Thumbnails

Short Form: Tips for Creating Thumbnails

Strong thumbnails are one of the most effective ways to increase clicks and subsequently, video views and engagement. When publishing a new piece, select a screenshot that represents the subject of the video, but is also really grabbing and visually stimulating for your audience.

Quick tips:

Use Photoshop to boost the contrast and brighten the image so it stands out.
All Insider entries should contain a clean, un-watermarked version of the thumbnail image.
This should also be in a high res 1920x1080 JPG format.

Look for colorful shots that feature subjects/people, especially faces. Be to sure to select clean stills for thumbnails that do not have a watermark or subs.

This is a good thumbnail. It is colorful, engaging, and features the main subject for the video:

A couple of examples of good screenshots for social platform thumbnails:

International Mom Advice example:

Features key ingredients! Good.

Smokeables example:

Features Abdullah enjoying his watermelon bong!

Don’t select shots that have excessive motion blur or shots that are ambiguous/vague.

Example of a bad thumbnail, below:

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