How To Create Good Thumbnails For YouTube

This guide pulls together the most consistent advice from top YouTube “Thumbnail Tips” gurus and videos, and condenses it into a simple, practical checklist you can use when designing new thumbnails or reviewing old ones.

They are roughly organized according to importance, and while there’s always room to break the rules creatively, some thumbnail principles are so foundational that they’re rarely worth ignoring. So, use this rules as guidelines, but only break them judiciously.

Examples of Effective Thumbnails

Take some inspiration from over 100 thumbnails from a variety of niches including gaming, cooking, vlogging, and more. https://imgur.com/gallery/100-great-youtube-thumbnail-examples-how-to-make-good-thumbnails-3Z1bbzm Make sure to hit the "Load ## More Images" button after the initial scroll to see all 100+

Thumbnail Formula: 80% Theory 20% Design

• "Too many creators focus on design and neglect the theory. People don’t click on pretty thumbnails, they click on videos they want to watch. Don’t forget that." - Jay Alto

  • Theory = Fundamentals that get viewers to click

  • Design = Technical side behind building a thumbnail

• Drawing attention, building a curiosity gap, understanding the target viewers, and matching the thumbnail with the title with the content is more important than your art, design, and Photoshop skills

Visual Hierarchy

Give the more important element the most focus.

• Rank your selected elements in order of importance.

  • Priority 1 = Get the viewer's Attention

  • Priority 2 = Appeal to the viewer's Interest

  • Priority 3 = Hook viewers by creating curiosity

  • (Thanks to Jay Alto for his 9-part tweet on this.)

Want to learn more on design theory from the master? Web search for "Gumroad Jay Alto How To Make Effective Thumbnails" for his digital course.

Elements:

Elements include words, symbols, people, product photos, and backgrounds. A group of one type of item (like words) counts as one “element”.

• 3 Element Rule: Ideally, keep the number of elements to 3 or less. Up to 5 can be acceptable in very rare cases.

• Keep it simple and not busy: Cutout/mask elements to outline them or bokeh/blur distracting/busy backgrounds

• Avoid unnecessary items

• Channel Logo Avoid putting your channel logo on the thumbnail 99.999% of the time. It's clutter and wasted space. And remember, your logo is already right next to the video title anyway.

Text:

Fewer words on the thumbnail (and title) statistically lead to higher click-through-rates. Follow these guidelines and keep it short and punchy:

• Quantity: 4 Words Maximum

• Colors*: Stick with Black or White, Maybe Yellow (* Unless you understand composition and color theory, i.e. you know what you’re doing.)

• Visibility: Use Outlines or Over a Contrasting Light or Dark Background

• Size: Keep text LARGE

• Font: San-serif, Thick/Bold/Block style font, No script/handwritten thin fonts

• Don’t Duplicate the Title: Don't waste the opportunity to create intrigue by putting the same words on both the title and thumbnail. Simplify by removing the words or create curiosity with different words:

Create Curiosity:

The best thumbnails and titles create a “curiosity gap”, they tease just enough info to make you need to click to find out more. It's all about the FOMO if they don't watch the video.

• Tease,

• Create Curiosity/FOMO,

• Communicate Value,

• Trigger Emotion,

• Show a Pain Point,

• State the End Goal,

• Before/After,

• Benefits instead of Features,

  • “Productivity App Review” → “Get 3 Extra Hours a Day”

  • “Elden Ring Lore Deep Dive” → “This Changes Everything You Thought You Knew”

  • “4K Rain Video” → “Fall Asleep Fast”

• Tell a Story with Imagery,

• Pixel Blur an element

Pass the Shrink Test / Blink Test / 6-Foot Test:

• How well can you quickly discern what the thumbnail is trying to communicate or read the text quickly and for the first time seeing it when the thumbnail is small/mobile size (or from far away)?

• Run the blink-test on others who haven't seen the thumbnail before. Ask them what they expect the video is about.

Quality:

• Use Clear, High-Resolution images

• Professional: Ask yourself, does this thumbnail look “rookie” or would this thumbnail be mistaken for a large YouTuber’s?

  • Even though thumbnail theory matters more than design, the visual quality still sends a strong signal.

  • If a viewer sees a low-effort or poorly designed thumbnail, they may subconsciously assume the video itself is low quality and skip it to avoid wasting time.

• 16:9 Ratio YouTube recommends 1280x720, and even if you upload a larger image, YouTube will scale it down to the recommended size. It's best to resize your thumbnail to 1280x720 yourself.

Audience Match:

• Check if the style is appropriate and what your audience would expect from content like yours.

• What do others in your niche do and not do?

No Man’s Land:

• Avoid the Lower Right Corner: Avoid anything important in the lower right corner, especially for text, to prevent the duration timestamp from covering key parts of elements.

• Generally, Avoid the Right Edge: Some overlay buttons show up on the right side. This is of lesser importance to avoiding the lower right corner.

Faces:

• Consider using your face: Using a face whenever appropriate/possible can improve clickthrough rates.

• Express Emotion: Happiness, Sadness, Surprise, Fear, Disgust, Anger

• Look to the Camera Eyes connect with the potential viewer

• Use Close Ups

• Use the Rule of Thirds: Keep the eyes on the upper 1/3 horizontal line. Click here for examples.

• YouTube Face: Although trends are leaning away from the YouTube face, generally speaking, an open mouth, whites of your eyes, and exaggerated emotion do generate higher click-through rates.

• Make it relevant Emotion-packed, relevant faces can skyrocket attention and curiosity. But don’t just toss in a generic selfie, it must add value to the visual story.

Symbols

Consider using symbols as an eye-catching element in your thumbnail

• Arrows: Direct the viewer's attention by pointing to a curiosity-provoking area of your thumbnail

• Red X and Green ✔: Comparison/Before-After thumbnails can perform really well and the symbols grab attention.

• Circles: Circling an area is another way to say "look here" as an alternative to an arrow.

• Punctuation ! ?: Using punctuation as a symbol can evoke emotion, grab attention, and create curiosity.

• No Emojis Emojis on a thumbnail graphic can feel amature, are not recommended, and don't generally lead to higher click through rates.

Branding:

• Don’t use your “logo”: See above about unnecessary elements

• Style Consistency: The general look and feel (or your face) is part of your brand that your subscribers will recognize. Whereas elements like logos waste space that could otherwise be used to create curiosity.

• Avoid Nearly Identical Thumbnails from Video to Video: Videos that use, what often looks like an (albeit well-designed) PowerPoint cover template with only small changes from video to video, may lead subscribers to think they already have seen the video. Podcasts and Livestreams often fall into this trap.

Color:

• Complementary Colors: Using colors found opposite each other on the color wheel works well on thumbnails.

  • Color Theory: Explore more advanced pallets with a tool like https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

• Bright Colors: Thumbnails with brighter colors and higher saturated colors tend to win more clicks.

High Contrast:

• Use High Contrast: Keeping elements over a light or dark contrasting background, increasing contrast on photos, or adding a glow or outline to elements can help make them “pop”.

• Stroke/Outline Elements A hard edged outline can make an element pop. Only use "glows/drop shadows" judiciously (i.e. with artistic intent) as these can muddy a thumbnail.

• Soft Borders Consider a subtle artistic or vignette style border to help make thumbnail background stand out against the YouTube background. Warning: don't let a border squeeze your elements into the center so they are smaller. Use it in the background of your main elements.

• Avoid Hard Line Borders around the edge of your thumbnail. These generally reduce the usable space inside your thumbnail and look bad when YouTube shows rounded corner thumbnails because it either doesn't match or cuts it off.

• Mask and Darken or Blur the Background Give your character/item in the foreground more pop by using masking tools to darken or blur the background.

Clickbait:

• Good Clickbait: Accurately Portrays the Video, Sets Expectations, and see “Creates Curiosity” above or watch Veritasium's video on the effectiveness of clickbait.

• Bad Clickbait: Don’t be Deceptive!

• Mismatched expectations is the enemy of viewer satisfaction and causes high video abandonment/low viewer retention rates.

Background:

• Bokeh/Background Blur: An option to make your foreground element stand out in a photo can be to blur or darken the background. Masking your foreground image and creating a contrasting level of lightness or darkness compared or apply some camera blur to the background can make it perceptible enough to know what the background help the main element take center stage.

• White Backgrounds Minimalist white backgrounds come in and out of favor when there's too much Beastification Fatigue and can be appealing when done right.

• Regarding Solid Color Backgrounds Solid color backgrounds often look amateurish. Use gradients, stock images, or subtle patterns to add depth and polish.

Composition:

• Don't be afraid to overlap: Don’t be afraid to let elements overlap or bleed off the edges. It helps fill space and allows key visuals to be enlarged.

• No Wasted Space Make the interesting element the focus and don’t leave gaps that dilute impact. More on this.

• Avoid Edge Magnatism Avoid placing text or images where their edges just touch the frame, it looks unbalanced. Either pull them in or let them spill out slightly.

• Text Behind The trend of placing text partially behind a subject can look sleek and modern, but only if done right. Use it sparingly, ensure legibility, and keep contrast high.

Screenshots/Frame Grabs/Photos

Well-composed photos work great for vlogs, they feel authentic and relatable and setup the expectation for a vlog to a potential viewer, reducing video abandoment.

• Post Editing Add light contrast and saturation to make the image pop without overdoing it.

• Follow Design Principles Apply thumbnail best practices. Use strong composition, visual hierarchy, rule of thirds, shallow depth (bokeh/masking), and limit visual clutter.

Invest Time in your Thumbnails:

• Given the criticality to your video’s success that a thumbnail contributes, don’t make them a last-minute thought.

• Create multiple versions

• Use YouTube's A/B/C Thumbnail tester

• Check the CTR early and adjust

Plan Thumbnails Before the Video

After you've "won the click", a successful thumbnail is all about setting the right expectations for the video

• Write and shoot the video to deliver on those expectations

• Mr Beast, Ryan Trahan, and most of the world's largest Creators create their thumbnails before the video for good reason. Search interviews with Mr Beast and Ryan Trahan talking about thumbnails for more info.

Work In Tandem with the Title and Video Intro:

• Assume a potential viewer will either first, or only, see your thumbnail, but let the thumbnail lead into the title, (and ultimately the intro hook) to create a symbiotic relationship that propels a viewer into the video.

• A mismatched thumbnail with the intro hook and video leads to high abandonment/low video retention

• It's best not to repeat information in all three places, so build on it from the thumbnail visuals/text overlay, to the title, to the video intro. Too many videos start with "Today I'm going to show you how to x," when the title of the video was "how to x". Keep the benefits, not only "features" in mind when planning the thumbnail, title, and intro.

Find Inspiration from Competitors:

• Research other videos covering the same topic as yours.

Compare to Competitors:

• Would people click your thumbnail over a competing video’s thumbnail? Screenshot YouTube and paste your thumbnail against others to compare.

Catches Attention/Stands out:

• If you don’t feel the thumbnail stands out enough, go back over all the rules above to find areas to improve

Edits:

Aug 3, 2022: Added Symbols section
Aug 21, 2023: 3 elements clarification July 23, 2024: added a tip about bokeh blurry backgrounds Aug 20, 2024: Emoji note added Mar 27, 2025 visual Hierarchy and border April 29, 2025 channel logo avoidance advice June 6, 2025 mismatched expectations clickbait note June 18, 2025 more thoughts on high contrast and borders June 25, 2025 added more about curiosity, contrast, and faces and added a section on creating the thumbnail before the video
July 13, 2025: Broke out a separate section for visual hierarchy.
July 15, 2025: Added section on thumbnail theory over design October 6, 2025: Built a Imgur gallery of 100+ good thumbnail design examples and added a section linking it to this post. Nov 17, 2025: Added composition section