Do you want to make money on YouTube? Millions of creators are earning a very good living from the platform by uploading content that drives huge views and engagements. Whether that income is from advertising revenue, merch sales, or brand deals, we keep you updated with best practises and ideas.

How To Make Money on YouTube

Do you know how to do keyword research so you understand what videos people are actually searching for on YouTube? Do you know how to create a custom YouTube thumbnail? Do you know how to create a Playlist on YouTube?

vidIQ has a ton of tips that will help every creator maximise their video content. We publish content every week to keep you up to date with all the best practices.

YouTube Tips & Tricks

YouTube Shorts content is set to explode! 

All the latest tips, tricks, and rock-solid advice you need for this new feature.

YouTube Shorts

Ask any YouTuber and they will tell you that generating significant views and subscribers isn't easy. But with the right strategy and tools, any video creator can build an engaged subscriber base when they understand what those subscribers want to watch.

Appealing to an audience to watch content you are passionate about making is just the first step, you need to know how to reach them and get your videos discovered. Our guides to how to guide more views on YouTube will give you the best tips to succeed on the platform.

How To Get More Views on YouTube

So far, there are two undeniable truths about making a YouTube Short. For YouTube to recognize a video as such, it needs to be less than 60 seconds long and in a vertical format.

However, YouTube hasn’t shared much information about the specifics of tall video content. This technical restriction is relatively new, so creators may be curious about the best aspect ratio for making YouTube Shorts.

As YouTube educators, we need that information too. It'll help us answer specific questions, such as, “

 Are we talking about an aspect ratio of 9:16 or a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels?

To find the answer, we did a test using the 

 channel. For more details about how we did that, plus a curious look at what may be the skinniest video ever, press play below:

By testing the bounds of vertical content, we discovered which videos YouTube considers to be Shorts, and thus, which videos make it to the 

. This featured section gets millions of views, so every creator should learn the technical requirements to appear there.

Do This One Thing To Get More Views With YouTube Shorts

Before we dive into our YouTube Shorts test, consider creating a featured section for the Shorts on your own channel. This creates a controlled environment of content where you can easily see all your Shorts. It’s almost impossible to know when a Short will be featured on the discovery shelf, so this is a crucial step in ‘tracking’ your progress.

To quickly create a Shorts featured section, read our guide, “

How to Get More Views with YouTube Shorts.

Once you've added this feature, you’ll see a section that automatically shows all of the YouTube Shorts on your channel. Or more importantly for this experiment, the videos YouTube 

But remember, enabling this section doesn't mean your video will appear on YouTube’s prized discovery shelf. It still has millions of other short videos to compete with. The only thing you’ll know for sure is which videos meet the requirements to be considered a YouTube Short.

Most creators understand the concept of making a video that's less than 60 seconds, but what does vertical format actually mean? We’ve seen several examples of square videos appearing as YouTube Shorts, so we decided to test the bounds of vertical content.

To do that, we created a video with an aspect ratio of 1:1 and 1080x1080 resolution - in other words, a perfect square. When we checked the video’s analytics, 12.6% of views came from the YouTube Shorts traffic source, as shown below:

This confirms what we already knew, especially after seeing the evidence on other YouTube Shorts. You can, in fact, make square videos classified as YouTube Shorts.

Ironically though, there’s both an advantage and disadvantage of doing that:

 YouTube Shorts weren’t designed with square videos in mind. That means the video will have an unsightly black bar at the top and bottom of the frame.

 On the flip side, square videos leave the bottom of the screen empty, and viewers can easily see your channel name, video title, and subscribe button.

YouTube Shorts: Can They Be ‘Wider’ Than Perfect Squares?

For our next YouTube Shorts test, we wanted to see if we could make one wider than a square. So we uploaded a video that was just 10 pixels wider than it was tall, and as we expected, the video didn't appear in our featured Shorts section. So by YouTube’s standard, that video was not considered a Short.

This test confirms a very important benchmark. 

Now we know the widest YouTube Short you can make is a square video. If the video is wider than it is tall, it won't be considered a YouTube Short.

Here’s another rule to follow: Don’t make a video skinnier than what you’d shoot on a smartphone. We created a video with a resolution of 360x1920 pixels, and while it can be viewed on YouTube, it didn’t appear on the Shorts shelf.

There’s no reason to upload a video thinner than what a smartphone produces, but hey - we just wanted to have a little fun. 

Ideally, vertical video is shot on a smartphone, and that's your safe zone. If you go any thinner than that, your video may not be considered a YouTube Short.

Can you make square videos and still get featured on YouTube's highly-viewed Shorts shelf? Let's find out.

YouTube Shorts: What Is a 'Vertical' Video?

How do you create a Playlist on YouTube? When you are logged in to YouTube, you should see your channel logo in the top right hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to YouTube Studio (this is currently in beta, but will become the standard as 2019 progresses). Within the new Studio, click on the videos section that lists all of your most recent videos. Next to each video is a checkbox and if you click it more options will become available at the top. One of the new options is ‘Add to Playlist.’ If you click on this, you can add the currently selected videos to an existing Playlist or at the very bottom, you can create a brand new Playlist. Simply create a title and set the Playlist visibility. For example, you may want to set the Playlist to private until you have several videos in that Playlist.

Playlists are very much underused and undervalued by video creators on YouTube. A proven way to grow your channel is to get viewers to not only watch one of your videos, but a series of videos that are all related together, and that is where Playlists come into play (forgive the pun.) You want to create a binge watch mentality, so not only do you get Watch Time from one video, but session Watch Time from several of your videos.

At the time of writing, how to manage Playlists is a little confusing because the functionality is not yet available in the new creators studio. So if you point your browser to 

https://www.youtube.com/view_all_playlists

, you will reach a page where you can start to edit your Playlists in terms of order of videos, add description, and so on.

One more thing, if you have the VidIQ Chrome extension installed, we have a cool 

. It shows you loads of things about your channel, but at the very bottom of this report card, it tells you which videos on your channel are not currently in Playlists. All you need to do is click through the screens and that will take you directly to the video edit page for that video, where you can add it to a Playlist. Problem solved in no more than thirty seconds.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

A proven way to grow your YouTube Channel is to get viewers to watch more than one of your videos - that's why setting up Playlists is a must.

How to Create a Playlist On YouTube 2019 [New Method]

Welcome to another in our exclusive series about getting the most out of 

, but what about the thumbnails you have used for the videos you’ve already published?. Your previous endeavors in the world of creating imagery probably wasn't that great. At vidiQ our thumbnails have certainly evolved in the past year - now we are more consistent with colors, and use much less text.

We know for a fact that our thumbnails are better than what they used to be because of data. If we look at our YouTube click-through rate analytics, it tells us that people are twice as likely to click on our videos now than they were this time last year. So, should you go back through your old videos and update the thumbnails to the skills you have now in the hope that you will get more clicks and more views? Well, this case study might answer that question.

Vevo: Updating YouTube Custom Thumbnails Generated Millions of Extra Views

Even VEVO, one of the largest providers of musical content on YouTube, 

admitted to their own failing when it came to custom thumbnails

. Nine months ago, they decided to embark on a hugely ambitious project to update the thumbnails on thousands of their videos, including this one for 

. The thumbnail went from looking like on the one on the left to the one on the tight:

The short term effect was quite staggering. After the initial surge of views things were starting to flatline, but that switch in thumbnail was just the injection the video needed. The switch-up gave the video an immediate jolt in views, as well as more evergreen momentum afterwards. Vevo confirm that the thumbnail change for that specific video resulted in a 4000% increase in views over a two week period.

Now, obviously a sample size of just one is going to give you some pretty extraordinary results, but what about if you do this over 4000 videos. Well, that's exactly what Vevo did and this is what happened. On average, there was a marked increase in views over a 20 day period, before leveling off to an improved rate of over 5%, compared to how the videos performed prior to the thumbnail change.

Why You Should Update Your YouTube Custom Thumbnails to Generate More Views

So, this is a no brainer, isn't it? I need to go through all of the terrible thumbnails I was making three years ago, update them all, and I'm guaranteed views. Not so fast. It's important to remember that pretty much every video Vevo releases comes with some traction of view velocity, so that even a few years down the line, that video will be getting hundreds of thousands or views.

For smaller channels who have less views overall, and less evergreen content, it's pointless to change the thumbnails on video that are not driving traffic and expect that to suddenly change. You need to think smartly and be selective. Choose the videos that already have evergreen value on your channel by checking your real time analytics in YouTube Studio. When you first open real time analytics, it will show you videos by most recent, but you can sort by which videos are bringing in the most views over the last 48 hours or 60 minutes. If you sort by either of these, you can soon pick out the videos that could be months, even years old, and still bringing in views. This is called evergreen content, and what you can do is identify videos that are still performing well but look like they have terrible thumbnails.

Uploading eye-catching custom thumbnails for your YouTube videos is vital, but will changing old thumbnails help generate more views? Check out these insights from Vevo.

How Updating Custom Thumbnails Generated Millions of Extra Views for Vevo

Do you know which video category your Channel falls under? To check, log into Creator Studio on YouTube, go to ‘Settings’ which you’ll find in the left hand navigation menu. From the pop-up, go to ‘Upload Defaults’ followed by the ‘Advanced’ tab. On this page in the top right hand corner you will find the category drop down which allows you to select from one of 15 categories. This is the video upload category default, but if you want to change the category of an existing video you can go to the ‘Video’ section in the Creator Studio, click on the video you want to adjust, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab and change the video category.

Why are YouTube Categories Important for Creators?

What's the point in confirming the right YouTube category for your video? That’s an interesting question because when you search on YouTube and filter, there is no option to sort by video category. Also, if you click on the trending page your category options are limited too. Also, to the best of our knowledge, there is no algorithmic boost or penalty if you do indeed put the video in the right or wrong category.

However, when it comes to advertisers finding the right videos to place their adverts on setting a video category is important. So to make sure you get football related adverts from your football content make sure to put it in the sports category so you get more clicks from those adverts and earn more money.

Now sometimes these categories will not be a perfect fit for your channel. For example vidIQ could be in the how to and style section, the education section, or even science and technology. Personally I think it should be in the comedy section, but as long as you put the video in generally the right category you should be fine.

YouTube creators who monetize their content should ensure they select the right category before publishing. We show you how to change your YouTube categories by default or from video to video.

How to Change Your YouTube Video Category: Easy Tutorial

In this post, we show you how to unlock every single YouTube feature. A good place to start is to find out what YouTube features you already have, and you can do this by clicking 

 which will take you to a page that shows you most (but not all) of the YouTube features available.

 The first thing you should do when you create a YouTube account is to verify it as this will unlock many of the basic YouTube features. It only takes a minute and you do it 

 Custom thumbnails allow you to turn random still images that YouTube selects from your videos into powerful works of art that draw viewers into your videos. The best news is that custom thumbnails require zero views, zero subscribers, zero watchtime. All you need to do is verify your account! Check out how to 

 By default you can only upload videos to YouTube with a maximum length of 15 minutes, so to upload longer videos, just like custom thumbnails, you don't need any views, subscribers or watchtime. All you need to do is verify your account.

 vidIq livestreams every week on YouTube, auditing your YouTube channels, and helping you to grow. As with custom thumbnails and 15+ minute uploads, this does not require a single view, subscriber or any watchtime, only to verify your account, although you may need to wait 24 hours before you can do your first livestream once you enable it.

Those are the rules for desktop, but for mobile livestreaming, it's a little more complicated. You cannot livestream directly through the YouTube app if you have less than 1,000 subscribers. However, you can still livestream to YouTube on a mobile device using third-party applications without a thousand subscribers.

 A custom URL is one of the first steps you can take to branding your channel and protecting your presence on YouTube. In order to be eligible for a custom URL, your channel requires 100 subscribers, to be at least 30 days old, and have a unique channel icon and channel art. Each channel can only have one custom URL. It cannot be transferred to another channel, but you can remove and change your custom URL up to three times a year.

 One of the most powerful ways to reach your audience is through the Community tab. We use it every day to engage with you, and we find that people just can't get enough of voting polls. To unlock the Community tab, you will need 1,000 subscribers. Once you reach that target, it may take up to a week before you have access to it and YouTube should send you a notification when you unlock it. Check out this video on 

how to build a YouTube audience through the Community Tab

 Probably the most important one of the lot for many of you, is monetization. I'm sure you've heard of the big two requirements for this before, but there are more besides. You will need 1,000 subscribers on your channel and 4,000 hours of watchtime over the last 12 months. As well as this you will need a Google AdSense account set up and linked to your YouTube account. Your channel must also be in good standing regarding community and copyright strikes and follow all YouTube policies. Not having all of this in perfect order can affect your application. Finally, the 

Once you meet all of these requirements you can apply and must go through a review process. If you are rejected, you can apply again in 30 days. We know this is a huge topic with a lot of questions. We've made lots of videos that specifically address monetization, so click on this 

 Super Chats enable your fans to financially contribute to your livestream and prioritize their message at the top of the livestream chat feed. To allow viewers to Super Chat you, your channel must be monetized, of course, with at least 1,000 subscribers. You must also be over the age of 18 and be located in one of the countries that supports Super Chat.

 YouTube Stories allow you to capture micro-moments behind the scenes of your videos to share just like you would an Instagram Story. The Stories feature is currently in beta and available to all eligible channels with over 10,000 subscribers. It may take up to four weeks for Stories to show up after reaching 10,000 subscribers.

 There are many ways to make an income on YouTube, merchandise being one of them, and you may have noticed merchandise carousels appearing on channels. This is part of YouTube's direct merchandising feature, taking all of the pain out of setting it up yourself. As you might expect, being another income revenue stream, to get access to merchandising on YouTube, you must already be in the Partner Program and have 10,000 subscribers. You also need a clean slate when it comes to community guideline strikes.

 A channel membership allows the viewer or subscriber to become a member of that YouTube channel for a monthly fee, and it enables the channel to offer unique perks to those members. Think of it as a Patreon-type service directly tied into the YouTube platform. This YouTube feature has the biggest requirements list of the lot. Already in the Partner Program, 30,000 subscribers, over the age of 18, and available in your country. You and your multi-channel network, if you are with one, must follow the Terms of Service, including the Commerce Product Addendum, and your channel must have zero active strikes. And even if you do meet all of the above, YouTube is still rolling out this service, so it might not yet be available to you.

 If someone else is using your content on YouTube, it may appear in the Copyright Matching list. This allows you to review the match and then take appropriate action. As of now YouTube are currently rolling this out as a small pilot project to channels already in the YouTube Partner Program, so just keep an eye out for it in your Creator Studio.

 I'm sure you've seen this season-slash-episode format that appears on some video titles. They replace hashtags and locations, and when you click on them, they take you to the playlist. We’re calling these "YouTube Season Playlist" for now, and when I asked YouTube how to get this, they told me it was through YouTube invite only. These shouldn’t be mistaken for official series playlists, which are available to all video creators who have verified their account. This does not give you seasons or episode numbers, but does change how your videos are presented and discovered on YouTube.

Have you unlocked every feature available to you as a YouTube creator? We show you how to get access to some of the best features on the platform.

How to Unlock EVERY SINGLE YouTube Feature!

First of all, let's congratulate T Series, the first non-YouTube aggregated channel to surpass 95 million subscribers. That's quite a feat, and PewDiePie should achieve the same milestone soon, which is even more remarkable, for an individual video creator.

Second of all, that subscriber gap got big in a hurry, didn't it? In the short space of just seven days, T Series increased its lead by more than half a million subscribers. Seven days versus seven months of back and forth puts things into a little perspective, doesn't it? And we're now into a phase of the game where PewDiePie never really catches back up irrespective of the world clock. Day or night, T Series is storming ahead. At this rate, by the end of this week, T Series will be more than a million subscribers ahead of PewDiePie in this race, and at that point, do we even call it a race anymore?

So, what happened over the last week? Well, as we mentioned, on April the 19th, T Series launched their music collaboration with western rapper Pitbull, and in five days, it's amassed more than 66 million views.

The video gets a perfect vidIQ video score, a perfect vidIQ SEO score, most of the tags rank number one, and the video was running at over one million views per hour for a solid 12 hours. The data that vidIQ is collecting here (

which it does for every single video on YouTube

), presents the average data analyst with some remarkable numbers. But when it comes to T Series, they operate on an entirely different level to PewDiePie, where single videos, or single campaigns, can drive many subscribers.

With T Series, it's just sheer weight of numbers from the entire channel. Since the release of the Pitbull video on T Series, which brought in 63 million views, the entire channel has generated 534 million views, along with nearly 800,000 subscribers, and those are only the numbers when I recorded this video. By the time you read this, they'll be even higher.

Is PewDiePie Suffering From YouTube Subscriber Fatigue?

Another factor that seems to be weighing against PewDiePie right now is subscriber fatigue. The last time PewDiePie's channel got more than 100,000 subscribers in a single day was April the 8th. As for T Series, well, I had to do little bit of digging here and, with the exception of a massive subscriber purge in the middle of December, the last time T Series got less than 100,000 subscribers in a single day on their channel, was the beginning of October 2018. That just shows you the difference between the numbers and the channels.

However, ‘International PewDiePie Day’, which marks the YouTube channel's ninth anniversary on April the 29th, could be the catalyst for something extraordinary. And, of course, there is still the YouTube community at large, making videos and starting campaigns to get their audience to subscribe to PewDiePie, whether PewDiePie wants that help or not.

By this time next week, we'll know a number of things. First of all, we'll know whether or not International PewDiePie Day had any effect on the subscriber race. We'll know whether or not T Series is more than a million subscribers ahead of PewDiePie.

As T Series becomes the first non-YouTube aggregated channel to generate 95M subscribers, its lead over PewDiePie stands at over 840K. Is the race for the most-subscribed to YouTube channel finally over?

PewDiePie vs T Series...Is the Race for the YouTube Crown Finally Over?

At vidIQ we receive a lot of questions regarding click through rate (CTR) including “I have X% click through rate, is that any good”? It's a reasonable question if you’re new to YouTube analytics and one creators should certainly ask themselves. For instance, would you prefer a click through rate of 7.8% with 106 views or a click through rate of 2.8% with over 100,000 views? And what exactly is the difference?

, we’ve focused on the essentials of how to create thumbnails that people will click on, but what is the end result? That is the click through rate. It is one of the newest and most powerful analytics on YouTube, but it can be downright confusing and detrimental to the growth of your channel if not understood properly. Lots of creators get fixated on the CTR number and often compare themselves to other channels or to what YouTube is telling them is a good number. So when is click through important and when isn’t it?

In simple terms, click through rate is the number of clicks, divided by the number of thumbnail impressions, or how many times your thumbnail is seen on YouTube.

For example, if your thumbnail is seen 1,000 times on YouTube and 100 people click on it, that's a click through rate of 10%. Now that all sounds simple, but it gets pretty messy pretty quickly because it's quite complex to count all of these impressions. YouTube themselves admit they don't count every time a thumbnail is seen - for example, when it appears on an external website, through an email, or a push notification, of if less than 50% of a thumbnail is seen on screen.

So, when it comes to YouTube analytics, your click through rate, and your views, the math will never add up. This is, of course, beyond your control. If the numbers don't add up, just be aware that there is a margin of error.

So, what is a good click through rate? YouTube's official Help Center answer is this: 

half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions click through rate that can range between 2% and 10%

. However, you need to be very careful about how you interpret these numbers. First of all, the smaller the channel or video, the smaller the numbers, the smaller sample size, which means that you can get bigger spikes, whether it be 30% click through rates or 1% click through rates.

Secondly, the age of a video can affect its click through rates. When you first release a video, it's hitting all of your subscribers and its getting an extra boost from YouTube, so you may get a higher click through rate. But what if your video starts off with a high click through rate and then all of a sudden you get a boost from YouTube, get lots of extra views, and the click through rate goes down? Is that what you want? Quite simply: Yes. As YouTube explains, if a video gets a lot of impressions, for example if it gets promoted on a Home Page or Watch Next, it's natural for the click through rate to be lower than for videos where most of the impressions are from sources like your channel page.

I mean, what would you prefer? YouTube to share your content amongst your friends, your family, your subscribers, your close-knit community who are more likely to click on your content or for YouTube to share your content amongst the entire platform's audience where they might be less invested in your content, but you're bound to get a lot more clicks. I know which I would prefer.

Also, another thing that video creators tend to do is panic when they see one analytical number and YouTube is suggesting they should have a completely different one. This is why magic numbers can be so dangerous. Imagine if YouTube revealed what the ideal, average watch-time for a video should be or the ideal audience retention percentage should be. Once there is an official benchmark out there in the world, everybody strides towards that number. And it doesn't matter where you are in your journey or how far you've got to leap to reach that number, if you don't meet it, you feel unfulfilled. You feel like a failure, so let's stop for a second. Take a step back and work out how we can set some realistic goals to improve click through rate.

Realistic CTR Goals for Your YouTube Channel

Let's start with this question: when it comes to YouTube analytics, who are you competing against? Is it the big YouTubers who inspired you to start your own channel? Is it channels who make similar content to you and that are of a similar size? Or are you competing against numbers that YouTube have recommended you should be hitting? If you said yes to any of these, I'm afraid you've got this all wrong.

The ONLY analytics you should be comparing against are your own because, put very simply, those are the only numbers you have complete control over. Now, just in case you don't know where the click through rate analytics are, let me show you. In the new Creator Studio, click on the Analytics section and from here, you want to click on the reach viewers tab at the top and then from these boxes, you can click on impressions click through rate and this will show you what it is for the last 28 days.

As you can see, our current click through rate is 4.8%, which according to YouTube, is below average. However, what they doesn't take into account was where we were this time last year. Back then, the click through rate on our channel was in a much worse state, averaging between just two and three percent. That's when we really started to focus on our thumbnail game - by assessing where we were and improving that number.

Getting potential viewers to look at your impactful thumbnails and reading your intriguing titles is so important. When it comes to CTR and 

, more is better, YouTube rewards you when you improve these two numbers.

How do YouTube custom thumbnails impact your click through rate? And when is click through rate important and when isn’t it?

What Every YouTube Creator Needs to Know About Custom Thumbnails and Click Through Rate

 and best practices, we spoke to one of the very best thumbnail artists in the business, 

 are the creators behind the wildly popular 

 series. Creating stand-out custom thumbnails for their content is an integral part of the process, and Vy gave us a sneak peek into what works across their YouTube channels.

Over the past few years, Vy and her team have been testing and refining the type of thumbnails that drive viewers to click through to watch. It’s a strategy that’s worked to generate a combined 

 across the five YouTube channels Vy manages. She gives us some exclusive insights into the use of color, graphics and text to create the perfect image.

#1Use Color to Make Custom Thumbnails Pop

Take a look at any of Vy and Chad’s YouTube channels and the first thing that hits you about the custom thumbnails is the extraordinary use of color. As experts in the game this is absolutely intentional.

Vy explains that the content they create appeals to a younger demographic who respond really well to bright and vibrant colors. In order to maximise the appeal of the thumbnails, Vy and her team play with, enhance, and even radically change the colors on the image until the get the results they know will work.

Using just Photoshop, colors are saturated, backgrounds are blurred to make the foreground objects stand out, and drop shadows and outer glows are used to further make those objects or text pop. Vy will also separate out the background and foreground on different layers for added image clarity and depth. To break this process down further, let’s take a look at the thumbnail Vy and her team created for ‘

You can see the image-editing expertise fully in action on this thumbnail. Vy has used a fairly blurred 2 color background on one layer, with herself and the hacker on another layer. The two figures have been outlined using the outer glow tool so they stand out, drawing the viewer's attention to Vy’s bright jacket and the white mask of the hacker.

The jacket is actually blue denim but Vy changes the color for every thumbnail she wears it for based on the other colors she's using. The team mix and match complementary colors based on the background and the objects in the thumbnail, and Vy will often change the color of the jacket so it’s the opposite to what anyone else in the thumbnail is wearing. So while it looks like Vy owns 30 denim jackets of the same design, it’s actually just the one clothing item that’s been manipulated to bring out the very best in the custom thumbnail.

Vy and the team also use colors to create a sense of consistency across their thumbnails with splashes of the same color popping up across different images. This creates a motif that runs through their thumbnails and reinforces the branding and familiarity of the channels.

#2 Keep Text on Custom Thumbnails to an Absolute Minimum

Another thing you’ll notice from the thumbnails created across Vy’s, Chad’s and the Project Hacker YouTube channels is that text is kept to an absolute minimum, or not used at all.

Obviously this creates extra pressure on the designer who has to get the focus of the content over without spelling it out for the viewer. Vy and her team are world-class experts at this and know exactly when to use text only when necessary. When they do, it’s big and bright and it counts.

Vy confirms that a lot of rookie mistakes she sees with custom thumbnails on YouTube is trying to cram in as much text as possible. Unfortunately, it becomes almost impossible to read when you shrink the thumbnail down. When the graphic becomes too busy the viewer is going to have a hard time understanding what your video is about and they may not even click through to find out.

Vy’s team have solid rules for text use: use three words or less for any thumbnail, keep that text precise, and only ever use if it makes the story complete. Also, think about the colors you use for the text to make it stand out. And don’t repeat the title in the thumbnail - ever!

Another vital component of the successful custom thumbnails that Vy and her team create is the use of emotion to draw viewers in. If just one person is in the thumbnail, they will use the face that shows the stronger emotion, and if there are two or more people, each will have a slightly different emotion to foster attention. This is incredibly important for capturing the eyeballs of the younger audiences scrolling through the YouTube feed on their mobile devices.

Another very effective way of conveying a strong emotion in a person is to actually show the whites of their eyes. Vy spends a lot of time on faces and knows how to make the most out of them. In the thumbnail for ‘

’ Vy accentuated Chad’s green iris and the whites of his eyes with Photoshop’s Saturation tool to make them really come alive. This really helps when it comes to the human connection.

But Vy goes even further to create a sense of emotion with viewers. Not only does she want to attract viewers with facial expressions, but also with a sense of action and purpose from the people featured in the image. As this is rarely achieved from someone just standing still, she makes sure that Chad, herself, or the Hacker are in some kind of motion - like running or fighting back. The aim is to create a need for the audience to find out what happens next.

#4 Don’t Make the Custom Thumbnail an Afterthought

The art of the thumbnail is something Vy’s team considers before shooting even begins. The topic of the video, and the story around it is a critical starting point for the graphic. The base image isn’t taken from a screenshot, it’s shot separately and taken from one of many images created during the photoshoot.

Vy will take multiple shots from multiple angles so she has a wide range of creative assets to work from. Thumbnails are never an afterthought for the team, and are as important as creating the main video content.

#5 Keep on Testing Thumbnails - and Replace if You Need To

Vy will monitor click through rate very closely after uploading a video, and is quick to respond if she feels a thumbnail it isn’t working as well as she expects. She tracks the click through rates of all of their custom thumbnails in a spreadsheet and analyses the data for performance insights. But as an expert, she’ll use her experience and instinct to change up a thumbnail within the first 48 hours if the video isn’t getting the views - even before she can confirm the CTR. Talking of 

Huge thanks to Vy for letting vidIQ in on her insights and process around creating the best custom thumbnails on YouTube. As you can see, creators who are pulling in millions of views never leave their thumbnail to chance. And you shouldn't either. For a recap of this expert's guide to creating stunning YouTube custom thumbnails, check out our video below:

Want To Get More YouTube Views & Subscribers?

We give you 5 expert tips on why creating the best YouTube custom thumbnails should NEVER be an afterthought if you want to grow views and subscribers fast.

How to Create a Playlist On YouTube 2019 [New Method]

Carla Marshall

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