The Importance of Thumbnails to Your YouTube Videos

YouTube needs no introduction here especially for video creators who have been in the game long enough.

But if you're a newbie, the most important thing to know is that YouTube is by far the biggest video sharing platform. This means YouTube will give your videos more views than any other video platform in the world.

That said, there are good reasons to create eye-catching video thumbnails for your YouTube videos. And we're going to highlight quite a few of those thumbnail benefits in this section.

1 - Your Thumbnails Act as the Face of Your Videos

The thumbnails used for your YouTube videos give a preview of what your videos are about.

At the first visit of the YouTube home page, dozens of videos from different categories are displayed, while the normal thing for a YouTube user to do is scroll down the page in search of something interesting to watch.

How can such a person determine which videos are interesting and which ones aren't?

The thumbnail is what makes a video look interesting and it also determines if people will click on the thumbnail in order to watch the full video.

Your thumbnail acts as the face of your video which makes it the most important factor on whether viewers will want to watch it or not.

2 - Sending Quick Messages

It's not everyone who sees your thumbnail that will click on it no matter how attractive it is. But you can use your thumbnail to pass a quick message across to viewers.

Think of a thumbnail as playing the same role as a post's heading. A compelling headline attracts, informs, and passes a message to its target audience.

And so your YouTube thumbnail could be used to send a quick message about your product, service or brand to your target audience.

3 - Provides a Uniform Image for Social Use

If you're like most YouTubers, you would want to share your videos on other social media platforms. And with the use of a good-looking thumbnail, you will have a uniform image for all social media platforms.

It's a great way of branding your videos, so people can easily recognize it anywhere they see the video.

4 - Drive Traffic to Your Website

If the goal is for your videos to drive traffic to your website or store, then a good thumbnail will help bring you closer to that goal. You will be able to attract and capture quality leads to your website just by using thumbnails that appeal to them.

Having considered the benefits of thumbnails, let's round this up with a basic guide on using Canva for creating them.

If you're wondering why the choice of Canva, I'll say it's because Canva has the best array of tools for creating thumbnails. It's also easy to use for creating beautiful YouTube thumbnails in just a few minutes.