how to make a killer thumbnail (for the 2025 algorithm)

here's how to make a killer YouTube thumbnail to blow up your channel because a single thumbnail could be the difference between getting your big break on YouTube and going completely unnoticed as Mr Beast is fond of saying

people don't click they don't watch but how exactly do you get someone to click what do the top YouTubers know that we don't to find out I spent the last 36 Days pouring over interviews listening to talks and analyzing the best

performing thumbnails from the top creators in the world 73 pages of notes later I discovered that the best YouTube thumbnails fall follow a four-part formula this video will walk you through

them all the first part is the one that's by far the most important and yet also the most overlooked if you're watching this video I don't have to tell you that thumbnails are important there is a reason why you clicked on this

video in the first place but where most of us go wrong is in the time we dedicate to our thumbnails you see the top YouTubers know that YouTube is a game of clicks and watches the success

of a video is determined in part by the effectiveness of the packaging which drives clicks and in part by the video itself which drives watch time the problem is most of us spend our time

like this we'll spend countless hours agonizing over scripts capturing the best shots and editing our videos to Perfection only to come up with a thumbnail an hour before the video goes

live if that sounds like you don't worry you're not alone that's something I've been working on improving myself but why would you spend 10% of your time on something that determines 50% of the result that's why part one of making a

killer YouTube thumbnail to blow up your channel is Killer time allocation the best YouTubers in the world view thumbnails as a priority not as an afterthought and while most of us don't

even start thinking about thumbnails until right before hitting publish top YouTubers take the time to finalize their thumbnails first before they even start working on the video itself so don't be afraid to spend days or even

weeks perfecting your thumbnail it's worth taking the time to get it right once you're prepared to give your thumbnail the time it deserves you're ready to move on to part two of the formula to make a killer YouTube

thumbnail to blow up your channel killer psychology when most of us go into thumbnail creation our process might look a little something like this we'll think oh yeah I need a thumbnail um I

should probably be in it and there should be some images or icons related to my video topic and I should throw some text in there too to really emphasize the point but that is the default we'll spend the majority of our

time finalizing the colors positioning and text our process couldn't be more wrong if we tried because while we're spending most of our time on thumbnail design the most successful YouTubers

spend the majority of their time nailing the psychology behind the click and recently world-renowned YouTube consultant Patty Galloway confirmed the exact same thing a thumbnail to me is at

least 80 maybe 90% the psychology of the click and then maybe 10 20% the actual design of the fil that because ultimately no matter the formatting or color scheme of a

thumbnail the decision to click is driven by a single psychological mechanism here curiosity and that curiosity is strongest we experience what's known as a curiosity Gap this is

the gap between what we currently know and what we want to know and is one of the most basic drivers of human behavior because as humans our brains are wired to Crave closure so when we're

introduced to an unfinished story or a question without an answer it's like having an itch that we very much want to scratch our brains go wow I could really use some closure right now that pushes

us to seek out Answers by clicking on the video to see this in action let's take a look at this thumbnail from Kelly wakasa design-wise this thumbnail is relatively simple there are no crazy

Halos of light or detailed illustrations yes the colors are great which is something we'll get into detail later but it's not the colors that make this an insanely clickable thumbnail it's

Ashley in her position and her expression and Kelly in the action he's taking these elements work together to evoke the questions what led up to this very moment and what's about to happen

next these questions open a curiosity Gap that Gap is only closed by clicking on the video and watching it the stronger the Curiosity Gap the more clickable the thumbnail and the

strongest curiosity gaps on YouTube are created using one of the same five methods the thumbnail we just looked at is a prime example of a moment thumbnail these thumbnails generate curiosity by

offering a glimpse into the moment right before a powerful reaction when the moment captured contains enough emotion and tension it becomes nearly irresist resistible when we inevitably click on

the video we're clicking to find out what happens directly before during and after that exact moment story thumbnails also generate curiosity by provoking the

question what happens next but instead of focusing on a specific moment before a reaction story thumbnails place the emphasis on building narrative they usually do this by introducing a point

of tension or a question that sets up the First Act of the story when we click on the video we click both for the resolution of the T tension on screen and afford whatever new tension or

consequence that resolution leads to the stronger the tension the more effective the thumbnail result thumbnails feature a desired result whether it's a physical final product or a sought after skill

the Curiosity Gap Remains the Same how did they do it and commonly how can I do it too the more sought after the result the stronger the Curiosity Gap and the more effective the thumbnail

transformation thumbnails also feature a desired result the difference is they also show a beginning State the more relatable this beginning State the more effective transformation thumbnails are

for the Curiosity coming from the desire to know the story and process behind getting from point A to point B and last but not least novelty thumbnails draw their power from our natural urge to

experience something we've never seen before novelty thumbnails typically come in two flavors novelty that inspires awe and Novelty that is weird or unexpected and while nov y can be drawn from

complete absurdity it tends to be the most effective when it's combined with something we're already familiar with offering a unique spin to something we already know so before you open canva or

photoshop consider what curiosity Gap you want to create first what questions can you introduce that they really need the answers to if you're having trouble coming up with a strong curiosity Gap I

have some bad news for you your video idea probably isn't interesting enough in the first place I get this all the time you know I've got this amazing idea it's going to be so funny I just can't think way it's a thumbnail there and I'm

like well then it's not a good it's not a good YouTube idea unfortunately the best YouTube thumbnails come from killer video ideas and the topic of how to come up with a killer video idea is big

enough to make an entire other video about it so I will I'll put a link in the description below when it's out but to make sure you don't miss it now would

be a great time to well you know the rest after you're 90% is unconfident you have a curiosity Gap people will click for you have the foundation for your killer thumbnail to blow up your channel but in order for someone to get hooked

by your killer curiosity Gap they have to notice it in the first place because as soon as we log on to YouTube We're hit with a screen full of different recommendations each one vying for

attention and as we're browsing through our recommendations often with our brains on autopilot we scroll past countless thumbnails that we don't even mentally register to avoid their

thumbnails being lost in the noise the best YouTubers in the world are Masters at pattern Interruption they know exactly what to include in their thumbnails to stop your scroll because

they know how to hack our brain's attention system you see our brains are constantly bombarded by stimulus if we constantly took in everything we could

perceive at all times we'd be paralyzed with information overload so to help us out our brains use attention focusing on the most relevant or useful information

while filtering out the rest but this attention system can be hacked because our brains are biologically primed to pay more attention to certain things I call these things scroll Stoppers and

top YouTubers include them in their thumbnails to ensure that their thumbnails catch your eye a classic example is the use of faces you've

probably heard the advice that faces do well in thumbnails and indeed our brains are very good at recognizing faces because it helps us understand other people's emotions and intentions which

can in turn signal a Potential Threat or opportunity the larger the face the stronger this effect but before you go slapping a giant picture of your face to the left side of each of your thumbnails

hey Mr Beast keep in mind that faces are quite a bit more effective for your favorite YouTubers than they are for you and no that's not a diss on your looks it's due to something called familiarity

bias which is the idea that our brains are naturally drawn to what we're familiar with when we recognize the face of a YouTuber we already know like and Trust we're more likely to click on it

versus a thumbnail featuring a face we don't recognize now this doesn't mean that if you're a new or small YouTuber you completely screwed in fact familiarity bias is something that can

even be hacked in our favor that's the logic behind the thumbnail style of Charisma on command people are more likely to stop their scroll when they see a celebrity they recognize versus

the face of a random guy they don't know familiarity bias is so powerful that even well-known gaming YouTubers will often feature a recognizable character or element from a popular game instead

of their own face in a thumbnail and familiarity bias extends Beyond faces as well that's one of the reasons why thumbnails featuring instantly recognizable interfaces such as Discord

iMessage Yelp PayPal and others are so eye-catching this isn't to say that you should never include your face in a thumbnail if you're a lesser known YouTuber our natural attraction faces is

powerful even if they're unfamiliar but if if you a smaller YouTuber hoping to attract a larger audience you shouldn't rely on your face alone to stop a scroll instead consider using one or more of

these other scroll Stoppers in general we're attracted to nice large round numbers these clickable numbers become even more clickable when money is attached to it something Finance

channels tend to use to their advantage in fact money in any form tends to stop our scroll we're also naturally wired to detect danger and movement as they can often signal a new threat or opportunity

in our environment in a similar vein we're drawn to displays of emotion because an emotional reaction in others can signal a threat we haven't detected ourselves yet we are biologically

attracted to bright colors which in the early days of human existence could help us identify everything from ripening fruit to Fresh blood and we're also drawn to things that are aesthetically

pleasing because frankly they feel really nice to look at and our brains want more of that pleasurable feeling but while it may be tempting to J amam as many scroll Stoppers as possible into

your thumbnail that could end up hurting rather than helping you because the more scroll Stoppers your thumbnail has and the more click ba your thumbnail becomes the more diluted your brand gets that's

one of the reasons why Ryan tryan opts for more realistic looking faces in his thumbnails and I found that realistic thumbnails just feel like me it feels like yeah if my face is not like then I

feel more connected to the to the thumbnail if I'm just making a very subtle face that's like because it's realistic and I'm like oh that's that's legit so before you get lost in the

sauce of throwing in big numbers bright colors and giant emotional faces in each of your thumbnails consider the brand you want to build and the story you want to tell not every scroll stopper will

fit with every Creator and every audience and every curiosity Gap and that's okay just choose the one or two that enhances rather than dilutes or distracts from your chosen curiosity Gap

and your brand after you have a killer curiosity Gap in one or more killer scroll Stoppers you've nailed the psychology of the click but how can we turn that wellth thought out psychology

into a physical thumbnail that brings us to part three in making a killer thumbnail to blow up your channel killer design we tend to think of design as adding things but great design is

actually about getting the main point across as quickly as possible which is good news for us because if it takes more than 2 seconds for a viewer to fully understand what's happening in

your thumbnail they're already scroll R in past leaving your video unnoticed and unwatched to avoid this top YouTubers obsess over making their thumbnails

extremely obvious to see and Incredibly easy to process and to do that they perfect the three C's of thumbnail design contents composition and contrast

the contents of your thumbnail are all of the visual elements that make up your thumbnail including people icons Graphics backgrounds and text essentially it's the what of your your

thumbnail but how do you decide what to include in your thumbnail it's simple you include whatever you need to create your curiosity Gap typically these elements are broken into two categories

main characters and supporting characters the main character is the single element that best contributes to the Curiosity Gap this is the hero or focal point of the thumbnail for a

novelty thumbnail It's the weird new or unexpected thing for a result thumbnail it's the result for a story thumbnail it's the main character or driver of the

story and so on and so forth and while in some rare cases there can be more than one main character in the vast majority of thumbnails every other element exists to support the main

character and creating the Curiosity Gap either by providing necessary context drawing attention or adding additional curiosity in this story thumbnail from Mr Beast the Curiosity Gap comes from

wanting to know what happened while he was stranded at Sea what challenges he came across and how he dealt with with those challenges the story is about Mr Beast so he's the main character the

rest of the elements are supporting characters there's a wraft to indicate that the main character is stranded the water to indicate that he's at sea sharks to add the scroll stopper of

danger and the words day7 to indicate the scope and depth of the video there's nothing extraneous here every single element has a purpose and every element

is positioned in a way that guides the eye directly to the main character which brings us to the second SE of thumbnail design composition starting with layout

most high performing thumbnails follow one of two alignments symmetrical thumbnails Place their main character in the center with the left side of the thumbnail closely resembling the right side asymmetrical thumbnails follow the

rule of thirds placing their main character on the left or right third of the thumbnail but it's not just the placement of the main character that matters supporting characters and

backgrounds can also be used to direct attention when placed properly natural lines in the background can become leading lines subtly drawing our eyes to the main character and of course the

classic red arrow or Circle helps to quite literally point out what we should be looking at in some cases though top YouTubers will intentionally direct some attention away from the main character

instead choosing to emphasize a supporting character this is usually in cases where the supporting character is used as a reference point to establish some unique defining characteristic of

the main character such as size in those cases top YouTubers are very careful to ensure their thumbnails maintain the proper hierarchy preventing the main character from being overshadowed by any

supporting characters this hierarchy can be established using scale where the main character is significantly larger than any other element blur where the main character is in Focus while the other elements are blurred and depth

where the main character is the element closest to the camera this hierarchy is especially critical to keep in mind when considering thumbnail text text in

thumbnails is tricky in some thumbnails text is an integral supporting character adding critical context Clarity or curiosity in others text only serves to

add clutter so if you're tripping over your words here are some pointers text should only be used if it's additive to the story the thumbnail is trying to tell what do I mean by additive well

there are a number of ways in which text can help create curiosity it can be used to show scope or intensity in thumbnail such as 41 minutes in or stake number 46 which gives viewers a sense of scale it

can add context giving viewers insight to things they may not know it can add Clarity to things that might not be obvious and can even be a source of curiosity acting like a subheading if you do elect to use text in your

thumbnails here are some things to keep in mind while the human brain can process an image in as little as 13 milliseconds it takes us much much longer to process text so unless the

text you use is a big flat cashy number with a dollar sign in front of it don't count on text to be what draws in viewers in the first place your text should never just repeat your title remember we're going for additive not

repetitive and you should optimize your text for legibility this means keeping it to a maximum of five words avoiding it looking like a block of text using language your audience can easily understand and selecting a font that is

easy to read typically this means sanser fonts with outlines and shadows unless you're going for a specific brand or Vibe and make sure your text is never higher in the element hierarchy than

your main character take this lovely binging with babish thumbnail it's a clear compelling result thumbnail and it looks delicious now let's make the most

common thumbnail text mistake no more eye-catching result instead just a block of text you won't bother reading as you scroll past to avoid ruining a good

thumbnail with poor text choices ensure your main character always remains the dominant element but position iing alone isn't enough to do that and even the

most beautifully structured thumbnail can be ruined if it doesn't apply one critical concept this concept contrast and no not this type of contrast when we

say that a thumbnail really pops what we're really saying is that it has good contrast and when applied properly contrast can not only instantly capture attention but also guide the viewer's

eye directly to the most important part of the thumbnail how do we do that with color colors have three values Hue saturation and lightness or luminosity

and contrast can be created using each of these values contrast using luminosity comes from mixing lights and darks Luminosity contrast is the driver behind the success of this thumbnail

from Mr who's the boss this is a novelty thumbnail the Curiosity generated from a strange crystal structure we've never seen before the main character of the crystal structure and the critical

supporting character of the contextual text in the arrow are the complete opposite Luminosity from the rest of the background and from Mr who the boss himself if Mr who's the boss's background was lighter our attention

wouldn't be drawn to the Curiosity generators anymore they'd completely blend in instead we'd instantly be drawn to Mr who's the boss's face which isn't strong enough alone to drive curiosity

and get the click contrast using saturation comes from mixing areas of high saturation with areas of low saturation the best example of this is Ryan tryan's iconic world's quietest

room thumbnail which was so effective it started a whole Trend the main character in Ryan's thumbnail is Ryan himself and his reaction to being within the world's quietest room by dropping the saturation

to just grayscale for the rest of the thumbnail but keeping Ryan in full saturation that saturation being emphasized even more by using a rich bright color Ryan instantly stands out

from everything else and our eyes immediately find him saturation contrast can also be combined with Luminosity contrast for eye-catching results in this thumbnail from Elizabeth Phillips

the main curiosity generators are Elizabeth herself in the supporting text Elizabeth's turtleneck and the supporting text are the opposite Luminosity from the rest of the background creating Luminosity contrast

but to take things one step further she adds a bright pop of red for saturation contrast instantly drawing attention to her face and the most important word on

the thumbnail less common but still worth me mentioning we have Hue contrast contrast using Hue comes from using what's known as complimentary colors these are colors that sit opposite to

each other on the color wheel they're the colors that create the most pop when placed side by side in this thumbnail from Mr Beast the color of the raft is neatly complimentary to the color of the

water if his raft were a different color it wouldn't stand out as much and take a look at this thumbnail from Nick de Giovani he could have chosen any color as his background but this bright blue

is the one that best comp complements the vibrant orange of the Prime bottle allowing it to pop but contrasting Hue isn't reserved for just two colors remember when I said the colors in this

Kelly wakasa thumbnail were great it's a great example of split complimentary colors the main colors of Ashley's skin tone her blue coat and Kelly's yellow coat are nearly perfectly split

complimentary resulting in each color standing out without anyone overpowering the others other complimentary color schemes include Triads and even tetrads

and while using complimentary colors is by no means necessary for a killer thumbnail trust me the vast majority of successful thumbnails don't follow a perfectly complimentary color scheme

it's a great place to start if you typically struggle with picking out thumbnail colors but the concept of contrast isn't reserved for color values within a thumbnail itself contrast is

also incredibly powerful when applied in relation to other thumbnails your viewers might often see in a second I'm going to show you a screen of thumbnails I want you to notice which ones your

eyes are instantly drawn to ready go which thumbnail does your attention keep snagging on for most people it's this one which is wild because looking at it there's nearly nothing on it it doesn't

seem like particularly brilliant thumbnail but it stands out to us because it's different while every other Minecraft thumbnail is bursting with numerous brightly colored elements this

thumbnail just has one big color block as a result it's remark able it contrasts with every thumbnail around it making it pop so while it may be tempting to follow the thumbnail meta of

your Niche consider going against the grain if most thumbnails are maximalist try something minimalist if most thumbnails use red try using blue or green try being remarkable it might just

be your breakout thumbnail it was for me but whether you choose to think outside the rectangle or Draw your inspiration from what already works it's safe to say that by now a lot of work has been

poured into your thumbnail there are curiosity gaps and scroll Stoppers and contents and composition and contrast it's a lot to keep track of so as you're making your final thumbnail adjustments

how do you know when you're done how do you know that you have a killer thumbnail that's good enough to blow up your channel to evaluate the quality of their thumbnails the best YouTubers in the world run their finished thumbnails

through a series of three tests which brings us to the fourth and final step in our formula to make a killer thumbnail to blow up your Channel killer analysis the first test top YouTubers

run on their thumbnails is the clarity test because when we make our thumbnails they're usually taking up our entire screen on Photoshop canva or in my case figma they look brilliant Bold and

Beautiful the perfect thumbnail a masterpiece but your viewers don't see your thumbnail on Photoshop your viewers see your thumbnail on YouTube and thumbnails can look very different in full screen than when they're teeny tiny

on a suggested panel so to make sure your thumbnail makes sense at any size popped into a preview tool like click pilot the smallest your thumbnail will ever show up on YouTube is in the

suggested panel so to pass the clarity test you must be able to make out every element of your thumbnail in the sidebar view without straining can you clearly

read every word can you easily identify every element if the answer is no your thumbnail still needs some work once you've pass the clarity test you can advance the contrast test this is where

top YouTubers verify their thumb nail stands out in a crowd add a few channels that your viewers are also watching does your thumbnail interrupt the pattern can your thumbnail stop the scroll if not go

back and make some changes if yes you're ready to move on to the third and final test the glance test if you've made it all the way to this test it's safe to say that you've spent a lot of time

staring at your thumbnail which means that you're more than a little biased so for the ultimate test of whether or not they have a killer thumbnail nail the best YouTubers in the world show their

thumbnails to someone else even sometimes I'll just take take a thumbnail on my phone and show it to someone really quickly and just say what did you see put your thumbnail on your phone and Flash it to a friend family

member or willing stranger for 2 seconds and then ask them what they saw if those 2 seconds aren't enough for someone seeing your thumbnail for the first time to fully understand what's going on your

thumbnail isn't clear enough but if you pass the clarity test and the contrast test and the glance test congratulations you have your killer

thumbnail you'd think that would be the end right but no despite being so intentional about every component of their thumbnail the best YouTubers in the world still have one final secret

they apply to every thumbnail they make because even the best YouTubers in the world are wrong sometimes so top YouTubers don't just make one killer thumbnail they make three the one that

they hit publish with and two variations they're ready to swap it in a moment's notice as soon as they see a video start to flop these variations aren't as simple as just changing the T-shirt color and calling in a day because of a

thumbnail is underperforming a t-shirt color change isn't going to be enough to save it instead top YouTubers will go all the way back to the beginning considering different curiosity gaps

scroll Stoppers elements compositions and types of contrast will come up with 10 to 15 entirely different concepts don't worry these concepts are not fully fleshed out they're just sketched out

and take from Patty Galloway these sketches don't even have to be that good they are the worst sketches ever known to mankind the sketches just serve as a proof of concept to get a general gist

of what the final product could look like from there they'll select the three best Concepts to take to full thumbnails those are their thumbnail variations and those are the backups they have ready to

swap in just in case their initial guess was wrong how do you know when it's time to swap in the first few hours after you hit publish closely monitor your videos views Impressions and clickthrough rate

or CTR if your views Impressions and CTR are all above average then congratulations you did it you made your killer thumbnail no swapping needed if

your views and impressions are both high but your CTR is low that's also a good sign this usually happens because YouTube decided to push your video out to people outside of your core audience

and a lower than average CTR is natural and expected no swapping needed but if your views Impressions and CT PR are all below average it's worth swapping to a different thumbnail variation to see if

it's a problem with your thumbnail if you're crunch for time and can't vigilantly monitor your analytics hours after each upload that's okay all is not lost YouTube is rolling out their own

native AB testing feature and if you're a pleb like me and don't have access to it yet or if you want deeper more customizable testing thumbnail test is a great alternative some top YouTubers

wait a few hours before swapping thumbnails and some top YouTubers wait a few days either way it always pays off to have a few variations on standby because sometimes the only thing holding

a video back from reaching its full potential is the right thumbnail I know we've covered a lot in this video and for good reason thumbnails are simultaneously incredibly important and

Incredibly complex and although I threw a lot at you today if there's anything to remember when making a killer thumbnail to blow up your channel it's give your viewers a reason to click make

your thumbnails OB obious to see and easy to understand and pass your tests to help you out you can even save this guide to reference every time you make a thumbnail I'll put a link to download it for free in the video description below

and here's the thing the next thumbnail you make may not be perfect or the one after that or the one after that but guess what there is no such thing as the

perfect thumbnail thumbnails are an art form not an exact science and all of the guidelines I introduce in this video are just that guidelin for every Point I've brought up there

are dozens of examples of killer counter points but sometimes you just need to understand the best practices in order to know which ones to bend or break and as long as you implement the principles

covered in this video with every thumbnail you make you're going to get better and better YouTube channels tend to grow a little bit at a time and then all at once and while I might not be able to guarantee that your next video

will go viral I am sure of one thing if you keep going and if you keep improving you will get there it might be tomorrow it might be quite a few tomorrows but if

you keep with it your big break will come after all you're just one killer video away but a killer thumbnail alone isn't enough to make a killer video because after someone clicks on your

video they need to actually watch it and for that to happen they need to make it through your intro so to learn how to make a killer YouTube intro click here otherwise keep creating like And

subscribe if you can and I will see you in the next [Music]

video