YouTube thumbnails.
What makes you click on a video? I’m especially talking about music here. Not pro, big time artists. But small, amateurs like us. What makes it that you want to give that video a try?
Thoughts on what makes a good thumbnail for you for non-music videos are welcome, too.
Folks seem to like pretty colors and simple shapes. Smiles, provocative clothing, dancing. Think of general human base reactions, like infants. The more things to focus on in the thumbnail, the less interested. Simultaneously, too simple is also a deterrent. Simple, but with some texture.
I agree with Neuro, keep it simple, just have one big sexy ass there right in the middle of the thumbnail and the masses will tap it.
… Uhm I guess 
In the 80s you had great but ugly singers, that’s harder today because people want that sexy body to go with it… therefore as an experiment that I did not want but I’ll sacrifice myself and make a BIG ASS as thumbnail in one of my next Youtube videos, then let’s see if it bring in over my normal limit of 100 views… I think it will.
Simple Question, but let me tell you about the opposite first, The Thumbnail format I will NEVER click:
I randomly find one in duckduckgo, but this one pretty much sums up all the thing I don’t like to see in a thumbnail, and I call it ACCRAC (All Capped, Circled, Red Arrowed Clickbait). I know there are some exceptions, but oftentimes, my heuristics tell me that these are low quality contents which they have to do something visually striking to gain attentions.
Otherwise, any other thumbnails might stand a chance. My definition of good thumbnail is simple, and it doesn’t need any kind of design, including:
They are some of the oldest videos on YouTube, and they don’t have anything fancy other than the snapshot of the video, but I clicked them anyway because those gadgets look fun and interesting.
I just love all those cold and dark sci-fi, cyberpunk, or space theme, but I don’t really know why.
Edit: Hmmm… I should call those clickbait as AHCRAP in the first place (Abnormally Hyped, Circled, Red Arrowed Pictures) 
and… we have a winner 
but for real, as long as it’s germane to the subject of interest, any thumbnail will do, imo. clickbait sux, but it can help if you make things bright and bold and simple enough to apprehend in the small format, while still conveying the heart of the video’s content to the casual doomscroller
For me it’s more about videos that do not make click on them, and whatever remains is stuff I will click on. So maybe I’ll click on 3% of click-bait-y videos, a broad spectrum for sure, shit like “you are doing X wrong”, “this thing but its this other thing”, “this thing changed my life”, etc.
I probably click on like 7% of list videos, shit like Watch Mojo, 3% of music production videos, a whole bunch of other things, and what I am left is things with subjects that I care about, comedy clips, Conan O’Brien videos, language and linguistics stuff, among other things.
When it comes to music, like actual music, not music related videos, I click on things that have interesting artist names or interesting song or album titles. I feel like I am old and kinda experienced enough to “judge a book by its ‘title’”, so if the band name or song title sounds “normie”, from experience, it is safe to assume that what I am about to listen to is also going to sound “normie”, like something I’ve heard before. I’ll probably judge it for a few bars and if it doesn’t have any captivating qualities, I’ll move on. Same goes for other non-music stuff: more than the thumbnail, I have noticed that for me, what the title informs me and how the title is put together matters more than the thumbnail.
This probably isn’t helpful or typical but I choose to click because of the title not the thumbnail.
Unless it’s a big sexy ass…
Thank you all for your answers!
I’m actively ignoring certain type of thumbnails as well. Though, I’m also very diligent in saying “not interested”. So my feed tends to be free of those. And like @Logickin and @Squelch101 going more by titles than thumbnails. But sometimes that bites me… let give you an example:
My feed from last Saturday looked like this:
For me there are 3 to 5 strong ones on there.
The Richard Devine one (bottom row) and the (Apocalypse Now) Production Hell (top right) are a bit of a cheat. As I am a fan of both so I’m biased.
Of the remaining three, the ICELAND on makes me curious to click. Still trying to figure out what I think of that channel. But that thumbnail is intriguing.
For over a week I was actively ignoring the Cinematic Reality Japan on the top. I liked the image, a lot! But that’s where the title threw me off. Eventually I did click it. I’ve watched it 3 times now. And bought as much of the music they used in it as I could find. I’m very happy the algorithm kept pushing me that one. 
The last remaining one jumped out at me. I just don’t want to watch it right now. I don’t want to start wanting a Mimeophon.
I’m curious to the results of your experiment @garf.
I also did an experiment yesterday. Uploaded my weekly jam twice but with different thumbnails.
Posted it here with this thumbnail:
Doesn’t seem to get much clicks from outside of the forum.
But the one with the gear I did not post anywhere. But it got an equal amount of views. The average view time duration is a lot better here on the forum though. 
Which would you more likely click on, if it appeared in your feed?
I’d not be super likely to click on either if I didn’t know they were yours, tbh, but the second one is much more representative of the content and to my mind, is therefore a better thumbnail. Namely because it conveys more information about what the video contains.
I’d posit that the Iceland thumbnail is so attractive because the text is large and legible in that format, in addition to being a well-composed image
If I don’t know it’s you, I am more likely clicking the bottom one, as this makes me interested to see what you are going to do with your synth collection, just like why I clicked the rolling ball machine and the hexagonal sequencer in the former examples.
Both look great btw.
Thanks @Logickin and @slujr ! Glad to hear my thumbnail idea gets appreciated.
Think you are both right with the mess of cables being a more compelling thumbnail for my videos. Making the other one is more fun, though. Suppose I will have to start releasing EPs and making cover art if I want to scratch that itch. 
I don’t click any thumbnail with an arrow in it,especially a red one.Any thumbnail with a stupid emotive face i don’t click or any sensationalist titles i don’t click.If i stumble in to one by accident i will thumb it down and if they pop up in my feed i will tell Youtube to never recommend me the channel again.
That’s me though,the people who do that stuff obviously find that it works for them in getting more clicks.
I wonder, who does click on that kind of a thumbnail? Most people I know in Real Life™ share the same visceral hatred for it. Then again, that’s mostly middle aged people. So maybe it is younger people / kids that it works on?
I would imagine mostly young people or people new to the site that aren’t used to that ridiculous clickbait stuff.
Not to derail your thread but i know your into hardware, have you seen this?Ill be getting myself one just for the preamp!
That thing is cool!! Depending on the price I might want two for stereo spring reverb action. 
Anyway, back to YT. Recently I was visiting family. And my almost 12 year old niece was watching youtube on the TV in the living room. We ended up in this endless stream of animals doing cute things videos. It was scary in the sense that at first we were talking, but after a while we just sat there. Staring at the screen for 2 hours. I’ve also seen her endless scrolling through tiktok(?) for ages. It’s bizarre.
Yes the future belongs to those who can manage their attentional resources
Well put, Sir.
I find that increasingly difficult myself. I have no problem watching a 2+ hour film in the cinema. But when watching at home my phone is near by. So if the film loses my attention for a moment, it’s easy to grab the thing and get distracted completely.
Reading an article that takes me more than 3 minutes and I find my attention waning. Needing to actively resist the urge to go read something else. And this happens even if I am highly interested in the subject matter. It’s alarming.
Oh yeah. For real. I used to read books! Many books every year! Not so much these days. The abundance of video is moving us towards a post-literate society, and the firehose of information confronting us daily bears turning off.
Gotta do real things in the real world, write music, create without consuming, dig in the dirt, sweat, dance, laugh, fuck. Whatever floats your goat. Be a human being. It won’t last long in the final analysis.
