Choosing A Thumbnail For Your Video

Choosing a thumbnail is like choosing an outfit. You need to make sure that it matches the occasion and is suitable for the video it’s representing. The good news is that all of the major video hosting services make it easy for you to pick a thumbnail for your video.

On YouTube your video’s thumbnail will show up on your account’s channel, in search results and when your video appears in the suggestions next to other videos. Most importantly, when you embed your video onto a website, your thumbnail is what people will see until they click the play button. (This is the same on all platforms, including Vimeo.)

Choosing your thumbnail

Ideally you need to choose a moment of interest that will encourage people to click play. If your video is about a product it’s important to include an image of that product in your thumbnail. Try not to pick a moment where the something is moving quickly or there’s a transition between clips as it may look like you’ve made a mistake.

In some cases you may prefer to play it safe by using your company’s logo as the thumbnail. This can work well but you must ensure that your logo is the right size for the video. Most videos are 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high, so make sure your logo is as big if not bigger than that. You may need to resize your logo or place it onto another background in software such as Adobe Photoshop to make sure it looks correct. If this sounds complicated it may be better to consult a graphic designer to do this for you.

In any case, if you’re having trouble choosing a thumbnail for a video we’ve produced for you, we can help you find a thumbnail that will look great.