Hi Everyone!
I am George Pierce. I have about 20 years of experience as an IM. Thumbnails are one of those areas that I was SLOOOWWW to pick up on. I do not want that to happen to you. Thumbnails are fairly easy, once you "UNDERSTAND" them.
Creating thumbnails is something that anyone can do for free. I make many of my thumbnails with my video editor by using a split-screen template.
This is how the above thumbnail was made.
For most of my videos, I will take one or more snapshots using the snapshot feature, see the camera below.
Go to the frame or frames that you want and click on the camera and then OK. The snapshots will appear in your Media section.
Then go to where you want your thumbnail to appear on your time frame, click on the template and then on a split screen, select the split screen that you want and insert it into your time frame. Drag your snapshots onto your split screen template.
I have an intro and I recommend an intro, so I insert my thumbnail immediately after. If you do as I do, when you convert to 9:16 for TikTok, slide your intro above your thumbnail. That way, your thumbnail will show up perfectly on TT.
The physical creation is simple and once you do it the first time, it is also fast.
Understanding???
But UNDERSTANDING thumbnails is what is going to help your thumbnails get the clicks that your videos deserve.
When you are creating your thumbnail, using this method, or a thumbnail creator such as Canva dot com, take a moment to think about and research your prospective viewers.
What you want to understand, what you want to determine is WHAT is it about your video that your prospective viewers are interested in.
It does not matter what your video is about regarding this strategy, it applies to all niches.
I like to research before making a video. I use Tubebuddy's Keyword Explorer and YouTube to help me to understand what prospective viewers want to see.
If you are not doing research, which I was NOT doing, you are probably missing out as I was. I KNEW what my viewers wanted, so why should I waste time on research? As usual, I was wrong.
By the way, I cannot take credit for Moonlighting. I received a request for Moonlighting, so I did some research, and above is an example of what I found. This is the second Moonlinghting video that I have published with more to come, of course.
Look at how many searches the keyword, "Moonlighting", gets on YT each month according to Keyword Explorer, on the left above, and on the right, YT is showing us that Moonlighting Pilot is definitely getting lots of views.
But there is more! People are also interested in seeing Bruce Willis and seeing Cybil Shepherd. And there is even more.
There is an exciting scene where Bruce and Cybil are dangling high overhead from a clock. The reason why I share this is because thumbnails are primarily visual.
Thus. my thumbnail has an image of Bruce Willis as well as an image of Cybil Shepherd because viewers are interested, It includes a couple of snapshots of the exciting overhead scene, as an additional attention grabber, and it includes the words, Pilot and Moonlighting because of the interest in Moonlighting and Moonlighting Pilot.
In the second video thumbnail, there is not a lot of interest in Star Theater or My Wife Geraldine, but there is a lot of interest in Charles Boyer, so much of the thumbnail is an image of Charles Boyer, and the middle text on the left, which is a heat zone says Charles Boyer.
If you are new or struggling on YT, give your channel a thumbnail advantage. Good thumbnails get clicks, bad ones do not.
Thank you for reading.
Much success,
George Pierce
PS. For free training, I invite you to visit my Internet Marketing Training channel: https://youtube.com/c/GeorgePierce
PPS. If you are a fan of Moonlighting, enjoy.
Comments
Thank you for sharing this information.
Allow me to add that your title and your thumbnail are what will hook new viewers. They can work together. Make them as compelling as possible using research as shown, We are visual creatures, so paying more attention to thumbnails will help your channel.
BTW I enjoyed watching the pilot episode of Moonlighting. Thank you for sharing it.
I thank you for the request, Moonlighting gets views, in fact, the pilot is long so fewer channels bother with it, so it is doing even better. Thanks again, Terrri.