Thread by @MostafaVisuals

Only 0.01% channels hit 1M+ views on their first video.

Ours was one of them.

Here's how you can copy us (MEGA THREAD🧵):

Youtube gives all new channels a slight push in the beginning.

Which means that their first video is shown to a large pool of viewers.

If you capitalize on this moment, you set yourself up for long-term success.

This is where the thumbnail+title play a huge role.

1/ Use the “Pattern Interrupt” technique

Most Youtubers are told to copy trending thumbnail designs, like comparison thumbnails.

And that works. Until a point.

If you don’t want your video to plateau after a point, you can’t keep recycling the same kind of thumbnails.

This is because once a design has been used too many times, the shock factor goes away.

It’s the difference between these. Which thumbnail would you click on?

Instead of thinking, “Which design should I copy?”, ask yourself “How can I create curiosity in the viewer?”

There are 4 types of curiosities:
1. Question
2. 'Wow factor'
3. Cliffhanger
4. Knowledge

To figure out which type works best for you, these are the specific questions we ask to figure out the design of the thumbnail:

Going back to the “This is not a dog” thumbnail, we used the second type.

Showing a picture of a dog, then contradicting it through the text, creates a ton of curiosity.

Viewers are jolted into thinking, “Wait, what?” aka. the Wow factor.

This is just one example. Think of your favorite thumbnails, and they all create curiosity using one of these techniques.

2/ Pick the right video title

Think about it like this:
- The thumbnail’s job is to grab attention (and pique enough curiosity to get viewers 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲)
- The title’s job is to create enough curiosity to 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼

Your title is as important as the thumbnail.

Fortunately, writing a great title is not hard.

It should be:
- Short
- Simple &
- Clear

Don’t sacrifice clarity to shorten the title. It should immediately make sense to the viewer.

But that’s not all…

The best titles on Youtube always include big, DESCRIPTIVE words.

Always.

These words create drama, urgency, & FOMO, all emotions which trigger people to click on a video.

These words make the video seem more interesting.

Do you notice the difference between these 2 titles?

Here is a list of words to help you:

3/ Leverage text for max effect

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to add too much text to their thumbnails.

YouTube gave you an option to place an image, NOT more text. Leave the words for the title.

There are only 2 rules for text on a thumbnail:
1. Keep it between 3-5 words (Ryan Trahan does this very well!)
2. It should complement the title

Knowing what type of curiosity you want to create helps select the text.

For our thumbnail, we were considering these 2 text variations.

As we knew that we wanted to WOW viewers with our thumbnail, it made sense to use “This is not a dog” rather than “This is a wolf”.

It’s more shocking.

4/ Design for phones, not PC

90% of thumbnails on Youtube flop because they’re stuffed with a million elements, tiny text, and confusing colors.

All these look great in HD on your computer.

Not so much on a tiny phone screen.

So, make sure that:
1. Every element is clear at thumbnail size
2. Text is large enough to be readable
3. Colors pop out even in dark mode Youtube

Do you see how the dog’s face on our thumbnail is clearly visible?

If it wasn’t, the text would never have made sense, and the cool ideation would have fallen apart.

5/ Iterate, iterate, iterate

In 2 years of working on Youtube thumbnails, I’ve realized that Youtube isn’t luck.

You can’t make one thumbnail and pray it works.

You have to try out different:
- Color combos
- Text positions
- Text phrasing

Like this:

Youtube creators: Are you struggling with ideating the right thumbnail?

Drop me a DM, and let's talk!