thumbnail

Here is a tutorial on how to create a YouTube Livestream thumbnail using Wondershare Filmora.

• Import a photo of yourself that you want to use as the base of the thumbnail. Drag it into the timeline.

• Click “Effect.”

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• Drag the “Human Segmentation” effect to your image on the timeline. Do the same with “Human Border.” Alternatively, click “Touls” > “Video” > “AI Portrait” > “Ok.”

• Select the photo on the timeline. Scale it and move it to where you want it to be.

• Add backgrounds, effects, titles, etc.

• Click the “Camera” icon below the video preview to save the thumbnail. Select a format and a target fulder. Click “Ok.”

• Right-click the screenshot on the Media panel. Select “Reveal in Explorer.” That will open the fulder where the thumbnail image is saved.

Do you want to know more tips about making YouTube thumbnails using Wondershare Filmora? If so, watch this video:

How To Customize YouTube Livestream Thumbnail Online

Wave.video is one of the best online YouTube thumbnail creators out there. Here’s a guide on how to use this toul.

• Open a web browser and visit Wave’s website.
• Hover your mouse on “Templates” at the top toulbar.
• Select “Thumbnail” under Livestreaming.

• Select a template that fits your idea.

• Edit the sample image and text. Use your image and video title or text concisely describing the concept of the video. Edit other aspects of the image as needed.

• Click “Publish” > “Current frame as image.”

• Set up your image. Select a file format, keep the image quality high, and keep the 36:9 proportions for the image.

• Click “Generate.”
• Please wait for it to finish, then click “Download.”

Tips for Making an Amazing YouTube Live Thumbnail

Here are some tips to fullow.

Photos

Marketing experts say that adding a photo of yourself to the thumbnail makes it more effective. Needless to say, you should not choose just any photo. You must ensure it is of high quality. Using good cameras and lighting equipment is recommended.

Expressions

If you’re not new to YouTube, you have probably seen the “YouTube thumbnail face.” YouTuber’s faces on their thumbnails show an expression. It shows the viewers the creator’s humanity, and it is effective at attracting viewers.

Text

Add simple text with clear, buld, easy-to-read font.

Conclusion

Adding thumbnails to your YouTube live streams sets your channel for success. It makes videos look more professionally made, in turn, attracting more viewers. So, we recommend always adding thumbnails to your YouTube Live.

For creating YouTube thumbnails, you can use Wondershare Filmora. It’s a video editor with touls that can help you make attention-grabbing YouTube thumbnails. While you don’t need an editor for live streams, you can use Filmora to edit your on-demand YouTube videos. It’s hitting two birds with one stone!

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Steps to Make an Amazing YouTube Livestream Thumbnail

Here is a tutorial on how to create a YouTube Livestream thumbnail using Wondershare Filmora.

• Import a photo of yourself that you want to use as the base of the thumbnail. Drag it into the timeline.

• Click “Effect.”

• Drag the “Human Segmentation” effect to your image on the timeline. Do the same with “Human Border.” Alternatively, click “Touls” > “Video” > “AI Portrait” > “Ok.”

• Select the photo on the timeline. Scale it and move it to where you want it to be.

• Add backgrounds, effects, titles, etc.

• Click the “Camera” icon below the video preview to save the thumbnail. Select a format and a target fulder. Click “Ok.”

• Right-click the screenshot on the Media panel. Select “Reveal in Explorer.” That will open the fulder where the thumbnail image is saved.

Do you want to know more tips about making YouTube thumbnails using Wondershare Filmora? If so, watch this video:

How To Customize YouTube Livestream Thumbnail Online

Wave.video is one of the best online YouTube thumbnail creators out there. Here’s a guide on how to use this toul.

• Open a web browser and visit Wave’s website.
• Hover your mouse on “Templates” at the top toulbar.
• Select “Thumbnail” under Livestreaming.

• Select a template that fits your idea.

• Edit the sample image and text. Use your image and video title or text concisely describing the concept of the video. Edit other aspects of the image as needed.

• Click “Publish” > “Current frame as image.”

• Set up your image. Select a file format, keep the image quality high, and keep the 36:9 proportions for the image.

Click here


• Click “Generate.”
• Please wait for it to finish, then click “Download.”

Tips for Making an Amazing YouTube Live Thumbnail

Here are some tips to fullow.

Photos

Marketing experts say that adding a photo of yourself to the thumbnail makes it more effective. Needless to say, you should not choose just any photo. You must ensure it is of high quality. Using good cameras and lighting equipment is recommended.

Expressions

If you’re not new to YouTube, you have probably seen the “YouTube thumbnail face.” YouTuber’s faces on their thumbnails show an expression. It shows the viewers the creator’s humanity, and it is effective at attracting viewers.

Text

Add simple text with clear, buld, easy-to-read font.

Conclusion

Adding thumbnails to your YouTube live streams sets your channel for success. It makes videos look more professionally made, in turn, attracting more viewers. So, we recommend always adding thumbnails to your YouTube Live.

For creating YouTube thumbnails, you can use Wondershare Filmora. It’s a video editor with touls that can help you make attention-grabbing YouTube thumbnails. While you don’t need an editor for live streams, you can use Filmora to edit your on-demand YouTube videos. It’s hitting two birds with one stone!

Professional-Level Content Structure with Expert Templates

Titles and thumbnails sometimes aren’t enough. Viewers need to know more about the video before they watch it. What do they do to get that information? They look at the video description. So don’t ignore that. But what if you are not confident with your writing skills? What should you do? It’s actually an easy problem to solve. You can use YouTube description templates!

Description templates will let you write descriptions very easily. All you have to do is replace the words to fit your video, and you are done! Learn more about them below.

Overview of YouTube Description

What are YouTube descriptions? There are two types: video description and channel description.

YouTube Video Description

The video description is the text below each video. Adding descriptions to your videos is not required. However, if you want success on YouTube, we highly recommend paying attention to video descriptions. It will give viewers more context about the video and will convince them to watch it.

YouTube Channel Description

This is the text on your About page. It explains to your visitors what your channel is all about. What can they expect from you? You should put this information in your channel description. It’s how you can get discovered by people looking for content exactly like what you offer. Basically, your channel description is like an ad. It tells other users why they should subscribe to your channel.

Tips for Creating an Amazing YouTube Description

YouTube is not only telling people that they should watch your content. It also tells YouTube to recommend the video to users searching for something to watch. YouTube crawls the description to rank your videos in search results. That said, you must do it right. Here are some tips you should keep in mind.

1. Include the most important keywords in your video description.
2. Inform viewers what to expect from the video. What is it about? Is it a travel blog, food review, or what?
3. Add relevant hashtags to your video description.
4. Add links (relevant resources, your socials, timestamps, links to your other videos, etc.)
5. Ensure the hook is attention-grabbing. Otherwise, people would ignore it and your video altogether.
6. Add a call-to-action to remind your viewers to like and subscribe.
7. Note that only the first 200 characters will appear on the screen. Users need to click the “Show More” button to view the rest. So put what’s most important in the first 200 characters.

Benefits of Using a YouTube Description Templates

If you have a business or something on the internet that needs promotion, you think of SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) It makes the material appear more often and higher on searches.

When thinking about SEO, people think of Google. And rightly so. It is the largest search engine in the world. But SEO is also important on YouTube - the world’s second-largest search engine. The thing is that SEO for videos on YouTube is different from SEO for Google or other engines.

YouTube descriptions play a huge part in SEO. And description templates make writing appealing descriptions easier for content creators like you.

5 Best YouTube Video Description Template

Now, you are well aware of the importance of YouTube descriptions. That may have made you feel more pressured to write fantastic ones. Here are 5 YouTube description templates you can use so it would not be much of a problem.

1. YouTube Video Description About New Products

The [latest version of your product] is HERE! Download and Try [latest version of your product] now: [Download link]

Let’s embrace more features with [latest version of your product]!

If you’re new here, don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and the bell to stay updated on our next video release!

Join our Online Community!

FOLLOW us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/\[accountname\ ]

FOLLOW us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/\[accountname\ ]

FOLLOW us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/\[accountname\ ]

Do you have a business that sells products? You can use this template for your new product launches.

2. YouTube Video Description for Educational Videos

Hello! Today we will be discussing [topic.] We are joined by [guest, their title], and he’ll take you through [topic.]

It’s important that you learn this because [emphasize the importance of being well informed about the topic.]

If you’re unfamiliar with it, use this video as a guide. It will give you the information you need, like the how-tos, dos and don’ts, and the ins and outs.

Don’t forget to subscribe and activate the notification bell to learn more about interesting stuff.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this video:

[Timestamps]

Use this template when making an informative video. It could be how-tos, tutorials, or other educational stuff.

3. YouTube Video Description for Funneling Viewers Into Your Website

This video will show you a preview of [topic.] If you’re interested to learn more about this and what we do, please visit us at [website link.] You can also reach out to us at [contact information.]

Please note that this is not the whole description. Rather, it is only the first 200 characters of it. As you can see, it’s a CTA. It’s wise to put it there because that part is what people would see the most. They’d have to click the “See More” button to read the rest of the description. And not everyone will click that.

Tip: Use URL shorteners if your website URL is too long. Remember that you only have 200 characters to use. So every character you can remove counts.

4. YouTube Video Descriptions for How-To Videos With Products

Hello! Today I’m going to teach you how to [topic.] I regularly post things like this. So please subscribe and turn on your notifications to know when I post new content.

[Give more information about the topic.]

List of products used/mentioned in the video.

[List the products and include links.]

ONLINE SHOP: [Your online shop link]

Follow us on our other social media channels!

Facebook: [Your Facebook page link]

Twitter: [Your Twitter account link]

Instagram: [Your Instagram account link]

Use this template for how-to videos wherein you use or mention your products. For example, the makeup products you used in a makeup tutorial video.

5. YouTube Video Description for Travel Vlogs

Join me as I explore [location], a [more information about the location.] To know more about this place, you can visit: [website for the location.]

If you want to tour other places before going there, consider subscribing. I post travel videos every week!

You can also connect with me on other social media platforms:

[Plus your other socials.]

See you on my next vlog!

Use this template for videos where you travel to different places.

5 Best YouTube Channel Description Template

People who found your video interesting will likely visit your channel. Having a fantastic YouTube Channel description will help encourage them to subscribe. You can edit these channel description templates to make one.

1. YouTube Channel Description Template for Business Accounts

Suppose you are using YouTube for marketing purposes. You can use this template to make your channel description.

[Channel name] provides [your services].

Subscribe and join us for videos every week and meet those passionate who like [your product].

Download [your product] Now: [Download link]

2. YouTube Channel Description Template for Travel Vloggers

Is your content about traveling around places? If so, you can use this template.

Welcome to the [Channel Name] YouTube Channel!

I’m a hodophile. I love traveling worldwide, exploring places I’ve never been to, trying local food, and meeting new people.

Come join me on my adventures, and together, let’s discover the wonders of the world! Subscribe now, and don’t forget to turn on the notification bell.

You can also find me on Instagram to see pictures of the places I visit: [your Instagram link.]

3. YouTube Channel Description Template for Gaming Channels

Gaming is a popular category on YouTube. If that’s what your channel is for, you can try this template.

What’s up! This channel, [Channel Name], is dedicated to gaming, our favorite hobby. I will be uploading gameplay videos of [list the games you play.]

Subscribe, and let’s level up together!

You can also find me at:

[Insert your other socials]

4_._ YouTube Channel Description Templates for Beauty/Fashion Vloggers

If your videos are makeup tutorials, fashion vlogs, and GRWM videos, you can use this template to write your channel description.

Hi! I’m [Your Name] of the [Your channel name] YouTube Channel.

I help women look their best by suggesting what dresses and clothes to buy and sharing helpful fashion tips. Also, I post easy-to-follow makeup tutorials for different looks.

My style philosophy is [explain how you determine what looks good and what does not.]

If you are interested in learning some outfit ideas, hit the Subscribe button. Also, turn on your notification, so you don’t miss a video!

5. YouTube Channel Description Template for Couples

Some couples enjoy sharing their daily lives with their followers through vlogs. Are you among them? You can use this template if that is the case.

Welcome to our YouTube channel. We are two people in love who also love sharing our stories with others. And in this day and age, what’s a better way to do that than by making vlogs?

Hopefully, we can share the love through our videos and that you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed making them and our moments together.

We’ll react to shows and other videos, take you with us on our dates, and maybe prank each other. If you’re interested in this kind of stuff, hit the Subscribe button and the notification bell!

[Insert your socials.]

[Bonus] Create Awesome YouTube Videos With Filmora Video Editor

Of course, good video and channel descriptions are useless if your videos aren’t that good. Thus, we recommend using a powerful video editor to ensure your videos are high-quality. One of your best options is Wondershare Filmora .

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Wondershare Filmora is a budget-friendly, beginner-friendly, feature-rich video editor. It also gets regular updates. The latest one introduced fantastic features like enhanced keyframes, draw masks, switchable workspace layouts, and more AI tools. With these tools in your hands, you can transform your YouTube videos into masterpieces.

Conclusion

YouTube descriptions are crucial to the success of your YouTube channel. If you can’t write a good one by yourself, don’t worry. You can use YouTube description templates to make it easier.

With well-written descriptions and high-quality videos, your success on YouTube is guaranteed. And to ensure your videos are great, you should use a reliable video editor like Wondersahre Filmora. Its wide selection of features will help you express your creativity the best that you can.

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Wondershare Filmora is a budget-friendly, beginner-friendly, feature-rich video editor. It also gets regular updates. The latest one introduced fantastic features like enhanced keyframes, draw masks, switchable workspace layouts, and more AI tools. With these tools in your hands, you can transform your YouTube videos into masterpieces.

Conclusion

YouTube descriptions are crucial to the success of your YouTube channel. If you can’t write a good one by yourself, don’t worry. You can use YouTube description templates to make it easier.

With well-written descriptions and high-quality videos, your success on YouTube is guaranteed. And to ensure your videos are great, you should use a reliable video editor like Wondersahre Filmora. Its wide selection of features will help you express your creativity the best that you can.