One of the hardest parts of creating on YouTube is knowing what your thumbnail should be for your videos.

Maybe you’ve just been grabbing a screenshot from your video as your thumbnail.

Or maybe you whip something up on Canva really quickly.

A lot of the time it just feels like the last minute thing you have to update before you can post or schedule your video.

But it’s WAY more important than that.

The wrong thumbnail can actually make your video TANK.

And the right one can make it take off.

That’s why we’re sharing . Here are some quick tips.

  1. Create groups based on their thumbnails. Do you have multiple thumbnails that have a similar style? You can create groups in YouTube Studio to see how these videos perform specifically compared to videos with thumbnails that are different.
  2. Switch your thumbnail and A/B test manually. To figure out which kind of thumbnails perform better on your channel, you can post your video with one thumbnail and then manually change it to a different one and compare to see how the two perform. Then, just switch it back to the one that performs better after a few days of testing.
  3. Use TubeBuddy’s A/B testing tool. TubeBuddy has a tool that will switch your thumbnail every 24 hours for you until one of the thumbnails is the obvious high-performer. It’s a nice tool to have if you’re busy or trying to save time.

You can also breathe new life into older videos that aren’t performing as well by updating your videos.

Thanks for reading!

Keep changing lives,

Tim