a single source, nothing corroborates it

Engineer the thumbnail and the first five seconds

Six things decide a click: the thumbnail, the view count, the length, the title and description, the age and the opening seconds. Shoot a purpose-made photo rather than pulling a frame, crop to one focal point with multi-colour text, and re-cut the opening because the platform plays it as a silent preview. Test the thumbnail before publishing by mocking up a results page and recruiting people to click.

The method

1. 01

   Crop the thumbnail down to a single focal point and add multi-colour text; extra objects in frame make it perform worse.

2. 02

   Optimise the six things that actually decide a click: the thumbnail, the view count, the length, the title and description, how old it is, and the opening five seconds.

3. 03

   Re-cut the first few seconds repeatedly, adding music, a title card and glimpses of what comes later, because the platform plays that opening as a silent preview and it decides whether viewers stay.

4. 04

   Shoot a purpose-made photo for the thumbnail rather than pulling a frame from the video, and include the equipment the topic is about.

5. 05

   Split test a thumbnail before publishing by mocking up a search results page with your candidate among the real competitors and recruiting testers to click.

What it returned

• 25

  Justin ran two variations through UsabilityHub with 25 recruited testers each and got a click heatmap back quickly, showing his thumbnail held up against the top results.

• Lenny advised zooming in on Justin, using multi-colour titles, and cropping out the microphone because a person plus a mic splits the focus.

• List Justin assembled from replies when he asked on Twitter what makes people click.

• Justin spent most of a day shooting new photos after noticing that thumbnails featuring recording gear seemed to rank higher.

Sources

• What makes you click on a YouTube video?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Optimizing the thumbnail · undated