How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail in Canva (Easy AI Methods!)

In this video, I'm going to show you how to make a YouTube thumbnail fast and easy using Canva. And the beauty of this is that you don't need to be a graphic designer or some really creative person.

Canva now makes this really, really easy for you. So, you want to head over to

for you. So, you want to head over to the Canva website. This will also work on their mobile or iPad app as well. If

you don't have an account, you can create a free account to follow along. A

lot of the stuff I'm using, you can do on the free version, but some of the AI tools, you will need to be on the paid or the pro version. But from there, what we want to do is to create a new project. So, we can come up to create or

project. So, we can come up to create or we can just choose here social media and then in here the first one here is YouTube thumbnail. We can also search

YouTube thumbnail. We can also search for that at the top. So, I'm going to press YouTube thumbnail. This then opens up our blank canvas. And over on the left here, it's going to start to suggest some different templates for us.

And there are so many amazing looking templates in here. Now, when we first looked at Canva years ago, the templates were okay. But now, these are things

were okay. But now, these are things that you could actually use. Now, we can see which ones are free or paid. The

ones with the little crown here, you do need to be on the paid version for those. But there's a lot in here that

those. But there's a lot in here that don't have that. And if we just select on any of these, these are fully customizable. So, we can pick stuff up.

customizable. So, we can pick stuff up.

We can move it around. So, you can see I've got this background element here. I

can grab our exclamation mark signs. I

can edit the text. We can delete this picture of the person and swap it out for a picture of us. I just love how fast and easy this is. And we haven't even got to the AI stuff yet. I just

realized, are we saved from Justin?

Probably not. Who knows? But I'm going to undo importing that template here.

Let's just go back to our blank canvas.

And one more thing I'll show you with this. If we come back to design, where

this. If we come back to design, where we have all these templates and things, we can actually describe our ideal design here. So, I could say a YouTube

design here. So, I could say a YouTube thumbnail for a video titled best free editing software. So, if we submit this,

editing software. So, if we submit this, it's going to run a search on the Canva platform. And we can see that there are

platform. And we can see that there are some things in here that this one here is related to editor lens. There's

something here, professional video by iPhone. So, we can start to see that

iPhone. So, we can start to see that it's pulled together some examples for us that are related to the video. Or

what we can do here is choose generate design. And this is going to go off to

design. And this is going to go off to the Canva AI gods here and it's going to pull together a suggested template for us. So, I mean, this here really isn't

us. So, I mean, this here really isn't too bad. Best free editing software. And

too bad. Best free editing software. And

again, if we click on this, it's applied. It's now a template that we can

applied. It's now a template that we can use to customize up. So when I say it's never been easier to create an engaging looking thumbnail, we have full control

over this. Like we could select this, we

over this. Like we could select this, we could change the fonts to our brand fonts, change the colors. We could come over here to uploads and upload an image

of me in this case. So let's find one here. There's one of me posing. Scale

here. There's one of me posing. Scale

this up. Let's scale it right up. This

was a pretty high-res image. and let's

remove the background from it. So, we

can go to BG Remover. This one is only on the paid plan, but you could always remove the background in another tool and use that here. So, we've now got me in here as well, and we can move

everything around to create the image that we want. Even something like this is pretty good. But, we also obviously have the ability in here to start from scratch. I want to give you some options

scratch. I want to give you some options so that you can play around with some of these things yourself to build the best thumbnail image for you. But if we come back over here and let's just start from a clean canvas, the first thing I'd look

at is bringing in some sort of background. So if we come over here to

background. So if we come over here to elements, get our search box here, you can see some recent ones, blue gradient background. Probably start with

background. Probably start with something like that. You can see we got lots of different options in here for this background. Some paid, some free.

this background. Some paid, some free.

Let's keep going through here. Even if

we started with something like this one for now, let's scale it up so that this fits. We can change all of this later,

fits. We can change all of this later, but it's about getting the elements in that we can move around to create something we'd like. Really quickly, as you know, these AI tools are evolving quick. So, I thought because this video

quick. So, I thought because this video is not sponsored, that we do a quick test with you. This time in V3 to see how it can create a short clip telling

you about Primal Video Plus. So, for

this one, let's go with Justin being chased by a stampede of kangaroos. See

what happens. Look, I know this is an ad. You know, this is an ad, but here's

ad. You know, this is an ad, but here's the thing. You get Justin AI, which is

the thing. You get Justin AI, which is basically me, but available 24/7 and way more patient. It's trained on all our

more patient. It's trained on all our latest content, so you can ask anything and get an answer in seconds. Plus,

extend the tutorials, the workflows we actually use, and monthly AMAs where I answer your specific questions. It's 19

bucks a month. Links in the description.

No pressure, but all sort of a little pressure.

Help. They're attaching them. Get off.

Well, that was weird. I think I got very buff there in the second shot. But let's

see how we go next time in another AI tool in the next video. Back to me. From

here, I'd probably look at what graphics would be put in and text. So, in terms of graphics, I would probably do a search here for a MacBook MacBook with

editing software on screen. So, this is one I've used before. Let's run this search here. And you can see we've got

search here. And you can see we've got some different graphics and things that show up. There's different photos that

show up. There's different photos that we could use, some specific to video editing. Now, we also have the ability

editing. Now, we also have the ability to generate images in here as well.

MacBook with editing software on screen.

Let's hit generate images so AI can make something custom for us. Okay, something

like this actually looks pretty good.

So, we can scale this up. I'm actually

liking this background now. This is why I'm like never sold on definitely using this background. I'm just almost like

this background. I'm just almost like putting placeholders in for things at first. All right, so that's looking

first. All right, so that's looking pretty good. Maybe let's keep the laptop

pretty good. Maybe let's keep the laptop here without the background. So, let's

choose background removed. Now, we have the laptop here with some pretty cool colors on it. Maybe we'll scale it up a little more. Again, just a placeholder

little more. Again, just a placeholder for now. Now, let's go ahead and add in

for now. Now, let's go ahead and add in a photo of me. So, let's go to uploads.

There are some already that I have uploaded in here. So, again, the more that you use this and you have your presets and things in here, it does become faster each time. I've also got some saved under our brand kit here.

Maybe we'll pick this one here. And we

can scale this up. Now, while Canva does have the ability in here to select a photo like this, we can then choose Ask Canva. And let's say make this person

Canva. And let's say make this person hold an iPhone with YouTube on the screen. So, while it does have the

screen. So, while it does have the ability to regenerate and generate images in here for you, I haven't found it to be really good at keeping people's faces the same. So, let's just see what

this comes back with. Yeah. So, I can see already from this it doesn't look anything like me. But I'll click on it so it's bigger for you guys. Um, yeah,

very cartoony and not great at all. But

if you do want to do something like that, then I have found Gemini and Nano Banana work really well for that. So,

let me bring in this other window here to give you an example. So, I've

uploaded that same photo here. Make the

person hold an iPhone that has the YouTube app open. And that's exactly what it's done. And it's kept my face here exactly the same. So, if you do want to do the generation stuff,

especially with people and yourself and have it look real, Gemini and Nano Banana I found does such a better job than the ones that are built into tools like Canva. Okay, so we have a

like Canva. Okay, so we have a background in, we have some graphics that we're going to position somewhere.

We've got me in here. And now all we really need is some text. So, I'm going to come to text. We can then come down here to heading to add a heading. Let's

scale this up a bit. and let's start typing this out. Best. Now, I am going to do these as separate text boxes so that I can position them where I'd like them. But maybe we'll change the font

them. But maybe we'll change the font here. Let's go Oswald bold. And once

here. Let's go Oswald bold. And once

we've got one looking kind of the way that we like it, we can just hit duplicate on that. So, we got best.

Let's go free. Let's duplicate again.

Editing. And one more software. And now,

this is where we just get to play around with the positioning of things and the sizing of things. So best could be pretty small. Free. We probably want to

pretty small. Free. We probably want to be bigger. So let's scale that up. And

be bigger. So let's scale that up. And

editing software is also pretty important too cuz it's free what? Like

how do we let the viewer know that this is for them or not? So let's make this bigger as well. Maybe we'll pull me down a bit. Make it a bit bigger. Move me off

a bit. Make it a bit bigger. Move me off to the side. Let's make the text here a bit smaller. Okay. So that's starting to

bit smaller. Okay. So that's starting to take shape. Now one thing we can do is

take shape. Now one thing we can do is we can ask the Canva AI for feedback and for design suggestions. So we can come over here to this chat box. We can then choose add a comment and this is going

to bring up here. So we can ask Canva or we can at mention Canva. If we go ask Canva, we can say suggest design layouts for this thumbnail image. And we run

this and it's giving us some feedback here. The big text on the right is

here. The big text on the right is strong, but the man and the laptop are fighting for space. The whole thing feels a bit crowded. A cleaner layout could be to give the text its own. So,

this is where again if you really have no idea what you're doing, just open to suggestions. The templates and asking

suggestions. The templates and asking Canva here are a great way to get a decent looking thumbnail really quick.

So, I'm going to make a few other quick tweaks here to this. I would select on this. Let's just drop down the opacity

this. Let's just drop down the opacity on that so it's not so front and center that it's just in the background a bit.

Maybe we'll make it even bigger so that it is more of a background element but still clear what it actually is. We can

then cover it a bit more with me. And

now we can move some of these text elements around and maybe to get editing software standing out. What we would normally do in something like this is

add in a background rectangle for this.

So let's come over here to elements.

Let's close out of our search for Mac stuff. I'm going to come down here to

stuff. I'm going to come down here to shapes and I'm just going to grab a square here. Click on that. It's going

square here. Click on that. It's going

to drop it into our project. We can then adjust the color of it. So, I'm going to select color. I'm going to choose our

select color. I'm going to choose our primal video blue. And I'm going to size this so that it fits as a background element for our text here for editing.

Something like this. Now, I do want to group the two. So, we've now got the background, which I'll select, and I'll hold down shift and click on the text.

And then I can hit group here. So, now

whenever I move this text, it's going with the background. I'm going to do something similar for software. Again,

want to add the square in. Let's change

the background. And let's go a red for this one. Again, these are the kinds of

this one. Again, these are the kinds of themes and stuff that we're using on our channel so it's consistent branding.

Something like this. I'm going to select the text as well and group them. And now

what we can do is even give this a slight rotation. So I can select on

slight rotation. So I can select on that. I can hit the little rotate here

that. I can hit the little rotate here and I can rotate it a little bit. Maybe

I'll rotate this one here the other way.

and we can start to position these a bit closer to where we want them. Now,

something else that might help in here are any other graphics or symbols or icons that are related to the video. So,

we're doing free editing software. Maybe

we'll try to bring in the Apple logo.

So, we come back up here to elements.

Let's run a search for Apple logo. Let's

find something similar. It doesn't need to be the exact Apple logo. We've got

one here that we can use. Let's change

the color on it to be let's go a light gray. Maybe we just again move some

gray. Maybe we just again move some things around a bit. And we'll bring in a Windows one as well. Elements. Search

for an element. Windows logo. Okay,

maybe this one here. Now again, we can change the color if we wanted to so it stood out. Maybe we'll try gray. And

stood out. Maybe we'll try gray. And

then let's just reposition some things so that they fit and make sense. So, by

having these logos, it implies that we're showing for Mac and for Windows.

So, looking at this now, I probably lower the opacity on that laptop in the background. I need to move me out of the

background. I need to move me out of the way. So, I can select it. And let's come

way. So, I can select it. And let's come over here to opacity or transparency.

Let's drop that down a bit more. And

let's bring me back. And maybe we'll select that and just rotate it a little bit. Okay. So, I'm pretty happy with

bit. Okay. So, I'm pretty happy with that. But if you do want to create

that. But if you do want to create different mockups and different versions or even when you're creating multiple thumbnail images, I love that you can just hit duplicate up here and we've now got a different page or design that

we're working with. So this is great if you want to AB split test your thumbnail images. So we could maybe do a version

images. So we could maybe do a version without those and maybe we make the title best over on the side here and reposition everything to make it fit there and test to see which is going to

be the better thumbnail image, not what we're guessing which one actually gets more clicks. But when we're done, we can

more clicks. But when we're done, we can come back up here and we can choose share. We then want to hit download. We

share. We then want to hit download. We

can choose which of our pages. So in

this case, I really only want to export page one. So I'm just going to select

page one. So I'm just going to select page one. Here we can choose the file

page one. Here we can choose the file type. PNG is perfectly fine for YouTube.

type. PNG is perfectly fine for YouTube.

So I'm just going to leave that as that.

Hit done. And we can hit download and it's going to save that to our computer for us. So then all we need to do is go

for us. So then all we need to do is go over to YouTube and add that thumbnail to our video. So now you got your thumbnail image sorted. If you want to learn how Canva can help you edit your videos as well, check out the video

that's linked on screen. As always,

there's a bunch of other resources in the description box below to help you even further. And I'll see you in the

even further. And I'll see you in the next video. Cheers.

next video. Cheers.