give me 10 minutes, I’ll make your thumbnails 81% better — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Over the last 5 years, I've reviewed
2. 0:02thousands of thumbnails from hundreds of
3. 0:03creators, ranging from folks who are
4. 0:05just starting out to those who've
5. 0:07[music] been at this for years. And
6. 0:09recently, I've come to realize that 90%
7. 0:11of the time, I give the exact same
8. 0:14feedback. [music]
9. 0:15So, in the next 10 minutes, I want to
10. 0:16walk you through the most common notes I
11. 0:18keep giving. [music] Because if the
12. 0:19creators I work with keep needing to
13. 0:21hear them, odds are you'll find [music]
14. 0:23them helpful, too. We'll start with one
15. 0:25that lately I've been giving out more
16. 0:27and more frequently, which is to make
17. 0:29your thumbnail TV friendly. You see, in
18. 0:32recent years, YouTube TV viewership has
19. 0:35exploded. In the US, TV has actually
20. 0:37surpassed mobile as a primary device
21. 0:40people watch YouTube on. To see what
22. 0:42your own TV viewership is, head it to
23. 0:44analytics, click audience, and scroll
24. 0:46down to device type. If at least 10% is
25. 0:49coming from TV, this note applies to
26. 0:51you. [music]
27. 0:52Because the current TV interface does
28. 0:54something weird to thumbnails. In both
29. 0:57the home page and suggested views, only
30. 0:59the top portion of recommended videos
31. 1:01are visible. To see the full title and
32. 1:03thumbnail of your user, press down on
33. 1:05their remote. But if all the most
34. 1:07important elements of your thumbnail are
35. 1:08hidden in the bottom half of your
36. 1:10thumbnail, to a huge chunk of your
37. 1:12potential viewers, your thumbnail looks
38. 1:13like nothing at all. There's no reason
39. 1:15[music] to scroll down to get the full
40. 1:17picture. So, to make sure your TV
41. 1:19viewers actually see the title and
42. 1:21thumbnail that you worked so hard to
43. 1:23make, run your thumbnail through the 50%
44. 1:25[music] test. If you cover the bottom
45. 1:27half of your thumbnail, is there still
46. 1:29enough visible to prompt someone to
47. 1:30press down on their remote? [music] Is
48. 1:32there enough to give them a general idea
49. 1:34of what your video is about? If the
50. 1:36answer is no, it can usually be resolved
51. 1:38by either moving your most important
52. 1:39stuff to the top or simply adding text
53. 1:42to the top third of your thumbnail. But
54. 1:44merely making your video's topic obvious
55. 1:46isn't enough. Because if we take the TV
56. 1:48view and compare it alongside other
57. 1:50YouTube interfaces, one pattern makes
58. 1:53itself abundantly clear. Across the
59. 1:55board, titles are shrinking in relation
60. 1:58to thumbnails. Just take a look at the
61. 2:00old versus new suggested panel. In the
62. 2:02old version, while we did tend to glance
63. 2:04at thumbnails first, the titles were
64. 2:06large enough to be skimmed at the same
65. 2:08time. Compare that to the new version.
66. 2:11The thumbnails are massive and the title
67. 2:13font size has actually gotten smaller.
68. 2:16As a result, our eyes default to
69. 2:17browsing the thumbnails alone, only
70. 2:19reading a title as an active,
71. 2:21intentional choice, [music] which leads
72. 2:23to the second note I keep giving over
73. 2:25and over again. Stop relying on your
74. 2:27title to generate interest. Before, as
75. 2:30long as your title was interesting
76. 2:31enough, all you had to do was make your
77. 2:32thumbnail relevant and you'd be fine.
78. 2:34But now, with your thumbnails receiving
79. 2:36a disproportionate amount of attention,
80. 2:39they need to be able to generate
81. 2:40interest all on their own. And the best
82. 2:42way you can do that is by evoking
83. 2:44questions, emotions, or ideally, both.
84. 2:47Take this video from men's culture
85. 2:49creator Speed. Now, most people would
86. 2:51make the thumbnail by selecting some
87. 2:53relevant imagery of outfits,
88. 2:55accessories, and call it a day. But look
89. 2:57at what Speed did instead. Taking away
90. 3:00the titles, which thumbnail generates
91. 3:01more interest? The second one. Why?
92. 3:04Well, it prompts us to wonder, what are
93. 3:06the five timeless rules? And what will
94. 3:08the final outfits look like? Meanwhile,
95. 3:11the editorial font and lighting evokes a
96. 3:13sense of credibility and taste. And
97. 3:16seeing a grown man in his undergarments
98. 3:18creates a subtle feeling of
99. 3:19vulnerability. And while the other
100. 3:20thumbnail does show what the video is
101. 3:22about, when it comes to getting clicks,
102. 3:25questions and emotions trump relevance
103. 3:27every time. So, instead of starting your
104. 3:29thumbnail brainstorming process with
105. 3:31what should I show, consider first what
106. 3:33you want your viewer to wonder and to
107. 3:35feel. Those questions and emotions will
108. 3:38serve as a much stronger starting point
109. 3:40to ideate from, ensuring that every
110. 3:42element you come up with fulfills a
111. 3:44specific psychological purpose. And if
112. 3:46this kind of psychology-first
113. 3:48brainstorming doesn't come naturally to
114. 3:49you, that's okay. It's not expected to.
115. 3:52And in fact, that's exactly why the
116. 3:54third note I keep repeating over and
117. 3:55over again is stop starting from
118. 3:58scratch. It continues to boggle my mind
119. 4:01just how often someone will show me
120. 4:02their thumbnail, I'll ask for
121. 4:04inspiration, and they won't have any.
122. 4:06And even if they do have references,
123. 4:08it's rare that they actually use them in
124. 4:10the right way. But if there's one skill
125. 4:12that will have by far the biggest impact
126. 4:15on the clickability of your thumbnails,
127. 4:16it's the ability to source and use
128. 4:19inspiration [music]
129. 4:20correctly. So listen up. When it comes
130. 4:22to thumbnail references, the name of the
131. 4:24game is numerous and varied. You're
132. 4:26looking for between 10 to 15 different
133. 4:29references from a variety of different
134. 4:31sources. And there are five sources in
135. 4:32particular that I found yield the best
136. 4:35results. First, there's internal
137. 4:37outliers, or past videos of your own
138. 4:38that have over-performed your channel's
139. 4:40average. Could any of those thumbnail
140. 4:42formats apply to your new video concept?
141. 4:45Second, there is external outliers, or
142. 4:47relevant videos from other people's
143. 4:48videos that have over-performed their
144. 4:50channel's average. You can hunt for
145. 4:52these manually on YouTube, but I prefer
146. 4:54using an outlier tool like One of Ten,
147. 4:56which I'll link in the description.
148. 4:57Third, there is Model Three Channels, or
149. 5:00channels that make a similar format of
150. 5:01videos to you, but who cover a different
151. 5:03subject matter. Look at their
152. 5:05top-performing videos for any thumbnail
153. 5:07formats that might translate to your
154. 5:09video. Fourth, there's bookmarks, or
155. 5:11thumbnails that have caught your eye
156. 5:12while browsing YouTube. If you don't
157. 5:14have a system for saving these yet, a
158. 5:16private thumbnail inspo playlist works
159. 5:18great. And finally, there's off-platform
160. 5:20inspiration. Look at billboards, movies
161. 5:22and TV shows, album covers, even ads
162. 5:25you've been served recently. Frame Set
163. 5:27is a great free resource for this as
164. 5:28well, which I'll also link below. As you
165. 5:31gather your references, don't worry too
166. 5:33much about matching your exact video
167. 5:35topic. All you're doing is collecting
168. 5:37different thumbnail approaches. And once
169. 5:39you have these approaches, you can move
170. 5:41on to identifying their underlying
171. 5:43mechanisms. For every reference you've
172. 5:45pulled, ask, "What questions, if any,
173. 5:48does this make me ask? What emotions, if
174. 5:50any, does this make me feel? And most
175. 5:52importantly, how does this reference
176. 5:55make me ask those questions or feel
177. 5:56those emotions? For example, when I was
178. 5:59sourcing inspiration for the thumbnail
179. 6:00of the video you're watching right now,
180. 6:02I came across this frame from an intro
181. 6:04of a TV show that I watch. It didn't
182. 6:06prompt any specific questions for me,
183. 6:08but it did evoke a strong feeling.
184. 6:10Something about it felt novel, like
185. 6:12something I had never seen before.
186. 6:14Looking closer, and with some help from
187. 6:16Claude, which can be [music] very useful
188. 6:18for this, I realized the mechanism
189. 6:20driving this novelty was the subversion
190. 6:22of expectations. By taking elements that
191. 6:25are traditionally 2D and making them 3D.
192. 6:27Applying this mechanism to my own video
193. 6:29concept, I knew that YouTube [music]
194. 6:31thumbnails are traditionally 2D. So,
195. 6:33what if I made one look 3D instead? This
196. 6:36transferral step can be tricky,
197. 6:38especially when your references are
198. 6:39coming from off platform or from
199. 6:41somewhere outside of your own niche. So,
200. 6:43to help with visualize what this could
201. 6:45look like, I used One of Ten, who are
202. 6:47also very kindly sponsoring this video.
203. 6:49I gave One of Ten my reference and some
204. 6:51thoughts about how it might apply to my
205. 6:53thumbnail. And because One of Ten can
206. 6:55link directly to your YouTube channel,
207. 6:57using your own past videos as a style
208. 6:59reference, it was able to show me a
209. 7:01clear picture of what it could look
210. 7:03like. That picture gave me enough
211. 7:04confidence to move forward with that
212. 7:06thumbnail direction, and it served as
213. 7:07the foundation for one of the thumbnails
214. 7:09we're AB testing on this very video. One
215. 7:12of Ten's whole toolkit is incredibly
216. 7:14useful. From the outlier search you saw
217. 7:16earlier to ideation help, but their
218. 7:18title thumbnail generators are truly the
219. 7:20best of their kind I've ever seen. If
220. 7:23you want to check them out, I have a
221. 7:24special [music] link for you, which will
222. 7:25let you try them out for a whole month
223. 7:27for only $1, which I'll put in the video
224. 7:30description below. Thank you, One of
225. 7:31Ten. Now, I know that sourcing and using
226. 7:33inspiration like this can be a big
227. 7:35process change. The more you do it, the
228. 7:38faster you'll get, but if you're looking
229. 7:39for something that can improve your
230. 7:41thumbnails right now? I got you. Because
231. 7:44the vast majority of thumbnails I look
232. 7:46at can be dramatically improved with
233. 7:48just three tiny changes. First, remove
234. 7:51clutter. It doesn't matter what
235. 7:53something looks like in a real life.
236. 7:54Anything in your thumbnail that isn't
237. 7:56actively working towards you is working
238. 7:58against you. Take this thumbnail kindly
239. 8:01submitted by a viewer. This might be
240. 8:03what the swimming pool actually looks
241. 8:04like, but all of the bars are
242. 8:06distracting from the most important
243. 8:08parts of the thumbnail. Remove them and
244. 8:10our eyes can much more easily focus on
245. 8:12what they're supposed to be looking at.
246. 8:13Second, make your main character
247. 8:15obvious. The main character of your
248. 8:17thumbnail should be the first thing your
249. 8:19viewers take in when they come across
250. 8:21your video. So, to make it easier for
251. 8:22that to happen, make your main character
252. 8:24stand out from everything [music] else
253. 8:26around it. In this case, the Olympic
254. 8:28diver is not obvious. Let's change the
255. 8:31color of her swimsuit and add a text
256. 8:32label. Now, we instantly notice [music]
257. 8:35her. And third, AB test your thumbnail
258. 8:37text. This is truly the lowest effort
259. 8:40way you can improve the performance of
260. 8:42your thumbnails. Whenever you add any
261. 8:44kind of thumbnail text, just spend about
262. 8:46five extra minutes coming up with
263. 8:48different words or phrases you could use
264. 8:49[music] instead. I know these changes
265. 8:51may seem small, but they're worth doing.
266. 8:54Because when it comes to thumbnails,
267. 8:55even tiny tweaks can make a huge
268. 8:58difference. [music]
269. 8:59So, if you're working on a thumbnail
270. 9:00right now and have no one else to show
271. 9:01it to, just take these notes from me.
272. 9:04Make it TV friendly, evoke more
273. 9:06questions and/or emotions, use more
274. 9:08references, and reduce clutter, make the
275. 9:10main character obvious, and come up with
276. 9:12more text variations. And if you're more
277. 9:15personalized feedback on your
278. 9:16thumbnails, applications to 90-Day
279. 9:18Breakthrough are open right now. [music]
280. 9:2090-Day Breakthrough is my 12-week
281. 9:22hands-on YouTube accelerator program,
282. 9:24where you'll work closely with me and my
283. 9:26team to level up your channel through
284. 9:28weekly assignments, personalized
285. 9:29feedback on your videos, live sessions
286. 9:31with content strategists, and much,
287. 9:33[music] much more. Applications for the
288. 9:35fall cohort were supposed to close a few
289. 9:37days ago, but because this video is
290. 9:38uploaded late, I'm leaving them open
291. 9:40until August 30th just for you. So, if
292. 9:43you're watching this before August 30th
293. 9:45and want to spend the next 12 weeks
294. 9:46leveling up every single part of your
295. 9:48channel, get your applications in ASAP.
296. 9:50[music]
297. 9:51I'll put a link to learn more and apply
298. 9:53in the video description below. The
299. 9:54description is also where you'll find
300. 9:56the special link to try one of 10 for
301. 9:58just $1, as well as a cheat sheet I put
302. 10:00together for you to remember all of the
303. 10:02notes covered in this video. So, check
304. 10:04those out below, but otherwise, thank
305. 10:06you so much for watching. Like and
306. 10:07subscribe if you can. Keep creating, and
307. 10:10I'll see you in the next video.